John F. Haught is senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and author of Christianity and Science and Is Nature Enough?
For many years I taught a course titled "The Problem of God." I believed that students should be exposed to the most erudite of the unbelievers, and that any commitment that they might make to a religious faith should be critically tested by the very best opponents. Richard Dawkins, Samuel Harris and Christopher Hitchens would never have made the required reading list. Their tirades reinforce ignorance—not only of religion—but also of atheism.
Stegosaurus is a dinosaur renowned for the plates that run up and down its back. When we look at its fossilized remains today, it is hard to suppress the question of what the plates were for. What function or purpose did they serve?
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