A good cartoon from Internet Monk: The Big Worship Goof. Grace and Peace
Category: Christianity
Resolving the tension
A week or two there was a post on InternetMonk.com asking for comments from Christian scientists and science-educated Christians about how they had resolved the tension between science and faith. Here's my comment from that post, with a little editing: I am “The GeoChristian” that someone else referred to earlier. I have an M.S. and …
How to fight
A pro-life activist has shot an abortionist. Gun-rights activists (many of whom are conservative Christians) are stockpiling ammunition. Why? What are they going to do with it? The political and moral battles we are engaged in are of a spiritual nature, and will not be won with guns. The use of violence only links us …
Internet Monk: Stories of science/faith resolution
Michael Spencer (a.k.a. The Internet Monk) has a post asking for comments from Christians who are scientists or trained in science. They are to answer the following question: How have you resolved the tensions in your own life and thinking between science and your faith? What has been your journey? What was particularly significant in …
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The new atheists: summary of arguments
Rev. Cwirla, in his review of the Charlotte Allen article on atheism that I linked to in my previous post, summarizes the new atheist (Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, Dennett, Myers, et al.) arguments as follows: 1. The existence of God can't be proven scientifically, therefore there is no God. 2. Religious people do bad things, therefore …
The new atheists: “primitive opposition to faith and reason”
From the LA Times: Atheists: No God, no reason, just whining, by Charlotte Allen Subtitle: Superstar atheists are motivated by anger -- and boohoo victimhood. Here are a few quotes: I can't stand atheists -- but it's not because they don't believe in God. It's because they're crashing bores. Other people, most recently the British …
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Switching religions
A significant number of people move from their childhood faith to another, as shown in this diagram from Eclectic Christian and Internet Monk: Most who "change faiths" do so by age 23 or 24. After that people are mostly set in their ways. Note that we Evangelicals lose about as many of our own children …
C.S. Lewis on Progress
From Mere Christianity: We all want progress. But progress means getting nearer to the place where you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turning, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the …
Not quite so bright — part 2
Atheist philosopher Michael Ruse rips into the best-selling author of The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins: "It is not that the atheists are having a field day because of the brilliance and novelty of their thinking. Frankly --- and I speak here as a nonbeliever myself, pretty atheistic about Christianity and skeptical about all theological claims …
Not quite so bright
Some of the vocal "new atheists, " such as Richard Dawkins (author of The God Delusion) like to refer to themselves as "Brights." Not everyone thinks these guys are all that bright, at least when it comes to their arguments against Christianity and theism. Dawkin's arguments against theism have been criticized as being amateurish and …
More compassion
"The perspective of Scripture is not the survival of the fittest, but the protection of the weakest." --John Stott
Compassion Sunday
Today was "Compassion Sunday" at our church, Red Rocks Fellowship. The text for the sermon was 1 John 3:16-18: This is how we know what love is: Jesus Christ laid down his life for us. And we ought to lay down our lives for our brothers. If anyone has material possessions and sees his brother …
Reading suggestions
Last month I wrote about my friend Glenn, who reads over 100 books a year. I don't think I'll ever hit that level, but I have been encouraged to be more disciplined and intentional in my reading habits. This week Glenn pointed to a challenging reading list from Monergism books. I have about 20% of …
A gospel tract to give to prosperity preachers
HT: Extreme Theology, Desiring God Grace and Peace
The Bible and ethnic cleansing
Phil Johnson at Pyromaniacs (not the ID Philip Johnson) addresses the tough apologetics question of the conquest of the Promised Land, when the Israelites were commanded to kill all the inhabitants of the land. How can a loving God command the inhabitants of the land to be slaughtered? We are rightly offended by similar actions …
We never never never never… outlive our need for the gospel
The gospel is for unbelievers. It is also for believers. It is not just the starting point; it is our life. HT: Extreme Theology Grace and Peace
Christian to atheist to Christian
"Materialist atheism is not merely an arid creed, but totally irrational." -- A.N. Wilson, former atheist Writer A.N. Wilson had a "Damascus Road" conversion to atheism, and then a slow climb back to Christianity. His conversion back to Christianity was based on: Historical apologetics -- the reality of the empty tomb; the perseverance of the …
Hristos a înviat
Hristos a înviat. Adevărat a înviat. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! This is the resurrection greeting and response in Romanian. To say "Christ is risen" beats "Happy Easter" any day. Grace and Peace P.S. On the Orthodox calendar, Easter is next Sunday, and Protestants in Romania conform to the eastern church calendar rather …
The foolishness of our own atheism
"The fool says in his heart, 'There is no God.'" -- Psalm 14:1 (NIV) I believe that atheism is foolish. I read statements by the prominent "new atheists" like Hitchens and Dawkins and think, "how silly." Whether their arguments are philosophical, historical, or ethical, I find them to be far from sufficient to explain away …
Fundamentalism and creationism
Young-Earth creationism isn't a necessary part of Christianity, even to those of us who have a very high view of the truthfulness and authority of the Bible. Here's another quote from The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind, by Mark Noll: Despite widespread impressions to the contrary, [young-Earth] creationism was not a traditional belief of nineteenth-century …
GeoChristian 