Monthly Archives: October 2008

Warning to Canadians: Duck!

This news just in from EurekAlert (quoting the actual headline): New comet discovered in Canada To be more specific: [A] comet has been discovered at the University of Calgary’s Rothney Astrophysical Observatory, which is located about 35 kilometres southwest of Calgary. To my friends in Canada: I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving Day yesterday. …

October 14, 2008 – 1:04 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Just For Fun | Tagged | Comments (6)

Christopher Hitchens: Oblivious Self-Rebuttal

Christopher Hitchens, near the close of his debate with Frank Turek, offered this brief, masterful moment of apparently oblivious self-rebuttal: Religion works for most people because people in a sense horribly do want it to be true, that they are supervised, that God looks out for them, that they might be rewarded, or they might …

October 13, 2008 – 10:04 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism | Tagged | Comments (13)

“Hindu Threat to Christians – Convert or Flee – NYTimes”

Now even in the mainstream media: Hindu Threat to Christians: Convert or Flee [Link: Hindu Threat to Christians - Convert or Flee - NYTimes.com]

October 12, 2008 – 10:38 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Tagged | Comments (3)

The Commentators Missed This!

My college football team, Michigan State University, just beat Northwestern 37-20. That means MSU has had two victories this year over teams that are otherwise undefeated (the other was Notre Dame). The ESPN2 commentators missed a very unusual play near the end of the game; in fact, they didn’t even take note of it. How …

October 11, 2008 – 7:37 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Just For Fun | Comments (1)

The Turek-Hitchens Debate

I’ve listened through most of the Frank Turek-Christopher Hitchens debate (I’ll catch the end of it on my commute home). I wish I had time to watch it on video, because I’m sure the facial expressions tell a lot. Even without that, I find Hitchens’s approach to be quite remarkable, in several ways. 1. Hitchens …

October 10, 2008 – 11:26 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Evidences, New Atheism | Tagged , | Comments (14)

“Evolutionary scientists argue about making their doubts public”

What’s tragic is that the author blames the Creationists for creating a climate in which people are afraid to openly discuss problems with evolution. [Link: two or three . net: Evolutionary scientists argue about making their doubts public] I would add “terribly ironic” to that description, along with “tragic.”

October 10, 2008 – 6:44 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science | Comments Off

God Is the Issue: Free Book For Bloggers

God is the Issue: Recapturing the Cultural Initiative, a  book by Brad Bright just recently revised and set for re-release next week (and being mailed to thousands of pastors across America), is available in advance for bloggers, for review on your blogs. (See the end of this blog post for information on how to obtain …

October 6, 2008 – 3:07 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Comments Off

Though We Want To Trust

In Beyond Opinion: Living the Faith We Defend, edited by Ravi Zacharias, Danielle DuRant writes of an all-too-familiar experience for Christians (p. 285): We want to trust that God is good and will never leave us or forsake us, yet sometimes we dare not bank our lives on this for fear of disappointment. I recognize …

October 5, 2008 – 7:26 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Comments Off

Threatened By Day of Prayer?

There’s a good question at WorldMagBlog today, which I’ll repeat here, … This group of atheists and agnostics claim that proclaiming an annual National Day of Prayer creates a “hostile environment for nonbelievers, who are made to feel as if they are political outsiders.” Let me ask the nonbelievers who frequent this blog: Do you …

October 4, 2008 – 10:47 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism | Comments (1)

What Is Christianity? Life In Christ

This entry is part 4 of 5 in the series What Is Christianity?

I’ve been spiritually dry lately. This morning I decided to let God’s word remind me of Jesus Christ’s position at the center of everything,  for which I turned to Ephesians 1:3-14. It begins, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in …

October 4, 2008 – 7:50 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in The Faith | Comments Off