Monthly Archives: July 2021

Fred is furious because some animal destroyed his garden. Hes considering and dismissing possible culpritsfrom aardvarks to zebraswhile our hero points out the clues for rabbits. Fred says that its not rabbits, either. Youve dismissed all those other animals? Well, he just goes one animal further.

This is a Christian response to another atheist argument in The Atheist Who Didnt Exist by Andy Bannister (part 1). This is supposed to mimic the atheist argument used by Richard Dawkins and many others that Christians reject hundreds or thousands of gods; why not just go one god further like the atheist?

Bannisters harsh critique: To describe this as a bad argument is to flirt somewhat casually with understatement.

Game on!

(BTW, Bannisters book is online at books.google.com here.)

Bannister illustrate the problem with several examples.

Bannisters next summarize the atheist argument: The argument leaks like a rusty colander and The argument is, to use a technical term from academic philosophy, bonkers.

No, whats bonkers is the idea that his examples are analogous to the subject at hand. A bachelor can be married to zero women, but a murder must have been committed by one or more murdererssee the difference?

All I see him doing is raising dust to cloud the issue... but then that might be the goal.

Bannister generalizes the argument: never pick something out of a collection because it leaves you open to the challenge, Hold on! You rejected all these other ones, so why not just go one further and reject them all? He phrases it this way:

You see, the underlying problem with the One God Less argument is that it goes too far. If the argument were valid, it would have a devastating consequence, namely that it would behave like a universal acid and erode all exclusive truth claims, be they in theology, law, or science.

It goes too far only when you force it there. Sometimes None of the above is a possibility and sometimes not. You can suggest that a Christian believe in zero gods, but you cant tell a vegan to adopt zero dietary regimes (they have to eat something).

Lets return to Freds poor garden, ravaged the previous night by some kind of animal. The constant fight of gardeners against animals that eat their crops is well understood. You know that something trashed Freds garden, so this had zero causes isnt an option.

How could this possibly be analogous to the religion case? Compare many animals with many religions. We know that all these animals exist. In sharp contrast, most religions must be false and they might all be. There are one or more causes of Freds damaged garden, while there could be zero or more gods that actually exist. Zero is absolutely not an answer in the garden case, while it is a very live option in the religion case.

Bannister now wants to argue that when you compare religions, Christianity comes out decisively on top. He begins by scolding his favorite atheist, Richard Dawkins.

Dawkins has made a fairly basic mistake, namely failing to notice that when multiple explanations are offered for somethingbe that a murder, a scientific theory, or a religious claimwe dont immediately assume that all are equally likely.

All religions have the same Achilles Heelsupernatural belief. If that single foundational assumption is wrong, then theyre all wrongall equally wrong and all in the same way. Only if the supernatural does indeed exist are the differences interesting and worth comparing. Without the supernatural, those differences are trivial, and Bannister does nothing to argue for the existence of the supernatural.

And then, in a startling addition to the conversation, Bannister states: It often comes as a shock to many atheists to know that there is surprisingly good evidence for God.

Woware we to finally get some argument to support his just-trust-me handwaving for Christianitys remarkable claims? Nope, just a link to Alvin Plantingas famous but oddly incomplete Two Dozen (or so) Theistic Arguments (nicely rebutted by Richard Carrier).

This will be a repeated frustration. Bannisters book attempts to criticize what he considers low-hanging fruit in the atheist garden while spending no time getting his own rundown house in order.

To be continued.

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Im a friendly enough sort of chap . . .Im not a hostile person to meet.But I think its important to realisethat when two opposite points of vieware expressed with equal intensity,the truth does not necessarily lie exactly halfway between them.It is possible for one side to be simply wrong. Richard Dawkins

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For the argument to be more analogous, they should be debating whether it was the Loch Ness Monster, a yeti, [a unicorn,] or a flying purple people-eater, and settling on the evidence indicating it was the Easter Bunny. commenter Greg G.

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(This is an update of a post that originally appeared 12/26/16.)

Image from Paul Stein (license CC BY-SA 2.0)

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Bad Atheist Arguments: I Just Reject One More God than You - Patheos

Dr. Michael Guillen physicist, astronomer and mathematician lays to waste the old debate about whether science and religion get along. Not only are they compatible, but it is because of science that he became a Christian. In fact, it was the paradoxical words of Jesus, Love your enemies, The meek shall inherit the world, The first shall be last, that he saw the scientific concept of a Quantum Vacuum come to life. Guillen is the former science correspondent for ABC News and was a professor of physics at Harvard for eight years. Bottom line, hes no slouch when it comes to understanding science. He lives and breathes it daily. He was once an atheist but began exploring the various forms of spirituality. He tried Transcendental Meditation, Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and then finally found Christianity. On this episode ofLighthouse Faithpodcast, Guillen talks about his new book, Believing Is Seeing: A Physicist Explains How Science Shattered His Atheism and Revealed the Necessity of Faith. It is science that helped him find his faith, and it is his faith that lets him see science as Gods creation.

