About a year ago while I was at Harvard, talking with one of the students I regularly mentored, it happened that two of his friends walked by and stopped to say hello. We began to talk about their perspective on life and it quickly became clear that they were staunch atheists with a strong aversion to Christianity. Out of curiosity I asked them, “So, what’s your biggest … [Read more...]
What’s Wrong With The Zeitgeist Movie?
The Zeitgeist movie has been circulating on the internet since 2007. In the video its director, Peter Joseph, seeks to persuade viewers that the authors of the New Testament essentially plagiarized the concept of the virgin birth, December 25 as Christ’s birth date, the twelve disciples, the miracles, the crucifixion, and the resurrection from astrological sources and pagan … [Read more...]
It is okay and good to question our beliefs.
In "The Reason for God" Tim Keller points out “A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it.” He sees that all doubts emerge from a starting point of alternate belief and encourages skeptics to “doubt their doubts” with as much force as they require justification for Christian belief. Everyone (whether they consider themselves secular or … [Read more...]
Love Wins Critique (Part 3)
This is part 3 in a series of blogs regarding Bell’s recent book, Love Wins, where I summarize the doctrine of hell and its history. Part #1 - Part #2 My own Problem with Hell It is worth mentioning that the doctrine of hell is not something that I hold with victorious spirit – such as expressing gladness that others (even bin Laden) are going there. If there was one … [Read more...]
Philosophy in the Abortion Issue, Part II
Now that we’ve learned what goes into making an argument, let’s talk about how to respond to an argument. First, a bit about why philosophy is necessary. … [Read more...]
Five Ways To Answer A Question
Christians seem to have a poor reputation for answering questions. Would you like to know why people don't listen to our answers? And do you want some ideas for changing this situation? Then this post is for you! Let's start by understanding the problem a little better. There are at least three reasons why people are not always interested in our answers: For one, sometimes … [Read more...]
Stephen Law on the Non-existence of Jesus of Nazareth
Reprinted with the gracious permission of William Lane Craig. In his blog, atheist philosopher Stephen Law formulated the following skeptical argument against Jesus' existence: 1. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. In the absence of extraordinary evidence there's excellent reason to be skeptical about the claims. 2. There is not extraordinary evidence for … [Read more...]
Friday Fallacy: Equivocation
In my post on Assessing Arguments I noted that a valid argument is one where it is impossible for the premises to be true and the conclusion false. I gave the following example: Premise: All men are under 10 feet tall; Premise: John is a man; Conclusion: John is under 10 feet tall. This argument is valid because it is impossible for both premises to be true and the conclusion … [Read more...]
"Apolo-what?" Misunderstandings about Apologetics
I love meeting new people, hearing where they come from and what they do. I get excited to learn about their passions, and in turn share with them about who I am and what gets me excited in life. I’ve started to notice a trend though. Usually when I share my passion for Christian apologetics I get a blank or quizzical stare. What exactly is Christian apologetics? Why is it … [Read more...]
Isn’t it arrogant and immoral for Christians to evangelize?
Are Christian missionaries doing something wrong by trying to share their faith with others? I mean, they have to believe that they have some elite status with God. After all, they think that their faith has given some sort of audience with God, and those who do not hold to their particular view are mistaken and are failing to embrace something that is extremely important. If … [Read more...]