“Sorry if this is off topic,” the young woman stammered into the microphone, “but, um, I’ve searched for answers, and I can’t seem to find any, so I thought I’d come tonight and ask you guys. Where does Christianity, if it does at all, differ on homosexuality as opposed to other religions, and if so, how?” Her quivering lips and trembling hands revealed the magnitude of the … [Read more...]
Can We Impose Our Preferences on the External World?
We are subjective creatures. We have a consciousness that provides us with an internal reality, one we experience within of our inner self. We have private preferences, opinions, fears, and biases, which are very real in our thoughts and reflect in out actions. This internal reality is immediate and cannot be overthrown, at least not without receding into irrational … [Read more...]
The Great Divorce and The Sexual Revolution
The Sexual Revolution had a long gestation period. While many may see it as something that suddenly sprung up in the 1960s, its vision had been cast in Western Civilization at least two hundred years before. Thinkers such as Jean Jacques Rousseau, Margaret Sanger, Margaret Mead, and Alfred Kinsey all had advocated for a breakdown of the traditional Christian taboos. While they … [Read more...]
One Fewer God?
There’s a popular quote by atheist Steven F. Roberts that many nonbelievers cite or paraphrase when debating Christians that says, “I contend we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer God than you do.” The atheist is saying that since we Christians don’t believe in Baal, Zeus, Odin, Vishnu, Quetzalcoatl, or any other god other than the God of the Bible, then we … [Read more...]
Religious Liberty: The Great Struggle of our Time
Part of the Oscar Straus Memorial in Washington, D.C. honoring the right to worship. "Without freedom of thought there can be no such thing as wisdom & no such thing as publick liberty without freedom of speech", Benjamin Franklin, 1722. Our country was founded on the belief that we have the freedom to disagree with one another. That simple edict … [Read more...]
Politics & God: Should Christians be involved in Politics?
Should Christians be engaged in politics? The answer to that question is "yes!" Christians are called to participate in society as a whole. Christians always have been deeply involved in politics in the U.S.A. The founders of the United States were deeply religious people including George Washington, John Adams, and many others. 51 of the 55 signers of the Constitution were … [Read more...]
Why Do Christians Become Atheists?
Atheism is disbelief or lack of belief in God. A minority of atheists do believe in a universal spirit or god. If we had our “questioning God” moments in our life, we would empathize with those who convert to Atheism. On the other hand, if our [Christian] life has been hunky-dory and comfortable thus far, we would be surprised, shocked, and even judgmental at those … [Read more...]
Authoritarianism toward Christians in the name of “Gay Rights”
On the national stage and in many smaller communities we've come upon a difficult debate. This debate is the clash between LGBT rights and Religious Freedom. This clash has triggered a philosophical conflict, what many view as discrimination vs. the 1st amendment right to free speech. Gay marriage has been forceably legalized by the Supreme Court, overriding the existing … [Read more...]
Christian Activism: Can Christianity Survive The Modern Cultural Attitudes?
The loyal Christian, dedicated to the Heavenly Father must be an activist in the pluralistic global environment post 9/11. We've put up with a lot in the United States. Many decisions have been made, and many changes have occurred in recent years. How are Christians to respond to the new cultural attitudes of casual sex, the embracing of homosexuality, child … [Read more...]
Christ, Christianity, and Plato’s Cave
I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else.- C. S. Lewis In Plato’s famous work The Republic, written around 380 B.C., he gives an allegory commonly known as The Cave. In this discourse he describes people who are trapped in a cave from birth. The inside of the cave is all they know. They … [Read more...]