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...]
The Modern Missionaries of Evangelical Atheism
According to its website, The Unbelievers movie “follows renowned scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss across the globe as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason in the modern world - encouraging others to cast off antiquated religious and politically motivated approaches toward important current issues.” Okay, so let's unpack that a bit and … [Read more...]
Rumors of my endorsement have been greatly exaggerated
It has been drawn to my attention that Peter Boghossian has posted a quotation from me regarding his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, on the book’s page at Amazon.com. Unfortunately, the quotation has been taken out of context in a way that could give a misimpression regarding my opinion of the book. Seizing a stray clause from someone’s writings and packaging it as an … [Read more...]
How do you believe that? – Agnostics should be skeptical all the way down
Everyone thinks they know something. Many also strive to be reasonable, logical, or rational. But is that even possible? Why trust one’s mind when it comes to reason, logic, and rationality? As a Christian, I believe that “God is a knower, and indeed the supreme knower… We human beings, therefore, being created in his image, can also know much about our world, ourselves, … [Read more...]
The New-er Atheists: Two movements battle for heart and mind
The term ‘New Atheist’ is beginning to get a bit old already. It is still relatively new, chronologically, at least in relation to centuries of classical atheists. The movement seems to have arisen, or at least gained popularity, after the events of 9/11 (2001) in the USA. It was characterized by a shift towards the use of rhetoric, emotion, fear, and embodied very ‘religious’ … [Read more...]
Antitheism and Krauss' Wager
Laurence Krauss- The Antitheist Recently in a discussion with Justin Brierly (Unbelievable?) and Rodney Holder, Lawrence Krauss made an interesting statement (podcast: 58:01): "You talk about this god of love and everything else. But somehow if you don't believe in him, you don't get any of the benefits, so you have to believe. And then if you do anything wrong, you're going to … [Read more...]
What is Man?
What is Man? "What is man that You remember him, the son of man that You look after him? You made him little less than God and crowned him with glory and honor. You made him lord over the works of Your hands; You put everything under his feet." Psalm 8:4-6 By far, my favorite subtopic in Christian apologetics is human ontology. That's fancy philosopher-speak for the study of … [Read more...]
Free-will and choice confusion
I'm writing this article as a plea for Christians and skeptics alike, but especially theologians and apologists, to use the term 'free will' more carefully. I hear mistakes and mis-speaks so often that it has become one of my pet-peeves. I'm also hoping that providing a bit of detail on the distinction will positively impact our theological and apologetics discussion. This … [Read more...]
Richard Dawkins Helps Answer Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens, in his Introduction to the Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, has a witty counter to those who claim that religious people are especially good: My own response has been to issue a challenge: name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer. As yet, I … [Read more...]
Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Guest post by Dan Barkman. Reza Aslan's recent foray into the historical Jesus debate has certainly been provocative. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth has become a New York Times best seller and has predictably engendered a good deal of controversy. Aslan attempts to revive the thesis of the eighteenth century scholar Herman Reimarus who argued that Jesus is … [Read more...]