Have you ever wondered why we make New Year’s resolutions? It struck me that we seek to make changes because we are not pleased with certain areas of our lives and see the new year as a good time to bring about change. The problem is that most people have a hard time making their resolutions stick. I have a friend who owns a very popular family restaurant. He says every January the sales of salads rise dramatically and there... Read more
I remember reading a very interesting story by August Turak, describing a spiritual retreat he attended at a monastery a number of years ago. He spent a great deal of time in solitude but had what they called a “spiritual director” that he would spend time talking with. His spiritual director was a man they called “Father Christian,” who was 88 years old, spoke several languages and had 3 PhD’s. An afternoon with Father Christian One afternoon in a one-on-one meeting... Read more
Do you need more proof in order to believe in the claims of Christ? A number of years ago the famous atheist Bertrand Russell was asked, “What if you are wrong? When you stand before God, what are you going to say to him?” Russell confidently replied, “I am going to tell him he did not give me enough proof.” This reminds me of some words from one of Philip Yancey’s older books, The Jesus I never Knew. He spoke of... Read more
Since today is Christmas Day, I’d like to share a blog that I wrote several years ago that is meaningful to me. May you have a most blessed Christmas! One of my favorite books that I’ve read in the last ten years is There is a God by philosopher, Anthony Flew. He writes of his journey from atheism to theism. He died three years after the book was written, and I am not sure if he ever became a Christian, although in... Read more
This will be the final blog post on God and Science; at least for the foreseeable future. The issue that I want to address today is one that also seems to confound modern science. At one point the science academy might have believed that it had an answer, but then its members eventually discovered their error. The question that I am referring to is: What do we know about the origin of life on this planet? How did life as... Read more
One of the great questions that has befuddled scientists over the years is “How did the universe begin?” The Bible has a very simple explanation. In the first verse of the Bible, we are told that God created the heavens and the earth. From the days of Moses, many faithful Jews and Christians have accepted that this is how it all got started. On the other hand, for many years, cosmologists disputed this belief by arguing that the universe was... Read more
I know a man who is very bright and well-educated. Several years ago he declared that, because of all the recent discoveries in science, he had finally concluded that God does not exist. I found this to be an interesting observation, because if this were true, then you would think that almost all of the world’s professional scientists would also be atheists or at least moving in that direction. According to a survey of the members of the American Association... Read more
I think sometimes we wonder why God does not reveal Himself to us in a more visible fashion. Why has He limited His communication to the written word? Why would He not just speak and let His presence be known? Why can’t we have that kind of demonstration from God? First, we should remember that God did speak audibly to certain individuals like Abraham, Moses, Job and the apostle Paul. The clearest expression we have, of course, is the revelation... Read more
This is a follow-up to last week’s blog Why Nations Die. Arnold Toynbee concluded in his magisterial study on the rise and fall of world civilizations that people have stopped believing in morality. The natural question I would then ask is how do civilizations establish and maintain moral order? And can a nation be moral without God? It is hard to believe, but Richard Dawkins once acknowledged, “It is pretty hard to get objective morality without religion.” Since he did... Read more
If there ever was a serious threat to American freedom it would spring up amongst us…If destruction be our lot, we would ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of free people, we will live through all of time or die by suicide. —Abraham Lincoln This quote was included in my “Nuggets of Wisdom” blog posted several weeks ago. These are sobering words for people living in a nation where there is so much division, violence and instability.... Read more
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