Miracles are impossible or just plain unnecessary

I’m continuing my series on defeater beliefs for Christianity. This week I want to consider the claim that miracles are problematic—that is, they are impossible or (if not impossible) just plain unnecessary. Of course, if miracles can’t (or don’t) happen, then it is fairly easy to see how this is problematic for Christianity. For example, if the resurrection didn’t happen, then (as the Apostle Paul says), “our faith is in vain” (1 Corinthians 15:14).

God is Better Than You Think: The Moral Monster Charge (Part Two)

In a previous post, I talked about how the God of the Old Testament is not a moral monster. In fact, God is better than you think—because he pursues you, even when you run. In this post, I want to kick off my series on defeater beliefs for Christianity by again considering the nature of the God of the Bible.

Defeater Beliefs to Christianity

I’ve been thinking a bit about the fact that within every culture there is a set of defeater beliefs (as Tim Keller calls it) that shape the culture and its receptivity to the gospel.

On Crumpling Paper and Throwing Books Down

In 1850 Harriet Beecher Stowe was a thirty-nine year old, little known writer living in Brunswick, Maine. Late that year, Harriet received a letter from her sister-in-law Mrs. Edward Beecher, who along where her husband, were firm and active abolitionists.

God Is Better Than You Think: The Moral Monster Charge

I just finished reading two excellent books on how to understand the nature and actions of God in the Old Testament: (1) Paul Copan’s Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God and David Lamb’s God Behaving Badly: Is the God of the Old Testament Angry, Sexist and Racist?

Talks

Click here to listen to talks by Paul

Favorite Books of 2022

January 3, 2023

I love to read. Of course, being a professor helps. I get to read as part of my job. That’s good. But I also love to read for the sheer pleasure of it. When it comes to fiction, I love entering into secondary worlds and journeying along with the characters of the story. Often non-fiction reads like a good story too: life is life, story is story, and often the two kiss (a loose paraphrase of one of my favorite nonfiction stories of the year, All that is Sad is Untrue). (more…)

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Favorite Books of 2021

January 10, 2022

I love to read. It’s partly why I’m an academic today. What could be better than reading, writing, teaching, and learning every day? Reading books awakens me: to truth, goodness, and beauty. I try, each year, to read broadly. This year, I managed to read 47 books. I’ve been recording every book read in a book log for over 10 years now. Whenever I finish a book, I list the date finished, the title, author, and a one sentence summary of the book. As has become my custom, I offer to you my favorite reads of the past year in philosophy, apologetics and theology, fiction, and non-fiction. (more…)

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Favorite Books of 2020

January 2, 2021

2020 has been a year of change for my family. We moved in the middle of a pandemic from Texas to Florida. I started a new job as a professor of philosophy and the director of a new program in philosophy at Palm Beach Atlantic University. We left behind two of our children in Texas–both college students at Baylor. Our younger two sons have had to endure an on-again/off-again year at a new school. But there have been many constants, even in the midst of change. Family. Jesus. And the reading of books! And this blog post. (more…)

Posted in Sample Post 1, BRILLIANT AND BEAUTIFUL BLOG