Category Archives: Thinking Christianly

“Deepest Feelings” or Right and Wrong?

I didn’t catch this exactly enough to quote it all, but it went something like this. Mark Halperin was on one of the morning shows this morning, discussing the (apparently) surprising pushback the Obama administration has been getting this week, since announcing there would be only narrow exceptions to the new federal requirement that insurers …

February 7, 2012 – 2:44 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Deep Social Change, Ethics, Knowing God, Thinking Christianly, Worldviews | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (14)

Ten Turning Points That Make All the Difference

Where do we come from? Why are we here? What’s our basis for hope? Our greatest problem? The solution? Where are we headed? These are the basic questions of worldview. Through the answers we give them we orient ourselves in the world; and there are a host of ways to answer them. This Ten Turning Points …

January 31, 2012 – 5:51 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in | Tagged , | Comments Off

New Blogs in 2011: Reasons for God

It is a distinct privilege to be able to feature great new Christian blogs, as I’m doing now for the second year in a row. It’s even more of a pleasure when one of those great new blogs is written by a friend. I met Carson Weitnauer through a mutual friend who knew we both …

January 27, 2012 – 11:00 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Thinking Christianly, Worth Reading | Tagged | Comments (1)

“Engage the Culture, Pastor, If You Dare: Part 1 of 3″

The easiest approach is to remain aloof from the culture and condemn it. [From Engage the Culture, Pastor, If You Dare: Part 1 of 3] The easiest approach is rarely the right approach.

January 23, 2012 – 9:24 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Arts and Culture, Thinking Christianly, Worth Reading | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

The Power of the Ancient Heritage

Combine the egalitarian politics, easy morals, and relative affluence and social stability of recent decades, and few people in the modern secular world are looking for a Lord or Savior in a sense the ancients and medievals would have understood. Add to that the fact that “Jesus is Lord!” has become the expression of a …

January 16, 2012 – 1:43 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Thinking Christianly | Comments (0)

Christianity, Science, and Materialism

This entry is part 1 of 3 in the series Faith & Science Podcasts 2012

“Religious people believe the most ridiculous things.” So says P.Z. Myers, the preposterous atheist of Pharyngula. He’s at least partly right: there are ridiculous religions everywhere you look. But when science gets married to atheism, such as P.Z. Myers, Jerry Coyne, and others do, the offspring of that marriage includes a lot of ridiculous beliefs as …

January 9, 2012 – 9:58 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science, Thinking Christianly | Comments (58)

It Must Be Christmas: I Agree With Jerry Coyne!

I’ve been quite critical of University of Chicago biologist Jerry Coyne on more than one occasion, so I was quite surprised to find myself nodding in agreement with him today on a religion-related topic. He opened up this blog post saying, There’s a pretty dreadful piece by Tim Padgett in the latest online Time Magazine (I’m …

December 23, 2011 – 6:16 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in New Atheism, Postmodernism/ Relativism, The Faith, Thinking Christianly | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)

A Christmas Reflection: Incarnation, Mission, and Worldview

Here’s a completely different kind of Christmas reflection for you: my BreakPoint column, Incarnation, Mission, and Worldview. It begins, It was about a dozen years ago that our church’s pastor came back from a pastors’ conference and told us our denomination was growing rapidly everywhere in the world except North America. We were shrinking here, …

December 22, 2011 – 3:51 pm | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Deep Social Change, Service, The Faith, Thinking Christianly, Worldviews | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Something In the Air: Science’s Supposed Superiority To Religion

I got an email recently from “Loren,” who sought to inform me, Science is knowledge of proven facts, religion is a belief system based on unproven theory. The matter is closed, science is alive and growing where as religion is based on ancient history. That’s all she wrote. (I know both men and women named …

December 14, 2011 – 11:02 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Origins and Science, Thinking Christianly | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (45)

The Electronic Student: Accordance or Logos?

If the first several posts in this series have you considering the purchase of Bible study software, you’re probably wondering which package to invest in. I’m familiar with only two: Logos and Accordance. I’ve been told that Olive Tree is another good option, but I’m not in a position to comment on it. I’ll speak …

December 13, 2011 – 8:09 am | By Tom Gilson | Posted in Bible, Thinking Christianly | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)