Sep 21, 2019 | Explanatory Power
In my last post I wrote about the concept of Explanatory Power, specifically in the context of life’s meaning, or not. The concept of what most powerfully, compellingly, explains the reality we experience extends to the heavens and the skies. You may be familiar with the words in the title that come from the first verse of Psalm 119. I put an exclamation point at the end because I came across an article of pictures taken of the heavens that are simply mind blowing in their beauty. The title of the piece shows that it took two creators to reveal this specific beauty: “35 ‘Astronomy Photographer Of The Year 2019’ Finalists That Took Massive Amounts Of Planning And Precision.” Here’s one:
Most people exposed to such stunning beauty are left dumbfounded, and deep down inside know there has to be an artist responsible for such artistry. Other people think it’s all just a cosmic accident. We learn why in the first chapter of the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans: (more…)
Sep 19, 2019 | Explanatory Power
The great English playwright William Shakespeare expressed his inner Richard Dawkins, born almost 400 years later, when he wrote these almost immortal words coming from the mouth of murderous King MacBeth:
Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.
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Jul 10, 2019 | Apologetics, Explanatory Power
Too many Christians allow low-simmering doubt into their minds because the dominant Western secular cultural narrative assumes materialism at every point, that is that the material, matter, is all that exists. And, if materialism is true, Christianity is not. In the secular West, we are programmed to be materialists. From our earliest memories media, entertainment, and education are indoctrinating us into a materialist view of reality, as if it were the true nature of reality. It is not, and scientific knowledge is making it more untenable every day. Unfortunately the average Christian in the pew every Sunday doesn’t know this, and doubt easily creeps in: maybe, they think, this Christianity thing is a bunch of hooey. It also is not.
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Jun 29, 2019 | Explanatory Power
If you’re young, say south of 40, stop now; you’ll think these the irrelevant musings of an old man (middle aged nowadays, but whose counting). If you’re in your 40s you’re starting to relate to what I’ll have to say (whatever I end up saying), and if you’re in your 50s and beyond, fuggedaboutit. We’ll be winking at each other the whole time. I am almost always tripping out (yes, I’m a child of the 60s and 70s) on this vicious predator called time, and on a recent trip the image of the before personal computers video game Pac Man came to mind. I used to love that stupid little game. In one of my first jobs out of college in the early 80s every lunch I’d head up to the lunch room and battle that exhaustless Pac Man eater, not realizing it was such a good metaphor.
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Jun 26, 2019 | Apologetics, Explanatory Power
Being a person of extreme apologetic bent, I’m always looking to validate Christian truth claims. Apologetics is critical in a Western culture drenched in secularism, where most people fit into one of the Triple A categories: Atheist, Agnostic, or Apathetic. For them this life is all that matters, even as short as it is, and they have no curiosity to see if there is any meaning beyond sheer material existence. As Christians we must be endlessly curious, asking the big questions all the time. So I have one to share with those who are more like me: In the history of the world where did the idea of a personal, Creator God come from? This is no trivial question. (more…)
May 2, 2019 | Explanatory Power
I often visit the Evolution News website because as a Christian the most obvious thing in the world to me is that the universe and everything in it had a Creator and cannot be a product of random chance. (The site is a great repository of information from the Intelligent Design movement.) In fact, whenever I wonder if this whole Christian thing I and my family have staked our lives on could actually be true, and that we will live forever in paradise with this Creator, I simply look outside, or at my hand, or our cats, and think, “There is absolutely no way this is all a product of random chance!” Because, my friend, if the materialists (the material is all that there is) have it right, that is exactly what it would have to be. I know that if Christianity isn’t true, then something else has to be, and in the 21st century secular West, the only alternative is materialist atheism (the only other alternative other than materialism is pantheism, and that is even less plausible than atheism if that were even possible).
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