The Case for Christ — Parts 1–8 (10 minutes each)

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Atheism: An Intellectual Revolt or Pelvic Rebellion?

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/DougGiles/2007/10/27/atheism…

Atheists would love for everyone to believe that their motive for not believing is an intellectual one. Yes, the atheists ardently suppose that they are wise and the Christians, well, we’re the buckle-shoed buttheads.

Yes, darling, the atheists would love all of us to suppose that they cannot believe because they are so astute and rational, and we theists, heck we’re toads . . . a veritable troop of abecedarian simpletons who believe in God and Christ simply because we’re straight goofy.

…

Y’know, Karl Marx said religion is the “opiate of the masses.” I think the real poppy derivative is the black tar belief that tells you atheist lads and lasses that when you take the big dirt nap that’s it. Ah what peace. What a high. No God. No accountability. All our sins of commission and omission will never ever come up again. No pain. No penalty. No heaven. No hell. Imagine. Yeah, dude. Hold that hit. Let it out slowly. Ahhh. Feel better?

There’s your opium.

The Making of a Godly Man — Ravi Zacharias

This is brilliantly funny: Tactics in refuting moral relativism

New Apologetics Study Bible

The Apologetics Study Bible will help today’s Christian better understand, defend and proclaim their beliefs in this age of increasing moral and spiritual relativism.

More than 100 hundred key articles are placed throughout the volume relating the truth of the Bible to disciplines such as science, history, and philosophy.

This dynamic feature prompts a rewarding experience at every reading.

Highlights of this new thinking person’s edition of God’s Word include the full text of the Holman CSB® translation, an introduction focusing on relevant apologetics issues, and profiles of historic Christian apologists from Justin Martyr to C.S. Lewis.

Also featured are valuable contributions from a who’s-who of modern apologists such as Chuck Colson, Norm Geisler, Hank Hanegraaff, Josh McDowell, William Lane Craig, JP Moreland, Ravi Zacharias, and 80+ more. Plus a special lead article from best-selling author Lee Strobel on “How Apologetics changed my life” (books by Lee include The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, The Case for a Creator, and many more).

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Lee Strobel — a really interesting read

Where have I been?

by Lee Strobel, 10.18.2007

San Francisco, New York City, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Chicago, Houston - whew! I’ve been bouncing around the country the last couple of weeks to talk about the faith-impacting issues in my new book, The Case for the Real Jesus. But I wanted to pause, catch my breath, and introduce you to the new format for my newsletter.

I’ve decided to adopt a more personal and conversational approach to keeping in contact with you. Consider it a letter from a friend! I’ll keep you abreast of new developments, share some stories, offer a few observations, and alert you to exciting opportunities on the horizon.

New Developments?

Well, I’ve been blown away by the enthusiastic reception to The Case for the Real Jesus, in which I interview experts about the current objections to Christianity that are circulating in popular culture. I think Christians are especially thirsty for answers to the tough challenges that are being promoted by skeptics in best-selling books, in college classrooms, on news programs, and on the Internet. As one physician wrote to encourage me: “This book has answered the exact questions that my skeptical friends have been asking me.” What’s especially exciting is that 206 seekers prayed to receive Christ as their forgiver and leader when I spoke on the topic of the book recently at Saddleback Church in California. (By the way, thanks to Rick Warren for saying to the congregation: “This is Lee’s best book ever!”)

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Reclaiming Science from Darwinism: A Clear Understanding of Creation, Evolution, and ID

Foreword: William Dembski, PhD.

Darwinism is a 150–year–old icon that has been propped up by unproven suppositions. The scientific discoveries of the last few decades are now kicking out the props.

Dr. Kenneth Poppe is convinced the icon is ready to topple. Providing extensive scientific evidence of Darwinism’s failures, this career biology instructor uses enlightening analogies and examples to explain the theory’s problems:

• blind–luck assembly of the first cell
• mathematical improbabilities
• the laws of thermodynamics
• hypothetical sudden mutations
• biased mind–sets

Spiced with humor and helpful graphics, this popularly targeted text shows readers that—in regard to objections to evolution—the science is truly there.

A superior resource for students, parents, and private– or public–school educators.

Amazon.com have it here.

22 Questions and Answers from Josh McDowell

Bethinking.org have uploaded 22 Question and Answer resources from the Josh McDowell Ministry. These are great introductory resources for a quick response to some very common questions we all get asked. Click here to see a list of them all.

Going Counter Culture

From Darwin to Hitler

New book by Discovery Institute
Fellow shows influence of
Darwinian principles on
Hitler’s Nazi regime

Discovery Institute is pleased to announce the publication of the provocative intellectual history, “From Darwin to Hitler, Evolutionary Ethics, Eugenics and Racism in Germany” (Palgrave MacMillan), by Richard Weikart.

In this compelling and painstakingly researched work of intellectual history, Weikart convincingly makes the argument that Hitler built his view of ethics on Darwinian principles.

“Richard Weikart’s outstanding book shows in sober and convincing detail how Darwinist thinkers in Germany had developed an amoral attitude to human society,” says Dr. Richard Evans, Professor of Modern History, University of Cambridge, and author of “The Coming of the Third Reich.” “This provided Hitler and the Nazis with a scientific justification for the policies they pursued once they came to power.”

More here.

Evolutionary Logic

Argument by assertion is unanswerable. If, for instance, some vague waffle about an evolutionary transition does not satisfy a recalcitrant student, the instructor simply says, “This point should be intuitively obvious. I’ve explained it as clearly as I can. If you still cannot see it, you will just have to think very carefully about it yourself, and then you will see how trivial and obvious it is.” The instructor at this point might also want to add, “What are you, a creationist?” or “Are you one of those Christian fundamentalists?” or “Where have you been brainwashed?” Arguments by demonization like this are particularly effective when one or a few students get unruly, but the majority sides with the instructor.

