Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Baker, 2014. 351 pp. This is the second (and penultimate) installment in my review of Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan’s book Did God Really Command Genocide? For part 1 click here. I recommend readers begin with part […]
Archives for January 2015
My Two Upcoming Debates on God’s Existence
I will be having two debates on the existence of God in March with Justin Schieber of “Reasonable Doubts“. (You can visit Justin online here.) I met Justin last year when he was in Edmonton at which time I interviewed him for my podcast. Irenic and thoughtful, he shall be a worthy interlocutor. The debates will […]
Did God Really Command Genocide? A Review (Part 1)
Paul Copan and Matthew Flannagan. Did God Really Command Genocide? Coming to Terms with the Justice of God. Baker, 2014. 351 pp. Given the spate of books recently published on the Bible and violence, you might think this is a newly discovered problem. That would be a misreading, however, for theologians have wrestled with this […]
What we can learn from “Loftus Logic” (or why John Loftus isn’t the Fonz)
The last thing I want to do is get pulled back into an unedifying back-and-forth exchange with John Loftus. However, I can’t help but point out that he is now doubling down on his attack on my character with an exercise in Loftus logic. In his latest blog post he writes the following: “I’ve decided […]
John Loftus bizarrely rants against me on Unbelievable. Sadly, all too believable.
This week Justin Brierley’s popular UK radio show “Unbelievable” featured part 1 of a debate between John Loftus and David Marshall on Marshall’s new book How Jesus Passes the Outsider Test: The Inside Story which provides a critical response to Loftus’s own “Outsider Test for Faith.” (You can listen to the show here.) After some […]
What’s splitting your church redux
A few years ago I wrote an article titled “What’s Splitting Your Church? Worship Music or Genocide?” This month Regent College (my Alma mater) is featuring it in their publication “Regent World.”
“Putting down wolves” and other chilling rhetoric
A few days ago film director and provocateur Michael Moore foolishly jammed a stick in the wasp’s nest by saying that all snipers are cowards (take that Chris Kyle). The comment is equal parts false and incendiary. But what most intrigues me are the responses that Moore’s comment elicited. Consider, for example, Don Mann’s response […]
60. Worldview and Apologetics: A Conversation with Tawa Anderson
Let’s begin with a riddle. What do a Dalit Pentecostal living in Calcutta, a Roman Catholic priest living in Spain, and a Baptist housewife living in Dallas, Texas all have in common? The answer is “a Christian worldview.” Or at least it should be. But just what is a worldview exactly? And what is a Christian […]
A Wolf in Sheepdog’s Clothing? A review of American Sniper
American Sniper tells the story of Chris Kyle (played by a substantially beefed-up Bradley Cooper), at 160 recorded kills, the deadliest sniper in the long military history of the United States. I’m not up on sniper score cards, but that certainly sounds like a lot of blood and brains. Through four tours of duty in […]
Does Neil deGrasse Tyson know the meaning of meaning?
This isn’t the first time I’ve written something critical of Neil deGrasse Tyson, so let me start by saying, I am in the adoring crowds … whenever he talks about science. However, I find my admiration beginning to erode — like a sandcastle in the face of an oncoming wave — whenever he begins to […]
The Magic of Boyhood: A Review
From Before Sunrise to School of Rock, I have been a long time fan of director Richard Linklater. So when I learned that he had directed a new film spanning twelve years and depicting the beauty and melancholy of childhood, I knew I had to see it. Though it took me six months to find the time […]
When is a Christian going to write a book defending atheists?
As many of you know, I wrote a book titled Is the Atheist My Neighbor? which is to be published by Wipf and Stock. The book is currently with my editor and should hopefully be available in August. Since I’ve had the book’s title in my head for awhile now, yesterday morning I decided to google […]
Did you hear the one about the boy who went to heaven … except that he didn’t?
Did you hear the one about the boy who went to heaven? Except that he didn’t. Because he made it all up. Because he wanted attention. (But give him credit. He felt guilty, admitted it, and wanted to set the record straight.) And then there is the Christian publisher who published the book and promised to take it […]
Standing up against prejudice … and being called a hypocrite
In my podcast episode “A Response to Bill Maher on Religion and Free Speech” I criticized Bill Maher for invoking prejudicial attitudes against religion generally and Islam in particular in the wake of the Charlie Hebdo attack. In the podcast I argued that while Maher purports to be defending free speech, in fact his inflammatory […]
