Religious

Archive for Religious

Is Intelligent Design Theory Scientific?

Last week’s post turned into a typical argument over whether Intelligent Design (ID) is a “scientific” theory. Let me say upfront that part of this argument is pure posturing (on both sides); the people who are pro-ID want to be able to say it’s scientific, while its opponents want to be able to say it […]

Defending the Fine-Tuning Argument for God

Last week I alluded to the fine-tuning argument for the existence of God, without mentioning my responses to standard objections. So I’ll do that today. Before diving in, I want to remind people that I used to be a “devout atheist” (my terminology), and if I do say so myself, I could talk a good […]

The Finely Tuned Universe

I took my son to a birthday party that was at the planetarium. We ended up watching a bunch of YouTubes on the solar system afterwards, including this cool one. (If you’re not “into” it from the get-go, then skip ahead to 2:25 and watch it through 3:45, which is the relevant section for this […]

What If All the World Were a Stage…?

No doubt one of the most difficult questions a Christian must face is this: Why would a benevolent God allow all the horrible things that happen on a daily basis? Worse still, why would He order the ancient Israelites to do things that we would now classify as war crimes?! I do not take this […]

The Cycle of Hurt, and the Power of Forgiveness

One of my favorite scenes in A Christmas Story is when Ralphie realizes his new Li’l Orphan Annie secret decoder ring has been used to send him a “crummy commercial.” Unfortunately, all of the clips on YouTube end before my favorite part of the scene–when the narrator says something like, “I left the bathroom and […]

Victory From Defeat

I may have posted this before but repetition is good for you… Also this is a-biblical but I hope not anti-biblical… The way I currently see the world, the Devil’s mission in life is to trick you into making decisions that are harmful to both you and others, and in fact would horrify you if […]

Merry Christmas!

One of the neat things about becoming a born-again Christian–besides the whole salvation thing–is that the lyrics of Christmas hymns mean a lot more to me now. For example, how about this one from “Oh Holy Night”: O Holy Night! The stars are brightly shining, It is the night of the dear Saviour’s birth. Long […]

Prince of Peace, but God of Justice

On Facebook someone (who shall remain anonymous to preserve Facebook etiquette) hailed Jesus as the Prince of Peace, and asked that militaristic Christians reflect on that title this Christmas season. In the comments, someone was challenging this view, by pointing to aggressive statements that Jesus made. In response, the original poster analyzed the context of […]