Author Archives: davetcourt

Why Oklahoma? Why Mackinack Island? Why Birmingham? Why Duluth? Why Sault Ste Marie? These questions reflect the shared response to my choice of destinations over the last three summers. While each destination has its own unique reasons and context concerning why I travelled to these particular places, each invokes that same seemingly essential degree ofContinue reading “Why Sault Ste Marie: Thoughts on Travel Destinations and This Small Slice of Canada”

I was listening to the latest sermon from Bridgetown Church on my morning walk, titled Genesis: Cain and Abel. They have been going step by step, or more accurately section by section, through the Genesis text emphasising the narrative that it is both establishing and evoking. In this particular section the teacher/preacher tasked with bringingContinue reading “From Adam to Lamech: How The Bible’s Geneaologies Reveal the Redemptive Work of God”

“When someone dies or disappears, we can tell stories about only what might have been the case or what might have happened next. And perhaps it is simply a question of control, but it is easier to imagine the very worst than to allow a space in which several things might be true at once.”Continue reading “Shaping the Lives of Others: Finding Matters of Perspective in the Stories of Our Homemade Gods”

I was listening to an interview with author and scholar Donna Freitas this morning, where she was speaking about her upbringing and her faith journey. Having grown up Catholic, and having long since found herself wrestling with the tensions present between between the problems she could percieve and experience within the institutional church and the intuitionsContinue reading “Staring Into the Abyss: Why Do Some Have a Direct Connection to God And I Don’t and Other Questions That Sustain My Faith”

I came across this thought in a recent sermon from Darrell Johnson titled Jesus the Healer: He Gives Us a New Past. It’s a well documented observation concerning the literary design of John’s Gospel, in this case narrowing in on the explicit use of the term “anthrakia” (the Greek word for “charcoal fire.”). As JohnsonContinue reading “The Charcoal Fire: What it means to Believe, What it means to Love”

One of the reasons I love to spend time in the scriptures is their ability to continually suprise me. Given that my own vantage point is always changing with time and context, the ability to speak in new ways. Or perhaps for me to hear in new ways. One of the reasons I love toContinue reading “A Fresh Perspective on The Beloved Disciple: Who it is and Why it Matters to a Life of Faith”

On the most recent episode of The Good Fight podcast, host Yascha Mounk interviews author Dean Spears on the subject of population. Or more specifically, the subject of his new book (After the Spike: Population, Progress, and the Case for People), the problem of depopulation. A few times throughout the interview the word “math” wasContinue reading “Depopulation, Overpopulation, and the Search For True Values”

I was challenged recently to demonstrate why morality is a problem for the worldview of an atheist. A complicated question to be sure, and I would need to qualify it. First, to me, I begin with the premise that the atheist, in terms of adherence to logical and rational conclusions, is obligated towards a reductionist/materialistContinue reading “Can An Atheist Justify Objective Morality?”

It’s been an interesting year for film in 2025. There’s the usual mix of box office and critical successes, blanketed of course by the usual barrage of cycnicism and the perpetual identity crisis facing the American industry. Anyone who follows headlines knows how ridiculous it all tends to be on the best of days, everyoneContinue reading “My Film Journey: Reflections At The Halfpoint of 2025”

Having just finished Ethan Kross’ book Chatter: The Voice in Our Head, Why it Matters, and How to Harness It, I find myself in a weird space. For a book that is as accessible as this one is, it is suprisingly difficult to apply. Part of the issue is his reliance on case studies. AnotherContinue reading “Facing The Chatter in My Head: Reflecting on Ethan Kross’ Book And Why Foundations and Truth Matter To Our Harnessing of a Functional World”