J. Michael Jones

Previously I had focused on the philosophical, sociological and psychological issues involved with the conflict of science and religion. Today, as I wrap this conversation up, I focus on the more practical issues, between the first general dark ages and the new focal dark ages of the white evangelicals and other groups. I have one more pod cast on this topic before I put it to rest. 

This is the introduction and first chapter of my new novel, The Stones of Yemen. It is about an American medical worker (PA) in a refugee camp in war-torn Yemen, who stumbles into an international incident that only he can thwart. It is about love and loss, bereavement and hope. It straddles that conflict between the quest for peace in a world hungry for war.

This podcast is a summary of the points I was making in parts I - IV, as I prepare to finish this in the next podcast. It looks at the fundamentals of how we find truth. The purpose of science and the bias of social sub-culture groups, including religious groups.

Everyone seems to believe that life must have a purpose. What if that is not true. For the Christian, Rick Warren wrote a book about the "Purpose Driven Life." What if he was wrong? What if existence in the wonderful material world is simply God's gift for us to enjoy the way we want?

What role does bias play in finding truth?

A look at our personal epistemology, what methods we use to find truth about reality.

Science and Religion don't reside in different realms. They both must look at reality and asses the evidence. It is about epistemology. Science starts by removing biases to reach objective truth, while religion often imposes bias as the fundamental belief that must be adhered to before considering the evidence. The default position when you don't have the evidence, is to create conspiracy narratives or moral assignment to those who disagree with you. "They believe X (not because of their overwhelming evidence) because they are of the devil."

This is the first part of a three-part series exploring the unfortunate war between religion and science, but better terms would be between evidence-based truth vs subculture dogma-based "truth." The church in America is dying a rapid death and part of it has resulted from the church's loss of a concept of truth. The conservative side, white evangelicals, has sacrificed the aspiration of truth for power, on the left the progressives have sacrificed it for social peace.

Why grief and anguish over death is the most spiritual frame of mind.

Religion often does a great disservice to the mourning process. It is not he or she that is most spiritual that mourns the least, but just the opposite. Death is unnatural in the Christian philosophical framework and therefore is worthy of our deepest grief.