I am an editor. My job is to improve manuscripts submitted by authors and prepare them for publication. I approach every new piece sceptically. I probe. I attack. I play devil’s advocate. I search for error and dispose of it. Often I rely on instinct. Even when I can’t initially diagnose a problem within a text, I can sense when something’s wrong. In such cases I have to work backward to find the answer. This process can be tricky. Writers have egos. Everyone has preferences. There is no right or perfect way to compose a sentence or structure an argument. Continue Reading »
Stephen Meredith’s “Looking for God in All the Wrong Places” in the February 2014 issue of First Things accuses Intelligent Design theory (ID) of being a variant of occasionalism, which he defines as the denial “that efficient causality occurs outside God.” . . . . Continue Reading »
Massachusetts voters are considering an assisted suicide law. I do not deny the right of the states to create this type of legislation; better there than through federal law or mandate. I can be an American citizen and remain one while moving from a state whose laws I do not condone to . . . . Continue Reading »
I apologize ahead that this will be a shabby and short posting. However, I am stunned by the implications of what I read in an article in The Telegraph , ” Babies Could be Tested for 3,500 Genetic Faults”. How to give birth to the perfect child? Reject those with genetic . . . . Continue Reading »
A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather than Nothing by lawrence m. krauss free press, 204 pages, $24.99 Acritic might reasonably question the arguments for a divine first cause of the cosmos. But to ask “What caused God?” misses the whole reason classical . . . . Continue Reading »
Not long ago we learned the “scientific” reasons we like music. Today, for Valentine’s Day, we discover why we love: Men and women can now thank a dozen brain regions for their romantic fervor. Researchers have revealed the fonts of desire by comparing functional MRI studies of . . . . Continue Reading »
Gayle talks with Thomas Fowler about The Evolution Controversy, a book surveying the competing theories surrounding evolution. Fowler (ScD, George Washington University) is Senior Principal Engineer at the Center for Information Technology and Telecommunications at Noblis, formerly known . . . . Continue Reading »
Promising news from the stem cell front:Scientists reported Thursday they had developed a technique that can quickly create safe alternatives to human embryonic stem cells, a major advance toward developing a less controversial approach for treating for a host of medical problems.The researchers . . . . Continue Reading »
Book ReviewSome of the thinkers most opposed to theories of design are also the most preoccupied with it. Richard Dawkins wrote The Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence for Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design. Stephen Hawking’s recent book was titled simply The Grand Design. The two . . . . Continue Reading »
Has physics done away with God? A newly release book by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow says, “Yes.” What is a Jewish or Christian believer to make of this? Is the Creator now out of a job? … Continue Reading »
