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Another three letters from Die Matie, reproduced here with their authors’ consent.
The first, published in Die Matie on 9 April, in response to Kenneth Oberlander and Maud Bonato’s letter in the 19 March issue:

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Who shall I bother first? Let’s start with the theists…
God most definitely does not “exist”
Quite simply, in terms of empirical, material existence, I think most modern theists would agree that God does not have a material form, a material existence. God is not a physical being residing within this universe. Right?
To borrow from Terry Eagleton’s [...]

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A quick note: Akismet, the WordPress spam filter, seems to have some trouble with false positives lately. I.e. a number of valid comments were flagged as spam.
I try to eventually de-spam these comments in order to train the filter. This causes some duplicates when people have written a new comment to replace the one that [...]

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“Education”, I respond, after only a brief pause. “Critical thinking, science literacy, and compassion.”
I would like to thank everyone that sent words of encouragement following my previous post. Let me give my current conclusion on the matter as an answer to bluegray’s comment on Do Any Shofarians Care About Science? He asked:
Sorry if I seem [...]

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A question that has come up numerous times in the past: am I wasting my time?
*sigh*
Advice like “don’t waste your brain cells”, “they’re not worth it”, or “the smart ones will figure it out for themselves” is often given. And then I think of clichéd quotes like “all that is needed for evil to triumph, [...]

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…how things end. That’s out of your control. What is in your control, is the way you live, the way people remember you, the influence you have on other people’s lives.
Many people hold onto the idea of heaven. It is a comforting thought. It is something to look forward to. Whatever. Have you ever wondered, [...]

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The big creationism machine… There are people who teach it, there are people who hear and learn it, and then there are those that facilitate the transaction.
Irrespective of whether creationism is true or false, I’d hope my series of posts on the Batten seminar could serve to demonstrate why Batten’s teachings are misleading and based [...]

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If there were a prize for the society at Stellenbosch University with the best advertising campaign, many will agree that Shofar Christian Church would be quite the contender. They usually have some of the most eye-catching posters and banners in some of the most prominent locations. For example, at the beginning of the year, a [...]

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You may have noticed I’ve started looking into podcasts. One of the podcasts I’ve been most eager to listen to, for a while already, was Philip Harland’s. He has a blog titled Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean. He teaches in both the Religious Studies and Ancient History programs at York University in Toronto (Canada), and [...]

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Looking for a podcatcher (with which to subscribe to podcasts), I came across PodcastReady. It is also a social networking site, with features like sharing episodes with friends. Do any of you know of similar services that I should consider, such that I might find the “best” one, so that I can more easily convince [...]

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