…was the title of a  book by Paul Davies  published in 2007. He was and is one of the great astrophysical cosmologists and had just moved to the U.S. from his native Australia. Unlike many other members of his academic guild he favors the hypothesis that a transcendent presence or force (God?) was and is involved in the origin of the universe and its “tuning” to make life and evolution possible and “inevitable.” This was, predictably, one of the programs most often requested for replay and that’s what we do right here.

…or, as the famous Albert Schweitzer put it, “Der Besuch dem Historichen Jesu.” It has occupied the full careers of many biblical scholars. One of the foremost in our time is John Dominic Crossan. He is joined in this conversation by Ray Pickett of the Lutheran School of Theology.

These days in the Middle East the threat of death at the hands of ISIS is forcing ostensible conversions away from other faiths and into Islam. But of course real conversions from one faith to another do occur in other circumstances and often with deep conviction. Here is a memorable conversation back in 1985 with  three women who went, respectively, from Protestant  Christianity to Judaism, from Judaism to Roman Catholicism and from Catholicism to Islam.

Atheism has probably been debated as long as religion has been available. Inevitably such debate is a not uncommon feature on talk shows. On Extension 720 we have had a number of such discussions and the one that is remembered as the  most calm, illuminating and mutually respectful occurred in 2007.  And here it is.