A number of weeks ago, I stumbled across the tragic story of a Belgium transexual, Nathan Verhelst. She was born a female and given the name Nancy. Of Nancy’s birth, her mother said, “When I saw 'Nancy' for the first time, my dream was shattered. She was so ugly. I had a phantom birth.” She supposedly wanted a son. Another article speaks of the mother’s further rejection of … [Read more...]
Isn't God a placebo?
Consider the skeptical claim that “religion only serves to provide an empty hope that helps us manage our fears.”[1] God is a placebo. This all too common sentiment deserves a careful response, if only because of its proven rhetorical power to both discourage believers and bolster unbelievers against belief. Naturally as a Christian I agree that most religions offer false … [Read more...]
Are We Ready to Deny Objective Morality? 3 Implications of Doing So…
The idea that we’re living in a culture of relativism seems to be uncontested and accepted without question. Post-modernists and relativists assume that we've progressed past the rigid constraints of ‘truth’, ‘falsity’, ‘reason’, and other oppressive concepts that actually undergird the fabric of rationality in the universe. However, I’m not convinced that we are truly living … [Read more...]
Pascal’s Wager
[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: Blaise Pascal (1623-1662), a French mathematician in Pensées (version below, pps. 122-123): ...‘Either God is or he is not.’ But to which view shall we be inclined? Reason cannot decide this question. Infinite … [Read more...]
Pascal's Anthropological Argument
[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: Who are we? Worldviews all try to answer this fundamental question of human existence. Man is magnificent and miserable, dignified and undignified, profound and stupid. Some use their minds to mine the … [Read more...]
Arguments from Morality
[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: Kant’s argument from morality: 1. God is the best answer for the existence of objective morality. 2. Objective morals exist. 3. Therefore, God exists. There are variations of this argument, but we have presented the … [Read more...]
Arguments from Beauty and Aesthetics
[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: The argument from beauty takes many forms, as beauty itself come in many forms, and those forms cry out for explanations. Perhaps the most fundamental question regarding beauty and how to account for it is … [Read more...]
Arguments from Other Minds
[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: (Alvin Plantinga) It is just as difficult to prove other minds exist as it is to prove the Mind of God. Since other minds exist, it is conceivable that God exists and God is the source of the mind. Scripture for … [Read more...]
Arguments from Consciousness
[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: A particularly interesting argument for God’s existence stems from the human consciousness. When a person describes the human consciousness, one is describing not only the awareness of a particular person, … [Read more...]
The Logical Possibility of Zombies
You read it right – is it possible for Zombies to exist? Can human beings come back from the dead and feed on the flesh of the living? While all the details of the Zombie we’ve seen in the movies can be exhausted in great detail – George Romero’s Night of the Living Dead (1968), Lucio Fulci’s Zombie (1979) to Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later (2002) – I want to examine a particular … [Read more...]