The rest is here:

Dr. Michael Guillen Sees Science in the Words of Jesus - Radio NB

Heather Pippin

I rewatched the film Shadowlands last week, it focuses on a portion of C. S. Lewis life. The movie reminded me of the authors incredible contribution to Christian thought in the mid-20th century. According to Lewis 1955 memoir, Surprised by Joy, he was baptized in the church of Ireland as a boy but during adolescence, abandoned his faith. Partially through the influence of close friend and fellow-author J. R. R. Tolkien, Lewis rekindled his faith and became a committed Christian.

Lewis faith had an incredible impact upon his work. He wrote numerous Christian classics, including the Chronicles of Narnia. His radio broadcasts about faith during World War II helped him become a respected Christian leader. His ability to defend and clarify Christianity gained him considerable fame.

Shadowlands is about Lewis relationship with gifted American author, Joy Davidman Gresham. She grew up in a Jewish atheist home and eventually became a Communist before converting to Christianity. As a new believer, Gresham read several of Lewis books and wrote to him with questions. A pen pal relationship developed and the two became close friends. According to Lewis brother, what initially drew them together was their brilliant minds and uncommon sense of humor. It was not until Gresham separated from her abusive alcoholic husband that she and Lewis finally met when her and her two sons, David and Douglas visited England.

During her visit, their friendship deepened and, on April 23, 1956, they married in a civil marriage contract so she could continue living in England though they did not live as a married couple.

Shortly afterward, Gresham developed intense pain in her hip. Doctors diagnosed terminal bone cancer. During her illness Lewis came to realize how much he cared for her and the two were married in a Christian ceremony preformed in her hospital room at Churchill Hospital on March 21, 1957.

To everyones delight and surprise Joys cancer went into remission and the happy couple and her children lived together as a family until 1960, when her cancer returned. She died July 13, 1960.

Lewis was overwhelming with grief. He recorded his thoughts in a journal. He eventually turned his jumbled thoughts into the book, A Grief Observed. However, his experience was so personal, he chose not to publish it under his name, but as, N. W. Clerk. Friends suggested Lewis read it without realizing he was the author. His secret did not come out until after his death.

Lewis became very disillusioned but clung to his faith. Old Testament hero Job expressed both faith and frustration when he wrote, God might kill me, but I have no other hope. I am going to argue my case with him. (Job 13:15, NLT) It is normal to struggle during loss. Both Lewis and Job teach us we can take our honest questions to God. While not magical, praying through loss helps us reconnect with the God who loves us and regain our perspective in the process.

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Honest to God - Walterboro Live

Most of us have heard the phrase looking at the world through rose-colored glasses. Most of the time, it simply means that we have chosen to view something in a positive light. And in fact, I think we very often do choose to view the world in which we live with certain preconceived ideas. I believe all of us look at life through the lens of a certain worldview. I believe further, that it is impossible not to interpret the events that unfold around us without passing them through some sort of intellectual filter. It helps us understand things, and allows us to categorize other peoples opinions and biases.

At one point in my life - early in my faith walk - I spent quite a bit of time studying the different apologetic and philosophical arguments both for and against the monotheistic God. It was really fascinating, even more so than a typical world religion class (where they compare different religious belief systems in a more basic manner). I enjoyed researching the conflicting core worldviews quite a bit more.

If we are talking here about viewing things through a particular type of lens, then to begin with, I can list off several non-Biblical systems of thought. For example, the atheist says that there is no God at all, so dont bother looking. The relativist says that all truth is relative, and depends only on what you personally decide is right or wrong as an individual. A universalist might stop you in the hall and remind you that basically everything shakes out to similar attributes in the end. Finally, Scientism tells us that we can only ever know the physical world around us, and nothing else really matters.

If you notice, all of these worldviews seem to share one thing in common: they dont leave space for any higher, greater truth claims. They look only so far as their particular belief system allows, and no further. Any appeal to a higher moral or ethical power is limited by whatever a worldview happens to espouse. In other words, there is a glass ceiling in terms of how much truth you can access.

