Religious

Archive for Religious

The Benefits of “Arbitrary” Rules

Just a short post tonight, intended mostly for people who already believe in these things. I think the apparently arbitrary religious rules set forth in the Bible actually serve a useful purpose. For example, if you tithe (i.e. donate 10% of your income to the church), then it forces you to keep up with your […]

Can a Christian Be an Anarchist?

This is the post that many atheist anarcho-capitalists have been fearing I would eventually make, but I don’t think it’s as bad as you might be worrying… A while ago Gene Callahan pointed out in one of our numerous arguments that Satan’s offense was his rebellion against authority. So Gene’s point was, how can I […]

“Who Do You Say That I Am?”

A quick note to newcomers: Every Sunday I try to have a single post on religious topics. The other six days a week are devoted to secular matters. ===== In church today we were going over the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness. Previously I highlighted how Jesus quoted nothing but Deuteronomy in His face-off […]

Fulfilling Prophecy in Mysterious Ways

I think I have already remarked that I think it’s pretty neat how scoffers didn’t think Jesus could be the Messiah, since He came from Nazareth while the prophesies said He’d come from Bethlehem. (The solution of course is that Jesus was born in Bethlehem, but grew up in Nazareth.) But today in church we […]

Know the Word

Today in church they went over one of my favorite Bible stories, when a 12-year-old Jesus was found asking questions of the teachers of the Law. I love that story because it indicates that Jesus didn’t come out of the womb omniscient, but was fully man and had to grow into His role. This reminds […]

God and Logic

A standard argument against the notion of the God of the Bible–even deployed by Mises in Human Action–is that God wouldn’t act in the sense that Austrian economists use that term. Specifically, beings act (meaning they use means to achieve ends) in order to remove uneasiness. But an omnipotent being wouldn’t have felt uneasiness, so […]

TNR Anoints the Next Ron Paul

As I write this post, I feel the same way as I do on the 4th of July when I light a bottle rocket and then run away… How do you kids like this? Scott Sumner is touting Gary Johnson, and The New Republic says he is the next Ron Paul. If the article is […]

Is God Hiding?

In the comments of last week’s post, Gene Callahan and I argued that some of the “unexpected” features of mathematics–such as the expansion of e, or how often pi pops up in nature–are surely evidence of the existence of an intelligent Creator of the universe and the structure of our minds. In contrast, various agnostics […]