7 Cultural Engagement Tips from Acts 17 Today, I’m closing out my series of 3 cultural engagement posts called “7 Tips on Engaging Skeptics Like Paul Did in Athens.” In parts 1 and 2, I shared 5 simple lessons from Paul’s time in Athens: Care About People Prepare for Insults and Interest Find a Point of Contact Help Them Connect the Dots Recognize the Potential for Truth … [Read more...]
Standing in the Light – Four Considerations for Defending the Faith
While driving, I had a chance to listen to an Apologetics 315 podcast featuring an interview with Peter Kreeft. If you have not subscribed to the Apologetics 315 podcasts, I strongly suggest that you do so if you have any interest in Christian apologetics. Brian Auten does an outstanding job of interviewing apologists in a way that is informative yet avoids technical … [Read more...]
The Atheist’s God of the Gaps
I want to present you with a hypothetical conversation between your everyday Christian and your everyday atheist. Christian: “I believe that God is the ultimate cause of the universe.” Atheist: “Why would you believe that?” Christian: “I believe that there are certain things that science can’t explain, and God is the most reasonable explanation for those things such as the … [Read more...]
Are Christians anti-intellectual?
One common objection formed against Christianity is the idea that Christians abandon intelligence and knowledge in favor of unreasonable, blind faith. If Christians really thought through and questioned what they believe they'd see that there is no intellectual basis for their faith. Yet instead of embracing reason, Christians choose to blindly cling to their beliefs, willfully … [Read more...]
I've Tried Being an Atheist
I don’t know if many other Christians or religious folks in general have ever made the attempt, but I myself have tried numerous to be an atheist. Now, when I say that, surely it easy to be thought that I have weak motivations for being a Christian, or that I’m trying to compromise my faith and find a way out so as to avoid moral obligation and so on and so forth, but I think … [Read more...]
You Can't Prove Breakfast
Christianity is unlike any other religion in that is rises or falls based upon a historical claim. While other religions use subjective means that cannot be evidenced one way or another (e.g. Mormonism says you know it is correct because your heart will tell you), Christianity is based upon something objective. Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19, Now if Christ is preached, … [Read more...]
Richard Dawkins and the 'Absence of Belief'
Richard Dawkins and the New Atheists have popularized the idea that atheism, contrary to other positions, is not a belief; it is simply ‘the absence of belief’ in God or a supreme being. It almost sounds esoteric. Theists believe that God exists and atheists merely lack that belief. Well, on that view, my Chevy is just as much of an atheist as Richard Dawkins, for it, too, … [Read more...]
What is the Purpose of Atheist Apologetics?
Over the years, I have seen a lot of skeptical arguments against the Christian faith. There are plenty of websites written by people who claim to be former Christians who now have made it their life purpose to ‘disprove’ Christianity. What are the similarities between the purpose of these atheist websites and the Christian apologetic endeavor? As I have already said before, in … [Read more...]
Racism and the Anti-Supernatural Bias
I recently purchased Irving Hexham’s Understanding World Religions after meeting the author at a conference.[1] As I began to read, I was amazed to discover that “racism has clearly affected modern thinking about the nature of religious studies.”[2] Hexham identifies a rarely discussed hidden bias against African religious traditions. The Hidden Bias He writes, “Even though … [Read more...]
Convince Me There’s A God – Archaeology 3
For those of you who have studied Biblical archaeology, you'll recognize that I am not mentioning the greatest discoveries of the last 40 years during this series. That's because I'm limiting my comments to those discoveries available for me to consider during the early part of 1971. These findings, and others too many to mention in a limited series, were part of my journey … [Read more...]