Imagine someone, let's call him Jim, reading a chapter from a typical history book written on World War 2. In said chapter, one page says "Hitler was intent upon exterminating the Jews. The Nazis proposed a 'final solution' intended to wipe the Jews off the face of the earth." Jim stands up, indignant, and reacts to this text, "I can't believe whoever wrote this book! They … [Read more...]
Atheism, Humans and Robots
The standard disclaimer: I am not speaking about or attacking atheists. Instead, my goal is to rationally work through the logical implications of the atheistic worldview. (Please notice how I define atheism). My conclusion is that, if atheism is true, then we need to re-imagine how we understand human beings. … [Read more...]
Incarceron and Sapphique: Escape Is Not Enough
“I spent centuries longing to escape, but who can escape themselves?” When Catherine Fisher's Incarceron begins (and continues in Sapphique), one hundred and fifty years have passed since the Years of Rage, after which all the criminals, undesirables, extremists, degenerates, and lunatics of the Realm were banished to Incarceron, a prison the size of a world. Seventy of the … [Read more...]
The Search For Truth — Agnosticism
To build an Incarnational Apologetic capable of reaching the post-modern person, it is important to understand four basic approaches in the search for truth. Rationalism Agnosticism Experientialism Pragmatism In my previous post, I outlined Rationalism. In this video post, I want to focus on Agnosticism which is defined as follows: … [Read more...]
Yes, You Do Have Time to do Apologetics
Whenever I was in graduate school studying for my M.A. in Science and Religion, I was often the recipient of wide-eyed stares and exclamations of, "How on earth do you have enough hours in the day?!" After all, I was running a household, homeschooling two elementary-age boys, teaching intermittently at church, and nurturing my marriage all while working on a graduate degree. … [Read more...]
My Advice to Apologists: Part 2
My first piece of advice to apologists concerned the idea of being an unwavering disciple of Jesus Christ. This article will focus on the conduit for attaining and maintaining this status. That conduit is a local church. Now, I do not mean that every local church does everything correctly, or that somehow merely being a member of one will make things easier. Rather, I am … [Read more...]
Book Review: Creating God In The Image of Man
Creating God In The Image of Man by Norman Geisler is a book focusing on the debate about Open Theism (called "neotheism" in this book). I've been going through some of the different views on the relationship between God's sovereignty and man's free will. Open theism is one of the options that falls on the extreme side of Arminianism. The book is a short read at 145 page … [Read more...]
My Advice to Apologists, Part 1
My advice to apologists is not meant to be all-inclusive, and it is not meant to be authoritative (on the level of William Lane Craig or Alvin Plantinga). Rather, it will simply be a collection of my observations and beliefs about some issues facing young, Christian apologists. Too often, we rush headlong into the project of apologetics without thinking some things … [Read more...]
Blind Men and the Elephant
There is an old known as “the Blind Men and the Elephant.” In this story, there are 4 blind men who are asked to determine what an elephant looks. The first blind man feels the leg of the elephant and says, “The elephant is like a tree because it is large and round like a pillar.” The second man feels the tail and says, “The elephant is like a rope because it is small and … [Read more...]
What Shall We Make of Richard Dawkins?
Traditionally I am not one to write on the New Atheists, but one individual in particular has always been of keen interest in my studies regarding atheism, science, religion, and topics akin to the like. There is plenty of literature in response to the New Atheists and their anti-religious claims, with even more literature regarding an exhaustive analysis of each individual’s … [Read more...]