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"Philosophical" Article Items

Philosophical considerations concerning Christianity. There are arguments for Christianity which have developed over centuries that are often misrepresented or not understood correctly.

Finding the Truth
To know whether something represents truth, it needs to be read and studied.

Posted on April 9, 2021 by

Categories: Philosophical

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Finding the truth is one of the most important tasks people must perform during their lifetime. Frequently, this quest is accomplished early in life, with the rest of life based upon that discovery.  These are the fortunate few who have seriously investigated the evidence and arrived at conclusion upon which they can base their actions. Finding the truth implies there are falsehoods.  Believing in falsehoods will more likely get the believer into trouble than finding the truth.  Falsehoods often lead off into tangents, years spent climbing the ladder of success (however it might be defined) only to find at the… Read More »

Willful Blindness
RNA and DNA are very similar in structure although they perform different functions in the cell.

Posted on February 23, 2021 by

Categories: Intelligent Design, Philosophical

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Willful Blindness Preconceived notions can prevent otherwise intelligent and discerning people from observing the obvious. The editor of an obscure journal Proceedings of the Biological Society of Washington decided to publish a paper making the case for intelligent design.  Intelligent design is a controversial theory that suggests that life is too complex to have been self-assembled by accident.  Instead – as with all extremely complex machines that perform a function – it was put together by an intelligent designer. The Smithsonian Institute helps to fund and run this journal, and within hours voiced its intense displeasure that any favor would… Read More »

Prayer in Public Schools
Prayer in public schools is a hot topic outlawed by Supreme Court.

Posted on August 14, 2020 by

Categories: Philosophical

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Teacher-led prayer in public schools has been forbidden by the Supreme Court for many decades.  Many Christians feel that the exclusion of God from public schools along with the promotion of secular ideologies has contributed to the failure of graduates to do better in life.  Certainly, this is a difficult topic in multicultural American schools and uneasy accommodation has been determined through multiple legal challenges in federal courts. To be clear, students and teachers still have the right to “voluntarily pray” in public schools, while “mandatory” teacher-led school-sponsored prayer is very limited.  Any mention of God by teachers or administration… Read More »

The Book of Job
Bad things happen to good people even in God's good world. The Book of Job is wisdom literature that tries to answer why that is so.

Posted on August 9, 2020 by

Categories: Philosophical

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The Book of Job is considered the oldest book in the Bible and helps answer one of the biggest questions confronting modern-day Christians. Modern society tends of think of a cause and effect principle; that is, if you get an infection, you can be treated with antibiotics; if you jump off a cliff, you will likely die; if you do something wrong you will likely be punished.  This cause and effect principle is ingrained in a modern society wishing the world to be orderly, predictable, and government by science. But the world is not that way!  Sometimes good people suffer… Read More »

The French Revolution
The Bastille was a French prison housing political prisoners. These prisoners were released from Bastille by a rioting population starting the French Revolution.

Posted on July 29, 2020 by

Categories: Historical, Philosophical

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The French Revolution provides an important illustration of a revolution gone wrong.  Its temporal association with the American Revolution invites a comparison between the two.  Both were in civilized countries with advanced concepts of social justice founded in concepts of equality and the rights of the common man. By any objective measure, the French Revolution went terribly wrong.  It led to the death of hundreds of thousands of innocent French citizens even though it started attempting to provide a more just society.  The carnage wrought by the Revolution did not stop in France but spread throughout Europe when Napoleon became… Read More »

Suffering and Evil
A Christian understanding of the purpose of suffering and evil is to draw people closer to God.

Posted on June 18, 2020 by

Categories: Philosophical

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The existence of great suffering and evil on earth has been difficult for many people to understand in a universe made by a loving God. Many cosmologists including Einstein, Hoyle, and Davies have questioned the existence of God due to the great suffering that is present everywhere on earth. Natural calamities such as  earthquakes, fires, floods, and climate change can cause one form of suffering that is independent of the activities of mankind or animals. Man-made disasters such as war, pollution or destruction of natural habitats can produce another form of suffering.  Animals can produce suffering of other creatures as… Read More »

Made For Life
The speed of light is now known not to change over space or time.

Posted on June 3, 2020 by

Categories: Cosmology, Intelligent Design, Philosophical, Science

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The universe seems to be made for life; it seems like the universe was made in such a way as to promote the existence of intelligent life.  The question that has plagued cosmologists for decades is how this extraordinary fine-tuning came into existence.  An analogy might help in understanding this problem. Your New Office Suppose you have just landed your first desk job.  It is your ideal position, one you have applied for many years ago but only now secured.  You can’t wait to get to work! You check in to human resources, get the key to your office, and… Read More »

How Did Life Go Live

Posted on May 31, 2020 by

Categories: Biology, Intelligent Design, Philosophical, Science

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How Did Life Go Live The question, “How Did Life Go Live” has led many scientists, theologians, and laypersons to different conclusions.  Antony Flew came to the conclusion that God must exist in order for life to exist. Antony Flew was one of the world’s leading atheists, frequently engaging theists in intense debates concerning the existence of God. Then during the beginning of one such debate in 2004, Flew amazed the viewing public by announcing he now believed in God. This was a revelation of monumental proportions.  Flew indicated he would always follow where the evidence leads and felt with… Read More »

The Laws of Nature
The Laws of Nature are orderly, often in higher mathematics, and beautiful.

Posted on May 30, 2020 by

Categories: Intelligent Design, Philosophical, Science

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The Laws of Nature as defined by Antony Flew represent the great order of the universe.  That there should be such order from a universe that originated from the Big Bang defies explanation and is one of the reasons why the atheist philosopher who fought for most of his life for atheism came to belief in God. Antony Flew was a British philosopher who was a popular atheist philosopher throughout most of the twentieth century.  In that capacity, he taught philosophy at some of the best-known colleges in the United Kingdom including Oxford, Aberdeen, and York University in Toronto. Flew… Read More »

Why Christ was Crucified
The resurrection of Christ is the central feature of Christianity.

Posted on April 23, 2020 by

Categories: Historical, Philosophical, Resurrection

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Precisely why Christ was crucified is a question posed by curious Christians throughout the centuries. There is no real doubt the crucifixion occurred – it is one of the best-documented events in ancient history.  The Scriptures, as well as extra-Biblical history, support the historicity of Christ’s crucifixion.  Ancient Greco-Roman sources such as Josephus, Tacitus, and Lucian of Samosata confirm that Christ was crucified. The reason why Christ was crucified is not as obvious to modern Christians who have only marginal knowledge of the Old Testament.  As Bart Ehrman, an agnostic, notes, [If] Jesus had simply been a great moral teacher,… Read More »

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