Author: David Ellis

We began this series of talks by questioning the common assumption that religion exists mainly to explain things we don’t understand. If that were true, then as knowledge increases, the need for religion should decrease. But globally, today’s polls don’t support that logic. We then looked at how religious scriptures work, and concluded that they…

Last week I arrived at the unsettling conclusion that religion developed not primarily as a result of knowledge or belief, but out of a real need (not just a psychological desire) to align with reality. In biblical terms, it’s like accepting the wedding invitation rather than gate-crashing and pretending to be a guest. I further…

Last week I continued to argue that Scripture was not intended to function primarily as a repository of answers, although it’s often treated as if it was. Rather, like Jesus himself, scripture operates as a formative, gentle, and non-coercive force that helps to shape perception—how people see the world, preserve tension—between the truths we are…

Last week, I challenged the belief by many that religion developed in order to explain the unknown. I countered that religion addresses the deeper and more persistent problem of living, when even intelligent human beings cannot seem to live together without eventually collapsing into conflict. Across traditions, cultures, and history, we saw that cooperation, restraint,…

This is the first of a series of five talks about Making Sense of Religion, in which I finally “come out” and declare “I got religion!” —which is a bit of a double entendre and I’ll leave it to you to figure out what I mean. This introductory talk is a bit long, and also…

With just five people present, two of whom were not Adventists, and of the three Adventists one (Kiran) was today’s speaker on the topic of the Remnant—a topic of especial interest to Adventists—it was decided to postpone the talk until next week.  Meantime, a general discussion got underway about AI, with concerns expressed about its…

Dr. Weaver ended our last session by asking two deceptively simple questions: How do we share our faith? And what does it mean to share faith after everything we’ve been saying about beauty, music, fear, silence, and sensory experiences of God? I want to begin by saying that I think those questions are exactly right—and…

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1) John’s statement sounds metaphorical—“God is like a Word because Creation began with a divine pronouncement.” But in a more nuanced, more accurate interpretation, the Word is not an announcement about creation: It is the very act…

Last week we explored how music can be designed—architected—either to lift—or to deceive—the spirit of its audience. We saw (or rather, we heard) how the same notes can open the heart toward grace or inflate the ego toward itself, depending on the motivations of the composer, the performer, and the listener. This, then, led me…