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Category: atheism

What Went Wrong with the Left? Part 2: Marxism

A continuation from this post.

A summary of ‘what happened?’ so far:  atheism, Darwinism, and utilitarianism.

These three items are not discrete events, but are definite themes that began gelling together into the basic fabric of ‘liberalism’ in the 1800s and early 1900s.  However, events can’t be discounted.  A stream of thought will have its direction altered if a giant boulder is suddenly thrown into the middle of it.  How the current reacts to this new circumstance isn’t always predictable.  The events provide an opportunity to see the worldview in action.  Did the worldview rise to the occasion?  Or … continue reading...

It’s time to grow up and believe in Santa Claus–and Christ.

“Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house…” begins some of the most enchanting verse in American literature.  The enchantment is real, and powerful.  Clement Moore’s poem may not have started the commercialization of Christmas, but it certainly added fuel to the fire—enough, perhaps, to turn it into a raging inferno.

Yet, even for Moore’s poem to ‘catch fire’ the way it did, some kind of explanation seems warranted.  In fact, to say that Moore tapped into a powerful human current is, after all, to admit to the existence of a river for the current to flow through.  … continue reading...

Tips for Knowing that What you Know is True and Real

In a preamble to this topic, I set forth some important caveats.  I may have some more when I am done.  In this post, I aim to set forth my basic principles and practices for drawing as close as I can to ‘knowledge.’

1.  Have as few preconceived notions as possible, and be aware of the ones that you have.  The universe is a big place, and the earth fairly large, too, relative to your own experiences.  Be as skeptical of your own apprehension of reality as you are of others.  Many people trust that they OF COURSE are able … continue reading...

Tips for Knowing that What you Know is True and Real: Preamble

Many disagreements on issues come down to a fundamental difference on how people arrive at what they consider to be ‘true’ and the different weighting they give to different kinds of knowledge claims.  It is even worse when people are unaware of how they are arriving at their conclusions and have given no thought whatsoever to whether or not these methods are sound, or appropriate to the categories they are applying those methods to.  I have given thought to this, indeed, you could even say I wrote the book on epistemology.  😉 There have been many occasions where I thought … continue reading...

Missing the Point on Bill Nye

Judging from my Facebook home feed, Bill Nye has (once again) said some things monumentally stupid.

As I scanned the episodes in his Netflix series “Bill Nye Saves the World,” I was reminded of Joel Achenbach’s March, 2015, National Geographic article titled, “Why Do Many Reasonable People Doubt Science?” Achenbach says something very revealing about liberals:

Americans fall into two basic camps, Kahan says. Those with a more “egalitarian” and “communitarian” mind-set are generally suspicious of industry and apt to think it’s up to something dangerous that calls for government regulation; they’re likely to see the risks of … continue reading...

Why I love the Commercialization of Christmas

Every year about this time there are complaints about the commercialization of Christmas.  I think even my hero, C.S. Lewis had some cynical things to say about it.  No doubt, it is ironic and even scandalous that the ‘reason for the season’ is often only a pretext for people and businesses to make a load of money.  And they do make a lot of money.  And certain elements don’t mesh well with the ‘religious’ overtones of the holiday (etymology: ‘holy day‘), to be sure.  Even within Christendom, there is the sense that we are to take a meditative, … continue reading...

It is not Us vs. Them; it is Reality vs. Unreality

“The most striking difference between ancient and modern sophists is that the ancients were satisfied with a passing victory of the argument at the expense of truth, whereas the moderns want a more lasting victory at the expense of reality” — Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism

I am writing this before we know who the next president of the United States is so that readers understand that the issues I’m raising are not tied to the election, even if they are manifested within it.  References to politics are for illustration only.
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In America, politics often falls along distinct … continue reading...

An Apology for Apologetics: The Church Response (part 4)

I am three parts into a series organizing my thoughts in advance of an event I’ll be speaking at.  The other parts are important.  You should read them.  (1, 2, 3).

At the end of part 3, I wrote:

But now see it from the viewpoint of the Christian Church trying to size up the problem and come up with a response.  How exactly is the Church going to compete against a set of ideologies and attitudes presented to young people as true for the first eighteen years of their lives, day in and day … continue reading...

An Apology for Apologetics: The Rise of the Naturalism Fallacy (part 3)

This is the third essay of musings, organizing my thoughts for an upcoming presentation.

In the first essay, I showed that the rise of the ‘religious nones’ within just the last decade or so is massive, and provided data that supports what most of us already knew:  most of these were raised in the Christian faith.  To explain this massive shift, in the second essay I laid it at the feet of just one thing:  Darwinism.

But I also said:

I will argue that despite the central role that Darwinism presently plays in fueling hostility to Christian faith, the … continue reading...

An Apology for Apologetics: Musings (Part 1)

I will be giving a presentation in a few weeks about the need for apologetics and have been revisiting some of my past research on the subject.  As a way to organize my thoughts and bring out some matters that I’ve been sitting on for a long time, I thought I would venture a few posts on the topic.

Of course, when I title this entry ‘an apology for apologetics’ I don’t mean that I’m sorry about apologetics.  🙂  This is a defense of defending the Christian faith.  This is different than defending the Christian faith.  Unfortunately, there are some … continue reading...

What Sin Really Is and Why Acknowledging It Offers More Reason to Live than Denying It Exists

I had an interesting conversation recently with an atheist.  Essentially, the atheist built a syllogism (with a little helpful prodding by myself) where he accepted both of the premises, and then refused to complete it.  It was pure logic–but he wouldn’t accept it.  The irony, of course, is thick.  He believes atheists are the masters of reason.  But, as I have recognized time and time again, atheists are among the most irrational people on the globe and don’t give a lick about ‘logic.’  It is a lesson for other Christian apologists out there, who think that all that is necessary … continue reading...

An Unexpected Reason Why Apologetics Fails

I have been involved in Christian apologetics for a little over 20 years, with about 7 years of ‘professional’ church work under my belt. I’ve had many, many conversations with unbelievers, online and off.  Many, if not most, were not raised as atheists, but were former Christians.   We tended to focus on argument and evidence (ie, the merits or demerits of Christianity), but in many cases, it was clear this had very little to do with their falling away.  It usually had to do with some unloving thing some Christians, or perhaps their whole church, did to them, or those … continue reading...

Solving the Islamicist Problem Once and For All, Part 7, The Rampart, B: Embracing the First Amendment

In Part 7.A of this series, I tried to explain some of the features of a Christian culture that made it a ‘bulwark’ against Islamicism.  Opponents of this perspective nearly always interpret such statements to mean, “Christians are better people, and that’s why…” but that’s no where near the real argument, which is, “All people are corrupted, every one of them, Christians included.”   All systems built on the idea that people are intrinsically good devolve into tyranny, given enough time… and it usually doesn’t take that long, relatively speaking.  But if you believe the latter position, then you build precautions … continue reading...

More Atheistic Hubris that Amounts to the Death of Knowledge

One of the things that led me to reject atheism is the realization that most of its arguments, if true, mean that we couldn’t possibly know its true.  It violates what I call “the Golden rule of Epistemology,” which means, basically, “any epistemological approach that undermines epistemology itself must be rejected out of hand.” I have a long essay written on the subject with many examples, which you can buy on Amazon.  Sometimes, it isn’t an argument, per se, but a tactic, or an attitude, or approach to truth propositions, in general, that has the actual effect of … continue reading...