About the Author: Davidson Loehr
Davidson Loehr is a former musician, combat photographer and press officer in Vietnam, owner of a photography studio in Ann Arbor, then a carpenter and a drunk. His Ph.D. is in methods of studying religion, theology, the philosophy of religion and the philosophy of science, with an additional focus on language philosophy (The University of Chicago, 1988). From 1986 to 2009, he served as a Unitarian minister, and has been a Fellow in the Jesus Seminar since 1992. He has one book, America, Fascism & God: Sermons from a Heretical Preacher (Chelsea Green, 2005). Now retired from the ministry, he is spending this year building a platform to become involved in national discussions of religion, science, values, and culture, and working on a second book: The Rise of Secular Religion in America.
.....When that worldview died—we now live in a universe without an “up” or “down”—so did the literal coherence of the religions born within it. Seen in this light, some of the Creationists’ most hysterical claims (Adam rode a dinosaur?) make perfect psychological sense, as a desperate attempt at “bargaining” which could let them believe their salvation story could still be credible in our modern world.....
Growing numbers of people don’t particularly care whether or not there are gods since, even if there are, they don’t seem able to do anything in our world. If they’re omnipotent, they appear to be indifferent to the small and large-scale wars, tragedies, and slaughters around us. If they’re impotent, who needs them?
