the exploits and adventures of david sloan wilson

David Sloan Wilson is an eminent evolutionary biologist at Binghamton University in New York. He is an atheist "but a nice atheist", he assures us, and he is interested in the study of religion from an evolutionary viewpoint and the use of evolutionary principles to develop community development programs.

I believe we can all learn something from him.

is it natural to believe in god?

We all like to think we make good choices for good reasons. Those who believe in God like to think they are right in their belief, whereas atheists think believers are mistaken, sometimes even 'delusional'. Some atheists would like to see all God-belief eliminated because they believe it does so much harm.

Yet new scientific studies suggest it is 'natural' to believe in God.

dying for a story?

John Carroll is an interesting man. He is Professor of Sociology at La Trobe University in Melbourne, and a secular humanist who believes secular humanism has failed us. He has spent a lot of time reading the Bible and seeking to learn from it. He's even telling the church how it can improve its message to postmodern people.

What's going on?

are we entering a 'post-secular' age?

"There are many problems in today’s society that cannot be resolved by the application of reason, logic or medical science." So says Professor David Tacey of La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia. "We are emerging from a long period of materialism and rationality," he says.

Is this true? Is it good, or bad? And why does he think this?

is it possible i'm wrong?

Have you ever considered something you believe in and asked yourself: "Is it possible I'm wrong?"

If you're an atheist, have you truly considered whether there might really be a God despite what you think? If you're a christian, have you ever considered that you might be fooling yourself?

How would we ever know if we are really being honest with ourselves?

hope

This beautiful video is worth watching if you have 6 minutes.

Hope from SNC CreativeArts on Vimeo.

life and death

I have trouble putting these two news items together.

• This news report of a sad event where an eight months pregnant woman was hit by a car and lost the child she was carrying. The driver of the car, allegedly affected by drugs at the time, was responsible for the accident, but could not be charged with manslaughter because the baby was not yet born. There has been some public concern over the lack of protection for the unborn child in this case.
• At the same time, the Herald Sun reports that late term abortions (after 6 months) are increasing in the state of Victoria, with 345 performed in 2007 and 54 babies surviving the procedure and dying some time after birth.

Not sure what this says about what life we regard as human and worthy of protection, and what is disposable, but it seems our society is somewhat confused.