Update : Welcome Digg visitors. For more of my posts on Science (including my Science and Faith series), go here .Interested in my take on atheism? Then try here . For my comments about the experience of being dugg, so here . Original Post : Eric Michael Johnson is a primatologist and endocrinologist completing a PhD at Duke University, and he blogs at the Primate Diaries . He has two recent posts that are worth reading. First, some provocative humor: Fundamentalists: believe 2+2 =5 because It Is Written. Somewhere. They have a lot of trouble on their tax returns. "Moderate" believers: live their lives on the basis that 2+2=4. but go regularly to church to be told that 2+2 once made 5, or will one day make 5, or in a very real and spiritual sense should make 5. "Moderate" atheists: know that 2+2 =4 but think it impolite to say so too loudly as people who think 2+2=5 might be offended. "Militant" atheists: "Oh for pity's sake. HERE. Two pebbles...
This map shows which of eight major Christian denominations has a plurality in the United States, county by county. the map obviously does not capture the full story given the rich diversity of Christian denominations in the United States, but it does show much of the regionalization of the major denominations. The map and analysis can be found here . Hat Tip to my friend Jim .
I was raised in the Lutheran Church. As such, while I received a pretty good religious education on the Bible and the Reformation, I am largely ill-informed about the early history of the Church. After hearing more and more about the early Church fathers, I decided to rectify this failing. I am starting with the first volume of Jaroslav Pelikan's five volume series on the history of Christian Doctrine, entitled The Christian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine. This first volume focuses on the very early Church--100 A.D. to 600 A.D. I am only at the beginning of Pelikan's book, but one of his early observations stuck me as very interesting. He notes that the early church doctrine developed as a result of two dialogues--the first with Jews (both Christian Jews and non-Christian Jews), and the second with classical Greek and Roman philosophy. The New Testament is largely a reflection of the first dialogue. Only one of the authors (Luke) of the New Testament books...
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