Does the Bible teach that faith is opposed to logic and evidence? « Wintery Knight

Wintery Knight posted a great article about what faith really is. Today, people are really confused but this will help you if you think faith is antithetical to logic and evidence.

Does the Bible teach that faith is opposed to logic and evidence? « Wintery Knight

Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God? MP3 Series - Apologetics 315

Brian Auten has recently posted mp3's of lectures given at the Science and Faith Conference on December 2, 2011, with the theme Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God? Go to his blog to get the mp3's!

Dr. Michael Behe
"The Modern Scientific Theory of Intelligent Design: Strengths and Limitations”
Dr. Stephen Barr
"Physics, the Nature of Time and Theology”
Dr. Jay W. Richards
"Signs of Design from Physics and Astronomy”
Dr. Edward Feser
“Natural Theology Must Be Grounded in the Philosophy of Nature, Not Natural Science”
Dr. Benjamin Wiker
“Can Science Demonstrate the Existence of God?”
Dr. Alvin Plantinga
"Science and Religion: Where the Conflict Really Lies”

Can Science Inform Our Understanding of God? MP3 Series - Apologetics 315

FacePlant of the Day: Response to Quote of the Day: Desposyni: Stephen Colbert on Pain

I recently posted a link to an article in which Stephen Colbert actually gives a good Biblically sound theodicy. I had an anonymous comment on my post that reads:

This is only "much wisdom" because it's universal to the human experience and because any mention of God or Christ could be removed from what Stephen Colbert said without affecting the meaning in anyway.

Is this statement true? Let's find out. You can read the original quote below:

What had happen' was.....: Quote of the Day: Desposyni: Stephen Colbert on Pain

Here is the same same quote if you take out the part about God and Christ:

In 1974, when Colbert was 10, his father, a doctor, and his brothers Peter and Paul, the two closest to him in age, died in a plane crash while flying to a prep school in New England. “There’s a common explanation that profound sadness leads to someone’s becoming a comedian, but I’m not sure that’s a proven equation in my case,” he told me. “I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so.” He added, in a tone so humble and sincere that his character would never have used it: “She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed.

Does the quote still make sense without what was said about God and Christ? Yes, but it doesn't ground the quote in anything. It doesn't answer why we should be grateful for life. And It misses the profound observation Colbert makes about what pain is and why should thank God for it. Without the part about God the point is lost - just like everything without God. How do you be grateful whatever happens? And to whom should you be grateful for? This is a good theodicy. The thing I recognize is that if you are truly grateful for whatever happens to you and around you then the so-called "problem of evil" is moot. So is suffering because you now see everything in its proper context. I invite everyone to examine their lives and ask "Am I grateful for what ever happens and to whom deserves my gratitude? How do you answer these without God? You cannot.

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Fistbump of the Day: Dr Norman Geisler Quotes Mariano In His Rebutal of Dr Bart Ehrman

In the second video of the four-part series of a video lecture of Dr Norman Geisler giving arguments refuting Dr Bart Ehrman, Dr Geisler used an argument Mariano Grinbank used in a blog entry applying Ehrman's own arguments regarding Biblical reliability to the printing and writing of his own book Misquoting Jesus. I think the argument is brilliant and undeniable. Dr Geisler even gave Mariano's blog credit for the argument. I know I already gushed over the blog post when I originally saw it but it bears repeating. You can see Dr. Geisler's whole lecture at the following link.

What had happen' was.....: Bart Ehrman Refuted by Dr Norman Geisler - YouTube

I've got to point out that during the whole Ergun Caner scandal last year, Geisler and others denied that bloggers contributed worthwhile information, but here is Geisler quoting a blog and effectively using Mariano's work. Indeed perfect. You can read Mariano's article that Dr Geisler used right here:

Bart Ehrman’s Millions and Millions of Variants, part 1 of 2

Bart Ehrman’s Millions and Millions of Variants, part 2 of 2

Can We Judge the Morality of God?: A Response to Roger Olson

Dr James White has written a great article about judging the morality of God. His article is in response to Roger Olson and other people who deny the sovereignty of God in all matters. Some say they reject reformed theology because they refuse to accept the idea that God is so sovereign that no one can challenge his choice of election to salvation. Dr White does such a great job answering this, but I think that his answer is also great against atheists who think that God owes them an explanation for the things He does and the things He allows. This is an answer to anyone who would try to challenge God and judge the rightness and wrongness of His commands and decrees. This has bearing on how we view and discuss evil and suffering. You don't have a theodicy without thinking of these matters.. Take a look and the link.

Can We Judge the Morality of God?: A Response to Roger Olson

FacePalm of the Day: Debunking Christianity - The Power of the Delusion is So Strong We Cannot Ordinarily Reason Believers Out of Their Faith

John Loftus is always good for writing something that is always such an example Facepalm-inducing failure.

