Dawkins: The Philosophical Naturalist The first chapter of Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion is entitled “A Deeply Religious Non-Believer.” In it, Dawkins makes clear that he is a philosophical naturalist. He writes that he sees himself as: “…somebody who believes there is nothing beyond the natural, physical world, no supernatural creative intelligence lurking behind the…
Ah, the Gospel of Atheism! Atheism fascinates me. Not the kind of atheism in which someone simply says, “I don’t believe God exists,” and then just goes about living his life. I’m talking about the kind of atheism in which people see themselves positively evangelical about it. They bring lawsuits against towns that have any…
I recently watched a PBS presentation entitled, God On Trial. The setting was a barracks in Auschwitz, in which the Jewish men there decided to “hold court” and put God on trial. The issue they set forth to decide was this: “Was God guilty of breach of contract with the Jewish people?” He had promised to…
Perhaps you’ve heard this question before: “How can Jesus be the Messiah when he didn’t fulfill any of the prophecies?” A typical Christian might be surprised at this question, but trust me, it’s a question a typical Jew would ask that typical Christian. Today, I would like to address this very issue. I encourage you…
Continuing with my analysis of Bart Ehrman’s basic arguments against the reliability of the gospels, I wish to comment on a few more points he made in his debate with Craig Evans. No Preservatives… In response to the question, “Do the gospels accurately preserve the activities of Jesus Christ?” Dr. Ehrman’s basic answer was, “No.” …
Bart Ehrman is a New Testament scholar at the University of North Carolina who is most famous for his books, Misquoting Jesus, Jesus Interrupted, and his most recent one, How Jesus Became God. At some point down the line, I hope to specifically address How Jesus Became God, but here in the next couple posts,…
In the course of my Twitter conversations over the weekend, the atheists I talked with were, by and large, a lot more open to discuss than were the Hamites, and there were a few guys with whom I was able to have a civil discussion and clarify a few things. Nevertheless, it is hard getting…
As you will inevitably know if you read my blog, I’m not a fan of Ken Ham. The young earth creationism he espouses is, to put it mildly, wrong across the board: scientifically, biblically, historically. This post, though, it not about Ken Ham, but he does have something to do with it. You see, Ken…
Yesterday, in my previous post concerning the Larcycia Hawkins/Wheaton College story, I tried to reflect on what the more fundamental issues really were. I also referenced a recent blog post by Peter Enns, in which he observed that, although it certainly was not the only factor in this case, Ms. Hawkins’ endorsement of evolution…
Over the past month, the story of Lacycia Hawkins has gained national attention. She is the tenured professor at Wheaton College, a prominent Evangelical college, who announced on Facebook in December that she was going to wear a hajib for month over Christmas to show her love and support for her Muslim neighbor. Wheaton College…