Darwin's objection to Christianity

Darwin once wrote,

I can hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true; for if so, the plain language of the text seems to show that the men who do not believe, and this would include my father, brother and almost all my best friends, will be everlastingly punished. And this is a damnable doctrine.

It would seem that Darwin could on the very same grounds express his displeasure with an amusement park owner failing to forcefully drag onto the premises of his establishment every single person who (on numerous occasions!) had received free admission tickets and had chosen to through them away. By a Darwinian leap of logic, such an amusement park would be so inherently abominable that its mere existence should be deemed utterly undesirable by all (apparently, even by the folks who are ready to show up at the gate with their complimentary admission tickets).

Wide Angle: Rick Warren's Video Series with Chuck Colson (a review)

This video series called Wide Angle features conversations between Chuck Colson and Rick Warren. The main focus of the presentation is worldview. Truly, what a delight! Both participants are well-prepared (as you would expect them to be). Even if you happen to be a seasoned Christian-minded thinker, the passion displayed by Colson and the wisdom shown by Warren will keep you fully engaged in their dialogue. They completely dismantle the so-called "contemporary culture" along with its values and presuppositions, while demonstrating quite convincingly that as time passes Christianity has more not less to say to the world of today.

The format of the series includes brief excepts from Warren's sermons and his conversations with Chuck Colson follow up on the points mentioned from the pulpit. For Colson, Christian worldview and its importance was one of the important topics for quite a long time. This subject is also covered in his book How shall we live?

If you watch this series with a group of interested friends there will be no end to discussions. In fact, you may even discover that you really want to read more on certain topics that you previously dwelled very little on!

Obama quotes Rick Warren's "Purpose driven life"

Did anyone else notice that when defending his choice of Rick Warren as the person to make an invocation during the inaugural ceremony Obama actually quotes a line from Rick Warren's book "Purpose driven life"? Obama speaks about disagreeing without being disagreeable. Sure, this is not a phrase copyrighted by Rick Warren. However, it is a phrase he really likes to use in his sermons, video presentations and, of course, his book:

We can reestablish a relationship even when we are unable to resolve our differences. Christians often have legitimate, honest disagreements and differing opinions, but we can disagree without being disagreeable

("Purpose driven life", p. 158).

You don't suppose Obama actually reads Rick Warren?

Children are born believers in God

Very interesting finding, reported by Telegraph.co.uk

Dr Justin Barrett, a senior researcher at the University of Oxford's Centre for Anthropology and Mind, claims that young people have a predisposition to believe in a supreme being because they assume that everything in the world was created with a purpose.

He says that young children have faith even when they have not been taught about it by family or at school, and argues that even those raised alone on a desert island would come to believe in God.

For what it's worth, I would like to share some of my personal experiences. Around the time when I was 10 (which I can date with some precision, based on where our family lived at that moment) I was preoccupied with the idea of universal determinism (obviosly, I knew no such terms). The world seemed to me a giant wind-up mechanism where every event was pre-programmed. On occasion, I entertained the notion that because of my own free will I can change some events in the future and thus prove this deterministic world order at least partially flawed. Then it occurred to me that my own understanding of the world may also had been pre-programmed, and my seemingly free-will-based attempt to thwart determinism was nothing but determinism in disguise. Admittedly, the idea of a Creator was not manifest in these musings, but it was very much implied.

Paulo Coelho, The Alchemist - a review

Paulo Coelho's novel The Alchemist holds a curious distinction of being an excellent example of a genre, while at the same time it is a rather mediocre book. I shall explain.

Whenever I mockingly devise an idea for a fantasy book, which I clearly have no intention of ever writing, one inevitable progression of events makes itself available all too eagerly. The hero, usually of humble background, is charged with a quest that takes him to some rather remote areas of his world. Through timely intercession of a mentor and after enduring a few reversals of luck and circumstances the hero learns several valuable life lessons. With the goal of his journey finally in sight, the hero, to his great amazement, as well as to the mentor's patronizing smiles, discovers that the very thing that he zealously sought had always been, as a matter of fact, hidden in his heart (or thereabouts). Don't get me wrong here, many a great story follows this exact progression of events. The difference is, however, that these stories are crafted so masterfully that even upon finishing them you can barely understand that there was absolutely nothing original about their plot mechanics.

Coelho's novel fails at every attempt to veil this universal story. The author must be under the impression that the main value of his book is in its ability to instill in the minds of his readers some solemnly formulated maxims such as:

I told you that your dream was a difficult one. It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them.

When you want something with all your heart, that's when you are closest to the Soul of the World. It's always a positive force.

Your heart is still capable of showing you where the treasure is.

God has prepared a path for everyone to follow. You just have to read the omens that he left for you.

But, unfortunately, very few follow the path laid out for them — the path to their Personal Legends, and to happiness.


These quotes from Coelho make my head hurt. One might think that there is something beneficial in exposing modern secular readers to such spiritual notions, no matter what underlies them. Perhaps. In my humble opinion, however, this pseudo-theistic New Age cud fills the vacuum in people's souls just enough to entertain them, at best. It feeds nothing more than good old individualistic religion of Self, romanticized in order to give it some semblance of humanity's greatest spiritual achievement.