Recently, in response to my blog, "What is Christianity without Apologetics and Missions?", I was asked why I believe churches are not able to connect apologetics and missions. My initial thought was how could churches not connect apologetics and missions and fulfill their purpose as the bride of Christ? Let me explain. … [Read more...]
Why a Christian Response Needs to Be Different Than a Mormon Response
Last week I had the opportunity to train a group of high school students in preparation for an upcoming Berkeley Missions trip. These students will spend the next eight weeks learning about the evidence supporting the Christian worldview and examining many of the most popular objections to Christianity. Since we were very early in the process, I began by asking the students to … [Read more...]
Dusting Off the Feet
You're doing the hard work of learning the evidence for the truth of Christianity and how to employ logical argumentation. A skeptical family member/friend/acquaintance approaches you with challenges against the faith, challenges you happen to be very familiar with. So, you respectfully point out the flaws in their logic and/or the factual errors of their claims. Rather than … [Read more...]
Neil Shusterman's Unwind: Cutting The Baby in Half
“In a perfect world mothers would all want their babies, and strangers would open up their homes to the unloved. In a perfect world everything would be either black or white, right or wrong, and everyone would know the difference. But this isn’t a perfect world.” Unwind is the first book in Neal Shusterman's critically acclaimed trilogy. The story takes place in a dystopic … [Read more...]
The Scandal of Incarnational Apologetics
Until recently I had never heard the term “incarnational apologetics.” At its most basic, incarnational apologetics means that the way we live as Christians is as much a part of our defense of the faith as the historical reliability of the Gospels or the various arguments for the existence of God. According to David Wheeler, professor of evangelism at Liberty University... … … [Read more...]
The Modern Missionaries of Evangelical Atheism
According to its website, The Unbelievers movie “follows renowned scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss across the globe as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason in the modern world - encouraging others to cast off antiquated religious and politically motivated approaches toward important current issues.” Okay, so let's unpack that a bit and … [Read more...]
Rumors of my endorsement have been greatly exaggerated
It has been drawn to my attention that Peter Boghossian has posted a quotation from me regarding his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, on the book’s page at Amazon.com. Unfortunately, the quotation has been taken out of context in a way that could give a misimpression regarding my opinion of the book. Seizing a stray clause from someone’s writings and packaging it as an … [Read more...]
5 Arguments for the Existence of God
Why should one make an argument for the existence of God? Why, moreover, provide five of them? Is it that the evidence for God is so weak, that believers need multiple arguments, working together in their persuasive power, to change the minds of unbelievers? Questions of whether or not these arguments are useful, or if they can actually coerce religious belief has been an area … [Read more...]
Introduction to Islam – 1 (Origin and Spread)
Islam is the second largest religion followed by 1.6 billion people, which constitutes about 23.4 % of the world population. The followers of Islam are called Muslims. Muslims believe Islam is the revelation of God which came through the Prophet Mohammed. Their holy book, the Quran, contains the revelations given to their Prophet by the angel Gabriel. The words and actions of … [Read more...]
Nietzsche and Two Unpleasant Implications of Darwinism
“There was a type of enjoyment in overpowering and interpreting the world in the manner of Plato,” contended Friedrich Nietzsche, “different from the enjoyment offered by today’s physicists, or by the Darwinians and anti-teleologists who work in physiology, with their principle of the ‘smallest possible force’ and greatest possible stupidity”(Nietzsche 2002, 15-16) Nietzsche’s … [Read more...]