Why bother saying it, when it’s already been said…

…right here,

here,

AND here.

Expelled Super Trailer

You have ABSOLUTELY GOT to watch the new ‘Super Trailer’ for EXPELLED.  It’s excellent.

A new book of interest…

Written to challenge Christians to re-engage the Scientific disciplines from the perspective of faith in a sovereign God. It’s on my reading list, that’s for sure. I should mention that in part I’m interested in it as he is a friend of a friend, and my friend speaks VERY HIGHLY of him.  Have you read it? Will you?

There is a God by Anthony Flew & Roy Abraham Varghese

In spite of all the controversy surrounding the book, Gary Habermas has posted an excellent, and thorough review of the book called ANTHONY FLEW’S DEISM REVISITED.

Systematic Oversimplification

“Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification” - Karl Popper

The Elegant Universe

I just discovered that PBS has The Elegant Universe online in it’s entirety.  Strongly suggested.  It’s a GREAT program.

A few quick thoughts on Universalism…

I have always run in circles where I encounter many ‘universalists’ - people who believe, as our consumer culture encourages, that all religions are basically the same and all a path to the same ‘divine’ or ‘ultimate’, and that all religious truth (or even truth in general) is relative. People often lean towards this view in an attempt to be somehow ‘humble’ regarding religious issues, and all ‘inclusive.’ It’s a tempting view at times, especially in a post-modern world, where such inclusiveness seems to be what it’s all about.

Strange that what seems the most humble, is actually the ultimate in hubris

Clark speaks the truth

“Christizanity is often repudiated on the ground that is circular: the Bible is authoritative because the Bible authoritatively says so. This objection applies no more to Christianity than to any philosophic system or even to geometry. Every system of organized proposistions depends of necessity on some indemonstrable premises, and every system must make an attempt to explain how these primary premises come to be accepted.” - Dr. Gordon H Clark

A quick thought on modern evolutionary theory…

I was reading a response thread at someone else’s blog and the following thought occurred to me:

Let me ask this: is it not POSSIBLE that different mechanisms are responsible for the apparent ‘evolution’ we observe in various species? Some minor long-term changes may be a result of a basic Darwinian mechanism, some more radical changes observed may be the result of neo-darwinistic mechanisms, such as Punctuated Equalibrium, some changes from Intelligent Design (which doesn’t necessarily always implicate a God, as ‘Dog Breeding’ is an example of ID, as is genetic engineering). Many ID theorist believe this: Darwinism is true, in part, but only can account for certain types of changes - this is the power of Behe’s new book, as he attempts to layout the limits of the Darwinian mechanism. Disagree with him on whom is responsible for the design (the information), some do, but I think such work is a huge step forward, instead of clinging to a dogmatic assertion that Darwin’s mechanism has to be the end-all be-all of all theories.

Heaven is Illogical?

Having been approached often via MySpace by self-proclaimed skeptics/free-thinkers/atheists, there are a number of very common critiques, questions, and issues that have come up. As a sort of ‘clearing house’ I’m going to post a number of those critiques and my responses. If you’re a christian who finds him/her-self in conversations with atheists on occasion, or if you’re a skeptic yourself, maybe these responses will help - at least a little bit - answer those questions or concerns. I don’t claim to know everything about everything, but I do try to understand a little bit about everything! Also note - these responses are ALL directly off the top of my head, and not entirely thought through - I do make mistakes. Enjoy…

1.) Belief in “Heaven” is illogical, and therefore Christianity is untrue.

Hitchens vs. Hitchens: Peter on Christopher

THIS is indeed a refreshing assessment of Christopher Hitchens’ latest book.

A skeptic wrote a blog that I admire?

For you Dawkins/Harris/Hitchens/Loftus/Barker fans, here is one of the greatest responses to the ‘New Atheism’ I have yet to encounter:
MY ANSWER TO THE ATHEISTS 

enjoy!

The Resurrection: what do I know?

As I try to point out often, I’m a historical realist - along the lines of N. T. Wright and E. P. Sanders. That essentially means that I believe that history is a fact, and a fact that we might know, but not necessarily a fact that we can know we know - not something that can be proven as fact. That said, a historical reconstruction doesn’t have to prove itself, but merely be convincing.

