Roger E. Olson

Can Atheism Support Ethical Absolutes? Is Ethics without Absolutes Enough? Whenever I comment on atheism here, atheists who otherwise pay no attention to this blog flock here to respond. Often, I believe, they have either misunderstood or intentionally misrepresent my points. Also, often, they misdirect the discussion by appealing to "bad Christians" and/or "good atheists." My point has never been that atheists are bad people or automatically do bad things because they are atheists. Nor … [Read more...]

Some Thoughts about the Current Accreditation Kerfuffle (and Academic Freedom) I love the word "kerfuffle" but don't use it often enough. I happen to believe that, at least in America, we are reducing our vocabulary to too few words. I recently heard that one needs only 500 English words to engage in English conversation. But there are so many great words in English—like "kerfuffle." Let's all stretch our vocabularies to include unusual but descriptive words. Recently a professor at a … [Read more...]

There Are No Atheists in Foxholes…Or Anywhere? According to journalist Nury Vittachi, writing for the web site Science 2.0 (Google it), "Scientists discover that atheists might not exist, and that's not a joke." Of course, the "joke" is the old saying "There are no atheists in foxholes"—meaning under threat of death everyone prays to some god. Vittachi's essay reports on the studies of atheist scientist Graham Lawton (writing in New Scientist) that indicate everyone is hard wired to … [Read more...]

A Few Words about this Bog and My Policies and Practices Regarding Posting Comments and Responding to Them Every once in a while I interrupt the "flow" of posting my theological musings here to comment about discussions in this space. If you intend to contribute to the discussion with a comment or question, please observe the following rules of thumb: 1) This is my space and no one has a "right" to have their comment or question posted here. I moderate the discussion and decide which … [Read more...]

Arminianism FAQ 5 (Everything You Always Wanted to Know…) This is the final installment of this series. I realize that I will not have answered every conceivable questions about Arminianism. "FAQ" means "frequently asked questions," but not even every frequently asked question about Arminianism can be answered in one series such as this. Readers should realize that these are my answers, not necessarily the answers every Arminian would give. However, I have been researching, speaking and … [Read more...]

FAQ: How does Arminianism explain Romans 9? A: This is without doubt one of the most asked questions by hard core Calvinists, but even many Arminians want to know as they have always only heard the Calvinist interpretation of Roman 9. First, it's important to pay attention to the fact that Romans 9 was never interpreted as teaching unconditional double predestination to salvation and damnation before Augustine in the early fifth century. For four centuries Christians read the New Testament … [Read more...]

FAQ: Doesn't Arminianism lead to open theism? A: Open theists and Calvinists both think so, but classical Arminianism don't think so. According to classical Arminianism, God knows the future exhaustively--as already settled in his own mind although not already determined. How God can know future free decisions and actions (ones not already determined by anything) is a mystery classical Arminians are willing to live with because they believe it (divine simple foreknowledge without comprehensive … [Read more...]