God’s Not Dead 2: A Movie Review and Analysis (Part 1)

Yesterday, I decided to see God’s Not Dead 2, with the expressed purpose of writing a blog post on it. Now, even though I grew up in the Evangelicalism of Wheaton, Illinois, and taught Bible for 16 years at three different Evangelical high schools, I have never been a big fan of “Christian” movies. The…

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Richard Dawkins and “The God Delusion”: This is the End! (Cut Out My Appendix Already!)(Part 22)

Richard Dawkins opened his book, The God Delusion, with a creative reinterpretation of John Lennon’s famous song, Imagine. Essentially, Dawkins pined, “Just imagine how great this world would be if we got rid of religion!” Well, after 21 posts, I hope you feel I’ve shed some light on exactly what kind of world Dawkins’ atheistic…

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Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”: Religious Faith is a Form of Child Abuse? (Part 21)

Throughout The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins argues that not only is religious faith a delusion, but that it is downright horrific, and a danger to the civilized world. At the end of his chapter 8, Dawkins says things like: “Christianity…teaches children that unquestioned faith is a virtue. You don’t have to make the case for…

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Richard Dawkins and “The God Delusion”: What’s So Wrong With Religion? (Part 20)

Near the end of The God Delusion, in chapter 8, Dawkins makes his case for why religion is so bad, and why he feels morally obligated to be hostile toward it. He begins by addressing an accusation that many people, I being one of them, have made against the New Atheist Movement: “Doesn’t your hostility…

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Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”: Atheism, Genocide, and Dawkins’ Head in the Sand (Part 19)

Over the past couple of posts I have covered what Richard Dawkins has said about the Old and New Testaments. The gist of my analysis of Dawkins in this respect was pretty simple: he refuses to read and interpret the content of the Old and New Testaments within their historical and literary contexts. It may…

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Richard Dawkins’ “The God Delusion”: The New Testament…Worse than the Old Testament? (Part 18)

It is fairly common to people complain about how blood-thirsty the God of the Old Testament seems to be. Or, at the very least, the violence in the Old Testament gives people pause. But when it comes to Jesus and the New Testament, well, who doesn’t love Jesus? Gandhi patterned his life after Jesus, and…

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Richard Dawkins and “The God Delusion”: Old Testament Atrocities (Part 17)

In our trek through Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion, we have now come to chapter 7, where he turns his attention specifically to the Bible. Let me say up front that his comments may be convincing to anyone who does not understand what the Bible is. Of course, to those who understand the literary and…

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Richard Dawkins and The God Delusion: “I’ve Got Me a Moral Disposition in my Jeans!” (Part 16)

In case you haven’t noticed, I find Richard Dawkins fascinating—not exactly in a positive sense, though. What I mean is that I am genuinely mystified by much of what he says and claims. Not only does he show no real interest in actually understanding what the Bible actually is and what Christianity really teaches, but…

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Biblical Studies Extravaganza! I, Joel Anderson, Have Found the SOURCE of “Q”

***NOTE: This originally was a short little piece I wrote for the Regent College newspaper back in 1997…it never got published, but it is a piece of writing of which I still am extremely proud. If you’re a Biblical Studies nerd, enjoy… “A” Gospel: The True Source of “Q” I wish to tell of a…

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Memes! Memes! I Feel God Deep Down in My Memes! (Part 15: The God Delusion)

In this post, I’m going to address what Richard Dawkins specifically says about what he calls “religious memes.” If you don’t know what a “meme” is, I encourage you to read my previous post. Dawkins concludes his chapter 5 in The God Delusion by equating religious ideas with the concept of memes. A “meme” is Dawkins’ made-up…

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