Archive for the ‘new age’ Category

Podcast #91 – IT’S ALIVE

Sunday, June 13th, 2010

We talk with Christina L. Graves, a biology student (and prebiotic chemistry researcher) at the Georgia Institute of Technology.  Christina walks us through the recent announcement by the J. Craig Venter Institute that they have created a self-replicating, synthetic cell.  We also discuss the reaction to Venter’s news from religious groups like the Catholic Church, Creation Ministries International, and even the Raelians.

Briefly mentioned: The new Adrien Brody/Sarah Polley film Splice, a sci-fi-horror shocker about genetic engineering gone very very wrong.

Glossary of terms:

Abiogenesis – the theory of how life on Earth could have arisen from inanimate matter.

Prebiotic Chemistry – the field of study involving the spontaneous chemical reactions which may have led to the formation of biomolecules and/or life on early Earth.

Stanley Miller (1930-2007) – an American chemist and biologist who is known for his studies into the origin of life, particularly the Miller-Urey experiment which demonstrated that organic compounds can be created by fairly simple physical processes from inorganic substances.

Atheopath – A neologism, coined by Creation Ministries International’s Jonathan Sarfati and used (as far as we can tell) by no one else, which combines the word “atheist” and the suffix “-path” (”one afflicted by a specified disorder”) to create a word meaning something like “one afflicted by atheism.”  Apparently it’s intended to echo scary words like sociopath and psychopath.  Perhaps we should coin the counter-term “theopath.”

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Eternal Life: A New Vision

Monday, October 5th, 2009

Review by John C. Snider © 2009

When I read John Shelby Spong’s Jesus for the Non-Religious, I declared him an honorary atheist.  Here was a retired Episcopal bishop, free of any obligation to a flock, secure in the fact that he could speak his mind without fear of professional reprisal, saying that there was no Virgin Birth, no Three Wise Men, no Flight to Egypt, no Slaughter of the Innocents,  no Sharing of Loaves and Fishes (or any other miracles), no Resurrection, and no Ascension to Heaven.  Still, Spong made it obvious that he had a deep reverence for the person and example of Jesus, and promised (should he live long enough) that he would write one more book to detail his views on what Christianity might look like in the absence of all the supernatural foolishness.

That new book–Eternal Life: A New Vision (pub. by HarperOne, Sep 2009, 268 pp hdcvr, $24.99)–has just been published, and after reading it I think Spong’s place as an honorary atheist is still secure, to the extent that Spong disavows any kind of Creator God who takes a personal interest in the lives of mere mortals, and rewards or punishes us based on our actions in this life.  But being an atheist doesn’t necessarily preclude a belief in supernatural phenomenon other than God, and what Spong proposes will discombobulate hardcore anti-theists and traditional Christians alike.

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Podcast #63 – Efficacy of Prayer

Tuesday, August 25th, 2009

It’s the p-p-p-p-power of prayer!  Or not.  We look at several anecdotes that point toward the efficacy (or inefficacy) of intercessory prayer, including:

  • The tragic cases of two teenage girls (one in TN, one in KY), both of whom suffered terrible injuries.  One recovered (more or less), the other is maimed for life.  Both were the beneficiaries of  the prayers of hundreds.  Why did God heal one and snub the other???  We’ll give you a hint: the answer can be found at www.whywontgodhealamputees.com.
  • The Miracle of Colwich Man – A Kansas man was healed after thousands of parishioners prayed to the late Father Emil Kapaun, a Korean War hero who’s currently under “skeptical” investigation by the Vatican for possible sainthood.
  • The Case of the Shriveling Glacier – Faithful Catholics in the Swiss towns of Fiesch and Feischertal have prayed for centuries that God protect them from the wintertime advance of the Aletsch Glacier.  Now the Aletsch is rapidly receding due to global warming, so now the townsfolk are seeking the Pope’s permission to reverse the prayer.

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Intelligence Without Design: A Third Way?

Tuesday, August 4th, 2009

by John C. Snider © 2009

We’re all familiar with the debate: either the universe was created by an intelligent creator, or it’s the result of natural forces and random happenstance, with no purpose or direction except that which we give ourselves.  In other words, Intelligent Design vs. Scientific Naturalism.

But maybe there’s a third way.  Maybe it’s all the result, not of Intelligent Design, but of Intelligence without Design.  That’s the central thesis of an essay by Joel Kramer and Diana Alstad, published last month in Guernica Magazine.  Joel Kramer is the author of the 1974 self-help book The Passionate Mind, and describes himself as “an early innovator in the modern American physical and mental yoga.”   Kramer’s life partner Diana Alstad is a feminist and teacher of women’s studies.  The essay “Intelligence Without Design” is part of their new book The Passionate Mind Revisited: Expanding Personal and Social Awareness, an update of Kramer’s book.

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