Whether or not you believe that these were two literal human beings in a Garden in the Middle East thousands of years ago, the story of Genesis 2-3 rings true. Because we make the same decision all the time. The history of humanity, and the story of our own lives, is one of choosing ourselves instead ...

If God is good, and God's creation is good, then why is the world the way it is? In the talk series I presented last weekend, I argued that the world is the way it is because we humans–individually, collectively, now and throughout history–choose to live without God:

Let me explain what I mean when I ...

New Post on the Park Forum: Back to the Garden of Eden.

My theme for my talks last weekend was "Life with God." And yet before I could talk about life with God, I had to address the question of God's existence

So, some thoughts on that question, taken from the first talk I gave this past weekend:

I'm not planning to mount a defense of the existence of God. ...

I'm speaking at a conference this weekend for a group of about 160 people, mostly high school students. And I'm supposed to explain the Christian faith to them over the course of four 20 minute talks. Whatever you believe, it's a good exercise: how would you explain the way you make sense of the world ...

A quick response to the Atlantic's cover article on the Park Forum, here.

Penny and I got into the car to go to the hospital yesterday at noon. Peter buckled her into her seat, kissed her on the forehead, and said, "I'll see you tonight, beautiful girl."

"Pray, Dad," she replied.

The night before, she had a hard time falling asleep.

"Are you afraid, Mom?"

"No, sweetie, ...

New post on the Park Forum: Afraid of the Flu?
Also a helpful comment on there about the science involved. And, incidentally, I got the flu shot and so will our kids. Just not planning to panic if they get sick...

New post on the Park Forum.

"Architecture is evangelism." The person who said it was talking about churches and the way in which they welcome (or fail to welcome) people with disabilities. When the ramp for wheelchair access is around back and hard to find, what message does it convey?Architecture is evangelism in more ways than ...

Margot Starbuck, author of The Girl in the Orange Dress: Searching for a Father who does not Fail, spoke at our church last night. She brought a banner–about twelve feet high and six wide–constructed of brightly colored and different patterned squares with the words, "I am the one who is WITH YOU and ...

Does it matter how we care for those who have died?
New post on the Park Forum: The Moral Implications of Mourning

"Because we are mortal, and because all religion responds to mortality, our intimations of the sacred arise from our experience of the tension between the mortal existence of humankind and the eternal life of God." –David P. Goldman, in "Sacred Music, Sacred Time," First ThingsEven Adam and Eve weren't ...

I was drinking a hot toddy (is that how it's spelled? and, yes, I had a bad cold) with a friend in Boston last week, and we were talking about education. I told her that Peter and I have been particularly interested in a fledgling movement in public school education whereby cities have established urban ...

New Post on the Park Forum: "That They All May Be One."

New post on the Park Forum: Natural Disasters. Incidentally, there's an interesting comment with a link to a video clip posted here too.

More to come on the education topic... soon...

We've lived in a boarding school for seven years now, and six of those have been in a dorm with thirty high school boys. In general, it's been great (I have blocked out last year, when William left us so sleep-deprived that we couldn't see straight and I didn't even learn the boys' names). And there ...

A few months ago, Ken Myers, of the Mars Hill Audio Journal (if you don't know about this, I highly recommend checking it out), interviewed a historian. Of course, I can no longer remember the historian's name, or the name of the Enlightenment thinker about which he spoke. Sorry. What I do remember, ...

New Post on the Park Forum, relating the thief on the cross to Hospice care in America's prisons: click here.

I love order. It brings me great peace to clear the dining room table, to put away folded laundry, to gather all the items strewn upon the floor in the front hall and restore them to their proper place. If I had more time, everything in our house would be orderly. As it is, I pick a few key locations ...