"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.

The Divided Church

Posted on September 20, 2021 by

Categories: Philosophical

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There is no doubt that Christianity consists of a divided church.  There are now more than 45,000 Christian denominations throughout the world.  Many of these denominations disagree vehemently on many points of doctrine, while others disagree on very fine points of Christian theology. These differences in beliefs, church governance, Scripture interpretation, and other matters might seem casual to the outside observer but can be of fundamental importance to churchgoers. This division has not escaped the attention of atheists.  For example, the late prominent atheist Christopher Hitchens aggressively promulgated the belief that “religion spills everything.”  He also noted, Four hundred years… Read More »

Hardening Your Heart

Hardening of the heart is an expression going back to the ancient Egyptians. A heavy heart when weighed against a feather could mean a dismal future in the afterlife.

Posted on July 4, 2021 by

Categories: Biblical History, Historical Evidence, Philosophical

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One of the most common colloquialisms is about hardening your heart.  According to Merriam-Webster, it means to stop having kind or friendly feelings for someone or caring about something. It would probably surprise most people that the expression derived from ancient Egypt and is important in the Biblical narrative. Hardening Your Heart Ancient Egypt was a place of customs that seem very strange to us today.  Many of these ancient customs are related to religious rituals the Egyptians followed concerning the afterlife. The Weight of the Heart ceremony was a procedure that the Egyptians believed occurred after death when you… Read More »

Atheism and the Meaning of Life

clock to measure time

Posted on June 28, 2021 by

Categories: Philosophical

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What is the meaning of life to an atheist?  Richard Dawkins chimed in on this topic when he opined as to whether life has any meaning at all.  In his book, The God Delusion, he noted, If the universe were just electrons and selfish genes, meaningless tragedies … are exactly what we should expect, along with equally meaningless good fortune.  Such a universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no evil and no good. Possibly the most well-known paleontologist in the world Stephen Jay Gould of Harvard University opined,… Read More »

Near Death Experience

The intensive care unit is where the sickest people in the hospital are treated.

Posted on May 16, 2021 by

Categories: Philosophical

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Near-Death Experience The near-death experience has become more common as modern medical science has advanced over the past few decades.  One of the greatest advances has been in Critical Care Medicine – the ability to take care of the sickest people.  These are the ones who might be on life support with artificial ventilators, pacemakers, aortic balloon pumps, and artificial hearts. Many people now survive illnesses that would have taken their lives only a few short decades ago – the amount of time I have been in clinical medicine.  One of the results of these wonderful advances is that some… Read More »

Albert Camus

Albert Camus was a very influential French author who converted to Christianity at the end of his life.

Posted on May 13, 2021 by

Categories: Philosophical

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Albert Camus and Religious Belief Albert Camus was a French philosopher who was prominent during the 1950s.  He won the Nobel Price in Literature at the age of 44 in 1957 as one of the youngest ever to achieve this milestone.  Many of these works were required reading in college philosophy courses, including The Stranger, The Plague, The Myth of Sisyphus, The Fall, and The Rebel. The French newspaper Le Monde considered The Stranger as one of the 100 Books of the Century, ranking number one.  There is a reason why this prestigious paper listed a work from Camus as… Read More »

Theism and the Meaning of Life

The Holocaust is in the Bible codes, along with names of many Germans involved in the mass slaughter of Jews.

Posted on May 9, 2021 by

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The Meaning of Life Determining the meaning of life is the most important challenge for every person alive.  Everybody has a deep sense that their life must have some purpose, meaning, and belonging.  The early Greek philosophers felt people were “telic” creatures.  The word “telic” derives from the Greek word “telos” or purpose.  Everybody has a person in life, no matter whether they are poor or rich, famous or forgotten; everybody has a reason for their existence. Everybody wants to live for something; we all have a yearning for meaningfulness.  People know that when they reach the end of their… Read More »

God and Evil

God Creating the World

Posted on April 22, 2021 by

Categories: Philosophical

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God and Evil Why does God allow such evil to exist in the world?  Since God is all-powerful, why has he designed a world where there is so much pain and suffering? This is a question that has been addressed for centuries by some of the greatest Christian philosophers in an area of Christian apologetics called theodicy.  There are some very clear reasons why God might allow the amount of evil we now experience and we shall examine some of them here. There are two principles that God has put into the world we live in that mandate some degree… Read More »

Age of the Old Testament

Shrine of the Book houses the ancient Isaiah Scroll written about 200 BC including Isaiah 53 which gives a description in great detail about Jesus Christ - the coming Messiah.

Posted on April 16, 2021 by

Categories: Biblical History, Historical Evidence, Philosophical, Textual

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Dating the Age of the Old Testament The age of the Old Testament has been debated for the past two hundred years – it is a very controversial and very important topic.  Traditionalists say the Old Testament was written many hundreds of years before Christ by the authors attributed to each book.  For example, the Torah (first five books in the Bible) was written by Moses, the Psalms mostly written by David, Proverbs written by Solomon, and the major and minor prophetic books written by their respective prophet. Recent handwriting analysis published in peer-reviewed journals lends credence to the traditional… Read More »

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 a 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.

Willful Blindness Preconceived notions can prevent otherwise intelligent and discerning people from recognizing 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 »