I've never really liked soccer. Never played the game, never understood the rules, and still don't, even though I "coached" my son's youth soccer team when he was younger. I just listened to what other coaches were yelling at their kids to do and told my kids to do the same thing, but it wasn't "real" soccer. There were only three or four players per team, and everyone played offense except the goalie. Nothing at all like a World Cup match. Quite frankly, I've always felt that my son's games were far more exciting than your average World Cup match. After all, each side typically scored four or five goals per game, easily, while in World Cup an entire game can end in a scoreless tie. With far fewer players on my son's team, the idea was that the best defense was a great offense. Nobody ever passed a ball backward to a defender so they could waste time moving the ball around without any apparent purpose behind it. I was a pretty horrible soccer coach, but the kids seemed to have a lot of fun. At one point, I bought my son a Spiderman goalie's jersey, but then all of a sudden my goal scorers wanted to play goalie, too. Fun memories. However, those memories never inspired me to learn the game. If given the choice between watching a professional soccer game and watching paint peel, I'd be hard pressed to say which would be less entertaining. About the only thing that could put me to sleep as fast as a soccer match on television is a golf tournament on television, but the difference is, I sort of enjoy golf. So, in keeping with my personal tradition, I watched none of the … [Read more...]

I'm quite pleased with my effort in writing The God Conclusion, but I will be the first to admit it is not a perfect book. It was thoroughly and professionally edited, of course, but even so, I've found a couple of minor mistakes post-publication. For example, I only intended for one quote to be repeated in the manuscript, but in the final published version somehow two other quotes were accidentally repeated. I believe the problem was due to copy-and-paste versus cut-and-paste, and I wonder if many people even noticed, but all that really matters is that I noticed. The mistakes seem to be a little more obvious in the audiobook. However, one mistake stands out as my worst. I admit that I had some difficulty finding the right words to describe the ultimate dichotomy that must be applied to our existential questions if we are ever going to have any hope of finding some real answers. What were the right words? In my book, I didn't know, so I tried several: God versus good luck (which I also called good fortune and serendipity.) Order versus chaos. Intelligent Design versus evolution. Accident versus on purpose. Lots of oppositional words. In other words, I had no idea of what were the best words to use in describing this dichotomy, so I used too many "other" words. Even when it came to a dichotomy like God versus good luck, I'd substitute other words for God like "supernatural intelligence" and for luck I'd use "good fortune" or "serendipity." Probably the biggest problem was that my choices were often not truly oppositional words. The logical alternative … [Read more...]

When I think about the current run of the Georgia Bulldogs, the lyrics to a great song by David Bowie pops into my head: Golden Years. "Don't let me hear you say life's taking you nowhere..." Indeed. This team has taken "us" (meaning the fan base) to the very top, as reigning national champions. Some of us have jumped on the bandwagon rather recently, while others have been loyal fans since the last national championship, won 41 years earlier. The song's lyrics also reflect the fickle nature of fans: "Last night they loved you, opening doors and pulling some strings..." Of course, many of these same "new" fans will be the first ones to curse the current leadership and demand heads to roll should another game be lost anytime soon. The idea of "winning with integrity and losing with dignity" has been replaced in the minds of some with "win at all costs." Life doesn't work that way. Losses will come -- perhaps not this season, but in seasons to come. We don't have to like them, but we should learn to accept them. Otherwise, we'll become no better than Alabama fans. In 2008, Georgia played Alabama in Athens. The previous year, Georgia had defeated Alabama in Tuscaloosa in an overtime win and began the preseason ranked #1. The Dawgs dropped a few spots by the time they met the Crimson Tide in Sanford Stadium, and the team led by Mark Richt came out to play wearing black jerseys for inspiration. Instead of an inspired effort, a Crimson Tide defense led by first year coordinator Kirby Smart absolutely embarrassed the Bulldogs, leading 31-0 at halftime … [Read more...]

As you (probably) know, the purpose of this Facebook page is to promote the book I most recently wrote, also titled The God Conclusion. The book is listed at #19 in the Religious Studies: Science and Religion category, but it is merely #112,259 overall in the Kindle Store. Translated into numbers, I've sold several hundred books, but that is only a small fraction of the people who allegedly like my Facebook page. Sixteen thousand people like my Facebook page, and seventeen thousand follow it, but I can't even sell one thousand books. If even half of the 16k people who "liked" this page had also bought my book, we wouldn't even be having this conversation because I wouldn't be several thousand dollars underwater on my advertising campaigns. I'm not complaining; I'm stating facts. For whatever reason, there seems to be a major disconnect between the people who follow this Facebook page and my book, even though this Facebook page primarily exists to promote my book. While I have never expected nor intended to become rich from royalty payments, I confess I have become somewhat uncomfortable with the idea of going broke trying to sell an $8 ebook ($14 for the print copy.) I don't even mind breaking even, but I'm not interested in prolonged deficit spending. I'm rapidly approaching retirement age, and I'm never going to be able to retire if my work costs more to produce than it earns. Now, if you've been holding out for the audiobook, you won't have to wait much longer. Once the book has passed Audible's quality control check, it will be available for sale. If … [Read more...]