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Tag: revelation

Reader’s Guide to “Richard Dawkins Goes to Heaven.”

Third in a series of reader’s guides for my short story collection, “Richard Dawkins, Antony Flew, and Mother Teresa Go to Heaven.”  This one is for the Richard Dawkins story primarily, but may be applicable to the others.  For more details, see previous posts.

How Not to Read Imaginative Literature

What follows is an extreme condensation of chapter 14 in Mortimer J. Adler’s How to read a Book.

1.       Do not read imaginative literature as if its goal is to convey knowledge as such. The goal of imaginative literature is to communicate an experience itself- one that the reader can … continue reading...

Reader’s Guide to “Antony Flew Goes to Heaven.’

For background on why I believe that this reader’s guide might be helpful, please see the posts immediately prior to this one.  This guide pertains specifically to the story “Antony Flew Goes to Heaven” but the principles it discusses will likely be useful for the other stories, and interpreting literature in general.

Reader’s Guide to “Antony Flew Goes to Heaven.”

According to Mortimer J. Adler in How to Read a Book, there are 3 general maxims of intellectual etiquette.  As calls for civility in public discourse abound today, it is good to see what qualifies in the mind of … continue reading...

tickling ears or touching hearts? part 2

There’s a lot of churches out there.

I have been a church-goer for 30 years. I’ve been serious about Christianity. I’m practical. I’m simple.

My seriousness about Christianity simply means (see? simple) as much as is within me, I am devoted and dedicated to the Lord. I’m not a bandwagon jumper. I hate them. I’ve seen a lot of trends in Christianity. Ones I have held to the light of what I understand is simple in the scriptures. I am not a Bible scholar. I do not have a degree. But I suppose that puts me kinda “up there” with … continue reading...

A Conversation on Final Regress and First Causes

I recently had a conversation with some gents that I thought I would paraphrase for my blog.  I think I’ve had the same kind of conversation a dozen times in the last three months.  I have combined all the conversations into one paraphrase.  The Internet is filled with conversations like this.  If you have got one feel free to share.  Enjoy.

Them:  We believe science is the only way to learn about the world and religion is just faith-mongering superstition.  There is no scientific basis for believing in the existence of God.  Belief is just irrationalism.  I know what you’re … continue reading...

Herr Professor Strikes Back: atheist Deacon Duncan takes issue with my arguments

I noticed the other day that someone had taken the time to respond at length to my post discussing trancendence, immanence, logic and superlogic.  Then I woke up this morning to find out he had posted again on it!  Herr Professor, this is just too much! 🙂  Herr Professor, now going by Deacon Duncan, knows that I prefer to have extended discussions on my discussion forum but he has sufficiently stroked my ego that I think a post or two is warranted.  It is not every day that I am described as smart and sophisticated and that my arguments … continue reading...

Religion (ie, Christianity) requires higher scrutiny because it demands massive commitments

In the last week or so I had two exchanges where the debate turned on why the atheist/agnostic was demanding a higher level of scrutiny for ‘religious’ claims than other kinds of claims.  In one of the cases, the really odd thing is that the person(s) had admitted that science, being limited as it is to the natural order, is unable to touch the supernatural and yet continued to say that science nonetheless remains the best way to learn about the world.   This is not coherent.  When pressed, in this case they again admitted that science couldn’t prove or disprove … continue reading...

NBC Heroes: Did God Give them Their Powers? Angels and Monsters and Christianity

In NBC Heroes tonight we had more religious overtures and a thorough playing out of moral equivocation across the board.  The question basically asked was:  “Are these men and women angels or are they monsters?”  There seemed to be no way to distinguish ‘good’ guy from ‘bad’ guy and previous ‘good guys’ now seem to be monsters whereas ‘bad guys’ are becoming winsome.

In my opinion, this sort of moral confusion doesn’t bother me all that much.  Really, the whole thing typifies what life could conceivably be like in a godless universe.  True, it doesn’t match up with our own … continue reading...

Response to Clark on Naturalism, Faith and Reason, Revelation and Miracle

Tonight’s entry will be the latest in an exchange of cordial blog entries between myself and Curtis Clark, an atheist.  His latest, which I will be responding to, expands on my request for his thoughts on the ‘presumption of atheism.’

There are three basic parts to my response today.  First on Mr. Clark’s distinction between ‘faith’ and ‘reason.’  Simply put, I do not accept it.  About the only people who do accept his distinction are atheists themselves and Christians like myself sit around scratching our heads for most of us do not view ‘faith’ the way that atheists think … continue reading...

What it means that Dumbledore is Gay, A Christian’s Response, and Objective Reality

I have a lot to cram in here, so I don’t know that it is even worth trying.  It may help if you go back to my first post on this subject.  This makes my third post on the subject.

Something interesting I found today was this article here by a certain, aptly named, Michael Dorf.   I thought it interesting because he makes the point that just because Rowling declares Dumbledore to be gay, it does not make it so.   It cannot be supported by the text, which stands alone.  I agree with this in a sense.  One … continue reading...

Not just any time. The right time.

When I was a religion teacher I was often asked why God didn’t perform miracles today as often as he did in the Christian Scriptures. The question is a natural one. As one starts from Genesis and proceeds through Revelation, there are a litany of miraculous events happening one after the other. However, it is easy to forget that the Scriptures aren’t a history of the entire human race. They skip around- after the miraculous events surrounding Daniel there was a 400 year silence before Jesus was born. And even in a single book, there could be dozens and hundreds … continue reading...

Omnipotence, Omniscience, Etc.

I’m always amazed at how the same things come up over and over again from atheists. The funny thing is that they always think they’re bringing some new revelation, as though Christians and theists in general haven’t been hearing- and answering- these things for thousands of years.  Sparking this blog is this thread and the two threads it references: http://www.sntjohnny.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=2199.

A robust understanding of the ‘omnis’ of Christian theism… omnipotent, omniscient, etc… is easily gained by anyone spending time engaging solid Christian material rather than taking cues from skeptic’s ‘objections’ so I’m not going to expound on that too … continue reading...