Time Magazine: Maybe materialism is not winning?

"We revere faith and scientific progress, hunger for miracles and for MRIs. But are the worldviews compatible?" TIME asks, conveninga debate between evangelical atheist Richard Dawkins and genome scientist Francis Collins. Time notes,

Can religion stand up to the progress of science? This debate long predates Darwin, but the antireligion position is being promoted with increasing insistence by scientists angered by intelligent design and excited, perhaps intoxicated, by their disciplines' increasing ability to map, quantify and change the nature of human experience. Brain imaging illustrates—in color!—the physical seat of the will and the passions, challenging the religious concept of a soul independent of glands and gristle. Brain chemists track imbalances that could account for the ecstatic states of visionary saints or, some suggest, of Jesus.

The article leads up to the usual materialist rubbish that you might have expected Time to publish, but hang in there: Collins comes off way better than Dawkins. Collins' arguments are not especially stellar and - as he gladly admits - they are hardly original, but they have never really been answered by Dawkins' ilk.

By the way, Dawkins, who should have stayed a scientist, is leading a crusade against religion, according to the Times of London, including inundating schools with antireligious rubbish.

RICHARD DAWKINS, the Oxford University professor and campaigning atheist, is planning to take his fight against God into the classroom by flooding schools with anti-religious literature.

He is setting up a charity that will subsidise books, pamphlets and DVDs attacking the "educational scandal" of theories such as creationism while promoting rational and scientific thought.

The foundation will also attempt to divert donations from the hands of “missionaries” and church-based charities.

Just what the beleaguered school systems need. So much for Dawkins' chair in "The Public Understanding of Science" at Oxford. Maybe they should start looking for an incumbent who has the time for it.

My other blog is the Post-Darwinist, which keeps tabs on the intelligent design controversy.

My previous books are By Design or by Chance? (Augsburg 2004) and Faith@Science. The Spiritual Brain (Harper 2007), with Montreal neuroscientist Mario Beauregard.