Tag Archives: atheism

Mar 25 2017

Zombies and the Spiritual Life

Zombies_NightoftheLivingDeadIn the continuing comparison of natural and supernatural views of reality, we’ve considered some fairly philosophical perspectives. However, for these things to be real, we would expect clear manifestations, some evidence in the natural world. It may or may not be strictly testable, but there should be some ramification. In this essay, we’ll consider an example of what we might expect, drawn from a movie.

The movie of interest, I Am Legend, is not a Christian movie. In fact, it is a secular mass market zombie movie made by mainstream Hollywood. Surprisingly, however, they use several Christian themes as plot elements and we can draw on those to illustrate the point a hand. (Warning: This post contains SPOILERS.). Continue reading →

Nov 26 2016

Seeking a Balanced View of Science and Faith

Throughout human history, mankind has looked to the supernatural to explain things that seemed mysterious. There was a lot of motivation for this, because much of the unknown seemed dangerous — maybe invoking the supernatural could bring benefit in the natural realm. However, as knowledge of the natural world became more and more complete and successful, there seemed less and less need for the supernatural. For many, it became interesting, but not important.

Yet needs and fears didn’t really go away, they changed. We no longer fear the dark, but fear uselessness and hopelessness. We no longer struggle to find food, but still struggle with the need for love and relationship. We seek to understand the unknown instead of fearing it, but also seek a basis for right and wrong. And so religion has persisted, itself evolving from mere dogma to something more transcendent, still claiming to shine a light on these persistent aspects of being human.

So now we are faced with a question: Has science provided enough of a solution, or is faith still the answer for such fundamental needs? Continue reading →