The reality of the mental space

(Yesterday I published a Dutch column on this website, which was enthusiastically picked up by some non-Dutch-speakers. Therefore I have translated the text into English.) Every now and then you have questions that arouse wonder. Earlier this week, this question suddenly occurred to me: Does language exist? Can we deny an affirmative answer to that … Lees meer

Patricia Williams on anti-intellectualism

In a recent piece in The Guardian, Patricia Williams writes about the rising anti-intellectualism she sees in the US. While reading this piece, I thought that the situation in the Netherlands is rapidly deteriorating in just the same way that Williams describes in the US (though the banning of certain books by universities will probably … Lees meer

Introducing my new research project: A philosophical and theological exploration of ‘religious atheism’ and ‘religious naturalism’

Via my LinkedIn-account I already announced that from February 1, 2015, I have a new halftime position, as a researcher at the Dominican Study Centre for Theology and Society in Amsterdam (see http://dsts.nl). It’s a position for one year, and I intend to do a lot in that time.

The project that I will be working on is titled: The spirituality of ‘belonging without believing’: a philosophical and theological exploration of ‘religious naturalism’ and ‘religious atheism’. I’ll try to give a brief description of what I will be working on for the coming year…

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Rabbi Jonathan Sacks on the Bible, science, and creationism (quote)

“Why do so few Jews take issue with the theory of evolution, while creationism is common among Christians?” I think Christians tended to think that religion and science were part of the same universe of discourse. So they assumed that the Bible was telling us scientific stuff, as well as moral and spiritual stuff. Whereas … Lees meer

Is David Barash teaching religion in his biology classes? A response to his NYTimes op-ed.

Steven Pinker tweeted about an op-ed article in the New York Times today that drew my attention. In the article, David Barash, an evolutionary biologist and professor of psychology at the University of Washington argues that evolutionary biology and religious belief are incompatible. Barash’s article apparently meets with deep respect from Pinker (and probably many other atheists that believe that science and religion are incompatible). However, I believe there are reasons to believe that Barash’s article should be taken with caution. What he describes to be doing in his biology class seems not so different from what creationists intend to do…

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