Peter Kazmaier

C. John Sommerville, a professor emeritus of history at the University of Florida, has written an engaging book entitled Religious Ideas for Secular Universities. As he looked back on fifty years of university life as both a student and a professor, he wondered at how much the mission and role of the university had changed in that time period.

“I thought I was finally able to see our universities the way American society does, as a good way of preparing us for our jobs, but not where we look to answers for our important questions.” [Page 3]

Sommerville amplifies this view on page 7.

“It seems that some time in the 1980’s accountancy became the queen of sciences. Universities are about money in a whole new way. They are now measured in terms of money – the size of their endowments, how much they can charge for tuition, and the return on that investment in the starting salaries of new graduates.”

Sommerville’s views lead to three questions:

1. Are universities becoming corporations?
2. If they are, is this a good or a bad thing?
3. If it is a bad thing, what can be done to reverse this trend? (continue reading…)

Orson Scott Card , known for the classic Science Fiction novel Ender’s Game , gave an excellent interview to Moira Allen on religion in Science Fiction and Fantasy. To my mind Card’s responses, although they were given some time ago, continue to be the best expose on this subject. Here are a few of his quotes from the interview (shown in bold blue) and some of my comments to go with them: (continue reading…)

Judging by the comments of Stephen Weinburg and the more recent additions to this body of writing by Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens and Harris, there are many modern writers who would like to orchestrate and/or hasten ‘The End of Religion’. However Cavey’s book does not have the same end in mind as the other five who foresee a brave new world based on a ‘religion-free materialism’. Cavey has written two versions of ‘The End of Religion’, one by Agora Imprints and a longer one by NavPress. I have read both and I will discuss both. So what does Cavey mean by ‘The End of Religion?’ (continue reading…)

In a previous post, I quoted Charles Lewis of the National Post:

“So why bother to grasp it if it is beyond human reason? What possible good can it do to believe in this miracle, let alone in any other religious belief? It is a question asked by secular societies that more and more see religion as divisive, superstitious and an elaborate but irrational story for children.”

The question of religion being divisive is an important question since it represents one of the main attacks on religion that have been made by Hitchens-Harris-Dawkins-Dennett.

I would like to then ask three questions:

1. Is religion divisive?
2. If religion is divisive, what are the root causes of the division?
3. Is division of belief or conviction a good or a bad thing? (continue reading…)