Those who believe they believe in God but without passion in the heart, without anguish of mind, without uncertainty, without doubt and even at times without despair, believe only in the idea of God, and not in God himself. —…
It Makes Sense That People See A.I. as God
Hark! A sign of the End Times. No, not the Four Horsemen, nor a black sun, nor the resurrection of the dead. The omen that the rapture is upon us is none other than artificial intelligence.
The God I don’t believe in
Years ago while serving as a parish pastor, I visited an inactive member of my new congregation. Although he used to attend regularly, he quit coming after his wife died. By the time I arrived at the church, he had…
‘Yes’ to God, but ‘no’ to church – what religious change looks like for many Latin Americans
In a region known for its tumultuous change, one idea remained remarkably consistent for centuries: Latin America is Catholic.
Where Is God in Gaza?
The war, which has killed tens of thousands, laid waste to the Gaza Strip and shredded Israel’s reputation abroad, could soon be over. We explore how people have grappled with faith over the past two years.
Does Trump Actually Think He’s God?
“I’m supposed to be dead,” Donald Trump said, the day after he got shot at his rally last summer in Butler, Pennsylvania. “I’m not supposed to be here,” he said four days after that. “But something very special happened. Let’s…
The Church of the Open Road
I was on the road to nowhere. On the map, I kept to the blue highways. At night, I slept in a tent. I thought of myself as an apprentice Kerouac. Gone, Ireland. Gone, the strictures of Catholicism. Twenty-one years…
My Favorite Argument for the Existence of God
Over the past few weeks, I’ve been recording conversations about my new book, “Believe: Why Everyone Should Be Religious,” and one of the striking things — not unexpected, but still interesting — is how different people react to different arguments…
A century after Hubble’s discovery, our neighbor galaxies suggest a creator’s mind
When you look into the night sky, the naked eye can only make out 2,500 to 3,000 stars, five planets and maybe one to three galaxies, and that’s assuming ideal atmospheric conditions and the right location. That has been enough…
Gallup finds belief in five ‘spiritual entities’ on the decline
It’s been a rough couple of decades for belief in God, angels, Satan and other key spiritual principalities, new research shows. “Compared with 2001, belief in God and heaven is down the most (16 points each), while belief in hell…
For Godself’s sake, stop picking on the small church where Beth Allison Barr’s husband serves as pastor
It’s no secret that there’s bad blood between Christian complementarians and Beth Allison Barr. After all, her bestselling book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood, tears down the boys-only fort they’ve built in the church yard. Yet the sticks and stones…
Why the use of masculine God language matters at church
Throughout the English Bible, the normal pronouns assigned to God are “he” and “him.” Many references to God within church practice typically fit into this same assignment. However, when we look at the instances in the Bible where imagery for…