Monthly Archives: August 2008

Back Again

Our web hosting techs spent hours last night scrambling to fix a network problem that kept this blog offline for quite a while. They never told me what the problem was, but I’m glad we’re back online, anyway. I apologize for the downtime. Even after it came back online it wasn’t quite right; none of …

August 29, 2008 – 7:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Unfiled | Comments Off

Threaded Comments Poll

A few weeks ago we had a poll on whether threaded comments were a good idea or not. Those who comment at least somewhat regularly here have had more experience with it now, and I want to ask the question again. So please mark your opinion over on the sidebar. Thanks.

August 29, 2008 – 6:50 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Unfiled | Comments Off

Christian Carnival CCXXXIX

Welcome to Christian Carnival CCXXXIX: The Corrected Roman Numeral Edition, August 27, 2008. I have just been informed of my error in counting! No longer can I lay claim to hosting the longest Roman numeral short of 288. Oh well. My apologies to Raffi. And here we go: Kay Martin presents Blessings and Blisterings posted at …

August 27, 2008 – 12:21 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Comments (5)

The Resurrection: An Unlikely Ally

Daniel Dennett, one of the four most prominent “New Atheists,” is no proponent of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. The hallucination theory to explain Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances is no longer held by many scholars. Nevertheless there are exceptions to this, including Gerd Lüdemann (detailed further here). In Consciousness Explained, however, Dennett says on page 7, …

August 26, 2008 – 8:10 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences, New Atheism | Tagged , , | Comments (13)

Confusing Science With Religion

From the comic strip Partially Clips, via Language Log. “[The scientist] knew that he could say yes or no, and the reporter would print whatever answer he gave. But he also should be grateful for any kind of media interest in his field, even if treating scientists like oracles of knowledge this way is probably …

August 26, 2008 – 1:07 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Tagged , | Comments Off

Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics

Book Review Readers of this blog may be familiar with Dr. William Lane Craig’s work; we’ve discussed him more than once. A prolific author, Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology and a frequent debater on the truth of Christianity. His recent revision of Reasonable Faith: Christian Truth and Apologetics (Third …

August 25, 2008 – 3:19 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences | Tagged , , | Comments (3)

The Pleasure of Doing What’s Good For You

I was a trombone major as an undergrad, with an emphasis on classical music. We trombonists owe a lot to Beethoven: he was the first major composer to include trombones in “secular” music. You see, when Martin Luther translated the “last trumpet” (the signal for Christ’s return) in his German Bible, he called it instead …

August 23, 2008 – 7:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Has the Faith Been Found Out To Be Foolish?

Not long ago I heard J.P. Moreland in a lecture discussing the importance of knowing that Christianity is true. Moreland is an apologist and the author of what I consider to be one of the most important books written by a Christian in recent years, Kingdom Triangle. I don’t have his exact words, but it …

August 21, 2008 – 7:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences | Tagged , , , | Comments (11)

Christian Carnival CCXXXVIII

“The Quotable Edition,” at Parables of a Prodigal World.

August 20, 2008 – 3:46 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Miscellanea | Comments Off

Ideas have nothing to do with reality?

It’s amazing to see this [Link: World On the Web » World New Media Archive » Ideas have nothing to do with reality] … Teachers cannot – except serendipitously – fashion moral character or produce citizens of a certain temper. … showing up on the web so soon after the article I discussed in my …

August 19, 2008 – 1:30 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Ethics | Tagged , | Comments Off