Banquet at Delmonico’s Great Minds, the Gilded Age, and the Triumph of Evolution in America by Barry Werth Reviewed by: Terrell Clemmons Post Civil War America was looking for a new belief system, says social historian Barry Werth. Across the Atlantic Charles Darwin had proposed a new theory of biology, but had left the popularization of it to others. In Banquet at … [Read more...]
Defending the Faith in Your Community – Every Day
Ask a Christian to “defend the faith” and you get a variety of reactions. “Why does the ‘faith’ need defending? God can take care of Himself.” “How do I do that?” “I don’t want to do that!” “Are you serious? I wouldn’t know how.” “Isn’t that for professionals?” “Me? I’m not one of those ‘apologists.’ I’m just a Christian.” … [Read more...]
The Problem of "Christian" Ethics
To start off, I am going to be assuming my reader believes in moral absolutes. If you don't, well that's a whole other post and this post isn't about that. We are going to be taking for granted that there are moral truths out there and these truths can be known. At the start, some moral claims are patently obvious so much so that if you met someone who did not believe them, … [Read more...]
An invitation to women apologists: Join the dance!
I am not the first person to say that men and women are different. Men are from Mars and Women are from Venus. Guys are Waffles and Girls are Spaghetti. (Although my daughter recently told her older brother that he needed more syrup). When I was first married, I read a book called You Just Don’t Understand: Women and Men in Conversation by Deborah Tannen. In it, she … [Read more...]
When the Natural Meets the Supernatural
Many years ago I was present at a home where two young boys – ages 6 and 4 – were playing with a Ouija board[1] that the woman of the home had carelessly supplied to keep the kids occupied. In addition to the homeowner and me being there, my brother and sister were also present. It wasn’t long before the children began to declare that they were not moving the pointer across … [Read more...]
Book Review: Imaginative Apologetics, ed. Andrew Davison
What would it mean for the Gospel if we were equipped with a full, rich, well-reasoned, and imaginative apologetics? The collection Imaginative Apologetics is a valuable contribution to the work of apologetics, offering a number of important insights and starting points for further work. … [Read more...]
Personal Obstacles to Becoming a Community Apologist
Throughout the month of January various posts are being published encouraging you to become a “community apologist.” A community apologist is helpfully defined here as, “someone with an interest in apologetics stepping up to the plate and making themselves available to teach apologetics in their church and community.” Maybe you see the validity and need for this, yet there is … [Read more...]
Book Review: Cold Case Christianity
Introduction Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels (Paperback Kindle, Audiobook) is one of the latest books to examine the evidence for the reliability of the New Testament. Detective Jim Wallace was an atheist before he began putting Christianity to the same tests that he places witnesses and suspects to in his investigations of … [Read more...]
The Great Generation or the Deluded Generation
Are we wiser than other generations? Has our secular education equipped us to better deal with life and relationships? Well, as a recent article in the Daily Mail reported, it has helped us to become more self-infatuated: Young people's unprecedented level of self-infatuation was revealed in a new analysis of the American Freshman Survey, which has been asking students to … [Read more...]
A lesson learned from angry atheists
I had a chance to interact with some atheists in response to a post I had written for Bravefaith.org. While I did not intend it this way, some of what I had written came off as "insulting and hate inducing" according to one of the commenters. I did not do a good job of understanding their point of view before writing the post. The comments helped me better understand why they … [Read more...]