Free Republic

In “A Big Bang in a Little Room,” Zeeya Merali describes the consensus among science’s biggest brains: “The notion that a god made our universe is several rungs on the wackiness ladder above the idea that it was made by aliens.” Nevertheless, Merali describes herself as both a believer in God and the holder of an Ivy League Ph.D. in theoretical physics, so she asks a good question: If God desired to send us a message, how would He do it? Thirty-two years ago Carl Sagan’s novel “Contact” included speculation about finding a code in the digits of pi, which...

When university studies of mythology began in the 19th century, scholars often saw myth as primitive science. ‘Why do seas surge and winds blow?’ Edward Burnett Tylor, Oxford University’s first professor of anthropology, argued that cultures evolve from seeing events as random to a higher belief in causation. ‘The tidal wave was not accidental. It came because Poseidon was angry. Next time we’ll make a sacrifice and avert his anger.’Noah, of course, knew that the greatest physical disaster was not accidental. He communicated that understanding on to his descendants, but in a few generations some became fuzzy on the details...

Pardon me, please, if you’re familiar with this terrific story, but I never knew it: Former astronaut Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin celebrated the Lord’s Supper on the moon 44 years ago, on July 20. Aldrin was an elder at Webster Presbyterian Church near Houston. According to London’s Daily Mail, a Presbyterian General Assembly gave Aldrin permission to administer communion to himself on the moon, using a small plastic container of wine and some bread.

Pastor John Piper and others have told the story of 19th-century evangelist D.L. Moody visiting Scotland and opening his talk at a local grade school by asking rhetorically, "What is prayer?" To his amazement, hundreds of children's hands went up. Moody called on a boy near the front, who promptly stood up and answered, "Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, in the name of Christ, by the help of His Spirit, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies." Moody, recognizing that as the answer to question No. 78 in the Westminster Catechism,...

...The (AP) article quoted nine people, all ecstatic about the new gay right. Queens teacher Eugene Lovendusky was typical: “I am spellbound. I’m so exhausted and so proud that the New York State Senate finally stood on the right side of history.” Reporter Karen Zraick even quoted one official saying the new law is “good news” for city tourism. But what about the AP’s “Statement of Ethical Principles”? The first sentence under the heading “Integrity” states, “The newspaper should strive for impartial treatment of issues and dispassionate handling of controversial subjects.” Impartiality and dispassionate handling were nowhere in evidence yesterday...

Lauren Green was third runner up in the 1985 Miss America contest and a winner of the talent competition for playing immaculately a Chopin etude, "Opus #4 in C Sharp." She continued her music while working as a television journalist in Minnesota, Chicago, and New York: She entered the Van Cliburn Competition and has written a fascinating theoretical essay about the connection of music, physics, and faith. Green grew up going to church and Sunday school. Today she goes to Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York and is a FOX News religious correspondent. One continuity throughout the years, since she...

Some trends are so evident that even I can't miss them. Chapter 9 of a book I wrote in the 1980s, Prodigal Press, has the title, "Network News and Local Newspapers: The Coming Economic Judgment." It was easy to forecast that "use of personal computers in homes will lead to a more efficient delivery system" for the news, and that in the process liberal behemoths would stagger and fall. Should Christians be upset that some major city news­papers have gone out of business, and that even the mighty New York Times has mortgaged its headquarters? No: We should work on...

So wrote Marvin Olasky in World magazine at the end of 2007.The novel? Michael O'Brien's Island of the World, published earlier that year by Ignatius Press. Olasky recently, in the July 4, 2009, edition of World magazine, listed O'Brien's novel as one of the Top 40 books he's read and reviewed since 2007. It is particularly interesting that—as far as I can tell (please correct me if I'm mistaken)—O'Brien is the only Catholic on the list and Island of the World is the only novel on the list. Most of the other books (all non-fiction, it appears) are works of history,...

For the non-Calvinists or anti-Calvinists among us who may worry that this issue of WORLD has several articles about John Calvin, be not afraid: It happens only once every 500 years. July 10 brings the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth—and the great theologian, even with his warts, deserves a better press than he has typically received in recent decades. Calvin was a fallen sinner, as all of us are, but was he especially mean-spirited? He taught that God created the world out of love and loved the world so much that Christ came down from the glorious kingdom of...

Sometimes it seems that an atheistic tsunami has hit. Anti-Christian books land high on bestseller lists. Polls purportedly show a decline in belief. Newsweek this spring had one of its traditional Easter cover stories on "The Decline and Fall of Christian America." Whenever the conventional wisdom points in a particular direction it's good practice to ask: What if the opposite is true? What if nominal Christian affiliation is declining but serious biblical belief is actually on the rise? What if Christianity in America is not dying, but instead getting its second wind—or maybe its sixth wind? After all, the American...

"Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done." That was the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale in 2007, repetitiously inciting her disciples to be not just pro-choice but fanatically pro-abortion. This is significant because, according to standard journalistic stylebooks, Ragsdale does not exist. We're told that pro-choice folks don't like abortion; they're just trying to help a woman facing tragedy. Ragsdale, though, says...

"Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Let me hear you say it: abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done. Abortion is a blessing and our work is not done." That was the Rev. Katherine Hancock Ragsdale in 2007, repetitiously inciting her disciples to be not just pro-choice but fanatically pro-abortion. This is significant because, according to standard journalistic stylebooks, Ragsdale does not exist. We're told that pro-choice folks don't like abortion; they're just trying to help a woman facing tragedy. Ragsdale, though, says...

This year Sept. 11 came right in the middle of Ramadan, the month of daylight fasting for Muslims. Booked to fly out of New York's JFK airport on the seventh anniversary of the tragedy, I could expect a business-as-usual tone, and why not: War in Iraq and economy troubles at home have drastically affected some of us, but many Americans have had seven fat years since the shock of 9/11. With memories of horror fading, the Empire State Building—thanks to Islamic terrorists it moved up from third to first place in the list of Gotham's tallest buildings—is scheduled at the...

Journalists used to complain that George W. Bush's speechwriters slipped into his oratory phrases like America's "wonder-working power" that meant one thing to general audiences and another to evangelical supporters aware of the "wonder-working power in the blood of the Lamb." Far-fetched? Maybe, but this year Barack Obama is proving to be a master of that art. "Economic justice" and "restoring fairness to the economy" are two of Obama's favorites. Who can oppose justice and fairness? To many Obama disciples, though, those words mandate not just equality of opportunity but a socialistic equality of result. Some in the general public...

Our insane mental health system Faith-based finalists: The poorest among us are those who’ve lost their minds, according to psychiatrist E. Fuller Torrey | Marvin Olasky I first heard E. Fuller Torrey critique America's mental health non-system nearly two decades ago—and the evidence of breakdown has only increased since then. The mentally ill now form probably half of the homeless and prison populations. Exploited and victimized by others, and often terrorized by their own phobias, they are a threat to themselves and to others, causing one-tenth of the homicides in the United States. Torrey, a psychiatrist who specializes in helping...

It's good that graduation ceremonies are called commencements, as celebration yields to anticipation. Next week I'll speak at the commencement of City School of Austin, a diverse Christian school that my wife and I helped to start six years ago. The following day the moving van cometh, transporting some of our earthly goods to New York City. That will be the end—unless my mad mission flops—of our 25 years in Austin. Did I say "mad mission"? Oops, cat's out of the bag. Susan and I have had a succession of mad missions. Did I tell you about the time we...

Is William Wilberforce your ancestor? What does it mean to be an evangelical? Decade after decade new declarations and explanations emerge, and some are mouthfuls of mush. But the latest, titled "An Evangelical Manifesto: The Washington Declaration of Evangelical Identity and Public Commitment," scheduled for unveiling on May 7 by a group including Leith Anderson, president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and leading lights Rick Warren, Os Guinness, Dallas Willard, Timothy George, and Richard Mouw, is likely to do some good. Although "manifesto" is an arrogant-sounding word, this one's confessions are credible, its hopes holistic, and its goals generous....

I've been cheering for Barack Obama in his Democratic war with Hillary Clinton for both positive and negative reasons. Positive: He's a terrific talker, he didn't seem antagonistic toward Christianity, and we could use a president who inspires college students and twentysomethings not to be so cynical. Negative: A been-there, done-that feeling concerning the Clintons. But now I have that déjà vu sense concerning Obama as well. For 25 years I've taught at the University of Texas and seen the arrogance of academia and the belittling of the purportedly benighted masses. Obama's San Francisco comment about small-town (and small-minded) people...

Yesterday (Nov. 7): the 90th anniversary of Vladimir Lenin's Communist Revolution. Last week (Oct. 31): the 490th anniversary of the beginning of Martin Luther's Protestant Reformation. That numeral 4 indicates a key difference between the two: The 490 glorified God, while the 90 attempted to deify man -- and some men in particular. Luther was a theological revolutionary but not a political one. In 1521, he wrote "A Sincere Admonition by Martin Luther to All Christians To Guard Against Insurrection and Rebellion." The following year, as political unrest intensified, Luther preached about effecting change through patience, charity and reliance on...

Atheistic books are selling ("Backward, atheists", June 30), but so are debates between atheists and Christians. Christopher Hitchens, author of God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, debated last month—before packed houses in Washington and New York—Oxford professor Alister McGrath and author Dinesh D'Souza (What's So Great About Christianity). But none of this is new in American history: Hitchens' best-known predecessor, Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899) sold out auditoriums throughout the last quarter of the 19th century, in what became known as "the golden age of freethought." "Freethought" included atheism, agnosticism, and some left-wing political -isms as well, and had the...