Skeptical Faith

Google Image I recently attended a presentation on Francis of Assisi's influence on Pope Francis and his environmental encyclical by a theologian who tossed out an astonishing figure that should give us pause on Thanksgiving: 40 percent of the food in American refrigerators is thrown away. Curious, I checked on it and that isn’t exactly the case. A ccording to a 2012 report from the National Resources Defense Council,  40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. is never eaten . “The report points out waste in all areas of the U.S. food supply chain, from field to plate, from farms to warehouses, from buffets to school cafeterias,” says CNN News. But most of the waste does occur in the home. “American families throw out approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy. (The report) cites several reasons, including (the notion) that food has been so cheap and plentiful in the United States that Americans don't value it properly.” Our Dai...

Google Image Readers who don’t know me can tell by my picture at www.skepticfaith.blogspot.com , as well as by what I write, that I’m no spring chicken. Although I’m blessed with good health and few family or other worries, like all people my age I’m coping with aging. Sometimes I can’t help but laugh when I look in the mirror. Is that really me? Why do I have almost as much hair in my nose as I do on my head? Why do I have so much trouble opening jars and packages? Why is it that so often the thing I’m trying to remember lies just beyond my mental reach? But are my aging problems any more onerous than what young people have to deal with? More than the awkwardness of being a teenager, the insecurity of being a young adult, the incertitude of being a young parent or parent of teenagers? Having been all those, I don’t think so. And my life has been a walk in the park compared to that of millions of people around the world. In La Paz, Bolivia, I watched kids and adults ...

Google Image The Catholic Church, to which I belong, has just finished a meeting of church leaders in Rome called the Synod on the Family. It started on Oct. 4 and finished on Oct. 25. It was the second such session, following up on one held last year. Together, the meetings were held to discuss the church’s doctrine and practice regarding marriage and the family, and make a recommendation to the pope. Topics included the church’s prohibition against reception of communion by divorced and remarried people, and “pre-marital unions.” Why should skeptics searching for God know about this? Because it touches on the subjects of religion and relevance, and illustrates again that the subjects with which religion grapples are not simple, black-and-white issues that can be solved by appeals to liberalism or conservatism, let alone our individual prejudices and preferences. A Taboo Subject? I’ve written several blogs about “God and sex,” which may make people uncomfor...

Google Image Many of you may not be sports fans, but this post is not about sports. It’s not even about my favorite baseball team, the Kansas City Royals, who – even as you non-baseball fans might know – won the 2015 World Series. Though I’ve been a Royals fan since the team’s inception in 1969, I wasn’t so much impressed by their recent World Series victory as I was by the way they won: Exhibiting qualities that I seek and that I believe are sorely needed by skeptics searching for God. Some would describe me as a pessimist. I think of myself as a realist. Had I been a member of the Royals team in the deciding game of the World Series against the New York Mets on Nov. 1 – having been shut out for eight innings by the Mets’ excellent pitching and losing 2-0 – I would have said, “Time to go home, boys. Games over. We have two more opportunities to win the series in Kansas City.” That’s not how the Royals think. It's a cliché, but they really never give up. And with a combi...