apologetiks

Bill Maher, a somewhat well-known talk-show host and political commentator, decided to make a movie based on his view of American religion. The movie, as you probably have heard, is called “Religulous” [Trailer Link]. As you would’ve guessed, he is a pretty extreme atheist. He believes that religion is entirely hypocritical, and that it is the cause of many of society’s problems. Like many modern atheists, this movie is Maher’s way of inciting atheists to “come out of the closet” and to radically profess what they know to be true.

Even though Religulous might be expected to have extreme bias against religion, seeing as it’s the sole purpose of the movie to be anti-religion, I’d probably concede that his movie isn’t entirely wrong on one point: people don’t know why they believe what they believe. It is not hard for me to imagine that this country is full of people who have no real groundings in their beliefs.

Continue reading ‘Religulous’

How can the cohesive writings of over 40 people, written over a time-span of over 1500 years still be around today? I’m pretty sure  that the manuscripts did not have a survival kit (in a sardine can) to get themselves through the wilderness of the multitude of years from their writing ’till today.

Throughout history, we see many instances of Christian persecution.  Most would think that with the amount of people trying to remove Christianity and the Bible from this world that there would’ve been an attempt that actually worked!

Continue reading ‘Supernatural Survival: How Is the Bible Still Around Today?’

Before you think that this is just another blog post that rants against the Central Broadcasting System for canceling that TV show, Jericho, think again!

In all seriousness, I will be doing another historical study on another one of the Bible’s City-Events: Jericho and its destruction. However, before we begin, I want to examine why exactly this subject matter is worth your time and consideration:

“The Conquest provides another example of the search for connections between biblical and historical-archaeological material. This concerns an event for which there is a considerable amount of archaeological evidence, a great mount of detailed description of the biblical sources, and volumes of diverse opinions and hypotheses produced by modern scholars.”^[1]

Continue reading ‘The Conquest: Jericho & The Tumblin’ Walls’

Is the theory of Intelligent Design a “Science er”? Evolutionists think so. Back in early 2007, Robert Naeye of Sky & Telescope Magazine commented that not only was ID synonymous with Creationism (which by definition is impossible^[1]), but that it is a hindrance to science. He writes:

Intelligent design basically says that whenever scientists can’t solve a particular mystery about the natural world, then we should invoke some kind of mystical being, the so-called intelligent designer, to answer the question (and let’s be honest, everyone knows we’re talking about god here, and preferably one in the Judeo-Christian tradition). If humans had been adopting that philosophy for the past few thousand years, we’d still be living as hunter-gatherers.^[2]

Now aside from blurting out stuff for which he has no evidence for, his main support for his theory is the argument from Vestigial Organs, specifically the appendix. Continue reading ‘Get out of my way, Science!’

“Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering.” -Yoda

As we saw in The Introduction, there’s an issue of Evil/Pain/Suffering in this world. But before we “point the finger at God,” we must first define what exactly we mean. Suffering is split into two types of evil:

-Physical evil-
Evil that we passively suffer. Examples: tornadoes,
hurricanes, pain of childbearing, unnatural death. [Does not appear to have a direct cause so we therefore we attribute it to God]

-Moral evil-
Evil that is directly caused by the actions of ourselves and others. Examples:  murder, rape, people who get our fast food orders wrong, people who sell iPod knockoffs from China. [Appears to have a direct cause, linked to a specific person or group of people]

Continue reading ‘Origins of Pain’

As we approach the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin’s Birth (1809), we’ve seen announcements from 2 major Christian “Organizations:”

As of Tuesday, September 16, the Vatican made an announcement:

VATICAN CITY - The Vatican said on Tuesday the theory of evolution was compatible with the Bible but planned no posthumous apology to Charles Darwin for the cold reception it gave him 150 years ago.

Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, the Vatican’s culture minister, was speaking at the announcement of a Rome conference of scientists, theologians and philosophers to be held next March marking the 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin’s “The Origin of Species.” ¹

Now even though some previous Catholic Popes have supported Evolution (notably John Paul II ²), it’s continually interesting to see the Vatican trip over itself in supporting a Theory in which there can be no harmony. Continue reading ‘Apologizing to Darwin?!’

As an apologist, I’ve come across many arguments and objections against God [i.e., Christianity, not just Theism]. In my opinion, most of these arguments are not legitimate. Most objections usually end up being inconclusive, at best. Few arguments actually attempt to offer direct proof against God [in Christianity]. The Issue of Pain is one of such arguments. It was the famed British pastor John Stott that said,

The fact of suffering undoubtedly constitutes the single greatest challenge to the Christian faith, and has been in every generation. Its distribution and degree appear to be entirely random and therefore unfair. Sensitive spirits ask if it can possibly be reconciled with God’s justice and love.

Continue reading ‘An Introduction to the Problem of Pain’

Ever since the Da Vinci Code came out, there’s been a lot of garbage-history stinking up peoples’ minds. One such inaccuracy concerns the Divinity of Christ: the Book (as well as some critics of Christianity) claim(s) that belief in Jesus’s deity was “established at the Council of Nicaea,” instituted by Emperor Constantine. [Incidentally, the book claims that the Emperor did this to unite both Pagan and Christian beliefs...even though this makes no sense.]

Continue reading ‘Nicaea, Contsantine, & Christianity’

(For this post, I’m merely bringing an article written by one of my favorite new writers, Jill Carattini. I have entitled it, “The Grip of Death”.)

Ernest Gordon was serving as a captain in the British army during the Second World War when he was captured by the Japanese, marched with other prisoners into the Southeast Asian jungles, and forced construct a railroad bridge over the river Kwai. The conditions of the prison camp would eventually claim the lives of 80,000 men.

The prisoners were made to work for hours in scorching temperatures, chopping their way through tangled jungles. Those who paused out of exhaustion were beaten to death by the guards. Treated like animals, the men themselves became like beasts trying to survive. Theft and betrayal were as rampant as hunger and disease among them. Life was met with indifference, deceit, and hatred–by captive and captor alike.

Yet, Gordon lived to tell of hope and transformation in the valley of the river Kwai. Continue reading ‘The Grip of Death’