Posts
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Hitchens in “Conversation”
Christopher Hitchens has made it his business to debate whomever will come forward. The first page of Google results lists a considerable roster: Al Sharpton, Dinesh D’Souza, Chris Hedges, Tariq Ali, Stephen Fry, Shmuley Boteach, Alistar McGrath, Marvin Olasky, and Douglas Wilson. As a rule, Hitchens wins every time. He argues with a proverbially acerbic…
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Soldiering for Obama
Today my dear friend Jake and I set out early from our politically-taken-for-granted New York City for Philadelphia, two hours away (well, three with our incompetent Greyhound driver). By late morning we arrived at a canvass-a-thon in south Philly hosted by Terry McAuliffe, a Democratic operative who ran Hillary Clinton’s campaign. The idea was to…
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A Clipping Service
Maybe you’ve noticed I’ve been playing around with The Row Boat’s Text Ticker the last few days. This little feature, which has been hiding on the sidebar for a few months now, is part of my way of finding the fine line that every blog strives for between self-indulgence and providing an honest service. In…
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Were Things Really Better Then?
Passing by a front porch sale in my neighborhood this afternoon, I turned around my bike, stopped, and picked up (for a quarter) a little book called The One Hundred and One Best Songs. It is a songbook from 1922 published by The Cable Company of Chicago, “makers of the famous Cable line of pianos…
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A Fascinating Letter
I’d like to share a wonderful thing someone sent me recently, in regard to my article, “What Happens to Religion When It Is Biologized,” in Search magazine: Hello Nathan: One piece of information which I did not notice in the discussion was the fact that this multi-verse is a virtual reality which is being displayed…
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My Contribution to the Palin Mess
I’ve done it and (on my father’s suggestion, actually) put my knowledge of evolution controversies to “use” and written something for a political website about Sarah Palin. It goes a little something like this: When John McCain announced his intention to make a freshman — and female — Alaska Governor the next vice president on…
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Stout’s Folly of Secularism
I’d like to share this little bit. It’s just about the only academic paper that has almost made me cry, and I don’t even quite know why; when I heard it delivered at last year’s American Academy of Religion meeting in San Diego, most of my friends there didn’t think much of it. I guess…
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Dialogue in the Dark
It totally slipped my notice that, a couple days ago, Religion Dispatches posted my latest article, a review of Michael Novak’s No One Sees God. This one, unfortunately, may inspire more ire from the anti-atheists. But I promise, I genuinely tried to move a more sensible conversation forward on all sides. Take a look at…
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Rampage in Minneapolis
A dear friend of mine, Nicole Salazar, was peacefully filming protests at the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis when police in riot gear assaulted her, cornered her, and dragged her on the ground before arresting her and charging her with a felony. Here is the horrifying video she recorded during the assault: The next day…
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Me on 3QD
I guess I can die and go to heaven now. An article of mine, “What Happens to Religion When It Is Biologized,” was just picked up by the fabulous filter blog 3QuarksDaily. See it here!