Items included on this page come from a variety of sources. The perspectives conveyed may or may not express a Lutheran ethos. They can serve our instruction as discussion-starters, examples (positive and negative), and illustrations of intersections between God’s two kingdoms, intersections sometimes characterized by tension, sometimes by congruence. Inclusion does not imply endorsement.
Why We Forgo Self-Interest for Others’ Sake: The research linked here and in the study from Nature Neuroscience below addresses the issue of moral development and altruism. Students will benefit both from learning the current state of these studies but also by learning how to frame the underlying ontological questions that research cannot answer and […]
Science and Pseudo-Science: The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy has substantially updated its entry on science and pseudo-science (April 11, 2017). The discussion can help students realize the epistemological difficulties in sorting out data, hypothesis, information, theory, and ontology. The new treatment emphasizes “that there is much more agreement on particular cases of demarcation than […]
Five rational arguments why God (very probably) exists: Robert H. Nelson is Professor of Public Policy, University of Maryland, and author of God? Very Probably: Five Rational Ways to Think about the Question of a God (Cascade, 2015). This article begins with mathematics and offers a brief summary of the content, and can serve as a starter piece […]
There Must Be More Productive Ways To Talk About Climate Change: Katharine Hayhoe is a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and also an evangelical Christian who engages Christians and others in the ways we talk to and past each other on this issue and many controversial issues in science. This 5 min. audio-plus-transcript suggests methods […]
God in the machine: my strange journey into transhumanism — a former dispensationalist Christian (see the Schofield Study Bible) found herself adrift in the world but then found solace in Ray Kurzweil’s radical technological philosophy of transhumanism. But its promises of immortality and spiritual transcendence soon seemed unsettlingly familiar. Students can examine this first person account […]
Majority of Americans Oppose Transgender Bathroom Restrictions: Here are the current PRRI survey breakdowns on several religion-and-society issues including transgender bathroom laws, church endorsement of political candidates, marriage issues, LGBT issues and more.
KRAB zinc-finger proteins contribute to the evolution of gene regulatory networks: the science journal Nature has published new research on transposons, indicating ways in which the human genetics system is species-specific and suggesting the protein activity of “KZFPs contribute to make human biology unique.” See also: The proteins that domesticated our genomes Harnessing the Human […]
The Earth Has Oceans And Continents: How Weird Is That? This essay offers students an example of how the thoughtful non-theist discusses the puzzles and perplexities of creation and natural order: “Continents and oceans, we have them both. But it didn’t have to be this way. And on most planets, it probably isn’t. And, here, I […]
Keep Asking (Good) Questions and Tricks to Writing Surveys On Theology: When you are comparing two studies that appear to say two different things, take a closer look at the survey questions. The exact wording of that question is going to be your best ammunition because a lot of times if people are comparing two […]
Is AI a Threat to Christianity? This more-than-whimsical article may be a way to explore views on soteriology, redemption, restoration, and texts such as Rom. 8:18-25. “While theologians aren’t paying much attention, some technologists are convinced that artificial intelligence is on an inevitable path toward autonomy. This trajectory raises some fundamental questions for Christianity—as well […]
