A review of Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel I didn’t expect to write this review. In fact, I didn’t know when I would get around to reading this book. When a book is reviewed by the likes of William Dembski and Alvin Plantinga, what could a poor schlub like myself have to offer? Possibly not … [Read more...]
Filling In The Gaps
Many skeptics of theism accuse theists of "god-of-the-gaps" argumentation when it comes to providing evidence for God's existence. Many theists claim that naturalists are guilty of using a "naturalism-of-the-gaps" argumentation to explain away evidence for God's existence. Others prefer to remain agnostic and simply, "I don't know, one way or the other." Yet, still others will … [Read more...]
Science Killed The Christian God? – Part 1
(pt.1) Is Richard Dawkins right in saying that science is the only real discipline that can give us reliable knowledge about reality? Has modern science buried the concept of the Judeo-Christian God? Many atheists and naturalists would respond with a resounding "YES!" This is an all important question to answer in today's rising culture of "Scientism," which states that if a … [Read more...]
Good
“Am I a good person?” This is the great question facing all of us. We want to be good. We feel that if we do good deeds our lives will have meaning. We want to add up all of our good deeds and measure these against the sum of our bad deeds and hope that the scale comes out in favor of finding our lives good or justified. This is not solely a religious phenomenon. Secularists … [Read more...]
Why Should the Devil Have All the Geek Culture?
To all of you geeks and nerds out there, a round of congratulations is in order. The ridicule and hardship faced in grade school has finally paid off and your culture is now a mainstream phenomenon. Shows like The Big Bang Theory have made it possible for people to not only laugh with but relate to the main nerdy characters. The current video game console generation sells … [Read more...]
What is True Christianity(tm)? (part 3)
In part 1, I talked about how skeptics and atheists often complain when I (or another apologist) make the comment that such-and-so Christian is wrong. The skeptic usually says it means I have found “True Christianity™” and every other Christian who disagrees is going to go to hell. In part 2, I discussed degrees of wrong, using a traffic light as a guide. Green light is 99% … [Read more...]
Does truth exist and is it knowable? – Pt.3
Part 1 Part 2 (pt.3 of 4) Does Truth exist? Even if it does, can we know it? Are we in the dark epistemologically like Immanuel Kant said that we are? Should we be intellectual skeptics as David Hume told us we should be? To address these and many other questions, here is Lesson #3 of our "Reason To Believe" Video Apologetics Class. Here we will begin to discuss the all … [Read more...]
Politicians, Legislation, Value of Life and Morality.
The NSW Greens say people whose religious views are blocking voluntary euthanasia laws are making the lives of vulnerable people even more wretched and should butt out. "It's time they recognised they are in the minority and got out of the way," Greens MP Cate Faehrmann said in this article. Here is a letter I have since sent to our relevant politicians to help better … [Read more...]
How to Share the Gospel with Buddhists
This approach can be used for sharing the Gospel with anyone, making necessary alterations to match their worldview. One of the simplest ways to share the gospel with Buddhists is to first ask them to share what they believe about God, sin, salvation, etc., i.e their worldview, and then employ active listening, questioning etc to engage them and finally share the gospel with … [Read more...]
Evaluating Buddhism – 1. Introduction to Buddhism
Buddhism is a major world religion practiced in it’s various forms mainly in the orient . It is a non-theistic, humanistic religion. According to the buddhanet website, the global population of Buddhists numbers around 350 million. Buddhism originated in India, but spread to other countries where it became dominant, while becoming almost extinct in India. With Richard Gere, … [Read more...]