By James Haught Ancient Greece, birthplace of Western civilization, was contradictory. It produced the first known thinkers who tried to understand the world through logic and observation, instead of through supernatural explanations. Yet Greeks also sacrificed thousands of animals to imaginary gods on Mount Olympus, and gave gold to mystical “oracles” who babbled in trances.… Read more »
By James Haught In an 1820 letter to Portuguese scholar Correa de Serra, Thomas Jefferson wrote: “Priests of the different religious sects… dread the advance of science as witches do the approach of daylight.” Jefferson saw the clash between religion and science clearly. Ever since his day, science has achieved astounding benefits for humanity, while… Read more »
By James Haught For years, I was personal friends with Carl Sagan’s sister, Cari Greene, who lived in my town of Charleston, West Virginia. The astronomer dedicated one of his final books to her. I almost felt like part of the great researcher-television host’s extended family. Sagan, the world’s best-known scientist in the late 20th… Read more »
By James Haught The ghastly Indian Ocean tsunami on the day after Christmas 2004 — one of the worst natural disasters in the history of humanity — should have an unexpected side-effect: Intelligent people increasingly may be forced to abandon the notion that an all-loving, all-powerful, fatherly, kindly, creator god controls the universe. If a deity caused the Indian… Read more »
By James Haught When the West Virginia Book Festival was canceled because of the Kanawha library’s money crisis, a pang of loss was felt among lovers of writing. Then longtime Gazette staffer Susan Williams asked readers to remember special books that affected their lives. All this prodded me to ponder the amazing power of language,… Read more »
By James Haught Religion is collapsing faster in America than in any other nation, according to a top researcher. Writing in Foreign Affairs magazine — in a report titled “Giving Up on God: The Global Decline of Religion” — Dr. Ronald Inglehart of the University of Michigan said: “The most dramatic shift away from religion has taken place among… Read more »