Skeptical Faith

Google Image (This is my 100th weekly blog. Thank you to my readers – those who read them regularly and those who look at them occasionally. I hope they’re helpful in the search for God. A special thanks to those who have provided feedback. If you have comments or suggestions, please use the blog to provide them or e-mail me at carneyconsulting@msn.com . With the publication of last week’s blog, I’ve had 15,043 page views or about 152 page views per week, a number which has changed very little in the past year or so. It’s far from “viral,” but I’ll take it gratefully.)  Years ago, when my wife’s 18-year-old niece was visiting from Colombia, we went to a basketball game at the high school my children attended. The niece was sitting on the bleachers with us and suddenly during half-time, she got up and walked across the middle of the basketball floor to talk to somebody on the other side. I was struck by how unusual that behavior was compared to that of most American high s...

Google Image Prominent in recent news reports is the not-surprising disclosure that the U.S. is less Christian, and that fewer Americans choose to be a part of any religion. It’s not surprising because the country has been trending that way for years. Anyway, a new study by the Pew Research Center , which surveyed more than 35,000 people, found that 70 percent of Americans say they are Christian. That compares with 78 percent in 2007. And, the number of people calling themselves atheist and agnostic has nearly doubled in the last seven years. “The decrease of religious feeling seems especially pronounced among young adults, but also includes people of all ages, ethnicities, incomes and educational backgrounds,” according to a recent National Public Radio report. The Very Rev. Gary Hall, dean of the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., says the survey shows a majority of the nation still identifies as religious. But he tells NPR's Scott Simon that organized religion ...

Google Image Every year at this time I’m astonished again at the beauty of creation. You would think that at my age, all the wonder and awe would have disappeared. But to me, every spring is a miracle. I walk around my neighborhood viewing carpets of green that were a cheerless brown a few weeks ago. Trees and shrubs are exuberant in showing off their blooms and new leaves. Tulips and morning glories rise in splendor. The sun warms everything, including human hearts. “How could there not be a God?” I ask myself. I know, however, that people who don’t believe in God may have similar experiences in “intuiting” God’s non-existence. Where is he/she? Isn’t it strange that in all these centuries God has not revealed him/herself (assuming that you dismiss the Hebrew and Christian Bibles and the witness of thousands of generations of people of faith)? Isn’t it just wishful thinking combined with humans’ inexhaustible capacity for self-deceit that leads us to believe in God? The...

Google Image We have a bird feeder outside our bedroom window. It gets empty often. I try to fill it promptly and when I do, the sparrows, blackbirds and woodpeckers return almost immediately. There’s no evidence that they wonder how the feed got there. They just eat it. Despite all the scientific progress of the last century or so, there are still a lot of things in our lives like that. We don’t have adequate explanations about how people and things got where they are or why, nor do we reflect much on the explanations we have. Sometimes when I drink a glass of water, or use “nature’s solvent” to clean something, I think of the wonders of H2O, but usually I just drink it or use it. Occasionally, however, I ask myself, “Why does water, which happens to be so essential to life – including my own life – exist?” According to the Hub Pages web site, “…There is no other substance or molecule in the universe capable of interacting with as many of the elements in the periodic t...