David Eller makes the point in chapter one of The Christian Delusion that we cannot ordinarily reason believers out of their faith because they were never reasoned into it in the first place. I share his conclusion. I cannot reason with people who have faith because faith is an irrational leap over the probabilities.

And just where does Loftus get the definition that faith is an irrational leap over the probabilities?  What probabilities are he referring to?

I must show believers that their faith is nearly impossible before they will ever consider it to be improbable, and that’s an utterly unreasonable standard. That’s the power of the delusion.

So...let's get this straight: He can't prove that Christianity is true only that it probably isn't true according to the standard he has in his mind. He is frustrated because believers won't stop believing if he can't prove that Christianity is impossible when he can't even truly prove that it is improbable. And he thinks we are the ones who are deluded.

I can dialogue with believers even with such a conclusion. This particular post is part of that dialogue. It is meant to shock believers out of their dogmatic slumbers. If they hear this enough times from former believers like me then it may sink in to a few of them. Therefore I must state my conclusion from time to time. The rest is education. I am an educator. So that’s what I do regardless of whether believers are listening in or not. I hope they do though.

Listen to what? I've been watching John Loftus' blogs for a couple of years now and I have yet to see anything that remotely proved that Christianity is improbable, let alone impossible. And as for a dialogue, he and many other atheists really only want monologue not dialogue.

In most cases it takes some kind of personal crisis for believers to do what they should have been doing all along, critically evaluating their faith as an outsider. When that happens then what I have written will sink in. I’m priming the pump so to speak, and providing believers with the information that will help them when they encounter their crisis.

My experiences and many others that I know have had an opposite experience. Personal crisis leads you to know God better. This is what the book of Job also demonstrates. From what I've heard of Loftus' personal crisis, he had a crisis of faith when refused to accept responsibility for sin when the church he was at tried to hold him accountable for it because he was one of the leaders in that church. Instead of  repenting and accepting the correction from his church instead he rejected God's authority over his life by rejecting Him. This is true regarding all apostates. 

Original source: http://freethoughtblogs.com/loftus/2012/01/10/the-power-of-the-delusion-is-so-strong-we-cannot-ordinarily-reason-believers-out-of-their-faith/

Glam up your business cards

Glam up your business cards

Quote of the Day: Desposyni: Stephen Colbert on Pain

Here is a great post that showed up in my feed today that quotes an interview on Stephen Colbert

There's some wisdom here. From a big NYT profile of the TV host:

In 1974, when Colbert was 10, his father, a doctor, and his brothers Peter and Paul, the two closest to him in age, died in a plane crash while flying to a prep school in New England. “There’s a common explanation that profound sadness leads to someone’s becoming a comedian, but I’m not sure that’s a proven equation in my case,” he told me. “I’m not bitter about what happened to me as a child, and my mother was instrumental in keeping me from being so.” He added, in a tone so humble and sincere that his character would never have used it: “She taught me to be grateful for my life regardless of what that entailed, and that’s directly related to the image of Christ on the cross and the example of sacrifice that he gave us. What she taught me is that the deliverance God offers you from pain is not no pain — it’s that the pain is actually a gift. What’s the option? God doesn’t really give you another choice.”

Yup, much Wisdom


Desposyni: Stephen Colbert on Pain

Related articles

• WATCH: Stephen Colbert Takes A Tip From Pat Robertson (huffingtonpost.com)
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Historical Jesus - Two Centuries Worth of Citations - YouTube

Mariano Grinbank has posted a great video that corresponds to an article he posted a short time ago listing two early centuries worth of citations that refer to Jesus from  (most of them) extrabiblical sources.
 




You can read the original article at   http://www.truefreethinker.com/articles/historical-jesus-two-centuries-worth-

Historical Jesus - Two Centuries Worth of Citations - YouTube

New Testament Scholar Interview: Daniel B. Wallace - Apologetics 315

Dr Daniel Wallace was interviewed by Brian Auten. Good thing to listen to!!

New Testament Scholar Interview: Daniel B. Wallace - Apologetics 315

CGI Display Of The Entire Known Universe - G4tv.com

CGI Display Of The Entire Known Universe - G4tv.com

Answering Muslims: Is the Qur'an Miraculous?

A debate between Abdullah Kunde and Samuel Green. December 2011.

Answering Muslims: Is the Qur'an Miraculous?

Are there Levels of Love?

Are there different quantities of love we should have towards others - depending on their relative closeness to us? In other words: Is it okay to love some people more than you love other people? Biblically, it's not a matter of loving someone more or less than someone else. For example look at something Jesus said:

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. - Matthew 5:43-45 (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%205:43-45&version=NIV)

A lot of people think that this means that  you have to be nice to your enemies and not that you have to love them as much as you do your friends.  But if you look more closely - say on Crosswalk.com that contains a KJV Strong's Concordance - you find out more about what kind of love Jesus was talking about. (Just click on the hypertexted word in the passage to see what the Strong's entries are.

