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The High Cost of Cynicism and Unbelief

images-1In a comical scene that turns tragic, the Dwarfs in C. S. Lewis’s Narnian tale The Last Battle vow to never again allow themselves to believe in Aslan. Why? They had been duped into thinking that Puzzle (the donkey) was Aslan and once King Tirian revealed the truth about Puzzle, the Dwarfs become mystified at how easily they had been fooled. They determined to never be fooled again. They would rather remain in unbelief and cynicism than believe in Aslan, out of fear of being “taken” once more.

The Argument from Reason to God

UnknownNaturalism is the view that there are no supernatural beings. The natural world is causally closed: there is nothing outside the box, nothing transcendent, nothing that impinges on the world from beyond. Thus, the basic level of analysis is physics: all reality, at rock bottom is captured by tiny bits of matter (quarks? strings?) that are properly understood by the discipline of physics. On this picture, a deep puzzle—conflict even—arises: how is it that our world is intelligible, if man is just a product of chance and necessity? Whence reason?

God, the reasonable, and the possible

imagesIn my philosophy of religion class we are working through the excellent book Debating Christian Theism, edited by Moreland, Meister, and Sweis. The strength of this book is that it places leading defenders of opposing views on the nature and existence of God in dialogue. The book highlights the current state of play in the God debate as well as the strength (and firm ground) of the arguments for God in the face of atheism. It also highlights what I think is a kind of double standard that is sometimes applied to theistic arguments by its detractors.

Do not be an Accidental Christian

imagesThis past weekend, the second annual Stand Firm Apologetics Conference was held here at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The keynote speaker for the event was J. (Jim) Warner Wallace, who has carved out a name for himself as a cold-case homicide detective turned apologist for Christ.

Why the question- Who Created God?- is nonsense

UnknownLawrence Krauss has written a book about how the universe came into being out of nothing. Well, out of “nothing.” His “nothing” is actually something—the quantum vacuum. But let’s not quibble over words. In my last post—the Imperialistic, Elitist, and Foolish Scientism of Neo-Atheism—I did quibble (well, maybe it was more of a rant) over Krauss’s abuse of science, evidence, and philosophy. In this post, I have a different complaint.

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