I will contrast this to the orthodox Christian Biblical view in a moment, but first I want to point to a piece of Scripture from Acts 9:18. It says, Immediately, something like scales fell from Sauls eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. This passage describes the apostle Pauls famous conversion on the road to Damascus. In a flash of light and loud audible voice, Saul becomes Paul, and he meets the real God for the first time.

The concept of scales being removed from someones eyes means that at some point, God steps in and allows a believer to see the world through the lens of Jesus of Nazareth. Its as if all of a sudden a dark veil that once hindered our understanding of godly things is dropped, and we are able to comprehend the things of the Spirit. Paul had this type of epiphany on the road to Damascus, and it changed the course of his life forever. It changes you and I also.

Author and philosopher C.S. Lewis has been quoted as saying, I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen; not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else. God is our primary source of goodness in this world. If we arent looking at things by His light, then we are missing something. All we see are shadows. We need His help to see things clearly, to understand the parables and stories of the Bible, and to help spread the Gospel message. Without it, we can easily slip back into one of the secular categories I mentioned earlier.

So what in fact does it look like to view the world with Bible colored glasses? To answer that question, we must go back to the account of Paul in Acts. Scripture says that he didnt go directly into ministry after his conversion. In fact, he took some time off to study and reflect. I think it is okay for us to do the same. Once we see things the way God does, then lets face it - a good many of our personal philosophies might need to be revised. We need to work on ourselves for a bit.

Once the scales come off, however, we are free. There is no going backwards. We are free to love without reservation, to shed guilt associated with sin, and to recognize the need for repentance in order to come closer to a Holy life. This all takes some work of course, but it is work with an end goal of hope (getting closer to a loving God). Whereas other worldviews are often limited by a finite end goal, the Christian view allows its proponents to test other opinions and views by staking them up against what God says in the Bible. At that point, we can weigh an idea based on whether or not it yields good fruit and produces spiritual growth, or whether it espouses hate speech and conflict.

My advice is this: use the gift of clear vision to steer your ship in Gods direction. Look at whats happening around us today in the world in light of the Bibles commandments, and not just what a television news anchor might think. Gods Word will take you on a deeper, and more fruitful path, often yielding a far more profound result than you would otherwise find.

Proverbs 3:5-6 says, Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Let His heart guide yours, and we are promised that eventually over time, our paths will finally cross. What a glorious day that will be for every believer.

As a final note, I wanted to add that some readers may accuse me of being a victim of my own religious bias and Christian worldview, in the same way that I have faulted secular belief systems. But understand this difference ... in a solid Christian church, a new believer has the freedom to question faith and look around a bit. Can adherents of the other views I mentioned do that? For example, if the atheist starts talking about the possibility of the supernatural, I suspect intense criticism would follow. Likewise, if a naturalist tries to question macroevolution or the Darwinian view on human origins, they are out of the club so to speak. By contrast, a confident and loving Christian church can provide a safe platform by which a new convert can kick the tires and test ideas a bit. This is how iron sharpens iron.

When we embrace our faith journey and seek after the God of Jacob and Abraham, then we are truly free in the sense that by His light, we can now test all other things. We have the space we need to grow and heal in a loving and nurturing environment. The type of nurturing that we can then pass on to the other people in our lives that really matter to us.

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Pause to Meditate: When the Scales Come Off - bdemo.com

By MARK MAYNARD, Kentucky Today

SADIEVILLE, Ky. (KT) There had never been a baptism on the grounds at 168-year-old New Friendship Baptist Church until Sunday when pastor Greg Mullins dunked Shannon Adams in a water trough in a hallelujah moment.

It was in front of the church on a rock wall, Mullins said. They used to go to another church and use the baptismal, but there has never been one on the church grounds. Some clouds were moving over and I said, 'If we don't hurry and get this done, we're all going to get baptized.'''

Mullins, who has been the pastor of New Friendship for only six weeks, came over from a merger with Eagle Creek Baptist Church where he had been for 11 years.

Because of the pandemic, both churches were struggling, he said. We merged to make one.

It was the first on the church grounds for New Friendship and the first in four years overall. It wasnt the first for Mullins, who estimated hed performed more than 100 baptisms at Eagle Creek.

His new church has received a boost from becoming involved in the Gospel to Every Home. They are doing the 40 days of prayer with Mullins posting daily on a Facebook page, and also driving and praying for families in front of homes in the rural area. Hes also preaching through the sermons provided in the Gospel to Every Home kit through the Kentucky Baptist Convention.

Last week, they handed out 300 Gospel to Every Home packets - they being four women and two men, he said. We got it done faster than we thought so now were going back for more.

