The Territories of Science and Religion by Peter Harrison, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2015, 320 pages. The battle between Science and Religion has been presented to the wider public as a struggle between reason and superstition. In the present intellectual climate, where the ghosts of logical positivism have been far from exorcised from the corridors of scientific thinking, any countering of the reigning attitude is most welcome. The volume under review is an absorbing historical account of the way …
Category: Worldview
A follow up to Scientism isn’t Science Naturalism is defined by Stewart Goetz & Charles Taliaferro in this way: Naturalism – very roughly – may be defined as the philosophy that everything that exists is a part of nature and that there is no reality beyond or outside of nature. – Naturalism, 6 Something being “a part of nature” is here meant to exclude the supernatural. Naturalism then is opposed to supernaturalism. It is seeing all things as natural and …
Part One 2. The Place We All Stand: Everyone Stands within the Biblical Worldview When I say that we all stand within the biblical worldview, I know that I have some explaining to do. I want to say right away that I am not claiming that we all acknowledge this. In fact, the Bible says we act to suppress the knowledge of God. But it protrudes here and there since it must. For God must be already there in order …
This is the working document I used for my talk at the Bible and Beer Consortium in Fort Worth last week. As you will discover if you watch the presentation itself, I departed from the notes quite a bit (which is not unusual for me). Intro. Let me begin with a few lines from T. S. Eliot: “Endless invention, endless experiment, Brings knowledge of motion, but not of stillness; Knowledge of speech, but not of silence; Knowledge of words, …
In less than an hour, I will be lecturing for The Bible & Beer Consortium in Fort Worth, and the event will be Livestreamed. The topic of my lecture is: The Biblical Worldview Against All Others. Here’s how you can join in: 1. create a free Livestream login ID 2. sign in and subscribe to “The Bible & Beer Consortium” channel 3. play the event when it begins, or jump in at any time Since I’m teetotal, I’ve been getting a …
Part Nine In the last installment of this series we were looking at a motto which is often misused by the Christian community, and which could mislead young people if not carefully explained. That motto was “All truth is God’s truth.” This time round I want to take a look at another slogan; a slogan which should not be adopted by Bible believers, even though some prominent and respected authorities use it. The phrase I have in mind is this: …
Review of James S. Spiegel, The Making of an Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief, Chicago: Moody Publishers, 2010, 141 pages James Spiegel’s books are usually worth a gander because he writes about important but often neglected subjects. Witness his books on Hypocrisy and Providence. This book makes a helpful contribution to the usual run of apologetics resources by looking at some intriguing facts surrounding how atheists are made. Some atheists, of course, make the claim that atheism is the …
Part Eight Last time I asked whether the facts speak for themselves. My answer was that they do not, they are freighted with interpretations, whether right or wrong. In Part Seven I called attention to the temptation of attaching ourselves to slogans and ideas from the world. Before proceeding along the lines I started with in the last post, I want first to take two common but deadly slogans which Christians use and look at them, for though they sound …
This (re)post is a “stand-alone.” But I think it is rather important in its own way. I apologize for the formatting. “When the Christian sets forth his outlook he will stress the kind of God to whom he is committed, the nature of the world in relation to God, and the nature of man as God’s creature. The Christian God is totally self-sufficient, and in Him there is an equal ultimacy of unity and diversity (being Triune). Everything outside of …
Here is a very informative link to what the justices of the Supreme Court have said, pro and con, about their 5 to 4 decision to legalize Gay Marriage. http://erlc.com/article/50-key-quotes-from-the-supreme-courts-same-sex-marriage-ruling The kind of “reasoning” employed by Justice Kennedy et al could and will be employed by pedophiles, polymorists, and even those who want to marry their dog. This is what godless law looks like. …
