Niall Ferguson provides a simple, clear, and insightful portrayal of the (potential) rise and fall of the American empire in his article Complexity and Collapse, Empires on the Edge of Chaos, from the March/April 2010 edition of Foreign Affairs. The thread of his analysis follows a thread provided . . . . Continue Reading »
A guest post by Rev. Dr. Holger Sonntag. Since Dr. Sonntag is from Germany and very familiar with the ecclesiastical situation, I asked if he would have any thoughts on the resignation of Dr. Margot Käßmann, who was the head of the EKiD and the bishop of the largest territorial Lutheran . . . . Continue Reading »
The last time we mentioned that if Joseph had never been sold into slavery, he would have never been in a position to become what he became.And the wily atheist — the one who admits, btw, that even he might be willing to suffer for the sake of something, like being part of the 60 million who . . . . Continue Reading »
This is a follow-up of sorts to Joshua S.'s Why I’m Not a Creationist (Anymore). For the purpose of consistency with his post, I will also use the term creationist to refer to YEC (young earth creationism – 6ky to 10ky earth aging).But as much and as easy as it is for many to reject YEC, . . . . Continue Reading »
BTW, I’m telling you this story because this is one of the stories God tells us in His book about what kind of universe he’s running here — and the atheist needs at least to listen to the story even if he’s not willing to buy the whole thing from start to finish. Continue Reading »
So we’re at the place where we can say a couple-four things from the existential side of the problem of evil:[1] from the perspective that pain exists, and we perceive it, we as human beings (you could say “people”) have an urge to do something about it when we see it.[2] that urge . . . . Continue Reading »
Last time I proffered the idea that pain is a problem for the atheist because he has to figure out what to do about said pain - and some of you took that at face value, but I think some of you are rightfully scratching your heads.“Frank - big thinkin’ and everything,” you ought to . . . . Continue Reading »
Last time I left you off with something like this — The problem is what to do about pain. See: the common argument here — which John Loftus plainly used to dismiss God — is that all pain ought to be stopped whenever possible. A universe with suffering in it precludes the Christian . . . . Continue Reading »
The problem is what to do about pain. See: the common argument here — which Loftus plainly uses to dismiss God — is that all pain ought to be stopped whenever possible. A universe with suffering in it precludes the Christian God (he says), so the onus is now on John or anyone else who sees pain to stop pain. Continue Reading »
When pressed, Calvinists have a very hard time explaining why they consider themselves among the Elect and not among those unfortunate souls brought into this world for no other reason than that the Sovereign God wanted to show how great and awesome He is by deciding from all eternity that He would . . . . Continue Reading »