He said the sermons had a direct impact on the woman who gave her life to the Lord. She was invited to the church by Wil Stamper, who the pastor has been discipling. Mullins said she came for several weeks and he could tell the Lord was working on her and she finally came forward two weeks ago.

Wil is just thirsty for the Word, Mullins said. Of all the people Ive baptized and discipled, Ive never seen anyone more thirsty.

The pastor said they have prayed for homes in the rural community and then made visits where gospel conversations are taking place. He said one of the best moments was when 89-year-old member Betty Martin went with them and witnessed to someone on their front porch.

I cant believe I didnt get a picture of that, he said. It was a beautiful sight. If you still have breath, you can witness to someone.

Mullins said he loves the Gospel to Every Home initiative because it was from a pastor knocking on his door that he came to know God.

My heart is just for lost people and its the way I was saved, he said. I was a hard-core atheist. A pastor from a church down the road from me came to my door one Sunday after church and I ran him off. The next Sunday he came back again and I ran him off. The next Sunday he came to my door, I invited him in. The next Sunday I went to church and the next Sunday I was saved. He wasnt giving up. I am a believer that knocking on doors saves souls.

Original post:

Church has first baptism on its grounds in nearly 170 years - Kentucky Today

When Heidi Nicholl moved to Australia five years ago, she remembers thinking: Where is it where is humanism?

The British-born Nicholl had been drawn to humanism, a secular, values-based movement, in her 20s. In her work as a hospital ethicist she was never far from considering questions about life, death, and the reality of being human.

The types of decisions that hospital ethicists need to make are all about the reality of being human, without the admittedly comforting idea that some supernatural being would come in and fix everything, says Nicholl, who now heads the recently formed Humanists Australia.

Knowing that in the UK and America where Id lived there are humanist communities and societies, I was looking around to see what my options were for getting involved in something and finding people who live an ethical life that is evidence-based and values driven. But I didnt find anything.

When she went looking for a like-minded community in Australia, she found it was more common to hear about atheism than humanism. The former, she says, is mainly saying what youre not a person who doesnt believe in God while the latter is almost always presented as being something and for something. Nicholl says that humanists are not anti-religion and were not against religion, were actually pro-values, meaning and fulfilment.

Nicholl herself grew up with religion. As a teenager she identified very, very strongly with that charismatic evangelical message of Christianity.

She had attended church until she realised that there were other ways to spend her spare time (and also found a non-religious boyfriend). She was 28 when she won a scholarship for a secular bioethics PhD, before working in a hospital. By then she knew she was a humanist.

As the head of the new Humanists Australia, Nicholl is hoping to breathe life into the movement in her adopted country. The organisation is a member of the global umbrella organisation for the movement that embraces democracy and ethics, reason and free inquiry, is not theistic and does not believe in the supernatural. The Melbourne-based charity launched last December.

It comes as the number of Australians who say that they have no faith increased to nearly one-third in the last 2016 census. A recent study found that seven in 10 (71%) Australians say religion is not personally important.

Humanism is not new to Australia, however. The Council of Australian Humanist Societies was founded in 1965. But Humanism Australia marks the first time that there has been a national humanist organisation for individuals to join, and which is focused on supporting them, says Nicholl.

In its early days the Humanist Society of NSW had 770 members and its public meetings attracted crowds of 200 people or more.

A big driver for the large membership was the outrage over the Vietnam War, recalls Victor Bien, who joined the Queensland branch in 1968 when he de-converted from Anglican Christian evangelicalism.

Other issues which caused people to join were abortion and the cry for law reform, civil liberties, euthanasia, and religious indoctrination in public schools.

Australian society was very conservative at the time, and the numerous activist associations for separate interests that we have today were yet to emerge, says Bien. Once they did, humanist membership numbers declined.

Nicholl hopes to provide a vehicle that can give representation to those who subscribe to secularism in Australia, to create a more inclusive space.

With another census coming up in August it wants to build more humanist communities by organising local meet-ups through which people can hold talks or debates, volunteer or take part in activism.

Although humanists have no rituals or rites of passage, they still mark major life changes such as weddings, births, and funerals.

But we choose to do this by referencing the good in humans, and by sharing time with each other, not by celebrating some undiscovered force in the universe, says Nicholl.

Collin Acton didnt grow up in a religious household, so had little understanding of faith when he joined the navy in 1979. A personal crisis in his 20s led him to a church. Being deployed to the Middle East in 2012 led me away from any notion of a kind or loving God to seeing that as a human construction, he says.

When the former navy director-general of chaplaincy tried to introduce the first non-religious maritime spiritual wellbeing officers he met with high level resistance from a government committee of civilian religious leaders and ADF chaplains. It further shaped his views.

