In the book Isn't Religion Weird? Quotations for Atheists by Dave Lane, an anonymous quote reads: “Why does God punish us with suffering throughout life and an eternity in hell afterwards? Because we are born evil and depraved! But why are we born evil and depraved? Because God makes us that way. So God makes us a certain way and then punishes us for being that way!” … [Read more...]
The Existence of Evil and the Non-Existence of God
In a recent debate with the Christian apologist William Lane Craig, the atheist philosopher Alex Rosenberg put out a challenge: “If Dr. Craig could provide me with any kind of logical, coherent account that could reconcile the evident fact of the horrors of humanity…with the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent agent, then I will turn Christian.” … [Read more...]
The Wonder of Unbelief
The ability for a human being to not believe the truth about something can be breathtaking. Atheists and skeptics of Christianity consistently say that the reason they don’t believe in God is because there is no evidence for Him. If there were just good evidence for God and for the historicity of Jesus, atheists say that would make all the difference in the world – they’d … [Read more...]
Does Truth Exist And Is It Knowable? – PT. 2
Part 1 (pt.2 of 4) Does Truth exist? Even if it does, can we know it? Are we in the dark like Kant said that we are? Should we be absolutely skeptical as Hume told us we should be? This is Lesson #3 of our “Reason To Believe” Video Apologetics Class. Here we will begin to discuss the all important question of truth, and whether it can be known at all. We will be examining the … [Read more...]
Becoming an Ambassador, part 3
Third post in a series. Part one and part two. In this post I want to deal with the third leg of my metaphor for evangelism, knowledge. Again from Stand To Reason’s article on the ambassador model, at a minimum an ambassador “…must know the character, mind, and purposes of his king.” The scope and depth of subjects one could study is, candidly, staggering. Thus in this post I … [Read more...]
Consistency Among Disciplines
Every day thousands of scientists around the globe perform experiments and observations of the natural realm. They note a certain condition, make (or allow) a change, then note the new condition. Many times, the same experiment or observation is conducted repeatedly to be certain the results of the first (second or third) were not just "flukes." Scientists combine many of these … [Read more...]
"A New Kind of Christian" Critique – Part 2
Part 1 McLaren continues with his criticism. The modern view of Christianity is not the absolute, ultimate truth; it is rather a “view from a point”. As modern Christians, what we thought of as objective certainty is really reliant on our subjective preference for our personal viewpoint.[i] Instead of our faith being compared to a building (an allusion to foundationalist … [Read more...]
Argue Without Being Argumentative
Who likes to argue? Depends what you mean. Unfortunately, apologists use words which could give people the wrong impression: “Apologetics” sounds like apologizing. “Defense” sounds like training for hand-to-hand combat. And “argue” sounds like the thing you hate doing with your family on the way to church! … [Read more...]
Convince Me There’s A God – Thermodynamics
After leaving atheism for theism more than 40 years ago, I’m answering some of the most-asked questions from atheists: What happened to me? Did I lose my mind? Was I on drugs? How can an atheist possibly become a theist? Was I just a bad atheist? Is that what happened? … [Read more...]
Neurotheology and the New Atheists
The Neurotheological Argument Against God "Neurotheology" is a term used by Dr. Andrew Newberg to describe the relationship between the brain and religious experience. In fact, many neuroscientists have performed studies claiming to find the part of the brain responsible for religious belief and experience. One approach is to use a single-photon emission … [Read more...]