This slim novel recounts what happens when a hard-driving young businessman accepts an invitation for dinner with Jesus Christ. In the market it may become another book that--like Rick Warren's "Purpose-Driven Life"--crosses over to sell as well at Barnes & Noble as in religious stores. In substance it raises important questions about how contemporary American life is shaping conceptions of the Christian faith....

In traditional Christianity, teaching about a personal relationship with Christ is common but usually hedged about with other, more demanding themes. Catholics, Orthodox and some older Protestant communions hold that membership in a church is an intrinsic feature of any relationship with God. In "Dinner," by contrast, the church is mentioned only as an institution that formalized and then obscured Christ's true mission....

So it is, as well, in a modern America marked by the increasing demands of work, strain between the generations, political acrimony, international uncertainty and peripatetic lifestyles. Into such a culture a Christian message stressing the possibility of an enduring--and often less demanding--personal relationship with the loving Creator of the universe sounds very appealing. But does such an adaptation retain enough of historic Christianity's other dimension? Or does dinner with a perfect stranger fit a little too conveniently into our lives?

The Israeli abandonment of Gaza is a withdrawal of despair. Unlike the Oslo concessions of 1993, there is not even the pretense of getting anything in return from the Palestinians. Nonetheless, unilateralism is both correct and necessary. Israel has no peace partner -- Mahmoud Abbas has nothing to offer and has offered nothing -- and in the absence of a partner, there is only one logical policy: Rationalize your defensive lines and prepare for a long wait.

Gaza was simply a bridge too far: settlements too far-flung and small to justify the huge psychological and material cost of defending them. Pulling out of Gaza leaves behind the first truly independent Palestinian state -- uncontrolled and highly militant, but one from which Israel is fenced off....

The Gaza withdrawal is not the beginning but the end. Apart from perhaps some evacuations of outlying settlements on the West Bank, it is the end of the concession road for Israel. And it is the beginning of the new era of self-sufficiency and separation in which Israel ensures its security not by concessions but by fortification, barrier creation, realism and patient waiting.

Waiting for the first-ever genuine Palestinian concessions. Waiting for the Palestinians to honor the promises -- to recognize Israel and renounce terrorism -- that they solemnly made at Oslo and brazenly betrayed. That's the next step. Without it, nothing happens.

KS--As the debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools continues, a new controversy over the science curriculum arose Monday in this embattled Midwestern state. Scientists from the Evangelical Center For Faith-Based Reasoning are now asserting that the long-held "theory of gravity" is flawed, and they have responded to it with a new theory of Intelligent Falling.

"Things fall not because they are acted upon by some gravitational force, but because a higher intelligence, 'God' if you will, is pushing them down," said Gabriel Burdett, who holds degrees in education, applied Scripture, and physics from Oral Roberts University....

"Anti-falling physicists have been theorizing for decades about the 'electromagnetic force,' the 'weak nuclear force,' the 'strong nuclear force,' and so-called 'force of gravity,'" Burdett said. "And they tilt their findings toward trying to unite them into one force. But readers of the Bible have already known for millennia what this one, unified force is: His name is Jesus."

As editor of the hitherto obscure Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington, Sternberg decided to publish a paper making the case for "intelligent design," a controversial theory that holds that the machinery of life is so complex as to require the hand -- subtle or not -- of an intelligent creator.

Within hours of publication, senior scientists at the Smithsonian Institution -- which has helped fund and run the journal -- lashed out at Sternberg as a shoddy scientist and a closet Bible thumper...."I am not convinced by intelligent design but they have brought a lot of difficult questions to the fore," Sternberg said. "Science only moves forward on controversy."...

When the article appeared, the reaction was near instantaneous and furious. Within days, detailed scientific critiques of Meyer's article appeared on pro-evolution Web sites. "The origin of genetic information is thoroughly understood," said Nick Matzke of the NCSE. "If the arguments were coherent this paper would have been revolutionary-- but they were bogus."

A senior Smithsonian scientist wrote in an e-mail: "We are evolutionary biologists and I am sorry to see us made into the laughing stock of the world, even if this kind of rubbish sells well in backwoods USA."

An e-mail stated, falsely, that Sternberg had "training as an orthodox priest." Another labeled him a "Young Earth Creationist," meaning a person who believes God created the world in the past 10,000 years.

