You gotta love Richards Dawkins. Seriously, nobody in the last quarter-century has been a more creative, persistent, and grumpy advocate for Darwinism than the famous evolutionary biologist from Oxford. Thomas Huxley--Darwin's own "bulldog," who aggressively defended and promoted the theories of natural selection and common descent to a 19th century audience--has nothing on Dawkins. If you put Huxley and all of Darwin's 21st century defenders in a big pile, it would be dwarfed by the single pile that is Richard Dawkins.

You have to admire Dawkins. He is almost single-handedly taking on his (and Darwin's) arch nemesis, the theory of intelligent design. Other prominent Darwinists, such as Michael Ruse, seem reluctant to endorse their colleague (Ruse is quoted as saying, "Dawkins makes me ashamed to be an atheist"). So Dawkins stands apart, not just for his ability to stir up media attention and capture readers (his book, The God Delusion, is an international best seller, even though most scientists think his arguments are weak and somewhat spurious), but also for his absolute refusal to consider the possiblity that the universe got here by supernatural means.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is so many things: a time/space event that altered the cosmos; the ultimate proof of God's power over sin and death; the thin yet consumately powerful thread that gives the Christian faith its meaning and hope. The resurrection is all of these and more: so massive, so magnificent, so utterly marvelous. Yet is is also very personal, something that we can all embrace with wonder and thanksgiving.

I've been participating in a study of the Psalms over the last couple of months, and this week I came across Psalm 16, appropriately classified as a Resurrection Psalm. I was drawn in by the majesty of the opening line: "Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge." As the Psalm progressed, I found myself moved by the intimacy of its final four verses--

Bashing the church has become very fashionable, and I'm not talking about "outsiders" doing the bashing. That's a given, and it shouldn't worry us. One of the last things Jesus told his disciples was that the world would hate them.  Human nature being what it is, people tend to bash what they hate.

The kind of church bashing I'm referring to is coming from those who go to church--or at least used to. The most vivid example has come in the form of a book with the rather startling title, Pagan Christianity? The question mark at the end of the title would appear to hedge the adjective somewhat, but you don't have to read too far into the book to figure out that the authors, Frank Viola and George Barna, believe the current church is based more on pagan practices and traditions than on the practices of the first-century church, which they believe is the true model for the way church ought to be.

Robert Jastrow, the renowned astrophysicist who played a major role in the development of NASA's lunar and solar system exploration, died on February 8 at the age of 82. Jastrow became a household name during the 1960s, when America and the Soviets were racing to be the first to land a man on the moon. He was a frequent guest on CBS and NBC, explaining in layman's terms the physics of spacecraft, as well as the intricacies of the solar system. Jastrow also wrote several best-selling books, including his seminal work, God and the Astronomers.

Although he was a self-professed agnostic, Jastrow was open to the possibility that the universe had a creator, or at the very least, a first cause. "When a scientist writes about God," Jastrow said, "his colleagues assume he is either over the hill or going bonkers." Never one to worry about labels, Jastrow thought deeply about God. His most serious public reflection came in 1992, when God and the Astronomers was first pubished. In the first chapter of the book, approporiately titled, "In the Beginning," Jastrow wrote:

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In the interest of full disclosure--and at the risk of shameless self-promotion--you need to know that the title of this blog is also the title of a chapter in the new book, I'm Fine With God...It's Christians I Can't Stand, which I co-wrote with my intrepid writing partner, Bruce Bickel. In this candid dialog about the Christian community, we focus on well-meaning but misguided believers who take some parts of the Bible to ridiculous extremes while ignoring other parts.

There is perhaps no section of the Bible that has been exploited to "ridiculous extremes" than the first two chapters of Genesis. I present as Exhibit A the current efforts of Answers in Genesis to "defeat the enemy" of evolution in Great Britain, the birthplace of Charles Darwin. Answers in Genesis, founded by Ken Ham, is a Kentucky-based organization whose mission it is to interpret the "evidence" of science so that it matches the biblical account of creation. For the folks at Answers in Genesis, this means interpreting scientific evidence to fit within the framework of the "young earth creation" model, which holds that God created the universe in six literal days a few thousand years ago.

So Oprah, America's pastor, has selected the next book for her book club: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose by Eckhart Tolle. Saying she is "over the moon excited" about the book, Oprah describes A New Earth as an extenson of her life's mission, "to lead people to their higher selves." To make sure she actually does lead (evidently it's not enough just to watch her on television), Oprah has announced that the book will be the subject of her "first worldwide interactive class," a free ten-week course she will co-teach with Tolle on Oprah.com live Mondays at 9 pm EST beginning March 3.

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Hey, this isn't The Good Earth by Pearl Buck (a past selection). This is A New Earth by Eckhart Tolle. If you haven't heard of this German spiritual teacher, now's the time to do a little research. You can start by nosing around Tolle's website, which will enlighten you to his spiritual journey and teachings. Here's just a sampling of what you'll find. These are actual quotes posted on the site. They pretty much speak for themselves:

An advertisement for the provacative new book, unChristian, by David Kinnaman, says this: Christianity has an image problem. If that's the case--and there's good reason to believe that's true--then I have a suggestion. We need to give Christianity an image makeover. And I know just the people to do it: the customer service pros at the Walt Disney Company.

Years ago when I was running our family's Christian bookstores, I attended a seminar at the Disney Institute in Orlando so I could learn how to better serve our customers. It was a great experience and very practical. I took what I learned back to our stores and noticed an increase in sales in just a few months, all because we followed Disney's advice.

I was watching the Today Show the other day, and on comes this guy by the name of Jeff Yeager. Matt Lauer, who was doing the interview, has dubbed Yeager "the ultimate cheapskate." Indeed, that's the name of a new book he has written. Mr. Lauer was very respectful and seemingly quite taken with Mr. Yeager and his sometimes amusing eccentricities when it comes to saving a buck. (One amusing/disgusting example that stuck out was Yeager's advice to take the barf bags from the airplane when you fly, because "they make great sandwich bags.")

I have to admit that I was impressed with the interview and the almost childlike innocence that Mr. Yeager displayed. This was no schtick. The guy actually lives his life in such a way that frugality is a virtue, not an oddity. Maybe I was ready to hear his advice, because I've been doing some thinking lately about the state of the economy, my own included. There's a lot of gloom out there, some of it coming from people who have heretofore been optimistic about America's economic condition.