First Things RSS Feed - Paul H. Liben https://www.firstthings.com/author/paul-h-liben en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:56:19 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/paul-h-liben 60 Murder in the Sudan https://www.firstthings.com/article/1995/08/murder-in-the-sudan https://www.firstthings.com/article/1995/08/murder-in-the-sudan Tue, 01 Aug 1995 00:00:00 -0400 In the mid-1980s, it was Ethiopia. Next, it was Bosnia, then Somalia, and later Rwanda. In each case, as war and famine caused thousands of deaths, the media were on or near the scene, demanding immediate action.

Continue Reading »

]]> Science Within the Limits of Truth https://www.firstthings.com/article/1991/12/science-within-the-limits-of-truth https://www.firstthings.com/article/1991/12/science-within-the-limits-of-truth Sun, 01 Dec 1991 00:00:00 -0500 The October 1990 issue of this publication featured a lively and occasionally fierce debate on the subject of evolution. Initiated by Phillip E. Johnson of the University of California Law School at Berkeley, the debate included responses by a history of science professor (William B. Provine), a museum curator (Gareth Nelson), a biophysics professor (Thomas H. Jukes), and two editors (Irving Kristol and Matthew Berke). Of these participants, it was Berke who especially attempted to draw serious attention to the philosophical dimensions of the issue. Berke’s principal point was that “philosophy, rather than science, is the final battleground in the evolution debate . . . insofar as that debate becomes a struggle between naturalism and supernaturalism to have the final say on man’s status.” The point is well taken, and points to the larger truth that the evolution debate is itself a microcosm of a much broader philosophical struggle, a struggle over the very definition, boundaries, direction, integrity, and even validity of the entire scientific enterprise.

Continue Reading »

]]>