I went from being a mild humanist when I started in that role to becoming a thoroughly convinced and committed humanist at the end of my tenure, says Acton.

The committee, he says, fought tooth and nail against the navys attempts to modernise. Acton was absolutely gobsmacked at the pushback from the religious advisory committee to the services and a number of religious chaplains.

Navy was never seeking to remove religion from the ADF it was always about giving the workforce a choice when seeking pastoral support, he says, adding that more than half of navy personnel are no longer associated with religion.

As a humanist celebrant for the past 26 years, Sally Cant was inspired to seek out an alternative to faith by her atheist father and humanist grandmother four decades ago.

I dont know whether she would have been involved in any type of humanist movement, but I remember having a conversation with (my grandmother) saying that I found her to be the kindest person that Id ever met, and she said look its not hard, says Cant.

She was definitely non-religious but had a very strong interest in the concern for human welfare and was very clear that you dont have to be Christian to think of yourself as a good person.

Cant, based in St Leonards on the Bellarine Peninsula in Victoria, has conducted about 2,500 wedding ceremonies, and set up The Celebrants Training College.

I had seen so many church weddings where religion was just thrown down your throat, especially from the Catholic Church where they demand you do pre-marriage education and wanted to bring to society a humanist perspective in ceremony and make sure I listen very carefully to peoples values, she says.

There has been a rise in the number of civil celebrants, including humanist officiants, from about 1200 in 1995 when Cant first started, to just under 10,000 today.

People want choices and they were over the religious dogma and wanted to be true to themselves. They were looking for something that had substance, meaning and dignity, she says.

Des Cahill, Emeritus Prof of intercultural studies at RMIT University and chair of Religions for Peace Australia, argues that these can be found in faith.

This is not against the humanist point of view, but often I dont think they appreciate the positive functions of religion, he says.

Studies have also shown that religious people volunteer more than the non-religious, says Cahill.

Religious communities inspire and sustain human dignity, offer and weve definitely seen this during Covid-19 partial comfort, hope and healing as well as moral wisdom, he adds, noting that religious groups such as Hindu and Sikh groups have handed out thousands of free hot meals during the pandemic.

But some, like Nicholl, have been left quite traumatised by having Jesus pushed on me so much, so hard, so often by family, and society in general. Its only recently that she realised the anguish that shes endured.

I just want to have my rights respected for people to accept that I am a thoughtful, kind, smart person who doesnt believe in a divine revelation and that I can make my own way thoughtfully in the world without believing in their God, says Nicholl.

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Meet the humanists: You dont have to be Christian to think of yourself as a good person - The Guardian

Bill Barrett. Photo by Jason Vail

Actor Bill Barrett (The Oval) chatted with Digital Journals Markos Papadatos about the upcoming second half of Season 2 of The Oval on BET, which premiers on Tuesday, July 20, and his other acting projects.

I am so pumped for the second half of Tyler Perrys The Oval, he said. These past two months have been a long time, I have been waiting. Everything looks so good up until now. Episode 13 was wild, it was a good place to cut it off for the midseason finale.

Ive had the chance to work with completely different actors in Season 2 so it has been really fun to work with everybody, he said. It is interesting to see the different worlds of the whole show. Going from a Secret Service Agent in the White House to now being out on the run, and also trying to get revenge back is a lot of fun. Its wild, he said with a laugh.

Barrett also opened up about his experience in First Wives Club, and doing the film Reverend Falls. First Wives Club has been great. It just premiered on BET, he said. IT was a great cast and a great group of people. They have been really supportive just like The Oval. I love comedy, so that has been fun for me to do.

He described the short film Reverend Falls as a great experience. That was a short film that I did two years. It was an interesting character. The movie involves a preacher who is battling with his beliefs on being atheist even though he is a reverend. It takes viewers on a journey and I thought it was a really interesting project to be a part of for that reason, he said.

In the first half of Season 2, he noted that the cabin scenes with Travis Cure (who plays Bobby) were a lot of fun. I love working with Travis, he is amazing. He has such great energy, excitement, and enthusiasm. Hes a really good dude, he said.

Barrett concluded about The Oval, Season 2 has been fascinating every week, there is so much character development and you know the people better. Now, you can get into their lives and their minds more.

To learn more about actor Bill Barrett, check out his IMDb page.

For more information on Tyler Perrys The Oval, check out the official BET website.

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Catching up with Bill Barrett about 'The Oval,' 'First Wives Club,' and 'Reverend Falls' - Digital Journal