The evangelical atheists and Mormon anti-evolutionists have joined forces

By , on May 3rd, 2009%

My belief in God is not founded on evidence from the physical world. I believe because I am in a relationship with Him. I’ve gotten to know Him. I recognize his voice in others.

I want to argue that some of the suspicion that exists between certain Mormon Saints and science is grounded in not recognizing this relationship is the fundamental relation in knowing God. Oddly enough I see the fundamentalist atheists and LDS saints who fear evolution as arguing from the same flawed assumptions. Continue reading The evangelical atheists and Mormon anti-evolutionists have joined forces

25 comments   Evolution, Religion   , , , ,  

Flying Monkeys Illustrate the Evolution of Religion (as I win a bike race against an invisible rider)

By , on December 18th, 2008%

To get at the possibility of the evolution of spirituality let’s take a diversion into current attempts by evolutionary biologists to explain the evolution of religion. Pascal Boyer speculates that religion arose as part of evolving human cognitive abilities.

First, the mind evolved to the point it was able to imagine possibilities that do not exist in reality. We can consider counterfactuals. We can combine the stuff of thought in new ways that suggests possible worlds that really have no necessary tie to reality. Continue reading Flying Monkeys Illustrate the Evolution of Religion (as I win a bike race against an invisible rider)

29 comments   brain science, Evolution, Faith, Philosophy of Science, Religion   , , , , , ,  

Where did the Heavenly Demographics post go?

By , on September 1st, 2008%

When I was a young man I used to have a reoccurring dream. I was in a dark and dank cellar. I could not make out anything but the wet stone walls and a stairway into the light at the far end of the cellar. However, between me and the way out were dense thickets of spiderwebs. I was surrounded by this tangle and there was no way to get to the door. As a child nothing terrified me more than the sticky secretions of spiders. If one accidently touched me I was freaked out for days. Even the fake ones hung out on Halloween unnerved me. Continue reading Where did the Heavenly Demographics post go?

13 comments   Religion   , , ,