Skeptical Faith

Google Image One of many widely propagated myths is that there is a basic conflict between science and faith. It is promoted on both sides, even though the tenets of neither support such a view. Science is about evidence. It confirms realities for which evidence can be found. If there is no evidence, it doesn’t mean the reality doesn’t exist. It means there is no testable evidence to support it. That’s why science is not competent to determine whether there is a God, even though many scientists believe it’s their duty as scientists to debunk the notion of God. On the other side, many religious people shun science because they think its anti-God, even though if they followed their own principle, by which God is creator of everything – including science – they would draw another conclusion. Indeed, science helps us know God by knowing his creation. And it gives us insights into reality by surprising us with its discoveries. Since I read “Life On Man,” the 1969 book by bacter...

Google Image Kevin Berthia, now 32, lived in the San Francisco Bay area 10 years ago. He had an infant daughter who was born premature and the medical costs for her care climbed to nearly $250,000. He couldn't see a way out of debt, or a reason to keep living. He fell into a deep depression and headed to the Golden Gate Bridge to end it all. “I was overwhelmed with everything," he said on a recent National Public Radio (NPR) radio broadcast. "It's like everything that I ever was bothered by, everything that I was ever dealing with came up on one day. And I just felt like a failure. All I gotta do is lean back and everything is done. I'm free of all this pain." But California Highway Patrol Officer Kevin Briggs was there that day, too, and his patience and compassion saved the day. Now retired, he and Berthia recently hooked up to talk about that painful time, and NPR’s Story Corps was there. "I was just mad at myself for being in that situ...

Bryan Cranston of Breaking Bad Google Image  Each week the insurgent group known as ISIS or ISIL seems intent on outdoing the cruelty and brutality of the previous week by some new videotaped outrage. The group has beheaded dozens of people and recently placed a man in a cage and burned him alive. Political, sociological and religious arguments fail to shed much light. For most of us, such behavior is simply incomprehensible and begs the question, “How can good people – following the theory that we all start out as good people – do such evil things?” How can we be seduced to cross the line between civilized behavior and barbarity? Psychologist Philip Zimbardo says evil is about the attraction and exercise of power. That’s what is illustrated in the story of Adam and Eve in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. Adam and Eve, like millions of humans since, wanted God-like power, even though according to the story, they had experienced God first-hand.   Zimbardo, af...

Google Image Believe it or not, this is a line from Psalm 42 of the Hebrew Bible. It’s a question the author of the Psalm says people ask him “every day.” The clause is one of the reasons I believe modern readers, removed some 2,300-3,000 years from the time the Psalms are said to have been written, can still relate to them. The Psalms, many of which are poems meant to be sung, express the most universal and timeless yearnings of the human heart. This quote also shows that atheism and agnosticism, which many of us think of as relatively modern, are nothing new. As long as people have believed in God, people have also doubted. Many of us, including believers, ask the psalm’s question because our God is invisible. Unless you “see” with the eyes of faith – which many of us find difficult – there is, indeed, no God. But if God exists, how are we to imagine him/her? Many picture an old white guy sitting on a throne amid puffy clouds. Michelangelo, the famous 16 th century pain...