One Christian Thought

You'll notice that there is no question mark ending the title, because the original post already had potential proof of miracles. It is  The Possibility of Miracles?  Then there's the old  " The Matter of an All-Loving God... and EVIL . " "It's always easy to scream 'anti-supernatural bias' when someone does not think that the miracles of one's own tradition can be historically established," (1) Bart Ehrman said in the beginning of his two chapter bit on the resurrection, explained in my extensive argument for Jesus rising from the dead. It was so true of my thinking at one point. Now I've come to soften my thoughts toward intellectually dismissing miracles, because it can be defended and it would be rude to assume someone is so biased, and especially try to intellectually shame them.   William Lane Craig, in his debate with Ehrman, used "methodological atheism." (2) I find this very fitting. It's isn't philosophical nat...

After arguments against God being the only good source of morality were presented, Fundamentals of Ethics said that every philosophical theory has difficulties and aren't necessarily insurmountable(1). I appreciate that the author would be compassionate enough to point that out, and highly agree. Just because there are other realities in the world that can seem to pose a problem doesn't mean that the side is correct. There were categorized 7 claims that must be met intellectually before someone accepts they have real, objective morals from God.  1. God exists. 2. There is proof of His existence. 3. God gives moral commands. 4. There is proof He does that. 5. There is proof of one particular religious book over all that contradict it. 6. There must be proof of a specific interpretation. 7. Interpretation must overcome tradition if there is a contradiction. However, this isn't a "daunting" list(1). As a matter of fact, I don't even know what the point is with po...

"We each need to make sense of coronavirus in three different ways: intellectually, emotionally and spiritually. All are important—and together they present a formidable challenge to anyone." Mathematician and apologist John C. Lennox sincerely believes this, and I agree. Thus, it makes sense that an apologist is someone who doesn't fit the typical description of a religious person -- they argue for their belief system on an objective, rational level.  It would take me a while to get my hands on a physical copy of Lennox's book " Where is GOD in a Coronavirus World? " but fortunately, the kind hearts (and minds!) at RZIM have published a free excerpt.  I don't keep up with the news, and information I get about issues of the large world around me usually comes from my family. I do know that tens of thousands of people, at least, have already perished from this dreary phenomena. So it's very serious -- we are in the midst of unmistakable evil.   Or are...

Back on the twenty-second of this month, when I wrote " Is Religion a Curse? My Personal Thoughts on the Moral Implications of Jesus-God and No-God ," I suggested that I would title what is now this blog post "David Barash Makes Me Mad: Here Me Roar." My plan was for it to be satirical, because I don't believe people really do make others mad, they just do things which people choose to get mad at. But as you will know if you have been following my blog, I argue that evolution takes away free will, so technically, David Barash would have been made by his physical composition to do something which apparently causes my physical composition to make me feel angry, if his worldview is true. Or however determinism is supposed to work. I changed my mind because I think pointing out someone in a way which seems to belittle and condescend, even though you have to read that into the title (as reasonable as it is) and this is the intellectual business where if you attemp...

In the last argument I published, I ended with this quote worth repeating: " The argument for atheism from evil is also strong because it is based on a strong premise, on universally acknowledged data which is open to immediate daily experience - namely, the fact that there is evil. The reality of evil seems logically incompatible with the reality of an all-good, all-powerful God." (1) Speaking of experience, my experiences with talking with other people and thinking about such a problem has led me to dissect it in a way. The "problem of pain" as it is so-called can be so attractive because of the strong and genuine emotions wrapped up in a human's soul. But of course atheists who argue their side from the existence of evil don't rest their case on feelings (if they did, they would be guilty of what they can so often accuse Christians of!). So, they posit the question straight from their minds: why doesn't God stop all the emotionally heart-wrenching a...