In a recent debate with the Christian apologist William Lane Craig, the atheist philosopher Alex Rosenberg put out a challenge: “If Dr. Craig could provide me with any kind of logical, coherent account that could reconcile the evident fact of the horrors of humanity…with the existence of a benevolent, omnipotent agent, then I will turn Christian.” … [Read more...]
A Brief Word on Apologetic Discretion
(This post originally appeared this time last year on Another Ascending Lark. Beach Reach, the trip that I mention in this post, is a trip where 700-ish Christians from colleges all over Texas head down to South Padre Island for spring break to minister and share the Gospel with 40,000+ unbelievers. Our main ministries are via free island transportation and free pancake … [Read more...]
The Wonder of Unbelief
The ability for a human being to not believe the truth about something can be breathtaking. Atheists and skeptics of Christianity consistently say that the reason they don’t believe in God is because there is no evidence for Him. If there were just good evidence for God and for the historicity of Jesus, atheists say that would make all the difference in the world – they’d … [Read more...]
Is Apologetic Posting on Internet Sites a Waste of Time?
I have been posting apologetic type responses and material on the Internet now going on twenty years (on other types of ‘e-communication’ even before the Internet was popular). I don’t usually hang out in atheistic discussion forums, but instead try to inject some reasoned, and/or 'salt & light,' content into secular discussions when relevant. This often leads to discussion … [Read more...]
Deconstructing Humans
The horror genre has a long history of terrifying us with distortions of humanity. Some of the monsters are inhuman ("Silence of the Lambs," "Saw," "Hostel"). Some are superhuman ("Nightmare on Elm Street," "Halloween"). Others are subhuman ("The Descent," "The Walking Dead"). The subhuman zombies of AMC’s "The Walking Dead" have reanimated a hot philosophical topic: What does … [Read more...]
The Transforming Power of Study
"Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God – what is good and well-pleasing and perfect." Romans 12:2 Anakainosis is the Greek word for renewal. And the Greek equivalent of "transformed" is metamorphoo. Properly understood, it implies a "changing form in keeping with … [Read more...]
Renaissance 2.0
A Review of Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, by Nancy Pearcey Nancy Pearcey knows the captivating power of secular ideas because she used to hold them herself. As a teenager, she rejected the religion of her childhood and embraced a host of “ism’s” from moral relativism to scientific determinism to New Age spiritualism. But … [Read more...]
Does Truth Exist And Is It Knowable? – PT. 2
Part 1 (pt.2 of 4) Does Truth exist? Even if it does, can we know it? Are we in the dark like Kant said that we are? Should we be absolutely skeptical as Hume told us we should be? This is Lesson #3 of our “Reason To Believe” Video Apologetics Class. Here we will begin to discuss the all important question of truth, and whether it can be known at all. We will be examining the … [Read more...]
Are the Creeds the Cure for the Chaos?
Cultural engagement is essentially the objective of gospel preaching and the ministry of apologetics. Ultimately both are about conversion, seeing lives conformed to the image of Christ in terms of justification as well as sanctification. Today, a great deal of the cultural engagement embarked upon is motivated by the moral decline of society. Christians are in battle on a … [Read more...]
Unwinding the Double Helix: Meet DNA Helicase
In previous articles (see here and here), I've been reviewing the molecular nano-machinery needed for the replication of DNA. Before DNA polymerase is able to synthesize the new complementary strands, it needs to be given access to the nucleotides of the single-stranded template DNA. The internal base pairing in the double helix must therefore be broken and the helix unwound. … [Read more...]