In recent months, among conservative and religious participants in the same-sex marriage debate, an idea that has been thrown around with increasing frequency is that civil and religious marriage should be separated. The proponents of this idea think that it would be good from the perspective of traditional marriage if pastors and priests voluntarily ceded their authority as wards of the state and instead sought to marry couples in a religious capacity only. Then, the idea goes, the pastors and... Read more

“What I mean, brothers and sisters, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they do not; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.” (1... Read more

In Jeremiah 1:5 and 1:8 we read how God, speaking to Jeremiah, gives him a commission: “‘Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations….Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,’ declares the Lord.” The vision that Jeremiah had in these passages was not a mere emotional encounter, but a vivid and commissioning moment... Read more

Since I am a conservative Christian and a professional philosopher, I am sometimes asked how I get along with my secular colleagues. The truth is that I have many friends in my professional life whose worldviews are different from my own. I love and cherish these persons, and I regularly pray for blessing in their lives.   What is the key to getting along with friends who think differently than I do, both inside and outside of my profession? Part... Read more

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2, and 8 are some of the more famous verses in the Old Testament: “For everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted. A time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.”   These verses provide wisdom for the way in... Read more

Imagine that you are a passenger on a ship, that your ship sinks in a major thunderstorm, and that you manage to put out into the open ocean in a lifeboat with three other persons. But then the waiting ordeal begins. Suppose that you know, based on your ship’s position in the thunderstorm when it sinks, that you are more than 1500 miles from the nearest body of land. You have no food or water in the lifeboat, except two... Read more

Today I want to explore once more the ‘Euthyphro’ [you-thi-fro] problem. Remember, this problem is stated by Socrates as follows: “Are moral things loved by God because they are moral, or are they moral because they are loved by God?”   I mentioned yesterday that we can avoid the problem of the independent standard if we instead say that there is no independent moral standard and that it is God’s will that determines which actions are good. The good actions... Read more

One of the oldest philosophical dilemmas is called the ‘Euthyphro’ [you-thi-fro] problem. It was first raised by Plato in the dialogue titled ‘Euthyphro,’ and it is actually pretty simple. In the course of the dialogue between Euthyphro and Socrates the question is raised, ‘what is it to be pious?’ What they really seem to mean when they use the word ‘pious’ is ‘moral.’ So they are really asking the question ‘what is it to be moral?’ or ‘what makes something... Read more