This all ties back into why I am a Christian. I am a Christian because of a man named Jesus - a man I cannot shake, even though I have wanted to at times. My faith stands in rings - the most important of which is the first ring - Jesus. The outer rings, various doctrines of practice and faith, come and go - sometimes depending on something as fickle as my mood (I admit it - when I’m angry at God there are things about Him I have a harder time trusting in than when I’m happy - how about you?). But even when my faith gets shredded I fall back on the person of Jesus. That is what this short article is regarding - a portrait of the Jesus I believe in…

Explore Evolution

Well, it’s about time. After YEARS of High School text books being loaded with oversimplified, and even entirely inaccurate (sometimes knowingly misleading) information about Darwin’s theory of evolution, and Neo-Darwinism, FINALLY someone has published a textbook that adequately addresses the real issues.

The Bible - just another book written by men?

Delivered at the joint Wesley/WDA/CCF Apologetics Conference at the University of Georgia in 2001

I. Isn’t the Bible just a book written by Men?

Clearly the Bible didn’t just fall from of the sky – someone had to write it. In fact, after-wards others had to copy it and transmit it from generation to generation, and translate it from the original Hebrew, Greek, and Aramaic, and make many theological decision while doing so, in order for us to have a copy today.

An apologetic for Apologetics: to Christians skeptical of their value

I told a former house-mate of mine that I was speaking at an apologetics conference - he said that he was very sorry. But seriously, since this blog is primarily one of apologetics I feel it only right that I should AT LEAST touch upon what apologetics are and why we should even bother, before attempting to DO apologetics. William Lane Craig, author of Reasonable Faith, defines apologetics as “that branch of Christian theology which seeks to provide a rational justification of the truth claims of the Christian faith.” So, for the uninitiated among us, “apologetics” is basically a “Case for Christ”. Apologetics makes us ask the question, “How can I rationally defend my faith?” Though there are many passages we could look at concerning this, I’d like to glance quickly at just a few verses that I believe should encourage every one of us to recognize the importance of a having a good, personal apologetic.

EXPELLED - for open minds only…

Old Testament God vs. New Testament God?

Recently an Atheist said to me concerning the Old Testament Portrait of God verses the New Testament Picture of God revealed in Jesus:
“I like the old testament because it was there that god’s voice is most vindictive. But in the new testament it would seem that he changes from being prick-ish to somewhat hopeful for us.“

Whatever happened to Miracles?

As far as miracles go, I think it’s best I begin with my own personal experiences - though you may THINK that God no longer works miracles, I’ve seen plenty in my time, and many are quite hard to explain within any world-view that isn’t theistic.

In college, one of my friends, a generally all-around bad fellow before he came to Christ, told me that he could sometimes see demons - what he called a very STRONG gift of discernment. On numerous occasions he’d tell me to stop and he’d point to someplace across the street and say, “I see darkness there - someone VERY bad is about the happen”, and within minutes a fight would break-out in the exact location he pointed to. Though I never personally experienced such a gift, he was almost always DEAD on, and it happened OFTEN. I’ve talked to him recently, and he claims this gift is still with him to this day.

God is Sexist?

Regarding what some skeptics call “Christian Sexism”, apart from the Bible suggesting some variance in possible rolls for men & women (which the Bible also suggests for the various ‘members’ of the trinity, all of which are still understood as divine, and all of which are still considered equal, and even ultimate value), the Bible itself, and especially Jesus’ teaching (heck, even Paul’s) are quite ‘women’s lib’, especially when compared to the general view of women that was prevalent in Jesus’ day.

Naturalistic Materialism: an untenable world-view

I have recently been engaged in a number of online discussions with Atheist Darwinians, and most have been severely hindered as a result of them truly not seeing the full implications of their own world-view, not having a good philosophical understanding of logic, nor understanding that philosophical ‘modernism’ is long dead. The problem is this: if there is no God, and all you have is a modernist naturalistic understanding of ‘truth’, you can only use circular reasoning to justify your findings, while the whole time arguing against the use of circular reasoning within other world-views - which is pure hypocricy.

Christianity caused the Holocaust?

Many atheist/skeptics that I have online discussion with these days point to Christianity (and religion in general) as a source of violence, often pointing to the Holocaust as one example, quick to state, “Hitler was a Christian.” The fact is, this is simply NOT true.

Evolutionism vs. Creationism?

Having been raised in a non-Christian home which encouraged my early appreciation of the sciences, when I began to pursue Jesus it was the utmost importance for me grasp how what I thought I knew from science related to what God told me what true about creation in the Scriptures. I went through a number of phases of how I understood and interpreted both (Science & the Scripture), but as it comes up often in conversations with skeptics, I thought I’d pull together some of my current thinking on the issue of Biblical creationism.