ARTICLES AT THE CORE OF THINKING CHRISTIAN (Most Recent Listed First)
This has the potential to get pastors fired for following Jesus’ example. It will confuse anyone who sees me as a Christian apologist, and apologetics as being in the business of giving answers. The fact is I believe we need more unanswered questions. Pastors in particular need to leave more questions unanswered.
There are (at least) five reasons this is true. Jesus set the example, as seen best in the book of John.
1. To Follow Jesus’ Example
Jesus’ first words in that gospel are …
Some might consider this ironic: the theist explaining science to atheists. I don’t. I don’t see any reason why it should be surprising, even though some atheists think they have a lock on scientific reasoning.
Starting here in yesterday’s thread on “Five Things You Have Wrong About Christianity,” the atheists in the discussion are trying to push the idea of “scientific” prayer studies. What they’re showing is that they don’t understand how science works in such a setting.
They’ve been confusing experimentation with …
Arrogant Christianity?
It’s awkward being a Christian these days. We claim to know the truth. We believe this truth is unique and applies to all people for all time. We believe that where other so-called truths contradict the one we hold to, those other “truths” are wrong and ours is right. We believe that the truth is so tied together with Jesus Christ that he could claim, “I am the truth.”
For many people, that’s nothing but arrogance in action: “Who are you to claim …
I’m missing the opening of The Hobbit tonight, so I’ll spend some time thinking of one of Tolkien’s great friends, C.S. Lewis. Lewis said that Jesus described himself too much as God to be considered a great man, unless it was true. Some criticize Lewis for leaving out the possibility that Jesus was just a legend. I argue here, on grounds similar to Lewis’s, that the accounts of Jesus’ life are too good to be legend.
The Trilemma
It all begins with Lewis’s famous Liar/Lunatic/Lord …
When I led the True Reason project earlier this year, I did it because I thought it would do good to show how weak New Atheist leaders are in reasoning, even as they try to feature it as their great strength. I think the book has probably done a lot of good. I hope so, anyway.
But I am coming to see that it’s a skirmish being fought on an old battlefield. It’s last year’s war. Probably last decade’s. That fight isn’t over, and …
What will it take to recover marriage in our culture? I wrote recently on “Ten Reasons We’re Losing On Gay ‘Marriage.’” Today I want to lay out a vision for victory on marriage, in the form of ten essentials.
Note that I do not say “victory on gay marriage.” Though I cannot help writing with that question in mind, the issue is deeper and larger than that. I’m also not framing this post as “ten steps” to victory or any such thing. It’s not …
Comment conversations here lately have brought up the question, “Sure, you think Christianity is true. Muslims think Islam is true. Hindus think Hinduism is true. What makes you think you’re any more right than they are? Not only that, but if you applied the same standard to Christianity that you do to those other religions, you would reject Christianity just like you do all of them.”
That’s not so, actually. I’ve looked at the world’s major religions. Here briefly are the reasons I accept …
Ten turning points have made all the difference—not just for some religion, not just for some people, but for all of reality. It’s time now to wrap up this series with a summary.
This has been a series with a mixed purpose. I had been wanting to summarize the story of history viewed through the lens of its most crucial events. I ended up doing it with a small group at church, so I’ve been writing with a curriculum purpose in mind. At the …
Earlier today Fleegman asked,
It what way [are things] not turning out alright? If life has no objective meaning, that’s somehow a serious problem?
Several people have responded to this already, but I want to add some more to the discussion.
First, a quick and simple but not, I think, simpleminded, reaction: how sad. How sad that Fleegman would be content with something so small. So what if life means nothing? he asks. That’s a problem?
Of course it’s a problem! Who has not …
"The New Atheists claim to be the party of reason.... The problem is, they're not very good at it." — Discover the provocative ebook True Reason: Christian Responses to the Challenge of Atheism.