Thoughts on ethics, society, politics, religion, philosophy, theology, and everything in between
We live in a religiously pluralistic world. Taking into account all human cultures and societies around the world, there are thousands of mutually exclusive religious worldviews and belief systems. Furthermore, most people hold to the religious or metaphysical beliefs which they believe because of how they were raised and the influence of their particular surrounding … Read more
Religious Experience Many Christians believe Christianity is true largely on the basis of their own religious experiences. If a Christian has a powerful, direct experience of God, then this provides good reason for them to believe that the Christian God is real, even in the absence of historical and philosophical reasons for believing in God. … Read more
The Reasonableness of Christian Faith Is it reasonable to believe that Christianity is true? This is a question which everyone, both Christian and non-Christian, should seriously ask themselves at some point in their lives. Billions of people throughout the world, including millions of intelligent, educated people, sincerely believe that Christianity is true. Yet, there are … Read more
Apologetics is a reasoned intellectual defense of the reasonableness and coherence of the Christian worldview. God’s word tells us to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have” (1 Pet 3:15), and apologetics is an attempt to do this in a … Read more
In the first part of this series, I argued that there is no good reason to believe that miracles are impossible. In the second part, I presented a brief synopsis of the evidence that miracles happen. In this post, I will respond to some of the common objections to accepting eyewitness testimony to miracles. Hume … Read more
In the first part of this series, I argued that there is no good reason to believe that miracles are impossible. If it is possible that God and/or other supernatural beings exist, then it must be at least possible that these supernatural beings sometimes cause miraculous events. But do they? Do we have any good … Read more
In one of my very first posts on this blog, I made The Historical Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. There, I noted that unless one already believes that miracles can and do happen, one is unlikely to find the historical evidence for Jesus’s resurrection convincing, and I briefly pointed to some of the evidence … Read more
In the first two parts of this series, I responded to some of the common objections made against Christian ethics by modern Western non-Christians. In the third part, I responded to objections against the Divine Command Theory of ethics made by philosopher Michael Martin in his book, Atheism, Morality, and Meaning.[1]Amherst, New York: Prometheus Books, … Read more
In the first two parts of this series, I responded to some of the common objections made against Christian ethics by modern Western non-Christians. These next two parts of this series will be more focused, responding to an extended attack on the coherence and reasonableness of Christian ethics made by philosopher Michael Martin in his … Read more
In this second part of this series, I will continue to respond to some objections modern Western non-Christians commonly make against Christian ethics. Wastes Resources The Objection: Christianity causes people to waste resources. Christians waste time, energy, and money on Christian buildings, Christian religious rituals, Christian writings, Christian theological teaching, and Christian evangelism. In a … Read more