In the early 2000s, a new movement of vocal atheists arose, committed with religious fervor to the propagation of their faith that there is no God, and imagining that the world would be a much better place if religion would just go away. One event that vitalized this crusade of “New Atheists” was the September …
Continue reading Lessons from the friendship between a Christian and an atheist
Today, February 4, 2015, marks the one-year anniversary of the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye "Is creation a viable model of origins?" debate. After the debate, I wrote a post-debate analysis, in which I pointed out that both speakers made some valid points, and both speakers made some blunders. Ken Ham believes that the Bible …
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"Can you be good without believing in God?" is a different question than "Can you be good without God?" Clearly, an atheist can do good things and abhor certain evil things. But can an atheist make a case that some things are inherently good, and other things are inherently evil? Or is Richard Dawkins correct, when …
Justin Taylor is senior vice president of Crossway Books, a theologically conservative Christian publishing company. Crossway is best known as the publisher of the English Standard Version (ESV) Bible, along with the ESV Study Bible, perhaps the most comprehensive theologically conservative study Bible ever produced for a general Christian audience. Justin Taylor believes the Bible. …
I wish to expand a bit on the concept of "doubting your doubts." I first came across this phrase in The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. Here is a quote from the introduction (I hope you will purchase the book and read it for yourself): A faith without some doubts is like a human …
Many Christians go through a time when they are troubled in their faith when confronted with challenges from skeptics and unbelievers. Christianity today has posted the testimony of Gregory Alan Thornbury, who almost gave up his faith when challenged by the teachings of people beyond the liberal fringe of Christianity such as Marcus Borg, a member of the Jesus …
Think of some idea that you think is loony that other people believe in and adamantly support. My list would include alien abductions, the face on Mars, conspiracy theories about the Apollo moon landings, and thinking that Che Guevara or Hugh Hefner are cool. Your list would probably differ from mine. That's OK; I hope we can still have …
Continue reading Why the latest Newsweek blast against Christianity is nonsense
I recently acquired Reading Genesis 1-2: An Evangelical Conversation, edited by J. Daryl Charles. The book gives perspectives of five highly-qualified, Evangelical Old Testament scholars on the creation accounts of Genesis: Richard E. Averbeck (professor of OT and Semitic Languages at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) -- "A Literary Day, Inter-Textual, and Contextual Reading of Genesis 1-2" Todd S. …
Continue reading Reading Genesis 1-2 — Forward and Introduction
I'm not sure what gave me the urge, but I spent quite a bit of time in late November and early December commenting on young Earth creationist (YEC) Facebook pages. I limited myself to the Big Three: Answers in Genesis, the Institute for Creation Research, and Creation Ministries International. Here's what I learned: 1. Answers …
Continue reading Observations about commenting on young earth creationist Facebook pages
"For a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past, or as a watch in the night." -- Psalm 90:4 (ESV) Christians disagree with one another about the age of the Earth and the universe. Some Christians insist that the only possible way to interpret the opening chapters of Genesis …
Continue reading GeoScriptures — Psalm 90:4 — God’s days are not the same as our days
One of the best current blogs on the topics of geology, young-Earth creationism, and Christianity is Age of Rocks, written by Jonathan Baker. Today he published his 100th post, and commemorated that milestone with a fantastic article: 100 Reasons the Earth is Old. I liked all 100 reasons, and think he could follow this up with 500 reasons the …
Continue reading 100 reasons the Earth is old — from Age of Rocks
Timothy Keller, in his book The Reason for God, demonstrates that while it is fairly straight-forward to make a religious case for human rights, it has proven very difficult to construct a case for human rights from a purely secular foundation. If the cosmos is all there is, all there ever was, and all there …
TURNING A YEC ARGUMENT ON ITS HEAD -- Young-Earth creationists like to tout soft tissues preserved in the fossil record as one of their prime evidences for a young Earth. A closely related issue is the preservation of ancient complex biomolecules, such as DNA, in the fossil record. The Natural Historian blog brilliantly turns this …
Here's another "science proves the Bible wrong" story that has been in the news lately, in which science does not prove the Bible wrong. In this case, it has to do with archeology and the domestication of the camel. The first mention of camels in the Old Testament is in Genesis 12, where Abram is …
Norm Geisler has been a prominent defender of the Christian faith for a number of years. He is the author or coauthor of several important books on apologetics (the defense of the faith), including I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Baker Encyclopedia of Christian Apologetics, and Christian Apologetics. Dr. Geisler recently contributed an article to …
Simplistic surveys can be very frustrating. For instance:Of all the colors of the rainbow, which is your favorite, Blue or Yellow?If your favorite color is green, and that is not an option in the survey, then there is no way for the survey to accurately assess your opinion. Nor does this simple survey assess how …
Of the numerous analyses of the Ken Ham vs. Bill Nye debate earlier this week, one of the best is that of Old Testament scholar John Walton that was published as part of a larger review on the Biologos website (Ham on Nye: Our Take). Walton, author of The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology …
I've had another 24 hours to think about the Ham vs. Nye debate, and I have a few additional thoughts: I'm struck by how little evidence Ken Ham presented in his main presentation or in his rebuttals. He briefly mentioned a few standard YEC arguments for a young Earth, such as woody material dated at …
On February 4, 2014, Answers in Genesis President Ken Ham debated Bill Nye (“the Science Guy”) on the topic of “Is creation a viable model of origins?” I cannot say that I was disappointed with the debate, because I had very low expectations for it in the first place, and it was about what I …
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