Aug 24, 2019 | Apologetics
I can’t tell you how many moronic, absolutist, immature, know-it-all atheists I’ve come across in online comments sections who declare with absolute certitude that the Bible is all myths and fairy tales, full of metaphorical unicorns and other such unbelievable nonsense. These people, and I’m sure mostly young males, have never bothered to actually read the Bible, only other skeptics like them who haven’t read it either. The problem for such dolts is that the Bible doesn’t read anything like myths and fairy tales, not in the least. In fact it reads like straight ahead history that takes place in real time, in real places, with real people, and real events. History outside of the Bible confirms this again and again. We can take comfort, and have confidence, that our faith is rooted in history, not human wishful thinking and fiction (which didn’t exist in the ancient world).
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Aug 21, 2019 | Apologetics
Not many Christians are familiar with first century Jewish historian Josephus, which is unfortunate. The life, death, and resurrection of Jesus (the latter rejected purely out of anti-supernatural bias) are the most well-attested facts in all of ancient history. But skeptics insist that because the writers of the Bible, and specifically the gospels, had a religious ax to grind, it cannot be trusted as objectively historical. I’m not sure there is such a thing, but if it can be established that the basic outline of Jesus’ life and death, and the Jewish, Greco-Roman world he inhabited, all existed, then the biblical record becomes incredibly compelling.
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Aug 18, 2019 | Epistemology - Trust
My last post was on the faith and doubt, and how both are part of what it means to be human. The concepts are not specifically religious, and apply to all human being, religious or not, contrary to secularist assertions. Similar assertions, in effect, have implications for how we think about the concept of certainty as well. A recent article at The Gospel Coalition about a book by the late Lesslie Newbegin opened my eyes to how important this is. Since I wrote my book, I’ve experienced push back from some Christians who almost seem offended at the confidence I have in my faith, and that I can confidently pass on that confidence to my children. Now I know why: We’ve all accepted the epistemological presuppositions of the Enlightenment, and confuse confidence with certainty. Let me explain.
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Aug 11, 2019 | Epistemology - Trust
My last post on Harris was on plausibility structures and how they create a reality that seems real to people, whether it is or not. Twenty first century plausibility secular structures are also important to the issue of doubt. Christians at a disadvantage in these discussions because doubt is assumed to be a one way street: Christians either believe (have faith) or doubt; if they doubt they no longer believe, if they believe they don’t doubt. This way of looking at faith and doubt puts Christians on the defensive because it assumes that belief and doubt are uniquely religious, in this case Christian, things. It takes about 10 seconds to realize this is ridiculous, yet Christians too often talk and write as if such secular assumptions are true.
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Aug 4, 2019 | Culture
My first response to hearing of the horrific shooting in El Paso was, where was the good guy with the gun who could have stopped this? This is the world bequeathed to us by a secular culture that has rejected God, that you can’t go shopping on a Saturday morning in America without worrying that you might be mowed down by an evil man (it is always men, isn’t it?) with a gun. Then I thought of the families devastated by the loss of their loved ones whose lives will be haunted by this event as long as they live. Imagine it happening to those you love and care about. It is infuriating. Then learning it was a 21 year-old, I thought what kind of parents could raise a child capable of such evil. Blaming parents does not make me popular with those who are convinced raising children in 21st century America is a crap shoot. So be it. But I won’t tarry on these things because life in a fallen world to put it bluntly, sucks! Or it can, as such events demonstrate.
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