Here is the crucial moment in Francis Collins’ book, “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence of Belief,” often offered as a antidote to Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion.”
Articles with Religion
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Some observations regarding certain doctrines of faith
For the past few weeks, correspondents to the Irish Times have been furiously debating a recent Vatican document (Responses to Some Questions Regarding Certain Aspects of the Doctrine of Faith) that said Christian denominations other than Roman Catholic are not “proper churches.”
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No ghost in the machine
Anthropologist Pascal Boyer thinks he knows what all supernatural beings — gods, ghosts, witches, fairies, and so on — have in common: They are optimal compromises between the interesting and the expected.
One of several subspecies of Ensatina salamanders • Photo by Marshal Hedin (CC BY 2.0)
The tyranny of the discontinuous mind
A telling tale from Richard Dawkins’ “The Ancestor’s Tale” is the tale of the tailed salamanders that live in the mountains around California’s Central Valley (but not on the valley floor).
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Can’t find your keys? Pray to Saint Anthony
Some years ago, the excellent Catholic magazine Commonweal published an essay of mine that examined (and dismissed) the evidence for the efficacy of petitionary prayer.
Philip Gosse and his son Edmund in 1857
Father and son: A centennial recollection
On September 21, 1849, Emily Bowes, the wife of the British zoologist Philip Gosse, gave birth to a baby boy. The father recorded in his diary: “E. delivered of a son. Received green swallow from Jamaica.”
Stonehill College campus • Photo by Jennifer Macaulay (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)
Mission
This week’s Musing is not addressed to the usual visitors to this site, but to friends and colleagues who are concerned about the mission and identity of Catholic institutions of higher education.
“Triumph of St. Thomas Aquinas, Doctor Angelicus” by Andrea di Bonaiuto (1366)
The Angelic Doctor
A half-century ago, when I was an undergraduate at the University of Notre Dame, Thomas Aquinas ruled the roost.
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On pigeons and humans
The 18th-century philosopher, Voltaire, wrote this about superstition: “A Frenchman traveling in Italy finds almost everything superstitious, and is hardly wrong.
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End times
If I were a mean-spirited person, I would say that I hope to be left behind when the Rapture comes.