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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.

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 »

Sign of Jonah
The giant fish which swallowed Jonah may have been a whale.

Posted on April 18, 2020 by

Categories: Historical, Philosophical, Resurrection

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The Sign of Jonah Christians are very familiar with the story of Jonah in the Old Testament.  The Reader’s Digest version is that Jonah was a Jewish prophet who was called to go to the capital city of the Assyrian empire – Nineveh.  The Assyrians were particularly troublesome of the northern ten tribes of Israel due to repeated military conflicts.  Eventually, the Assyrians would conquer the ten tribes them away into slavery and captivity.  Jonah was to preach repentance to these people with the understanding they could then repent and avoid God’s judgment. The problem was that Jonah was not… Read More »

Historicity of the Resurrection
The resurrection of Christ is the central feature of Christianity.

Posted on April 15, 2020 by

Categories: Historical, Philosophical, Resurrection

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The historicity of the resurrection has been debated for many years.  The “minimal facts argument was developed by Gary Habermas for his Ph.D. dissertation to evaluate the possibility that the resurrection was an actual historical event and not just a nice story invented by an ancient culture. While secular scholars might disagree as to whether Christ rose from the dead in bodily form and revealed himself to multitudes of people, they do agree on several facts concerning the event.  These critical scholars can be liberal Christians, agnostic, or even atheist in their religious views as long as they are specialists… Read More »

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