How do people experience God? A century ago Rudolf Otto famously analyzed one type of experience as what he called the sense of the numinous, that is the encounter with a transcendent, holy other. Otto analyzed this experience as having two dimensions. To begin with, there is the “mysterium tremendum” which includes a sense of fear, awe, and of […]
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The first Crazy review
FYI, John Loftus just posted a review of Your not as Crazy as I think at his Debunking Christianity blog. You can check it out here. If things keep going like this, pretty soon atheists and Christians will be gathering around the fire while we all sing “Kumbaya”! Hey, did anybody bring marshmallows to make […]
How to confound Christians with bad arguments: #2 The Indistinguishable Argument
This morning I was in a state of some emotional distress for I could not figure out what to blog about. So I put on my best white suit, plastered my hair down with Brylcreem, laid hands on the computer, and prayed in my best televangelist voice “Oh Lawrd! Send your servant a topic!” And […]
Welcoming an Atheist to the Worldview Interrogation Room
I recently asked Shawn the Atheist to explain and justify his worldview commitments to atheism. He kindly obliged. His brief statement of belief and defense is available here. In what follows I will be interrogating that statement. For ease of reference I have rendered all quotations from Shawn in the same candy apple red as […]
Six Feet Under Before Your Time: A Review of “Buried”
Paul Conroy is not a happy man. He has just woken up, bloodied, disoriented, and with a bad headache. And to cap it off … he’s been buried alive in a coffin. Now that’s a really bad start to the week. Of course a cynic could reply that that’s what you get for driving a […]
Does universalism have a chance in hell of being true?
Thomas Talbott has pointed out that one can find evidence from scripture to support the following three incompatible claims: (1) God wants to save everyone (2) God can save everyone (3) Not everyone will be saved Since this is an inconsistent set, a person has to give up at least one of these propositions. And […]
Universalism isn’t a four letter word
Most Christians believe that some people will be etenally lost. But not all Christians agree with this. Some are supporters of the view that no people will be lost. Among them is one of my friends, the articulate theologian Robin Parry. A few years ago Robin wrote a great book called The Evangelical Universalist. He […]
I am going to prison
I know what you’re thinking. This is some wry joke. But it isn’t. I am indeed going to prison. Next Tuesday. To the Edmonton Institution for Women. No, I’m not a gal. And I haven’t committed a crime. I’m visiting so’s we can have a wide ranging discussion of whatever theological questions they may have. And […]
How to confound Christians with bad arguments: #1 Compare Santa to Jesus
Today I am launching a new series called “How to confound Christians with bad arguments.” Our first argument to kick off the series will be a perennial favorite of mine: “Compare Santa Claus to Jesus.” This is rhetorically effective (heck, its a home run, nay a grand slam) because, well we all know that belief in […]
Will there be free will in heaven?
Last week a pastor emailed me and asked the question: how can we be free in heaven if we will not be able to do evil things? I have heard this question enough to know that has occurred to many reflective Christians. And even if it does not have the existential grip of some other big […]
Committing moral horrors in God’s name revisited (yet again)
In “The mutilation of Isaac” I argued that it would have been wrong for Abraham to kill and mutilate his son as a burnt offering. This was in response to Matthew Flannagan’s argument that there is nothing inherently wrong with God commanding a father to kill his child if the father does so knowing that God […]
Atheists without anger
It gets tiring being around people who are angry all the time. I know a few people like that and I am sure you do to. They’ve always got a battle to fight, a line to draw, a cause to shove down the throats of others. And then there is Andre Comte-Sponville, author of The […]
Being completely objective about your worldview (as if that were possible)
In the past I have had my great frustrations with John Loftus and his Outsider Test of Faith. Shall I count the reasons? For starters, it is arbitrarily imposed upon people who hold a set of claims that are “religious” as a means to test those claims when a more consistent application would present it as […]
Twelve minutes, two films, all sorts of big ideas
What common cause could possibly unite a Jew and an Arab? To find the answer you should watch this short (7 minute) film titled “Strangers” by director Erez Tadmor. If you liked that (and of course you did) you’ll love his follow-up, the short (5 minute) film “Offside“. Both films provide powerful analyses of violence, objectification, and a shared humanity. It is fascinating to […]
