Category: Uncategorized

Year End Review

Nate11 Comments

This time last year, I was feeling pretty down about Trump's election and didn't have high hopes for 2017. But now that we're at the end of it, I've got to say that this has been a great year. I don't feel any better about Trump -- he's an embarrassment that can't be overstated --… Continue reading Year End Review

10 Year Anniversary!

Nate30 Comments

Today marks 10 years since I started this blog! I had planned to do a big post in commemoration -- maybe talk about some of the first posts I wrote and call attention to all the commenters who have helped make this blog so interesting over the years. Sadly, I didn't have time to pull… Continue reading 10 Year Anniversary!

Debunking the Devil

Nate147 Comments

Thought this was a great article. I haven’t researched it to the degree that this author has, so I can’t speak to the complete accuracy of what he says. But he makes a great case, and it’s the same view I’ve held for a while.

Michael A. Sherlock (Author)

The ancient Persians had a significant impact upon some of the core myths that underscore Judaism and Christianity.  Among other things, Judaism and Christianity owe thanks to the Persian priests of Zoroaster for the light versus darkness motif, the belief in an impending apocalypse, and the messianic dogma.  But above all, both Jews and Christians should thank Persia for the Devil himself.  I think it’s fair to say that had they not adopted this fictitious character from the Persians, they might not have succeeded with such ease in persuading and maintaining their frightened and superstitious flocks.

The religion of Zoroaster, or Zarathustra, received its name from a Magian Priest by the name of Zoroaster (Greek)/Zarathustra (Persian), who was a loyal servant of the “one true” Persian God Ahura Mazda, or Ormuzd.  Ormuzd was commonly referred to as the “The Holy Spirit” in the pre-Christian portions of the Avesta.(1)  This…

View original post 3,596 more words

I Wonder [A Hughman #1]

Nate2 Comments

oftenbetterthanfine

I’ve just listened to the first YouTube video from A Hughman, and it was a refreshing and enjoyable way to spend some time on my lunch-break (even if I couldn’t really see the screen properly in the sun).

I’m looking forward to his other episodes.

I was already beginning to think that ‘wonder’ is one of the most powerful things you can experience, and a noble end in itself, but this video meditates on the issues beautifully.

View original post

Moral anti-realism and the problem of evil

Nate4 Comments

This is one of Travis’s older posts, but it’s new to me, and I think it’s great. He offers a fantastic illustration that shows how moral realism is not a satisfactory objection (or resolution) to the problem of evil.

A Measure of Faith

Italianate_Landscape_with_an_Artist_Sketching_from_NatureOn several recent episodes of the Stand to Reason podcast, Greg Koukl has argued that those who do not hold to moral realism cannot put forth the problem of evil as evidence against the existence of God because, in short, they cannot define evil. J. Warner Wallace makes the same claim in Cold Case Christianity. They tie this back to the moral argument, wherein the existence of objective morality counts as evidence for the existence of God (as the ultimate grounding of that morality). They then show that this results in an ironic turnabout wherein the claim that evil exists actually counts in favor of God’s existence rather than against it.

Support for subjective morality means surrendering the most rhetorically appealing argument against God:  evil.
– Greg Koukl in Solid Ground, May/June 2014

The problem of evil is perhaps the most difficult issue to address … When people…

View original post 798 more words