The Language of God, Chapter 10 By B.J. Marshall In this chapter, Collins tackles the claim that BioLogos damages both science and religion. Collins disagrees in a way that fails so epically that it almost makes the previous sections of this book seem prescient. For the atheist scientist, BioLogos seems to be another "God of the gaps" theory imposing the presence of the divine where none is needed or desired. This argument is not apt. BioLogos doesn't try to wedge God into gaps in our … [Read more...]
The Case for a Creator: The Ultimate 747
November 9, 2009 By 32 Comments
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 6 In his frequently-maligned (but less-frequently read and understood) book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins offers what I think is an underappreciated argument against all varieties of supernatural design, the "Ultimate 747" argument. Briefly stated, it goes like this: If we accept ID advocates' reasoning, complexity and organization require a designer. Yet it stands to reason that any designer that could create a complex, organized thing must be an even more … [Read more...]
The Case for a Creator: This Time It's Personal
October 9, 2009 By 25 Comments
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 5 To wrap up his cosmological argument, William Lane Craig comes to a laughably specific conclusion: "A cause of space and time must be an uncaused, beginningless, timeless, spaceless, immaterial, personal being endowed with freedom of will and enormous power," he said. [p.108] (He didn't add "who is three persons in one being and who sacrificed his son for the sins of the world", but clearly he would have gotten there if this interview had been just a few … [Read more...]
The Case for a Creator: Atheistic Meteorology
April 24, 2009 By 40 Comments
The Case for a Creator, Chapter 2 In the second chapter of Case, Lee Strobel worries whether evolutionary theory, by its undirected nature, rules out the possibility of a creative and purposeful deity. He admits that some prominent evolutionary scientists, like Christian de Duve or Kenneth Miller, do believe in God, but sweeps them under the carpet with little fanfare. Without ever directly discussing their views, he insists that evolution does rule out a creator because: ...textbooks affirm … [Read more...]
Answering Lee Strobel's Questions for Atheists
February 2, 2009 By 65 Comments
Friendly Atheist has posted the third part of a dialogue with Christian apologist Lee Strobel. In it, Strobel poses questions that he thinks would be the most effective at planting seeds of faith in an atheist's mind. In this post, I'll answer those questions. I've written on some of these issues at greater length in the past, and I'll also provide links to those essays where appropriate. Historian Gary Habermas: "Utilizing each of the historical facts conceded by virtually all contemporary … [Read more...]
A Response to the Theist's Guide
February 3, 2008 By 73 Comments
I first posted "The Theist's Guide to Converting Atheists" on Ebon Musings in June 2001. At that time, I promised that I would cite any theist who prepared an equivalent list and posted it on the internet. In the six and a half years since, I've had a total of two responses to that offer. One was discussed in June of last year. Last month, I got a second reply from a theist calling himself Quixote. He told me that if he had heard of my essay earlier, I wouldn't have had to wait this long, and I … [Read more...]
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