Truth and the Devil

In The Language of God, Francis Collins, head of the Human Genome Project, argues, unlike other scientists who have published articles on the subject recently, that science and religion are completely and compatible and that science does not lead to atheism.

However, his attempts to reconcile science and religion are met with little success. His arguments are in no way novel, and his primary argument for the existence of a deity is based off of C.S. Lewis’ argument from Moral Law; that we all have an intrinsic moral sense, and this moral sense must have been given to us by God. Now, the fact that I disagree with the Moral Law argument wouldn’t be as bad if it didn’t seem that Collins had not read any further on theology than reading Lewis. He merely quotes Lewis as a justification for this belief and doesn’t address any criticisms of it.

In reading through Paradoxy by Tom Taylor, I’m am constantly perplexed by it’s peculiarities.
The book itself is really nothing spectacular. It’s basically a sermon about how to live a better life and find inner peace. It has some good points, but the whole book seems diminished with it’s constant references to Jesus. It’s odd because the references to Jesus don’t seem to add anything to the arguments he’s making. He tells interested stories about individuals (I’ll probably add some specific examples in a later post), but then he says something about Jesus that seems, to me, to completely miss the point about his own stories.

I received a mysterious package in the mail today. Which is fine, I enjoy getting packages, it’s like Christmas. Anyway, it was mysterious because though there was a return address, it had no name, and inside there was no note, only 2 books. One was marked “Read First” and the other “Read Second.” But the books themselves gave away the sender.

The one marked “Read First” was Misquoting Jesus by Bart Ehrman, the second was Paradoxy: Coming to Grips with the Contradictions of Jesus by Tom Taylor. I’m pretty sure they were sent by my grandmother. Ever since I’ve ‘come out’ to my family about my atheism, they’ve had some problems with it.

For my current graphic design project, I am tasked with creating a conference for a non-profit organization. I have chosen to create a conference for the Skeptics Society based on a book by Thomas Kida called Don’t Believe Everything You Think. There’s a Point of Inquiry interview with the author here.
I haven’t read it yet, but it sounds very interesting.