Digital Faith

God and Science

Here's a second and final post on Collins and Giberson's The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions (Intervarsity Press, 2011). I'll again pull a few examples from their question and answer discussion, here from the second half of the book.

Straight Answers to Gospel Questions: Evolution

Time to fire up the blog for a few posts on the latest entry in my Now Reading box, The Language of Science and Faith: Straight Answers to Genuine Questions (2011, InterVarsity Press). The authors are Karl W. Giberson and Francis S. Collins, accomplished scientists (a physicist and a geneticist, respectively) who have each previously authored their own excellent faith and science books. This one is written in a question and answer format and appears to be aimed at the basic Evangelical or conservative Christian believer who has not previously given much thought to faith and science issues but is now trying to reconcile conservative or even fundamentalist doctrines with modern science. As such, it is very well suited to most LDS readers, especially bright seminary or college students who have followed the CES curriculum but find that it leads them to a dead end. There are few LDS resources to recommend (LDS religion teachers and leaders generally can't even admit there is a faith and science problem), which is why I read and review helpful books by non-LDS authors.

Is Evolution a Secular Religion?

This is the third and final post commenting on philosopher Michael Ruse's The Evolution-Creation Struggle (see Part 1 and Part 2). Ruse thinks evolutionism (his term for the popular side of evolution) is something of a secular religion. Why?

Christian Responses to Evolution

This is the second post commenting on Michael Ruse's The Evolution-Creation Struggle (see Part 1). Christian responses to evolution come in three flavors: those that reject it as inconsistent with Christian beliefs; those that accept it and find evolution compatible with Christian belief; and those that minimize the interaction of belief and evolution by placing scientific knowledge and religious belief in two different domains.

Carl Sagan on God and Mormonism, Part 2

[Part 1] Sagan has a paragraph on Mormonism in the chapter entitled "Extraterrestrial Folklore: Implications for the Evolution of Religion," offered as one of several examples of the wacky things religious people believe. Might as well just throw it out there.

Carl Sagan on God and Mormonism

Carl Sagan (1934-1996) recently published a new book. In 1985, he delivered the Gifford Lectures, a year-long Scottish academic appointment designed to promote the study of natural theology. The transcripts of the lectures were lost for many years, but were finally rediscovered, edited, and published in 2006 as the book The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the Search for God. I found it impossible to read this enjoyable and enlightening book without hearing Sagan's distinctive verbal delivery echoing in my mind as I read the text. I'll touch on a few of the topics he covered: God, the Universe, extraterrestrial life, religion, and Mormonism.