Pain is...very unpleasant. Let me apologize in advance if I ramble at some point, but I'm still doped up on painkillers at the moment. Quite frankly, pain sucks. But at the same time, it is very important, even crucial for our survival. Tonight, I found myself even thanking God for my recent pain. If I hadn't felt some serious pain yesterday, I'd probably be dead, or well into the process of dying by now. I was released from the hospital earlier this morning. I was admitted so the doctors could begin treatment for several massive kidney stones (five of them in total) discovered by CT scan. I had gone to the emergency room after experiencing severe pain during a sleepless, most uncomfortable night. Instead of celebrating Independence Day with a whole host of extended family visiting my house, I spent the day consulting a series of doctors before having minor surgery to implant two stents in my bladder. The biggest kidney stone is almost a half-inch big, much too large to pass through my ureter. This marble-sized stone blocked the entrance and gave me an infection as my body began to retain too much urine, which caused the severe pain. I arrived at the emergency room around 5:30 am, and within an hour I had been admitted as a patient. By three p.m. that same day (and a national holiday, no less) I was in surgery. Obviously, the doctors were taking my condition quite seriously. Later that night it occurred to me that only 100 years ago, this merely painful condition would have almost certainly killed me. Without ever feeling any pain, several … [Read more...]
Religulous
I finally broke down and watched Bill Maher's "documentary" titled Religulous, only sixteen years after it was first released. The movie came out a couple of years after Richard Dawkins published The God Delusion, around the same time I had begun research for what ultimately became my first published book, Divine Evolution. When the movie was in theaters, I had neither the time nor the interest in watching it because I had a very good idea of what it was about. The title of the movie appears to be a combination of the words "religious" and "ridiculous", probably to create the impression that belief in God is ridiculous. However, as my book The God Conclusion demonstrates, belief in God is far more logical and better supported by scientific evidence than atheism. The trickiest part of promoting my book has been getting atheists like Bill Maher to read it. In fact, I've never had any desire to watch Religulous because I was fairly sure there weren't going to be any surprises and I'd just been reading The God Delusion. I expected Maher to be smug and condescending as he mocked and ridiculed religious belief much like Dawkins had done in his book, and there weren't any surprises in that regard. I expected him to set up straw men to attack and take a lot of cheap shots at religion and faith, and that's exactly what he did. So, in that respect, the movie did not disappoint. The inspiration for changing my mind and giving the film a try was Maher's somewhat conciliatory recent public statements regarding conservatives and Trump supporters, where he said we can vote … [Read more...]
Probability and odds
Probably (pun intended) the most difficult part of my argument for God is to properly convey the unlikelihood of our universe forming because of an unplanned and undirected sequence of events. The odds against the existence of our universe are literally astronomical. Even so, I may have finally stumbled upon a way to present the improbability in language anyone can understand, or layman's terms, using the NCAA basketball tournament popularly known as "March Madness." Recently, ESPN published a rather remarkable story about an otherwise unremarkable neuropsychologist named Gregg Nigl. What was Mr. Nigl's specific claim to fame? Had he made some innovative medical discovery that was some groundbreaking innovation in the world of sports? No. No skill was involved in his otherwise noteworthy "accomplishment." Did he break some unique sports record like hitting the most bullseyes in a game of darts, or somehow make his mark in the Guinness Book of World Records? Nope, that wasn't it, either. What did Gregg Nigl do in 2019 that was so remarkable? He was the first person known to have gone a perfect 48-0 in predictions through two rounds of the NCAA tournament. The odds against picking a perfect NCAA tournament bracket have been estimated as between a somewhat modest 1 in 120 billion for an experienced gambler to correctly guess all the tournament winners to treating the outcome of every game as a coin flip. Those "coin flip" odds have been estimated to be a stunning 1 in 9.2 quintillion. But in 2019 for the first time in history, Nigl's picks were perfect … [Read more...]
A reason for the problem of evil
I'm not a preacher. I like to write books. I've never claimed to be an evangelist and I have no formal training in theology. When people ask me questions and I don't know the answers, I'll just say, "I don't know!" because it's the truth. Of all the questions you could ask me, my least favorite is "Why does God allow people to suffer pain? What is the purpose of evil?" My go-to answer for that has always felt like sort of a cop out in my opinion, even though I believe it's true: free will. God has given us this tremendous gift of free will and permitted us the choice between good and evil. I've often said that without pain, we cannot understand pleasure. Without sorrow, we do not appreciate joy. If we've never experienced hate, we have no true concept of love. All this is true. But is that a sufficient answer to the question? Why does evil exist? Why are humans often cruel? Why doesn't God just turn the Earth into Heaven and make everything good? Earlier this morning I watched two short videos I shared on my Facebook page called The God Conclusion, and a "Eureka!" moment occurred to me, although I have managed to refrain from running naked down the street shouting about it at the top of my lungs. The two videos had the same basic message: when we ask God for strength, should God just magically make us stronger, or should He give us difficulties that will ultimately make us stronger? When we ask for wisdom, should God simply make us wiser or give us problems to solve that ultimately make us smarter? If we ask God for courage, should He … [Read more...]
A review of The God Conclusion
One of my atheist friends (yes, I really do have them) promised to read The God Conclusion and said he would publish a review when he finished. Amazon (as typically the case) refused to allow him to post the review, so my friend Tony sent his review to me and I'm posting it on my website. Tony is an honest broker, and fair. I like what he wrote, even when he disagrees with me, and we're going to talk about it in further detail on my next podcast. Here is his review of my book: The Introduction offers important context and sketches some of the arguments to follow. Chapters 1-10 of the book constitute a nearly point-by-point response to "The God Delusion" by biologist Richard Dawkins, with chapters 11-15 forming a positive argument in favour of the author's own position, "The God Conclusion".In his Introduction, Leonard recounts personal experiences that have led him to believe in the Christian God. This sets up the tone of the entire work - this is a book that mixes philosophy, science, and theology with personal thought. To my mind, that is what makes it worthwhile. He also sets up some of the themes he will return to later in the text, including that not believing in God is an act of free will rather than unbiased evaluation. He gives Dawkins credit where credit is due for intelligence and erudition, which is a notable thing contrasted to the generally toxic tone dominating the "God debate". He closes the introduction by pointing out that truth MATTERS. In our current age of "post-fact" discourse, this is also a worthy reminder.Leonard offers responses to … [Read more...]
