What people are thinking
Culture
Understanding the 21st century postmodern culture.
Apologetics
How best to present the faith to those who need, or want, evidence and rational arguments.
- The universe points to God. Strong forms of two philosophical arguments.
- Eleven healings. Miraculous healings supported by good evidence.
- How can God allow evil?. We don’t have the answers, but 5 questions may help us think about this distressing question.
- The Jesus myth theory. How to answer those who say there is no historical evidence for Jesus.
- Jesus – son of God?. Presenting the evidence that Jesus claimed to be divine, using only the conclusions of secular historians.
- Why should people believe in Jesus?. Starting with the historical evidence (as found by secular historians) and concluding with faith is a sound basis for our own faith and for apologetics.
- The resurrection. The historical facts and how to argue that the resurrection really occurred.
Serving
We are not only called up to witness to Jesus through our words, but to serve others and show the truth by our lives.
I’ll be adding new material regularly, so please come back and check it out.
Hi Unklee,
Hope your week is going well.
I was wondering,
A. What evidence would it take for you to not believe in God?
B. Would there be negative social consequences if you openly stopped believing in God?
I’m enjoying reading your posts
thanks for taking the time to write them
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for your encouraging comments. Here’s my answers:
A. My belief is based on four facts:
1. The difficulty/impossibility of explaining the universe’s beginning and design apart from God.
2. The difficulty of explaining human rationality, ethics, consciousness and free will apart from God.
3. The many experiences people seem to have of God – healings, visions, communication, etc. I can’t think they are all fakes or have a natural explanation.
4. I feel the historical record of Jesus’ life points to his being God’s representative on earth.
I have been a christian for 50 years, so I also have my own experience of God – nothing dramatic, but my experience tends to confirm my conclusions from those four considerations. It is very difficult to think what evidence would change all of those four.
B. I doubt there would be any negative social consequences for the world – I would doubtless behave pretty much as I do now. But I would find it more difficult to keep up with christian friends because we would be doing different things, so that would change my social life.
Why do you ask? And what do you make of those answers?
I think that saying that the universe was created because of God is an answer, but it doesn’t explain the process. You could ascribe many persons of divine origin as an answer to how the world began (and people have). Because the world is harsh someone could believe that a harsh god created it, because compassion and love exist someone could believe that a god of love created this universe. Because the natural world seems so impersonal and indifferent at times, someone could believe there is no personality that caused creation. Ultimately I think it comes to faith and where people place their value as to whether they believe in God.
I was just asking because I was interested
Thanks.
Ryan
I think it is very much an answer, just not a scientific answer. But deciding God created is an enormous step forwards in knowledge. I agree that the universe doesn’t suggest a loving God, but the other three points help establish that.
Thanks for your interest.
really like your blogs new layout btw
Thanks. I liked the other colourful one when I wasn’t including many photos, but now I have a photo with each post, a more minimalist and stylish theme is better. Glad you like it!
Hi
Do you think some people might sometimes be dishonest in an attempt to encourage the faith of other people?
Like a person who would change or exaggerate their story of conversion in an attempt to encourage and bolster other peoples faith?
do you think people change their stories (even slightly) because they want others to believe?
I guess though that could be said for anyone of any belief.
Hi Ryan,
Thanks for reading and taking an interest.
I think people can do almost anything, from the very good to the very bad. I think a good christian would not be deceptive, but of course (1) no christians are ‘good’ all the time, (2) many christians are tribal and immature, (3) we might have different definitions of who is actually a christian, and (4) some people are culturally christian without having much personal commitment.
So I think people who seem to be christians might do any of those things, but I hope it wouldn’t be very many. Why do you ask – have you observed something like that?
What I mean is,
Say a person hears a wonderful testimony, and this story triggers very strong emotions. As a result many people who listen put their faith in Jesus or renew their commitment.
Now, say if the preacher telling this testimony has used creative licence to make his story more attractive.
If as a result of this story many people come to faith in Jesus, do you think this creative licence is wrong?
After all, if these people who heard the story are now following and believing in Jesus, then they are saved from the weeping and gnashing of teeth in hell.
Do you think it’s possible some people might convince others of Jesus by any means necessary?
Say if there did exist people who did this, and then they rationalised that because those people who heard are now followers of Jesus, that the exaggerated creative licence and emotionally loaded language that was used by them doesn’t really matter, since these people who heard are now saved, and that is the most important thing.
What are your thoughts?
Ryan.
I assume that both the truth and Christ are considered by Christians to be the same thing. And I agree with this, if Jesus is indeed the Son of God.
I agree with what you wrote earlier, I also assume Christians would not make a habit to deceive, considering that the devil is considered to be the father of lies and Christ is considered to be the truth. If people are seeking to imitate Christ then I assume they also seek to be truly honest, as well as loving and compassionate. In a word, they are seeking to be genuinely truthful.
Regards, Ryan
Ryan, your second comment answers your first. Christians are required to be honest. One can think of hypotheticals where honesty may be a bad policy, but in real life, deceit is wrong. I suppose there is always a grey area – natural story-tellers dress up stories a bit, but I think it still has to be truthful.