“We are here because one odd group of fishes had a peculiar fin anatomy that could transform into legs for terrestrial creatures; because the earth never froze entirely during an ice age; bec…
Source: Stephen Jay Gould on the meaning of life in an evolved world
As Dostoevsky said, “If God does not exist, everything is permissible.”
Theists claim that people could not do good without God. But, people do good things all the time, even without believing in God. Atheists, agnostics and people of all stripes can do good things and they do good things.
Obviously, believing in God is not a prerequisite to doing good things. A better question, is whether good can exist without God?
If God does not exist, what basis exists for determining good or bad? Right or wrong? Continue reading “Can You Be Good Without God?”
We don’t always think about the courage necessary to be a follower of Christ. Sure, we know the words that Jesus spoke: If you deny me before men, I will deny you before the Father.[1] But we tend to view those words through the fear of being found wanting.
Fear is a bad motivator. I don’t think our tendency to be afraid of losing our salvation serves us very well. Perfect love casts out all fear. God is looking for the courageous, not the fearful.
Jesus actually spoke those words in the context of fear.[2] And the message from Jesus is: do not fear! Continue reading “A Time for Courage”
“I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation[1] and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus.”
This is how John begins relating the revelations he received that are preserved in the Book of Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. Sometimes we read over things quickly that other times will stick out. This verse sticks out today, perhaps, because we have a good friend who is fighting cancer. Today is also the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
I recently wrote about the charge from atheists that people have faith in God because of wishful thinking. Nothing could be more wishful. True faith is forged only in tribulation. Continue reading “Destined for Tribulations”
The idea that there is no God to interfere with our freedom to do what we want may be as much the product of wishful thinking as the idea that there is a God who loves us.
A.C. Graying, in The God Argument, the Case Against Religion and for Humanism, claims that religious belief is really just wish fulfillment. The book accepts the premise that many atheists and agnostics assume, which is that people believe in God for psychological reasons. I would add that people believe for emotional reasons as well, but generalizations usually belie a different truth.
The wishful thinking premise is a common assumption and is often used to undermine the basis of faith. But does it really support the point it boasts of making: that faith is the product of wishful thinking? Continue reading “One Too Many Gods”
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