By James W. Miller I guess I find myself stunned every time I hear it, but I heard it again recently. “Christians settle for God as their explanation for everything because they’re intellectually lazy.” Commonly the background experience of the speaker is one of growing up surrounded by an acculturated religion for which people have comfortably settled. She has come to the … [Read more...]
Dissecting ‘One God Less’ Meme
“I contend we are both atheists,” signed Stephen F. Roberts, “I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” Roberts is believed1 to be the person who crystallized and popularized this increasing reechoed sound bite when he began signing his online post with it in … [Read more...]
A Look at the New “Street Epistemology” Atheist Movement
Introduction I am about to read Peter Boghossian’s new book A Manuel for Creating Atheists which is just one more attempt to turn atheists into an army of evangelists. I recently went to the facebook page called “street epistemology” which happens to be an open group. By the way, my friend Tom Gilson has recently written a response to the book which is available on … [Read more...]
Ask the Alliance: Did God murder his son?
:::Ask the Alliance #8::: Did God murder his son? Question submitted by Riovesil: Did God murder his son for us or did he give him up for us? Riovesil, thank you for your question. Here are some responses from The Christian Apologetics Alliance: Damoksta: This is such a great question - because any opportunity to discuss why Christ died on the cross is the bread and butter … [Read more...]
Answering the Atheists' "Extraordinary Claims" Gauntlet
Not too long ago, I was reading Michael Shermer’s preface to Peter Boghossian’s book, A Manual for Creating Atheists. In the preface, he criticizes belief in eternal life, Jesus, and God’s work of salvation as being extraordinary claims made by Bible believing Christians. He reminisced about how he used to be an evangelical Christian, but he found these claims unreasonable. … [Read more...]
Why a Christian Response Needs to Be Different Than a Mormon Response
Last week I had the opportunity to train a group of high school students in preparation for an upcoming Berkeley Missions trip. These students will spend the next eight weeks learning about the evidence supporting the Christian worldview and examining many of the most popular objections to Christianity. Since we were very early in the process, I began by asking the students to … [Read more...]
Book Plunge: Atheist Delusions
Psalm 11:3 “When the foundations are being destroyed, what can the righteous do?” Indeed. What can the righteous do? When picking up Hart’s book, one might expect a lengthy reply to various new atheist arguments and criticisms of their approach. One will certainly find that, but not where one would expect. It will be in the first section of the book and the last section. The … [Read more...]
Answering Existential Objections
[This post is a work in progress as part of the CAA Catechism.] [Add the title only in the title field, not in the body of the post.] Summary in 400 words or less: Scripture for YouVersion: Short audio/video: Three questions (1 fill-in-the-blank, 1 multiple choice, and one discussion question): References for further reading: Collaboration notes: Collaborators: [Add your name … [Read more...]
Ask the Alliance: How do we explain the OT wars?
:::Ask the Alliance Question #7::: Question submitted by Jacob: "I just read a post about wars and religion, and I agree that religion is often blamed for wars unjustly or misused by those in power to start conflicts. My question is, as a Christian, how do we explain the many wars in the Old Testament where God decimated many peoples and cities? Clearly, those were wars of … [Read more...]
Poem: Does God allow evil and suffering?
Does God allow evil and suffering? Yes. Can you look me level in the eyes and tell me what some people do to hurt little kids is not evil? No. Evil is real, but how can someone who doesn’t exist allow anything? Yes. If evil is real, then good is real. But if good is real, what being do you know who is always good? But here we are again. Would a good God allow evil and … [Read more...]