Ethical chocolate update
16 May 2012 1 Comment
in Serving Tags: behaviour, Change the world, Chocolate, christianity, ethics, mission, Protest, western society
I have previously reported on the ethical dilemmas posed by eating chocolate, due to the trafficking and exploitation of children in growing cocoa in West Africa (see My pleasure, their misery? and Easter eggs and slavery), and on the responses to my letters to chocolate manufacturers (see Fair Trade chocolate – report 1).
I have received some more replies, and have researched some more information, all of which is very revealing.
How did Jesus become God?
11 May 2012 9 Comments
in Jesus Tags: Bible interpretation, christianity, doctrine, history, Jesus, New Testament
Bart Ehrman, a respected New Testament scholar who is not a christian, has recently written:
“Jesus is best understood as a Jewish apocalypticist from the backwaters of a rural part of the Roman empire, a Jewish preacher who got on the wrong side of the law and was executed for crimes against the state, how is it that within sixty years of his death his followers were saying that he was a divine being? And that within 150 years they were saying that he was the second member of the Trinity?”
What are christians to make of this?
Learn some cosmology
05 May 2012 4 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Cosmology, God, reason, religion, science, science and faith
I’ve always been interested in astronomy and cosmology, and sometimes wish I’d studied it. I find the universe fascinating and amazing to look at, think about and learn about.
Cosmology has also always been of interest to theists, as it seems to point to the existence of a creator God. The cosmological argument and, in particular, the teleological argument (see The universe points to God) have evolved over centuries based on the discoveries of cosmology. And therefore, of course, it is of interest to atheists, who wish to combat the arguments.
I want to introduce you to one atheist physicist with expertise in cosmology who I think you ought to know – an Aussie, Luke Barnes.
Has the New Testament been changed?
27 Apr 2012 8 Comments
Another common argument used against christian belief is that the New Testament has been significantly changed since it was first written, so we cannot have any confidence in we are reading. Who knows if it is an accurate reflection of what the original authors wrote?
Eminent scholar Bart Ehrman’s 2005 book Misquoting Jesus outlines his view of “how radically the text has been altered over the years”.
Is the situation really as ‘bad’ as that? What are the facts? I have spent some time checking the matter out.
Arguments against Jesus
22 Apr 2012 12 Comments
in Apologetics, Jesus Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, history, Jesus, New Testament, religion
Continuing my discussion of common arguments used against christians.
This post: arguments that seek to undermine faith in Jesus by arguing that the gospels aren’t reliable as history, or that we can know little factual about Jesus, or that Jesus could not have been divine.
Atheists who once were christians
14 Apr 2012 17 Comments
in Culture Tags: Atheism, behaviour, christianity, christians, churches, reason, religion, western society
We can read the statistics which show that, in most western countries, church attendance has fallen in the last century. In some cases it is still falling, though in others it has levelled out. The ‘leavers’ are not necessarily giving up all belief in God – many list themselves as ‘not committed’ – but some are choosing to be atheists.
But this is all statistics. There is also a human face to these changes.
Is the idea of God incoherent?
09 Apr 2012 35 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, God, making disciples, Philosophy, reason, religion
In philosophy, an idea is incoherent if it is self contradictory, and cannot even be properly defined.
There are many things about the idea of God that some atheists think are incoherent. Here is a brief summary and comment on seven arguments, all of which I have seen presented, sometimes by philosophers, as serious and telling objections to the idea and existence of God.
Does God prefer belief or obedience?
06 Apr 2012 1 Comment
in Culture Tags: apologetics, Atheism, behaviour, christians, ethics, God, mission
“God Prefers Kind Atheists Over Hateful Christians” said the article and the photo, and it caught my attention as it caught many others’ (as it was aimed at doing).
Is it true?
Son of God, son of man
05 Apr 2012 Leave a Comment
in Jesus Tags: Belief, christianity, God, Jesus, New Testament
It is the Thursday night before Good Friday. I was at a Tenebrae service, where Mark 14:61-64 was read out:
Again the high priest asked him, “Are you the Messiah, the Son of the Blessed One?”
“I am,” said Jesus. “And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven.”
The high priest tore his clothes. “Why do we need any more witnesses?” he asked. “You have heard the blasphemy. What do you think?”
They all condemned him as worthy of death.
Arguments against God – oldies, but not goodies
03 Apr 2012 16 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, God, religion
More arguments unbelievers often use against christians. These ones are common, but not very good, but at least they provide a little amusement.
