For much of American history, the fault lines of conflict were religious—Catholic, Protestant and Jewish. The theological differences between these three religious groups defined how each focused on the major cultural issues of the day (e.g. Prohibition of the 1920s, public education and its curricula in the 19th century). Protestantism dominated the culture and rather routinely set the culture’s agenda. America was a Protestant nation and that fact defined almost every cultural issue of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. But in the 20th century, that consensus began to shatter.

I was recently reviewing some old articles I had stored and found, in the 13 November 2006 issue of Time magazine, a debate between Richard Dawkins, an avowed atheist, and Francis Collins, a Christian who converted from atheism. It is an insightful debate, well worth reading. Dawkins is an Emeritus Fellow of New College at Oxford University in England. His 2006 book, The God Delusion, attacks faith philosophically and historically, using the Darwinian hypothesis for its intellectual support. Collins is Director of the National Institutes of Health. At age 27, he converted from atheism to Christianity. His book, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, was a bestseller.

It has been said that the one thing we learn from history is that we learn nothing from history. Sadly, this is often true. We are to learn from history, but tragically rarely do we do that. But, there is something called a philosophy of history and genuine, biblical Christianity has something to contribute here. This is an important issue because we in the Postmodern world are slaves to what is often called “presentism,” which in itself is a philosophy of history. Presentism is an arrogant way to view the past. It assumes that our assumptions, our technological achievements make us superior to every previous generation and age.

The Pew Research Center and the Gallup Organization recently released separate reports concerning the state of religious beliefs in the United States. Both evidence an absence of certainty when it comes to major doctrinal issues, and point to one of the major themes of the Pastoral Epistles (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus), namely that sound doctrine produces godly living. There is a consequence when sound doctrine is not evident in religious belief systems. For example, nine-in-ten Americans believe in a higher power, the Pew Research Center shows, but only a slim majority believes in God as described in the Bible.

The Oxford Dictionaries 2017 Word of the Year was “youthquake,” a rather unusual choice but one that necessarily reflects Western Civilization’s obsession with “staying young.” But the choice presumably goes deeper than that, for the term is defined as meaning “a significant cultural, political, or social change arising from the actions or influence of young people.” It represents the awakening of millennials striving for change during a turbulent 12 months in 2017 across the world.

New York University professor, Jeff Sebo, reports that The Nonhuman Rights Project, since 2013, has been working on behalf of two chimpanzees, Kiko and Tommy, asking the courts to rule that Kiko and Tommy have the right to bodily liberty and to order their immediate release into a sanctuary where they can live the rest of their lives with other chimpanzees.

When one thinks of the Civil Rights movement of the 1950s through the 1970s, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. (1929-1968) immediately comes to mind. Born in 1929, his name was Michael at birth, but his father changed his name to Martin Luther, honoring the famous German reformer who began the Reformation. As a young boy, it was obvious that he was brilliant. He skipped two grades and passed his entrance exam to enter Morehouse College at 15.

Although one can easily apply the lessons raised by Mary Shelley?s Victor Frankenstein to gene-editing and artificial intelligence, can one also ask the same questions when it comes to the Social Media phenomenon? . . . Two-hundred years ago an anonymous novel was published: Frankenstein, or the Modern Prometheus. The author was Mary Shelley, who clearly posited a premise that is no longer controversial?that humans can create life with the tools provided by science.

The freezing of sperm, eggs and embryos is increasingly a common practice in fertility clinics across the United States and indeed across the world. All such procedures involve freezing in liquid nitrogen. As Pam Belluck of the New York Times reports, a change in freezing technology in recent years has made things easier.

The Gerber baby food company has chosen one-year old Lucas Warren of Dalton, Georgia as the 2018 ?Gerber Spokesbaby? for their baby products. Lucas is a child with Down syndrome. Almost everyone applauds Gerber for doing this, but, in doing so, it has perhaps unintentionally given focus to one of the cruel ironies of abortion on demand. Intentional, willful abortion is being used to eradicate a portion of the human population?Down syndrome children. Normally, most people understand genocide as ?the deliberate, systematic attempt to erase a category of people?: In this case, babies that have been diagnosed in utero with Down syndrome.