A recent publication in the journal, The Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Aug 11.) entitled; “Carbonaceous Meteorites Contain a Wide Range of Extraterrestrial Nucleobases,” has set off a firestorm of excitement among origin of life researchers and scientists looking to evolution for answers as to how living things came into existence. Why the excitement? NASA researchers at the Goddard Center for Astrobiology have analyzed a portion of 12 meteorites for carbon-based molecules.
Read MoreAlthough I do not agree with his endorsement of High Criticism’s approach to the Bible, the early 20th Century preacher and homiletics teacher in Yale Divinity School, Halford Luccock, was on target when he addressed the extravagant materialism and secularism of the early 1920s and the seemingly hopeless depression days of the 1930s. Luccock described “The Great Depression,” during which he was living and preach, in the following words
Read MoreIt is not without great significance that, as Christian philosophers and theologians wrestle with a recent great assault on faith in America made by a group of so-called New Atheists, economists wrestle with what many are calling the worst financial crisis during the past seventy-five years. In an essay published in The Chronicle of Higher Education (April 2007)
Read MoreThe problem of human suffering and moral evil in the world has been a vexing one for man down through the ages. From the time of Job men have struggled with this problem searching for a satisfactory solution. At least from the time of Epicurus, three centuries before Christ, men have used an argument based on this problem as their most potent weapon to attempt a logical proof against the existence of God. Charting the course of the argument still followed, Epicurus stated:
Read MoreIn his 2006 book, The God Delusion, which is a militant attack against belief in God, the British atheist-scientist, Richard Dawkins, suggests that “. . . the greatest of [the Founding Fathers of the American Republic] might have been atheists. . . . [T]heir writings on religion in their own time leave me no doubt that most of them would have been atheists in ours” (38-39). With such a palpably false statement one could only hope that Professor Dawkins is a better scientist than he is an historian.
Read MoreMarc Cooper is an Associate Professor of Journalism in the prestigious Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at University of Southern California. He is an award-winning journalist who serves as a contributing editor to Nation magazine and is director of USC
Annenberg Digital News. His expertise includes ethics, Investigative Journalism, and Political Journalism. In a May 4, 2010 article which he contributed to The Los Angeles Times, Cooper stated:
“You’ve been hearing, ‘We must keep separate church and state.’
When President Reagan dared to suggest that ‘religion and government are inevitably related,’
that remark was pounced upon by some as a ‘grave threat to the constitutional separation of
church and state.’
Let’s listen in on a conversation between a Christian (Thomas) and an atheist (Waldo).
They are discussing the possibility of God’s existence.
“Okay, if God really existed then why didn’t he create some fantastic work of art which would leave no possibility of human origin?” asks Waldo
Read MoreWhat does God know? Does His foreknowledge of future contingent events mean that they MUST come to pass? If so, and if some contingent events seem to trouble even God, does He CHOOSE not to know them? Can God’s power limit His knowledge, etc.?
In this essay we will study several things about God’s nature, with particular reference to God's omniscience. We will examine: (1) Some general information about God's attributes, (2) What the Scriptures say that God knows, and what are the implications, (3) How do we explain those human characteristics which are often attributed to God in the Bible?, and (4) What is the truth about God's foreknowledge and human freedom?
Read MoreAt first, it was called Decoration Day. It was established as a time for the nation to decorate the
graves of the war dead with flowers and to remember these fallen ones. Three years after the
Civil War, on May 5, 1868, Maj. Gen. John A. Logan of the Grand Army of the Republic
declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. Some have suggested that this date was selected because flowers would be in bloom nationwide. By the end of the 19th century, Memorial Day (as it is now more frequently called) involved annual ceremonies conducted throughout the country on May 30.
A Wisconsin federal judge has ruled that the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional. U.S. District Judge Barbara B. Crabb decided in favor of the Madison, Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. Annie Laurie Gaylor is co-president of the Foundation that claims a
membership of 15,000 freethinkers, agnostics, and atheists. Following Judge Crabb’s ruling Ms. Gaylor said, “It’s an invasion of the freedom of conscience of Americans to have their president direct their prayers or tell them to pray” (qtd. in Johnson). If what Gaylor opines is the case then U.S. Presidents (as well as numerous other government leaders) have been guilty since the beginning of the nation.
I am amazed as I continue to study the anatomy and physiology of the body. The body reveals its secrets as I study it organ by organ and system by system. I stand in awe of its complexity and its organization. The more I delve into it, the more there is to know and understand. It is like reading God’s Word. The more one studies it, the more there is to be studied. As an example of the complexity of the human body, consider the human heart. The heart beats 35,000,000 times a year if the heart rate remained at 70-72 beats a minute.
Read MoreIn his book, Satan and the Problem of Evil, Gregory Boyd defines dualism as “the belief that there are two ultimate powers running the world, one good and one evil” (421). More precisely, metaphysical dualism holds that the coexistence of good and evil is eternal and is built into the very nature of things.
Read MoreThe question of God is one of the “perennial questions” which men cannot help asking (Baumer 11-20). In one form or another, the question of God has been present in all stages of human history. Is there really a God? If so, what is He like? If no, then where do I look for answers to life’s most perplexing questions? If yes, then what are my obligations? How can the case for God be argued? These are the kinds of questions that have baffled men for thousands of years. So I will attempt, in this series of essays, to shed some light on this all-encompassing question. In so doing, I intend to set forth evidence sufficient to warrant the conclusion: God exists.
Read MoreThe most powerful argument atheists have to wield against the existence of God is the occurrence of evil in the world. Scottish philosopher and atheist David Hume suggested that a supernatural being which is both omnibenevolent and omnipotent could not exist since neither man nor animal is happy while on this earth. Further, Hume echoes the argument of Greek philosopher Epicurus by asking, "Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing?
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