Source: here.

Apologetics is not Evangelism

Here is the beginning a nice piece, sent by a friend, that reminds us of the place of apologetics in relation evangelism. Enjoy!

From my (very limited) vantage point, American churches seem to be cultivating a growing interest in apologetics (that is, defending the faith and answering objections). In a pluralistic culture that grows ever diverse, it’s important for the church to formulate answers to the challenges. This is commendable and biblical (1 Peter 3:15).

But along with this new emphasis on apologetics runs a concurrent temptation for churches to confuse evangelism and apologetics, to confuse defending and proclaiming.

Examples of this are not hard to find. In an interview with Christianity Today, Brian McLaren blurs traditional evangelism and apologetics to the point where they are really indistinguishable. I think this reflects a broader confusion.

Darwin Day in America

Darwin Day in America tells the disturbing story of scientific expertise run amuck, exposing how an ideological interpretation of Darwinian biology and reductionist science have been used to degrade American culture over the past century through their impact on criminal justice, welfare, business, education, and bioethics.

At the dawn of the last century, leading scientists and politicians giddily predicted that science—especially Darwinian biology— would supply solutions to all the intractable problems of American society, from crime to poverty to sexual maladjustment.

How ’bout this quote:

All we are doing is catching up with Darwin. He showed in the nineteenth century that we are simply animals. Humans had imagined we were a separate part of Creation, that there was some magical line between Us and Them. Darwin’s theory undermined the foundations of that entire Western way of thinking about the place of our species in the universe.

Bioethicist Peter Singer, Princeton University

You can buy Singer’s so called ‘ethics’ books in our bookshops, today.

Kiwis more liberal than Americans

This Stuff article is really interesting and begins as follows:

Kiwis are significantly more liberal than Americans on issues of religion and morality, but are still not convinced by the theory of evolution, new research shows.

The UMR Research study compared New Zealanders’ attitudes with those of Americans using findings from a US Gallup Poll conducted this year.

Just 26 per cent of Kiwi respondents said the theory of evolution was definitely true.

Around the same percentage believed in the theory of creationism, with 24 per cent agreeing that “God created human beings in their present form exactly the way the Bible describes it”.

With our culture so saturated in Darwin-speak, this is a real surprise to me, especially in light of the fact that I was once heavily in that 26 percent.

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Debate between Richard Dawkins and John Lennox

Well, the debate has happened — and it really was pretty good! More information here.

Richard Dawkin’s website has the audio files here:

Part 1 (47:28, 13.6 MB)
Part 2 (44:01, 12.62 MB)
Part 3 (27:28, 7.87 MB)

Comments on the debate can be made here.

I think Dawkins came out of this debate severely bruised. Lennox showed that The God Delusion is heavy on rhetoric but void of good meaty arguments. Well done both debaters — and especially the winner!

CDs and DVDs of this event are available for purchase, and will be complete and ready to ship by last week of November.

More comments here.

Iraq and the Just War Theory

I just read this very interesting article from Matt Flannagan: Iraq and the Just War Theory: Why I choose not to support the anti-war movement.

I think he makes a very simple and powerful argument, especially against those who oppose the Iraq invasion and war: If we base our morality upon Just War Theory, then the right thing for the peace activists to do is to turn their continual condemnation of George Bush to a condemnation of the Iraqi resistance.

Judged by the standards of Just War Theory, George Bush is significantly more justified in engaging in a war against Saddam than Saddam is in defending himself against George W. To the ‘peace movement’ Matt writes:

The peace movement should be picketing Iraq’s decision to fight, burning Iraqi flags demanding that Saddam step down, storming Iraq’s embassies etc. We should see hundreds of thousands of people marching denouncing Iraq.

…

It should call for the Iraqi leadership to put down its weapons and cease fighting an unjust war. Until it does many people even those who have doubts about the justice of Americas actions will remain skeptical of its goals. If not morally appalled at its selective blindness and lack of concern for the Iraq people.

Nice thinking Matt. Nice link to a page that corrects stupid thinking too!

Scientist Mike Behe again attacks evolution

The Edge of Evolution
The Search for the Limits of Darwinism
By Michael J. Behe

Free Press. 320 pp.

Reviewed by Cameron Wybrow

In 1996, Pennsylvania’s own Michael J. Behe launched a frontal attack upon Darwinian evolution with the publication of Darwin’s Black Box. Behe, a mild-mannered molecular biologist at Lehigh University, argued politely but vigorously that the standard Darwinian explanation (random mutations plus natural selection) simply couldn’t explain the evolution of a number of significant structures and processes observed in living things. Intricate processes like human blood clotting, and intricate structures like the bacterial flagellum (which is built uncannily like an outboard motor) were “irreducibly complex” arrangements that couldn’t have arisen by a series of chance steps. They therefore must have been designed, by an intelligence of some kind. Behe’s book soon became the flagship of the movement known as intelligent design (ID).

Source: here.

Sergey Brin (co-founder of Google) on YouTube

This is a very interesting academic video lecture by an important figure in today’s world. You can watch it here.

Interestingly, at about 7:40 into the video, Sergey says: “…not all web pages are created equal: people are, …”

I wonder what his worldview is, such that he would make a comment like that. Does he have good reason to think that humans are special, such that we are all equal?

He also spoke a little of Human Rights groups re China, so I wonder likewise: Does Sergey have good reason to think that human rights are objective (given by God), or are these just vacuous, sentimental words, such as those claimed by those who in the other breath claim we are just animals?

Answers to questions about Intelligent Design

These answers are in reply to a student from France who wants to know more about ID in relation to Darwinism.