43 Ye have heard that it hath been said , Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. 44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 45 That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. - Matthew 5:43-45

(http://www.biblestudytools.com/kjv/matthew/passage.aspx?q=matthew+5:43-45)

If you look at the word "love" as in "love your neighbor" and compare "love" as in "love your enemies" you see that they are coded as the same Strong's number demonstrating that Jesus did not mean to imply different kinds of love for neighbors and enemies. This is significant because Kione Greek is extremely more precise then English. If there was a desire to imply a different kind of love for friends and enemies, there is a Greek word that could have been used rather than "ajgapavw". "Ajgapavw" refers to a deep love that is so "other-centered" that you seek the good of the person who is the recipient of that love - whether or not they deserve it.. That is how God loves us - and in no way do we deserves it. We know that this is what Jesus is referring to because He points out that this is how God loves just and unjust people - the same - to the extent that all enjoy the sun that belongs to Him.



This isn't the same as saying that just because God loves everyone that He doesn't  treat us differently. God does. "Just" doesn't mean that God has to give me everything He give you and vice versa. This also doesn't mean that God expects a man to love all women the same as he does his wife or that God doesn't do more for His chosen people than he does for those "vessels of dishonor". Therefore there aren't different quantities of love  but there is a difference.in quality and the way love is expressed. I'm going to write more about this in the future, but here are some more passages to consider.

 ¹⁰ Not only that, but Rebekah’s children were conceived at the same time by our father Isaac. ¹¹ Yet, before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad—in order that God’s purpose in election might stand: ¹² not by works but by him who calls—she was told, “The older will serve the younger.” ¹³ Just as it is written: “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
 ¹⁴ What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵ For he says to Moses,
   “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
   and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”
 ¹⁶ It does not, therefore, depend on human desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷ For Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.” ¹⁸ Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.
 ¹⁹ One of you will say to me: “Then why does God still blame us? For who is able to resist his will?” ²⁰ But who are you, a human being, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to the one who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” ²¹ Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for special purposes and some for common use?
 ²² What if God, although choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath—prepared for destruction? ²³ What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory— ²⁴ even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles? ²⁵ As he says in Hosea:
   “I will call them ‘my people’ who are not my people;
   and I will call her ‘my loved one’ who is not my loved one,”  - Romans 9:10-25

Say Hello to my Little Friend » Blog Archiv » Episode 045: What if God Were Really Bad?

Brian Auten recently posted a link to the last podcast or 2011 of the Say Hello to my Little Friend podcast. Here is the blog entry for the broadcast.

Here it is, the last podcast episode for 2011. This time I’m looking at “the “evil god challenge” as posed by Stephen Law in a fairly recent article by that name. Isn’t the evidence for a good God really no better or worse than the evidence that an evil god? In short, no. Here I explain why I think (as I suspect many may think) that the evil god challenges has major philosophical shortcomings, in spite of being an argument worthy of our attention.

I wasn't moved by Dr Law's "logic" but it's nice to see a good response to it.

Say Hello to my Little Friend » Blog Archiv » Episode 045: What if God Were Really Bad?

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IVP Bible Background Commentaries

When I listened to Dr Michael Brown interview Dr Craig Keener, one of Keener's books came up. Its a background commentary that gives historical context to the New Testament. I decided to see if I could find a digital version and there is one! It can be integrated with the Olive Tree Software platforms. I use Olive Tree on my Android devices so I was excited.


IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, The by Craig Keener... for iPhone, iPad, and Android - Olive Tree Bible Software


As a bonus I found out that there is an Old Testament version! It's available as an e-book!


The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament (eBook, Exclusive)

Related articles

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• What does the term old testament mean (wiki.answers.com)
• My Bible Reading Plan (reformingtoday.wordpress.com)

Parting Shot: The Entire Battlestar Galactica Series as a 16-Bit RPG - ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

At first I wasn't gonna post this, but it's too funny not to post it - especially if you have seen the show.



Parting Shot: The Entire Battlestar Galactica Series as a 16-Bit RPG - ComicsAlliance | Comic book culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews

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Bart Ehrman Refuted by Dr Norman Geisler - YouTube

Thanks to Mariano Grinbank for pointing out this video where Dr Norman Geisler answers the objections and arguments raised by Dr Bart Ehrman. You can see the for yourself how Dr Geisler would answer him.







Bart Ehrman Refuted by Dr Normon Geisler - YouTube

Sketches | Premier.tv

Who says there is no humor in the conflict between atheism and Christan theism.



Sketches | Premier.tv

Geek vs. Nerd: The Infographic

Geek vs. Nerd: The Infographic

Hand Jive [infographic]

Hand Jive [infographic]