Some years ago I was at a coffee shop with a friend when we got into a heated discussion over the question of whether a Christian could be a serial killer. (He said yes, I said no. ) The dispute was not whether there might be self-identified Christians who moonlight as serial killers. That there [...]
Read moreTheologians and philosophers have long identified two kinds of evil: moral and natural. The latter is rooted in suffering that arises from the processes and events of the natural world including all suffering that arises from the actions of animals. The only sources of moral evil in the world — and with it sin — [...]
Read moreA few days ago John Loftus came out with a new argument against Christianity. According to this argument, if Christians stopped evangelizing then Christianity would die out. But if Christianity were true God wouldn’t let it die out. Therefore Christianity is false. Uh huh. I offered an initial rebuttal here. The gist of my argument [...]
Read moreRecently the issue of defining atheism came up in the blog. In response, I thought I’d repost a January 2010 article I wrote at Christian Post on the topic. The Problem The line between atheist and agnostic used to be clear. Atheists believed that no God or gods existed. Agnostics didn’t have any belief as [...]
Read moreLast week Bryan El commented in the blog on the defense of torture techniques to extract information that might save the lives of people. (Nor was he the only one defending torture.) He wrote: “I don’t think it’s wrong to cause someone extreme pain to get them to confess specific information (the whereabouts of a [...]
Read moreJohn Loftus just came up with a new argument against Christianity. He summarized it like this: 1) If Christianity is true then the Christian faith will probably not die out if Christians stop proselytizing. (2) The Christian faith will probably die out if Christians stop proselytizing. (3) Therefore Christianity is false. It is, if nothing else, [...]
Read moreJag Levak’s belief that it would be morally praiseworthy for a woman to grant a dying child’s request for sexual favors has succeeded in illuming some grand canyons that separate our approaches to moral reasoning. In this article I’d like to address one of those deep fissures that lead to such different outcomes. That fissure arises depending on [...]
Read moreWe all recognize it is good to be generous, but there are limits. For example, Herod was generous to offer the daughter of Herodias whatever she wanted. But he was just wrong to oblige the child’s request for the head of John the Baptist. What if the daughter was terminally ill and had made an [...]
Read moreThis week John W. Loftus, my agent and I chose one of two covers proposed by Baker for God or Godless. You can see it at John’s blog here. Generally speaking it is a handsome cover, I think. But I had one misgiving: does the world need yet another book featuring a detail from Michelangelo’s [...]
Read moreThe best thing about living in a small town is that it is easy to get to know people really well. The worst thing about living in a small town is that it is hard not to get to know people really well. I lived in a small town for ten months. One day I [...]
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