There’s certainly no shortage of divisions when it comes to Christianity–or religions in general. So what’s the difference between Christianity and Islam? Where does Mormonism fit into our faith? What about the Amish? And what makes a Presbyterian different than a Methodist? All good questions. This little guide will help you hash the answers out….
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Got this idea in your head that people in the past had it easy? That’s just not true. Take Augustine for example. I don’t know about you, but I’ve got this idea in my head that people in the past had it easy… That they wrote, thought and taught in a vacuum–free from distractions, objections…
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**Guest post by Rob Powell. Part of a series on truth.** True or False: Sean Connery was the best James Bond ever? Of course the answer is true… And as long as I keep this statement limited to my experience and preference it remains valid. But, as soon as I try to put my preferences into a…
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Why does God allow natural disasters like the Haiti earthquake? The best and worst responses to human suffering. Of the enduring success of his book Catcher in the Rye the late it was a living nightmare. That sounds strange to me, a man who doesn’t have the success of a Salinger–and wouldn’t mind it. But I think it…
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In view of this growing, hostile reaction to Christianity, you need to keep these three things in mind as you hash out your plan of attack–or retreat. Books supporting evolution are not in short supply. Stand just inside my local Barnes and Noble and you’ll see what I mean. Lining a shelf of the new and…
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Four people want to conquer a walled city. Three are successful. One is not. The sets up his battering ram and hammers away day and night. The woos his way into the city with conversation, confetti and concert music. The loses a year of sleep engineering a tunnel underneath the city. And the lingers along the wall feeling for…
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What beliefs create peaceful behavior and deal with the discord of religion? Here’s the answer. Part of a series on truth. There’s no getting around it: Everybody has an exclusive set of beliefs. Moralists look down their noses at unbelievers as filthy, undisciplined misfits. Secularists snub religious people as psychopathic nut jobs. And pragmatists demand we shed our religious beliefs when…
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Pragmatist argue that it’s necessary to check our religious beliefs at the door when we debate issues. Unfortunately, that can’t work. Part of a series on truth. Richard Rorty, the leading American philosophical pragmatist–who I wrote about in The Problem with Your Personal Testimony post–argues that when you come to the public square to debate issues like…
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“What does the meaningless, value-absent creed of humanism have to offer? It might surprise you. Part of a series on truth. One of the reasons I’m enormously disenchanted with humanism is due to it’s inevitable, blissful slide into subjectivity. I mean blissful in two senses: 1. It changes without much fuss or notice. 2. And…
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Part of the 10 Questions with an Atheist series. John Loftus was a philosophy instructor at a secular college when he decided to walk away from Christianity. It wasn’t easy. The only thing Loftus had known since he was 18 was learning, teaching and defending Christianity. During that time he had chased several divinity degrees and a…
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