Reasons for God

What If Atheism Really Is Just A “Lack of Belief in God”?

Many atheists claim that the proper definition of atheism is, as Austin Cline of the Atheism channel on About.com states, “simply the absence of belief in gods.”

But if atheism is a lack of belief and not a positive affirmation of what is real, good, and true, then the atheist immediately runs into serious problems.

This post is divided into two sections:

Prominent atheists do define their worldview as “lacking belief in God” and
The troubling problems this definition creates for the atheist, as defined.
Read more

Five Books for Skeptics and Seekers

Do you ever feel like you have to have all the answers for your skeptical friends? Here’s the problem: it is way, way easier to ask a hard question than to give a good answer. In the space of five minutes someone can ask twenty incredibly difficult questions: how can we know anything at all? Maybe the Bible was altered by a group of powerful religious leaders – prove me wrong! How do you know Jesus is God? What about the violence in the Old Testament? How do you reconcile faith and science? What is your opinion on evolution? Doesn’t the Bible contradict itself? And on and on it can go…

What Should Jesus Do? A Response to Richard Carrier

Why didn’t Jesus teach His disciples the basics of public health? That’s one of the questions that Dr. Richard Carrier raised in a debate with Dr. David Marshall on February 9, 2013. Carrier raised this point as part of his argument against the debate’s topic, namely, “Is the Christian Faith Reasonable?”

Why is this important? Because it is a concrete, specific example of a bigger point: Carrier wanted to show that Jesus has had a negative impact on civilizations around the world.

So let’s look at his specific point, then see why it falls short as an objection to the Christian faith.

How To Answer Your Friends’ Questions

In this post I am going to teach you a process that will let you answer your friends’ questions. Seriously. You can do this.

Before we begin, though, we need to recognize a more general point. Whenever we decide to learn something new, there’s a three-step process:

Decide that the new skill is worth learning.
Overcome our initial fears of not being good at the new skill.
Become competent at the new skill.

When it comes to apologetics, I have talked to hundreds of people who buy into #1. “Yes, apologetics is a skill worth learning. It would be amazing to be able to answer my friends’ questions. I would really like to be able to do that.”

Michael Shermer Calls Me A Skeptic!

In a recent article for The Huffington Post, Michael Shermer, the founder of The Skeptics Society, called me a skeptic! Admittedly, he didn’t use my name, but he did define my position. Here’s how he defines skepticism:

In principle, skeptics are neither closed-minded nor cynical. We are curious but cautious. Or, I often hear, “Oh, you’re a skeptic, so you don’t believe anything?” No, I believe lots of things, as long as there is reason and evidence to believe.

Being a skeptic just means being rational and empirical: thinking and seeing before believing.
Skepticism is the rigorous application of science and reason to test the validity of any and all claims.
Read more

Lessons from the Alex Rosenberg – William Lane Craig Debate

On February 1, Purdue University, in partnership with Biola University, hosted a debate between Dr. Alex Rosenberg and Dr. William Lane Craig, on the topic “Is Faith in God Reasonable?” You can already find audio of the debate and a summary of the debate online. The video can be watched at the bottom of this post.

I think there are a few valuable lessons from the debate:

Apologetics Is Important

Throughout the debate, Dr. Rosenberg presented a wide variety of terrible arguments.

There Are No “Nones”

As part of one of the biggest religion stories of the past few years, Time Magazine said in March 2012, in an entry titled “The Rise Of The Nones,” that, “The fastest-growing religious group in the U.S. is the category of people who say they have no religious affiliation.” In October 2012, the Pew Research Center indicated that “one-fifth of the U.S. public – and a third of adults under 30 – are religiously unaffiliated today, the highest percentages ever in Pew Research Center polling.”

This trend is important and worth taking seriously. But, precisely because of the importance of this sociological change, it is essential that we use a better term.

The truth is that there are no “nones.” Why? Let’s look at three reasons in particular.

I am the kind of guy who can watch The Biggest Loser (a show about people losing weight) while I sit on the couch, eating cake and ice cream. I find that the subtle pressure of needing to live a healthier life is perfectly met by the satisfying enjoyment of baked goods.

I wish that was my biggest failing in life, but there are many others. I can be lazy, overwork, and procrastinate, all in the same day. To compensate for my lack of spiritual disciplines, sometimes I humbly mention that I fast a minimum of three times a day (the count depends on how many snacks I have between meals). For good measure, I could mention my struggle (or lack of struggle) with materialism, selfishness, impatience, lust, revenge, and so on and so forth. Alternatively, I could try to impress you with my religious devotion, piety, church attendance, dedication to ministry, service to others, and the many sacrifices I’ve heroically made for God.

I Told Me So by Gregg Ten Elshof – A Book Review

In a culture that often prizes authenticity above all else, there is no greater sin than self-deception. Ironically, this facilitates self-deception, because the intensified pressure to be authentic significantly raises the cost of admitting to our ongoing self-deception. So says Dr. Gregg Ten Elshof in his witty, enjoyable, and yet immensely convicting book i told me so: self-deception and the christian life.

In other words: wake up. Self-deception is a major problem in our culture and we are… deceiving ourselves when we ignore and dismiss this important truth.

Why Care About Human Well-Being? A Response to Sam Harris

Do you want other people to be happy? If you had a choice between making the world either happier or more miserable, which would you choose? Which choice would be the moral one?

These are questions that Dr. Sam Harris, a best-selling author and neuroscientist, has been discussing for many years now. His most prominent book on the subject, The Moral Landscape, was even a New York Times bestseller. Unfortunately, this book contained a number of elementary philosophical mistakes that Dr. Harris continues to misunderstand or ignore.

So, if you want to maximize the well-being of others in an intellectually coherent manner, read on!

The most important mistake of The Moral Landscape is what Harris, in a response to critiques of his book, calls “The Value Problem.”

Here’s how Harris summarizes the critique: