Alex Rosenberg, the atheistic philosopher, ended his recent debate with William Lane Craig by admitting he believes that no thoughts are about anything. He meant exactly that. No thought is about anything. This may come as rather a shock to some readers. It's strange. It's really strange. One consequence of it (if Rosenberg is right) is that if you believe atheism is true, … [Read more...]
Why I Raise My Children With God
CNN’s iReport recently carried a blog post entitled “Why I Raise My Children Without God” (which CNN says is the 2nd highest viewed post ever on their iReport site) by an atheist Texas blogger named TXBlue08. Her blog site, “Kids Without Religion,” is all about “raising kids as independent, logical thinkers”. In her post, she put forth seven reasons why she’s decided to bring … [Read more...]
Love Wins Critique (Conclusion)
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4 - Part 5 - Part 6 (I conclude my critique of Bell's book and also provide further resources) What Are The Implications of the Doctrine of Hell? First, what are the implications of Bell’s view? One issue is a modified view of God as his love has been redefined so that he is no longer holy. The view seems concerned with rescuing the … [Read more...]
How to Use Pop Culture as a Community Apologist
I’ve been contributing to a series at the Christian Apologetics Alliance with the goal of encouraging people to become “community apologists.” The purpose of the series is to help the local church develop an intellectual defense of Christianity by raising up, in every community, “someone with an interest in apologetics who will make themselves available to teach apologetics in … [Read more...]
On an idiosyncratic faith
Bear with me as I offer some thoughts on why I think so many criticisms of Christianity – along with so many versions of Christianity – miss the mark. Consider this list: God (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) exists God is uniquely revealed to us in the person of Jesus of Nazareth, whom God raised from the dead By having a relationship with God though Jesus, who is … [Read more...]
The War of the Worldviews (Pt.1)
What is meant by a "worldview", and how many are there? How does the Christian Worldview compare to them? (pt.1 of 3) This is Lesson 2 (Lesson 1) in our video class on foundational Christian Apologetics, entitled "The War of the Worldviews". Here I begin to cover what a worldview is, what the seven major worldviews are, and how each of them compares to Christian Theism in … [Read more...]
Much Undead Ado About Nothing
The debate about what it means to be human has taken an interesting direction following the recent fixation with zombies. The Walking Dead and Philosophy opened with two essays arguing that the consideration of philosophical zombies (P-Zombies) - theoretical beings identical to humans but lacking consciousness, qualia, or sentience - mitigates against a purely materialistic … [Read more...]
Book review: The Christians as the Romans Saw Them, Robert Louis Wilken
From a famous skeptic of Christianity: “But we must examine this question whether anyone who really died ever rose again with the same body. […] While he was alive he did not help himself, but after death he rose again and showed the marks of his punishment and how his hands had been pierced. But who say this? A hysterical female, as you say, and perhaps some other one of … [Read more...]
European Witch Hunts and the Christian Church Part 1
“A man or a woman who is a medium or a necromancer shall surely be put to death. They shall be stoned with stones; their blood shall be upon them.” –Leviticus 20:27 Few topics have suffered the plight of revisionist history as severely as the European witch hunts. Christian fanaticism is often blamed for the atrocities that took place in the name of snuffing out witchcraft, but … [Read more...]
The Hunger Games: The Atheist's Utopia Revealed
My Past Week I've noticed lately that I have a harder and harder time going to see movies purely for the entertainment value of the show. This weekend I went to see one that really made me step back and look at society, not just as portrayed in the movie, but the society of the audience. Last week I had a conversation with a person that was still fresh on my mind, and I … [Read more...]