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Myths of good versus evil have long sustained conservatism, but these narratives, with their shining heroes, and dastardly evildoers, are irrelevant to the civil debates at hand, and threaten to undermine the reforms that would help us all the most.

Several days ago I was in the car, listening to songs shuffled at random. Just as I pulled into the parking lot I heard the opening lines of “The Legend of John Henry’s Hammer,” recorded at one of Cash’s famous 1968 Folsom Prison shows. Transfixed, I sat and listened to the whole seven-minute song, which tells the story of a man who, after winning a heart-pounding spike-driving competition against a machine, lays down his hammer and dies. It is a great story that may be read as a warning to those who equate scientific and technological advance with human progress. What I’d like to ask is this: do stories point us, in even the smallest of ways, toward anything that might be described as the truth?

Does morality come from religion or is it merely “the language games of one’s time”? Are the most basic moral boundaries we evolved that make life easier and less chaotic a reflection of the character of God? If there is no God, or if He doesn’t care about us, then our common morality is still the result of practical, reality-based needs, which also “teach” that a good life depends on the “Do unto others…” ethic.

Christians should neither excoriate Israel nor remain silent in the face of horrendous attacks in Gaza and elsewhere. Rather, according to Rev. Laarman, American Christians must heed King and make the issue about US policy and the kind of nation we aspire to be.

Small Town Spirituality, Big City Hate: For those with ears to hear it, Sarah Palin’s speeches echoed the work of Westbrook Pegler, a mid-century Rush Limbaugh, and then some….

Sam Harris, a leading voice in the so-called New Atheism, believes that religious faith disqualifies a leading scientist from heading the National Institutes of Health. What does this reveal about the ideological prejudices of this brand of secularism?

Ritual violence at this season’s film festivals…

We should not overlook the New Atheists’ support for science, progressive views and legitimization of non-belief as a viable alternative. Unfortunately, their record is also marked by an intolerance of religious people and the alienation of potential progressive allies.

Do Richard Dawkins, Bill Maher, and other true believers really offer a different path, or are their methods and manner merely a mirror image of the fundamentalism they so despise? We are spiritual animals and must learn to live with the complexities and paradoxes of religion—and of the natural world as well.

Miss California and her supporters seem oblivious to the possibility that theological consistency might lead to a conclusion that a god who prohibits gay marriage would not look favorably upon her breast augmentation surgery.