Making Miracles Possible

Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars in which Ed Brayton responds to some of the scientific claims, I found this post.

Now I’m not particularly interested in the specific scientific claim, and whether it makes the virgin birth more “possible” somehow.  What interests me here is the tendency to try to find natural explanations [...]

Conceptual Idolatry

Paul tells us that we now “see dimly in a mrror” (1 Corinthians 13:12), but some of us are quite certain that we see clearly. While I believe we should make every effort to get closer to the truth, it’s important that we understand that God’s ways are not our ways, and thus we [...]

More on Evolution Conflict

Ed Brayton has again weighed in on the framing of the conflict over science education. I agree with the way in which Ed has laid out the issues, and strongly recommend reading his piece.

As an advocate of sound science education, I would like to repeat some things I’ve said before, but that are [...]

I Thought this Before it Started

Henry Kissinger now says that the Iraq war is not winnable, something I thought from the start. talking to the BBS (via MSNBC), he said:

“If you mean by ‘military victory’ an Iraqi government that can be established and whose writ runs across the whole country, that gets the civil war under control [...]

A Consistent and Principled Approach

In a poll taken before the last election respondents indicated strong disapproval of congress (31% approve/63% disapprove) as a whole, and yet by an almost equal margin (60%/33%), they indicated approval of their own congressman (Fox Poll 10/13/06). This type of result occurs repeatedly in polls. I’m just using those numbers as an example. [...]

Identifying Moderate Muslims

Laura has a short post over at Pursuing Holiness on Pakistan and a move toward moderation legislatively. The particular form of moderation involved is preventing women who are raped from being charged with adultery. Personally, I’m eagerly awaiting the announcement of a moderate stoning, so that I could get some idea what that would [...]

Tolerance or Homogenization

I value tolerance. Even more, I value and celebrate diversity. But frequently I see definitions of tolerance that must be considered self-destructive.

I usually encounter these in the form of straw-man arguments. Someone may ask me if I believe in tolerance. When I acknowledge that I do, they will ask me then whether I [...]

Environmental Skepticism Where Appropriate

The Evangelical Ecologist has an excellent post on the value of skepticism in the appropriate place, and also touches on where it is appropriate.

He says:

There is an important distinction, then, between aggressively promoting environmental stewardship as a God-ordained moral ethic (which it is), and aggressively promoting a particular area of human-derived [...]

MBWR To End

John at Locusts and Honey, is bringing the Methodist Blogs Weekly Roundup to a close with this week’s edition. John has done a wonderful job of building up the Methodist blogosphere, and I have great sympathy for him as he lays aside this enormous task.

I’ll miss the “human touch” in selecting the posts, [...]

Avoiding Shoot-First Apologetics

My Christianity Today Connection e-mail this morning contained a link to an excellent article, Shoot-First Apologetics. I don’t want to steal the thunder from the article itself–go read it in place, but I do want to quote from the e-mail:

And while defending the core elements of our faith is imperative, we sometimes [...]