Agnosticism, Atheism, Christianity, Faith, God, Morality, Religion

Objective Rock Music

My son is 7 years old right now, and he's inherited my love of music. Over the last year or two he's gotten to where he enjoys going to sleep while listening to something. Currently, it's Jimi Hendrix's "Gypsy Eyes" on repeat. But he's also gone through periods where he only wanted "We Will Rock… Continue reading Objective Rock Music

Agnosticism, Atheism, Bible Geography, Bible Study, Christianity, Faith, God, Morality, Religion, Salvation, Truth

“Times of Ignorance”

There's a passage in the Bible that has long stood out to me. When I was a Christian, I found it comforting; now, I just find it perplexing. In Acts 17 (beginning in verse 16), Paul is visiting Athens. Since it was a hub of philosophy and culture, it had temples and altars to a… Continue reading “Times of Ignorance”

Agnosticism, Atheism, Christianity, Faith, God, Morality, Religion

Bloody Well Right

If God is love, how do we explain the Old Testament passages where he commands the Israelites to eradicate entire groups of people, even the children (Josh 9:24; Num 31; 1 Sam 15)? Sometimes people say it was to punish these people for their evil practices, like child sacrifice. Well, child sacrifice is certainly a… Continue reading Bloody Well Right

Agnosticism, Atheism, Bible Study, Christianity, Faith, God, Morality, Religion, Truth

Letter to Kathy (the Bible Has Problems)

Dear Kathy, Since you graciously agreed (in our recent conversation) to let me present you with some examples of the Bible's problems, I decided to do it in this way so it would have its own comment thread. As I've said, when I was a Christian, one strike against the Bible was not enough to… Continue reading Letter to Kathy (the Bible Has Problems)

Agnosticism, Atheism, Christianity, Faith, God, Morality, Religion

Is Color Objective or Subjective?

Do you see red the same way that I do? I suppose there's not really a way to know. Even if we could agree on seeing the subtle differences between fire engine red and candy apple red, how do we know that we're seeing those differences in the same way? You could get an objective… Continue reading Is Color Objective or Subjective?

Agnosticism, Atheism, Christianity, Culture, Faith, God, Religion, Society, Truth

Absolute Morality

There are certain things that we all know are wrong -- child molestation, for instance, or murder. But how do we know those things are wrong? Many religious people (and I'm mostly gearing this toward Christians, since they're the group I'm most familiar with) believe that we must appeal to a higher authority in order… Continue reading Absolute Morality