Arguments against God – from science
30 Mar 2012 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, God, science and faith
This post continues the series into preparing disciples of Jesus to stand against attacks on their faith, and specifically on arguments unbelievers often use against christians. I have seen every one of these arguments used in books or on the internet, even some that are clearly not very effective. Several arguments are based (loosely) on science.
Lawrence Krauss and creation from nothing
26 Mar 2012 9 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, God, reason, religion, science and faith
Creation out of nothing (ex nihilo) is one of the fundamentals of the christian faith. The Cosmological argument attempts to use the universe to show that God exists. The universe couldn’t cause itself to exist, the argument says, nor could it exist for no reason, so an external agent (what else but God?) must have caused it.
Despite various attempts to refute the argument, it remains a strong one, not least because of its basic common sense. But some atheists have argued that quantum physics shows that the universe could indeed have arisen out of nothing.
Bart Ehrman on did Jesus exist?
23 Mar 2012 10 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Belief, Books, christianity, Jesus, New Testament
Over the past two centuries, historical scholars have argued over what we can know about Jesus. Virtually all scholars (regardless of religion) now agree Jesus was a real person whose life followed the general outline in the gospels. However enthusiastic amateurs are still promoting the idea that Jesus didn’t exist. Books have been published and a thousand internet arguments launched, with little response from the scholars, who regard the Jesus myth as refuted. Now an eminent scholar has assessed the Jesus myth.
You may think this is of no interest to a christian who believes the New Testament, but I think it is important.
Reasons to believe 2 – the universe
20 Mar 2012 1 Comment
We have been looking at why some christians give up their faith, and whether evangelism and discipleship training should include apologetics. We have looked at reasons to believe related to Jesus and believing by faith.
The latest scientific information about the universe provides further good reasons to believe – but we need to understand both the facts and the arguments.
Easter eggs and slavery
15 Mar 2012 3 Comments
in Serving Tags: Change the world, Chocolate, ethics, Protest, western society, what is human?, world
Easter’s coming soon, and if you live in the west as I do, you’ll probably be eating your share of easter eggs. But what if the eggs came from cocoa grown using child labour, that is effectively slave labour?
Arguments against God
11 Mar 2012 6 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christianity, God, making disciples, religion
We have been considering why believers may give up their faith and how we may train disciples to think better about their beliefs and so be better able to stand up against attacks. We have looked at some reasons to believe (and we will look at some more).
Now it is time to consider the arguments sceptics may use to attack christian belief – arguments against God, the Bible, Jesus and faith.
Is your church heading in the right direction?
09 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Church Tags: Change the church, christianity, churches, doctrine, Leadership, making disciples, mission
Churches have been going through a remarkable revolution this past 50 years. Denominational barriers are much lower and less important. The Holy Spirit is more welcome. Christians are much more open to new ideas. But there is much more to come (I believe)!
One of the very positive influences on world christianity is the ‘simple church’ movement, and Felicity Dale (a sometime commenter on this blog) and her website Simply Church blog is one face of this movement. I subscribe to her blog and gain a lot of insight from it. And one brief recent post summed a lot of things up for me.
Arguing the resurrection
06 Mar 2012 Leave a Comment
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, Bible, christianity, Jesus, mission, New Testament
The resurrection of Jesus is obviously one of the central teachings of christianity, and is also under attack from sceptics. Disciples need to know why they believe it in the first place, how to defend their belief, and even perhaps how to use the resurrection as a challenge to non-believers.
Photo: malpansj2008 on Picasa)
Reason and ridicule
29 Feb 2012 6 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, Atheism, Belief, christians, making disciples, persecution
Criticisms of christians and christian faith seem to be more widespread and trenchant than they used to be. And the main basis of the attack is that christianity is not reasonable, not based on evidence. Yet in my experience, the attacks that have greatest impact are not intellectual but emotional, built as much on ridicule as on reason.
What are we to make of this? And how should we deal with it?
Believing “by faith”
26 Feb 2012 3 Comments
in Apologetics Tags: apologetics, christianity, faith, making disciples, reason
In christianity, faith is a virtue. Many christians believe in Jesus because they have been taught to believe by people they trust. Is this good or bad?
Some people say, faith is the opposite of reason. So does this mean believing in Jesus is unreasonable? Why do we have faith anyway?
And how do these questions fit in with our current theme of helping disciples to stand against attack?
Recent comments