Over the years, I’ve encountered many objections to the reconciliation of Christianity to Neo-Darwinian evolution. One of the most common and forceful objections pertains to the alleged loss of human dignity that comes with a biology of common descent. As Christian rock singer Larry Norman sang in “God Part III,” “I don’t believe in evolution. I […]
anthropology
What are Human Rights Based On? A Response to Andy Bannister
A couple weeks ago “Unbelievable” featured a debate/dialogue on human rights between Christian apologist Andy Bannister and humanist/atheist Peter Tatchell. The show begins with a short video from Andy and so in providing my critical response that is where I’ll begin as well: Andy is an articulate and engaging speaker. But I disagree with his […]
Humanism, Christianity, and Human Dignity
Yesterday my friend Andy Bannister tweeted the following: If tweets are meant to be stimuli for further reflection, this one certainly qualifies. At first I thought Andy was saying Christianity is the only worldview that can provide an adequate account of value and dignity. But that can’t be right since Judaism shares with Christianity an appeal […]
You Don’t Own Yourself: Christianity Against Culture Part 1
Several weeks ago, blog commenter extraordinaire Luke Breuer posed the following question to me in a discussion thread: “What are some of the ways you think Christianity [strongly?] contrasts with contemporary culture?” It’s an interesting question, not least because I spend a lot of my time emphasizing the points of continuity between Christianity and contemporary […]
Human value and the atonement: A Reply to Andy Bannister
I’ve just been listening to (and enjoying) the August 29th edition of Unbelievable which features a dialogue between Christian theist Andy Bannister and atheist Michael Ruse on the meaning of life. There is a lot to dig into here: both Bannister and Ruse are intelligent and engaging speakers who show charity to the other side. […]
Christology, Anthropology, Theodicy. Inconsistency?
1 Corinthians 15:45: “So it is written: ‘The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit.’” The underlying premise of any self-respecting Christian anthropology is found in this maxim: Christology is anthropology. That is, if you want to understand the essence of humanity you should not look back to the […]
What are we made of? Star dust or stellar nuclear waste?
Carbon, the building blocks of life (as we know it), is produced by a process called stellar nucleosynthesis. This is an amazing fact, and I have seen it described in two very different ways: We are made of star dust. We are made of stellar nuclear waste. This is a particularly vivid example of how a […]
Do human beings have spectral bodies?
The other day I received the following query via email: “Do we get an intermediate body for our souls in heaven whilst we await the second coming?” I suppose the answer will depend what one means by “body”. Historically, most Christians have believed that human beings have (or are) souls, and that these souls are simple […]
Does a really old universe show that human beings are not important?
Mark Twain thought so. In one of his finest rhetorical moments (in a career sparkling with them) he wrote: “Man has been here 32,000 years. That it took a hundred million years to prepare the world for him is proof that that is what it was done for. I suppose it is. I dunno. If […]
Write us a post you’re the bloggin’ man
I blog on request occasionally. And I work for tips, so long as they’re directed to Kiva the micro-lending agency. And recently I have had a few requests piling up in the queue so I’ll be dealing with a few of them over the next few days. First up is a soulful question emailed to me by […]
