The HBO series portrays one of the most ancient and divinely powerful posts on the planet as an afflicted man that suffers from the most mundane problems of all: self-doubt and loneliness. We must thank God for that.

In Defense of Religious Moderation is due out this week, but a foretaste of the critical reaction is already starting to seep in.

Q: What are everyday fundamentalisms?Physicists Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinow have recently used the term "model-dependent realism" to talk about the extent to which humans can approximate knowledge of the world as it really is, independent of our senses and the media we use to grasp it. The idea is basically that different conditions require different models of reality, and there is no sense at all in talking about a model-free reality.

A key issue in the debate around atheism concerns what happens at a cognitive level when we say we believe something.

An uncertain faith is the title of the manuscript I am currently working on. It refers to an alternate definition of faith to that used by atheists to dismiss religious believers, namely, belief without evidence.