The Terms of the Debate

“Complex question” is the label that logicians give to a particular kind of fallacy in which the answer to a question is already implicit in the way in which it is framed. The classic example is: “when did you stop beating your wife?” The issue that we are considering here is not quite a complex…
Creaturely Awe and the Wonder of Creation

“We must learn to acknowledge that the creation is full of mystery; we will never entirely understand it,” Wendell Berry exhorted us 50 years ago. “We must abandon arrogance and stand in awe. We must recover the sense of the majesty of creation, and the ability to be worshipful in its presence.” Since writing this,…
Physics and the Laws of Nature

If everything that happens is governed by the laws of nature, then in some sense things have to occur just as they do. And since people are situated within nature, that applies as much to us as billiard balls and comets. So while it might seem like your actions are to some degree “free,” from…
We Are Earth-Bounded Humans in Every Way

The highest heavens belong to the LORD, but the earth he has given to mankind. (Ps. 115:16) When Copernicus published his theory, challenging Ptolemy’s model (second century A.D.) and favoring that of Aristarchus of Samos (third century B.C.), that the sun not the earth is the center of the solar system, he could not stand outside his…