It’s a story which we have all grown up with. We are all familiar with the famous story of Jesus miraculously feeding the five thousand from five loaves and two fish, with no fewer than twelve basketfuls of leftovers. The story is recounted by all four gospel writers: Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. But just how historical is this story? In this article, I attempt to highlight … [Read more...]
GOD: The Best Explanation? Part 4
The Fine Tuning of the Universe Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 (Pt 4) This is one of the most astonishing discoveries of modern cosmology and astrophysics - the universe is incomprehensibly "fine-tuned" for the existence of complex biological life. This can be seen by looking at the initial conditions for the Big Bang, the mathematical value of the constants of physics, and many other … [Read more...]
Ask the Alliance: Does the virgin’s conception suggest divinity?
:::Ask the Alliance Question #4::: In September, Peter submitted questions concerning the nature of the conception of Christ in the broader context of the true nature of Christ. The Alliance has tried to avoid the major pitfalls associated with this topic. Why the Complicated Virgin Birth Process? In the case of Sarah, Rebekah, and Rachel, and Elizabeth, God intervened on the … [Read more...]
A Standard of Measure
There is one thing of which one can say neither that it is one metre long, nor that it is not one metre long, and that is the standard metre in Paris. - Ludwig Wittgenstein (1) When scientists decided to come up with the metric system, they needed a standard of measure. A metre stick stored in Paris, made of platinum, was chosen as the standard against which all metres were to … [Read more...]
Materialists: Where is hope? Look to the stars!
“[T]he Universe may harbor civilizations more intelligent than our own. Perhaps one day, through interstellar communication, some advanced civilization will help us resolve such age-old problems as war, famine, disease, overpopulation, misuse of natural resources, and human aging.”- John Oró, “Historical Understanding of Life’s Beginnings” (40, cited below). Such is the hope … [Read more...]
If the unborn aren't human, then neither am I
I’ve grown up in a culture where abortion is commonplace. Furthermore, I risk being branded as intolerant, immoral, or worse for questioning this practice. Be that as it may, I’ve never clearly understood the logic of abortion. Why, in Canada, is it morally acceptable to terminate a normal pregnancy but morally unacceptable to euthanize a healthy happy two-year old girl? The … [Read more...]
Undesigned Coincidences: Part 3
One of the benefits of having both Paul’s letters and a history of Paul’s activities from another hand is that we are able to compare points of contact across the two genres. Their overlap is all the more valuable since they appear to have been written largely or wholly independently of one another, with very little verbal similarity at any point. What should we expect from … [Read more...]
The Atheist’s God of the Gaps
I want to present you with a hypothetical conversation between your everyday Christian and your everyday atheist. Christian: “I believe that God is the ultimate cause of the universe.” Atheist: “Why would you believe that?” Christian: “I believe that there are certain things that science can’t explain, and God is the most reasonable explanation for those things such as the … [Read more...]
Solving the Problem of Privatization
In this part of my ongoing series on Incarnational Apologetics, I want to explore the four key problems: Secularization Pluralization Privatization Polarization Today’s video post picks up with a discussion of Privatization. So what is Privatization? David Wells in his book, “No Place for Truth”: It is axiomatic that secularism strips life of the divine, but it is … [Read more...]
Are Christians anti-intellectual?
One common objection formed against Christianity is the idea that Christians abandon intelligence and knowledge in favor of unreasonable, blind faith. If Christians really thought through and questioned what they believe they'd see that there is no intellectual basis for their faith. Yet instead of embracing reason, Christians choose to blindly cling to their beliefs, willfully … [Read more...]