Reason
Our goal should not to merely win arguments, but to gain a more clear understanding of what is true so that we can orient our lives accordingly. An exclusive interest in winning arguments would only serve to reinforce a sort of intellectual inbreeding1 and, as such, serve no real productive purpose. I am sure I hold false beliefs, [...]
Many times I hear otherwise committed Christians ask whether logic and reason have ever helped anyone come to faith or not. They largely view Paul’s speech in Acts 17 as a failure and claim he changed his tactics after the incident on Mars Hill. The Sunday after EPS (which was awesome), I attended Dr Craig’s [...]
Continue reading about Do Atheists ever become Christians based on logic and evidence?
[HT Brian Auten] William Lane Craig presents this talk calling on Christians to be intellectually engaged. Entitled In Intellectual Neutral, this talk can be found in theaudio/video section of ReasonableFaith.org. Craig offers three reasons to become fully engaged intellectually in order to impact the culture for Christ.
For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. -Ephesians 2:8-9 Faith is not the gift, Jesus is. Faith is what everyone operates on at some level as we are not omniscient beings [...]
Continue reading about Faith is not a gift, its a conclusion. A verb, not a noun.
Unmitigated doubt is a cancer. What I mean by that is not that doubt itself is a bad thing. IT isn’t. Men are borne with doubts and fears which naturally lead to a sort of curiosity about the world around them and about the larger philosophical questions such as meaning, purpose, existence, origin, etc. Socrates [...]
In a recent discussion with a group of de-converts from Christianity the following objection was raised: Actually, my article *argues* that there is no objective definition of Christianity; it does not assume it. That was pretty much the point: there is no supernatural referent to “Christian” (or “God” or “salvation” or any of it), so [...]
Continue reading about Can’t I make anything up and claim it’s Christian?
I was recently sent the following challenging response to a previous post regarding the deconversion of those who once claimed to be Christians: Apply your reasoning to any other area of life, and no one can ever stop believing something that they really believed in. True belief PRECLUDES assimilating newly discovered evidence which causes re-evaluation [...]
[HT Dangerous Idea] I am not asking anyone to accept Christianity if his best reasoning tells him that the weight of evidence is against it. That is not the point at which faith comes in. But supposing a man’s reason once decides that the weight of the evidence is for it. I can tell that [...]
Continue reading about The nature of faith according to CS Lewis
Philosophical presuppositions are ideas and beliefs we hold, consciously or unconsciously, which affect the way we interpret facts and evidence. In short, our philosophical presuppositions affect how we reason. Many people are completely unaware of their philosophical presuppositions which is unfortunate since awareness of our philosophical presuppositions helps us better understand the arguments made by others who [...]
Continue reading about Wordy Wednesday: Philosophical presuppositions
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