Aug 13, 2021 | Explanatory Power
The subject of this post might sound slightly familiar. It comes from a statement on the other side of the metaphysical divide from world-famous atheist Richard Dawkins who said that, “Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist.” What Darwin actually did was to give atheists an excuse to reject their Creator by denying he even exists. Atheists, however, are increasingly fighting a losing battle as scientific knowledge advances. Every day it becomes more difficult to deny that nature appears to have been designed and could be not a product of chance. Even Dawkins himself said nature has the appearance of design, but Darwin allows him to be blind to that design all the while claiming the mantel of “science.” And now we know in the age of COVID that “science” is often used as an ideological cudgel to silence anyone who disagrees with the standard narrative of our cultural elites. (more…)
Aug 4, 2021 | Culture
One of my pet peeves is how easily Christians buy into the hostile secular cultural caricature of conservative Christians. What do I mean by that? The culture via its many powerful and ubiquitous means of communications communicates that Christians are generally unsavory characters. Then, being persuaded by the caricature not only do non-Christians believe it, but most Christians do too. So, in a book I recently read, Culture Apologetics, I found a perfect example of this lamentable trait among Christians. The book is great, but this is disappointing. I will quote the author to make my point.
The church is seen by many as an intolerant and judgmental community.
For Christianity to be desirable, we must narrow the gaps between how things are and how things ought to be.
According to Barna Research Group, the most common complain of those outside the faith . . . is that “Christians no longer represent what Jesus had in mind, that Christianity in our society is not what it was meant to be.” Christians today are known primarily by what they stand against instead of what they sand for. For the majority of people aged sixteen to twenty-nine, Christians are anti-homosexual, judgmental, hypocritical, too political, old-fashioned, insensitive, boring, unaccepting of other faiths, and confusing.
It is no secret that Christianity has a public relations problem.
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Jul 23, 2021 | Culture, Gratitude
That will depend on what our eyes and brain have been programmed to see, whether it is by the secular culture in which we daily swim, or God’s word. If it is the former, we’ll see a pretty butterfly, beautiful colors that amaze us, and that’s it. If it is the latter, we’ll see God! If it is the culture, the beauty will point to nothing beyond the beauty. If it is God’s word it will point to God! How could it not? If this butterfly doesn’t reveal God, what does it reveal? Chance? How does one explain where such exquisite and intricate beauty comes from? If there is no God, then the only explanation can be chance. How persuasive is that? Not very. When you understand that God is the consummate eternal all powerful creative artist, everything in nature compels you to worship so great a being that could create everything, including this very butterfly. We need to commit the words of Paul in Romans 1 to memory, and teach them to our children, and share them with everyone we encounter:
For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
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Jul 21, 2021 | Culture
If you don’t know what a Loki is, neither did I until six weeks ago. He’s a character in the Marvel cinematic universe, and an unsavory character; he’s not referred to as the god of mischief for nothing. My son, our youngest at 19 and a keen observer of culture, called me into his room to tell me I had to watch something. He showed me a scene from the first episode of the new Disney+ TV show (unfortunately; I now officially hate all things Disney, but that’s for another post) called, you guessed it, Loki. The scene had Loki, played by British actor Tom Hiddleston, and the wonderfully phlegmatic Own Wilson playing Agent Mobius. Given the main “character” in the show is time itself, that leads to some interesting conversations given none of us have a clue about what time is, and it always perplexes and amazes us. The little dialogue my son showed me had me hooked. (more…)
Jul 18, 2021 | Apologetics
I had an interview recently about my book with a website that has special meaning in my Christian journey, Apologetics315. God, as he often does with his children, made this uniquely special for me as I’ll explain.
When I became a Christian at Arizona State University back in the fall of 1978, those who introduced me to the gospel were not much into apologetics. The focus was on “spiritual” things, so reading the Bible, prayer, evangelism, church, etc. The goal of discipleship was building your relationship with Jesus, and sharing that with others. That is of course good and necessary, but it is not enough, as I found out in my junior year when I came across Francis Schaeffer’s The God Who is There. It was an amazing discovery for me because I learned that God’s truth applied to all of reality, not just so called “spiritual” things. Contrary to a narrow view of spirituality, he helped me to understand that the spiritual was so expansive that it addressed all of reality. That includes art, politics, law, literature, architecture, education, movies, business, you name it. (more…)
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