“This, therefore, is, in conclusion, my reason for accepting the religion and not merely the scattered and secular truths out of the religion. I do it because the thing has not merely told this truth or that truth, but has revealed itself as a truth-telling thing. All other philosophies say the things that plainly seem to be true; only this philosophy has again and again said the thing that does not seem to be true, but is true. Alone... Read more
(Don’t worry, it’s short). I’ve really appreciated all the reading suggestions that you’ve made which culminated in the List of Doom and the more manageable shortlist. I’m going to keep writing about my reactions to the the books you recommended, and tomorrow I’ll be writing about G.K. Chesterton’s Orthodoxy. The trouble is, that as I started drafting, I knew I wanted to reference an idea that I’m not sure is in the common parlance. ‘Metaphysical backsliding’ doesn’t have a Wikipedia... Read more
–1– Hi visitors from Conversion Diary, and welcome. This week I’ve been focusing on a defence of covenant marriage from a non-religious perspective, which is still in progress (the next post in the series will go up this afternoon). For regular readers of this blog, I’m going to respond to some of the questions raised by yesterday’s post this weekend, but, in the meantime, I thought I’d share this very apropos cartoon from Dinosaur Comics: –2– Chris Stefanick wrote a great... Read more
This is part of a series on covenant marriage, and, hopefully, it’s becoming clearer what this all has to do with virtue. How do you know that you’re not a psychopath? The simplest check on your sense perception (moral or physical) is checking with others to see if they have the same observations as you. If you diverge, you have to weigh the odds that you are the lone sane person in a crazy world. If you’re seeing auras that... Read more
This post, as counter-intuitive as it seems, is part of a series on covenant marriage. It probably won’t be clear why for one or two more posts. How do you guarantee that you’re going to stick by your convictions and principles? This January, you’ve probably seen plenty of articles talking about online services meant to hold you to your New Year’s resolutions. The most famous of these is Stikk which lets you set goals and pay forfeits if you can’t... Read more
When I solicited book recommendations, Eldnar made a push for Gary Habermas’s The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, and I thought his reasoning deserved a response. Eldnar wrote: The reason I believe “The Case for the Resurrection” should be fairly early in your reading list is simple. The fact is, the whole of Christianity stands or falls based on the resurrection. Christianity makes a bold, historical claim; before Karl Popper, the apostle Paul already knew about “falsifiability” and provided... Read more
I’m reviewing Lee Strobel’s The Case for Christ: A Journalist’s Personal Investigation of the Evidence for Jesus and The Case for Faith: A Journalist Investigates the Toughest Objections to Christianity together since my objections to both of them are pretty much the same. I was more interested in The Case for Christ, which focuses on evidence for the historical Christ and his divinity than The Case for Faith which focused on theodicy. I don’t view theodicy as that much of... Read more
This post is part of a series about covenant marriage. After reading yesterday’s post about two married people who left their spouses, Hendy of technologeekeryhad a question: Why are humans inclined toward romantic monogamy? Heck, there might even be genes for monogamy and an inclination toward cheating! Interesting findings. I by no means think genes = predetermination. My genes would have me hoard fat (especially) and sugar because historically they were more likely to benefit survival… with gas stations and... Read more
This post is part of a series on covenant marriage. Over winter break, a controversial profile appeared in The New York Times‘s Vows column. The NYT featured a pair of newlyweds who had left their previous spouses and broken up their original families in order to be with each other. The article drew a lot of criticism from both sides of the culture war. Here are some choice excerpts from the profile: But it was hard to ignore their easy rapport. They got... Read more
–1– Earlier this week, I posted the lengthy list of books that readers recommended in response to my New Year’s Challenge. I’ve been looking through the list, and I’m narrowing down some books to start with. This Sunday, I’ll be posting my thoughts about Lee Strobel’s The Case for Faith, a book I was in the middle of before I solicited suggestions. The books that follow are the one’s I’m most inclined to read next, so they may be showing... Read more
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