Joe Carter

Would evidence for God mean the end of atheism and Christianity? Yes, says Matt J. Rossano, a professor and department head of psychology at Southeastern Louisiana University. In a peculiar article at The Huffington Post , Rossano argues that scientific evidence for the existence of God is fatal to . . . . Continue Reading »

New research shows that older people are not only wiser than younger people (which we already knew), they tend to be happier too : Contrary to largely gloomy cultural perceptions, growing old brings some benefits, notably emotional and cognitive stability. Laura Carstensen, a Stanford social . . . . Continue Reading »

“Out of all the gangsters, serial killers, mass murderers, incompetent & crooked politicians, spies, traitors, and ultra left-wing kooks in all of American history,” asked conservative blogger John Hawkins, “have you ever wondered who the worst of the worst was?” Though I . . . . Continue Reading »

1. Words °°°°°° 2. The Calvin and Hobbes Search Engine °°°°°° 3. Mollie Ziegler Hemingway on Motherhood as Vocation How should Christians think about the Mommy Wars? Vocationally. You may have heard vocation used as a synonym for occupation. But . . . . Continue Reading »

[Note: Every Friday on First Thoughts we host a discussion about some aspect of pop culture. Today’s theme is “Renaissance woman” lists . Have a suggestion for a topic? Send them to me at jcarter@firstthings.com.] Over the past few weeks we’ve had a series of posts on what . . . . Continue Reading »

Abortion? Gay marriage? Meh, small fish. So saith Glen Beck. (Note: The transcript is included at the end of this post.) To be fair, Beck isn’t a conservative so I can’t expect him to support the conservative position on gay marriage. He’s also not the kind of guy who is able to . . . . Continue Reading »

As an addendum to David Goldman’s column today about the publicly employed and the under-employed , I give you this graph : Then again, David’s plan to put “less-educated workers” fixing roads and bridges might lead to more stuff like this : A road contractor hired to paint . . . . Continue Reading »

From ” Our Daughter Isn’t A Selfish Brat; Your Son Just Hasn’t Read Atlas Shrugged .” When little Aiden toddled up our daughter Johanna and asked to play with her Elmo ball, he was, admittedly, very sweet and polite. I think his exact words were, “Have a ball, peas . . . . Continue Reading »

“Would Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn be on Ritalin today?” asked child psychiatrist Dr. Lawrence H. Diller in a 2004 meeting with the President’s Council on Bioethics. “No doubt in my mind that they would be if they lived in my community. I see Tom Sawyers weekly.” Anne . . . . Continue Reading »

A new website allows college students to wager on their GPA : Ultrinsic, currently in beta form, allows students at 37 colleges to gamble on their grades in each of the classes they take. The student hands over money to Ultrinsic—as well as access to his or her official school . . . . Continue Reading »