Banners are flying today in Gaza that read: "The blood of martyrs has led to liberation." They are the banners of the popular militant Palestinian group Hamas, and they enunciate an unpleasant truth that proponents of the so called peace process would be well advised to ponder. Translated from the language of hagiography, the message of the banners is blazingly transparent: Terrorism works. It gets us what we want. Look what the intifada was able to achieve: the liberation of Gaza. Just think what more terrorism can do for our cause. If the blood of martyrs has led to the liberation of Gaza, may we not expect the blood of martyrs to lead to the liberation of Jerusalem. As the popular Palestinian T-shirt says, "Today Gaza, tomorrow Jerusalem."

Now there may be all sorts of good reasons for the Israelis to order the evacuation of Jewish settlements in the Gaza strip, just as there may be all sorts of good reasons for the Bush administration to consider this as a step forward on the famous roadmap of what we are fond of calling the peace process. But all these good reasons notwithstanding, it is still necessary for us to grasp the fact that, from the Palestinian perspective, the liberation of Gaza is a triumph for those who were willing to blow themselves up (along with any innocent bystanders) in the name of the liberation of Palestine. Furthermore, it is equally necessary for us to realize that it would be insane for the Palestinians to interpret the Gaza pull out as anything other than a victory for those among them who urged violent resistance as opposed to negotiated settlements.

A child who has discovered that by screaming at the top of his lungs he can bring his parents to make concession to him is apt to continue to deploy the same policy whenever his parents attempt to thwart his will. He has learned a trick that infallibly works for him, and why should he abandon the use of this trick so long as it brings him success?

Conclusion: America is pro Roe v. Wade. But what that means varies greatly; individuals draw the prochoice line in different places.

Why? Antiabortion advocates successfully altered public opinion. Science and medical technology changed it as well. Also, the women's rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s is not the driving social force it once was. And frankly, abortion rights activists cried wolf too often.

"All the passion is on the other side," said Michael Goldman, a longtime Democratic political consultant who now works as the liberal host of a radio talk show for Bloomberg News....

The Democratic Party is trying to readjust its message. In the last presidential campaign, Senator John Kerry tried to walk a line between a prochoice record and a campaign statement that he believes that life begins at conception. In a speech this year, Senator Hillary Clinton of New York endorsed legal abortion, but said fewer abortions should be everyone's goal.

What should NARAL's message be? "We need to be promoting civil but thorough dialogue," said Melissa Kogut, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Massachusetts, which played no role in the development of the anti-Roberts ad. "The public is behind us. They care about Roe v. Wade and they want a justice who is open-minded and is not going to overturn it....We have our work cut out for us. We have to make people understand what's at stake."

The American vision for Middle East peace sees exit from Gaza as a first step. Next comes an Israeli withdrawal from those settlements in the West Bank that aren't already de facto parts of Israel, and then the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

These concessions are wildly unpopular with people who once voted for Mr. Sharon. Many of them spent the day in Gaza loudly denouncing the prime minister and his policies. Mr. Sharon's chief Likud Party rival, Benjamin Netanyahu, is currently trying to capitalize on this by warning that abandoned territories will inevitably turn into bases of Islamic terror. Mr. Netanyahu offers Gaza as Exhibit A.

Mr. Netanyahu may well be right, and Mr. Sharon knows it. But the deal Mr. Sharon cut with President Bush takes that into account. It comes with an escape clause. Further Israeli concessions are predicated on the Palestinian Authority -- led by President Mahmoud Abbas -- taking control and disarming the Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Hamas gunmen.

You say you don't have a problem (or at least a legal problem) with the man withdrawing his kids from saying the pledge. Why is that? I would think you would be saying the pledge is sacred or something or other.

In my case, I have no problem at all with the words "under God" in the pledge. But pledging your full fledged allegiance to a nation which might sometimes claim or even try to follow God, but is inevitably imperfect and flawed, is a scarier though. I think our nation has a lot of good qualities for our citizens that other places don't have. But for one moment to put more trust in a legal establishment where the rulers many times become corrupt is far scarier than saying that this nation is "under God."

The team of researchers will receive $1 million in funding annually from Harvard over the next few years. The project begins with an admission that some mysteries about life's origins cannot be explained.

"My expectation is that we will be able to reduce this to a very simple series of logical events that could have taken place with no divine intervention," said David R. Liu, a professor of chemistry and chemical biology at Harvard.

The "Origins of Life in the Universe Initiative" is still in its early stages, scientists told the Boston Sunday Globe. Harvard has told the research team to make plans for adding faculty members and a collection of multimillion-dollar facilities....

Harvard has not been seen as a leader in origins of life research, but the university's vast resources could change that perception.

"It is quite gratifying to see Harvard is going for a solution to a problem that will be remembered 100 years from now," said Steven Benner, a University of Florida scientist who is one of the world's top chemists in origins-of-life research.