Not surprisingly, Richard Dawkins offers a "yes"-grounded in Darwinism. According to him, natural selection has produced a moral sense that is shared by all people. While our genes may be, in his words "selfish," there are times when cooperation with others is the selfish gene's best interest. Thus, according to him, natural selection has produced what we call altruism.

Others are just beginning to hear of it. In November, NEA President Leith Anderson and NEA Vice President Richard Cizik signed onto a Christian response to an invitation to dialogue from 138 Muslim leaders around the world.

I strongly recommend this book this Christmas season because it compellingly debunks many of the most recent mythical challenges to Christianity. It is perfect for believers whose perceived spiritual security could be threatened by the crop of fantastic notions now circulating and for nonbelievers who are open to the evidence.

Mozart, Bach, Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Mendelsohn, Faure, Britten, Handel, and all the rest are just incomprehensible without understanding that. Everything else --- Michelangelo's Pieta, Rembrandt's Jewish Bride, all the great devotional monuments and buildings from the Parthenon to the sacred buildings in Jerusalem --- point to the same powerful nexus of the human imagination.