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05/02/2011 Rob Bell's Story I came across a telling comment from a Rob Bell advocate while perusing a blog that was critical of Love Wins: “I understand what you are saying here, and it’s pretty close to what I have believed for a good portion of my life. But I find Bell’s vision of God and the future more compelling. He may not be right, but I hope he is.” This response happens to be emblematic of Bell’s approach. I hesitate to use a word as definitive as “viewpoint” or “conclusion” because Love Wins draws conclusions by default only. The same reticence characterizing the comment above characterizes the book. What we’re left with is not so much a conclusion or any kind of final elaboration but a certain tone, or better yet, a certain manner. The story metaphor, it turns out, is remarkably flexible if it becomes the end rather than the means.
12/03/2008 The Undeluded Truth? Is the Christian faith intellectual nonsense?
Are Christians deluded?
“If God exists and takes an interest in the affairs of human beings,
his will is not inscrutable,” writes Sam Harris about the 2004 tsunami
in
Letter to a Christian Nation
.
“The only thing inscrutable here is that so many otherwise rational men
and women can deny the unmitigated horror of these events and think
this is the height of moral wisdom.” [i] In his article “God’s Dupes,” Harris argues,
“
Everything of value that people get from religion can be had more honestly, without presuming anything on insufficient evidence.
The rest is self-deception, set to music.” [ii] Ironically, Harris’ first book is entitled
The End of Faith,
but
it should really be called
The End of Reason
as it demonstrates again that the mind that is alienated from God in the name of reason can become totally irrati05/08/2008 Christian worldview - an interview with Ravi Zacharias Indian-born Ravi Zacharias, who grew up steeped in Hinduism, is one of
the first Christian apologists to come out of the Third World.
Headquartered in Atlanta, his expertise on comparative religions has
earned him audiences from Capitol Hill to Harvard. The following are
excerpts from an interview by Julia Duin with Mr. Zacharias, who was in
town recently for a lecture at the C.S. Lewis Institute. 10/30/2007 Address to the United Nations’ Prayer Breakfast You are men and women accustomed to a lot of words, ideas, speeches, and profound reflective thought. When the invitation was first given to me, I wondered what I would really have to say that would move you in any direction that you have not already given thought to before. 10/30/2007 Dying Beliefs and Stillborn Hopes Truth is stranger than fiction, it is said, but as Chesterton has appropriately declared, that may well be because we have made fiction to suit ourselves. There is possibly a more disturbing reason for our estrangement from truth, particularly if that truth signifies a reality that is terrifying and unchangeable. 10/30/2007 Transcript for Live Chat One of the hardest challenges in sharing Christ... how do you tell people who don't care? 10/30/2007 Unspeakable: A Brief Book Review "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing," said British statesman Edmund Burke. Uttered over two centuries ago, his words have proved prescient in the annals of history and are probed again in the pages of a new book. 10/30/2007 Ravi Zacharias responds to the Virginia Tech shootings On April 16, 2007, when Cho Seung-Hui opened fire on his victims, shooting with deadly force and at random, another dark and painful chapter was written in our shared lives as human beings, and as Americans in particular. So much is unknown and so much spadework is being done to figure it all out. There is however, in the midst of it all one powerful clue that gives us the only hint of an answer. 10/26/2007 St. Augustine and the Scandal of the North African Catholic Mind A couple of years ago, an evangelical historian Mark Noll wrote the book The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind. Noll pointed out that modern evangelicals are not known for their rigorous thinking, nor does popular evangelicalism tend to sustain the intellectual life. Such a situation, he pointed out, has practical implications. 10/26/2007 Addressing Those Colossal Misunderstandings: A Response to Doug Krueger Having read Doug Krueger’s critique of Ravi Zacharias’ book A Shattered Visage, I was shocked at his vitriol and unwarranted sarcasm. However, I am grateful to the powers that be at the Secular Web/Internet Infidels website, who have encouraged a response in the name of openness and intellectual honesty. 10/26/2007 The Presumptuousness of Atheism Atheist Antony Flew has said that the "onus of proof must lie upon the theist."Unless compelling reasons for God’s existence can be given, there is the "presumption of atheism." Another atheist, Michael Scriven, considers the lack of evidence for God’s existence and the lack of evidence for Santa Claus on the same level.However, the presumption of atheism actually turns out to be presumptuousness. 10/26/2007 Can Michael Martin Be a Moral Realist?: Sic et Non In his essay "Atheism, Christian Theism, and Rape," he finds the theistic belief that God is the locus of objective moral values problematic. Who appointed God? How do we know he’s impartial? What criteria does he use for determining good or bad? 10/26/2007 Atheistic Goodness Revisited: A Personal Reply to Michael Martin I only hope that my response will both clarify my theistic position and respond fairly to your arguments. In your initial on-line article, you only mentioned in a passing footnote the supposed a priori impossibility of God’s being the ground of objective morality based on the incoherence of the divine attributes. 10/26/2007 Steadying the Soul While the Heart Is Breaking September 11th, 2001: A day when millions of hearts were broken, if not shattered. Who of us will ever forget it? I was overseas when the carnage took place. A few days later, as I boarded the plane in Paris to return home in the aftermath of this diabolical act perpetrated upon America and the civilized world, the silence aboard the aircraft spoke volumes. 10/26/2007 Jonathan Edwards’ Philosophical Influences: Lockean Or Malebranchean?
In Perry Miller’s intellectual biography of Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), he claims that when Edwards discovered and read John Locke’s Essay Concerning Human Understanding in 1717, this was “the central and decisive event in his intellectual life.” Indeed, Miller’s book makes much of the influence of Locke and Isaac Newton on Edwards’ thinking. 10/26/2007 “Who Are You to Judge Others?” - In Defense of Making Moral Judgments When Dan Quayle said that Murphy Brown’s giving birth to an illegitimate child wasn’t a good role model for America’s youth, he was ridiculed, called “judgmental,” and labeled arrogant. Who was he to pontificate about “family values”? Quayle wasn’t hit with the criticism rightly leveled against some—that they are hypocrites. He was accused of doing what no one has the right to do: telling others how to live.
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