Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

PERFECT ECLIPSES: COINCIDENCE OR CONSPIRACY?

A strong argument can be made that the universe points beyond itself.  

Jay Richards, co-author of The Privileged Planet: How our Place in the Cosmos is Designed for Discovery, writes about the 2017 eclipse viewed by many of us today in the United States and elsewhere.  He writes:

On August 21, we Americans get to see a total solar eclipse. As I mentioned in a previous piece, we can see solar eclipses only because our planet, our Moon, and our Sun sometimes come together in a straight line in space. When the Moon passes between the Sun and Earth, those in the Moon’s shadow see an eclipse.

But the story doesn’t end there. A rare alignment of events allows Earthlings to witness not just solar eclipses, but what we might call perfect solar eclipses. Our Moon just barely covers the Sun’s bright photosphere. Such an eclipse depends on just the right sizes, shapes, and relative distances of the Sun, Moon, and Earth.

There’s no law of physics that dictates this layout. There are 65 major moons in our Solar System, and many smaller ones. But only we enjoy perfect solar eclipses. If there were Martians or Uranians, they wouldn’t see such eclipses.

The Moon is about 400 times smaller than the Sun. But the Moon is also about 400 times closer to the Earth than is the Sun. As a result, the size of the Moon on our sky matches the size of the Sun. And since they appear as round disks, they match in both size and shape.

What’s more, the tight match between Moon and Sun only happens during a narrow window of Earth’s history. The Moon is slowly moving away from Earth — at roughly the same speed that fingernails grow.

In brief, the best time and place to view total solar eclipses in our Solar System is just when and where there are observers to see them.

Let that sink in.

JOHN LENNOX: WHY GOD? DO WE NEED GOD IN THE GOOD TIMES?

I love John Lennox for his clarity of thought, genial personality, and forthright evidence-based Christian faith.  The video below is not of the best quality, but if it proves too bothersome, one can just listen without watching.  I have blogged about Lennox before with other (and better quality) videos on various topics.

 

JOHN LENNOX, OXFORD MATHEMATICIAN, SPEAKS AT HARVARD ON "MIRACLES: IS BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL IRRATIONAL?"

Without a doubt, Dr. John Lennox's talk at Harvard remains one of my favorites; I have blogged about it before as well as other talks of his.    It's very much worthwhile to listen to the talk in its entirety and to the Q&A session at the end wherein he relates a couple of unique experiences of divine guidance as a postscript (he was asked a question) to his more intellectual address.  I post the talk again for those who might not know of John Lennox.

 

HUGH ROSS - SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE FOR GOD'S EXISTENCE

Hugh Ross, Ph.D. (astronomy/astrophysics), founder of Reasons to Believe, offers a stunning talk on science, creation, and how he came to faith and trust the Bible.  He became a believer "on his own" as a 17 year old budding scientist. He said he didn't encounter a Christian until he was 27 and at CalTech.    My one question would be to ask how he calculates probabilities.  Enjoy.

 

 

JOHN LENNOX Q&A WITH HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS IN THE FAROE ISLANDS

I enjoyed this Q&A very much.  I found it's slow pace agreeable and John Lennox's responses as helpful as ever.  I have blogged about Dr. Lennox in the past here, here and here.  Lennox teaches mathematics at Oxford University and is one of the foremost exponents of Christian faith today,   The sound comes on around the 28 second mark. 

 

HOW TO BUILD A WORM

I found this video fascinating.

 

DALLAS WILLARD: NIETZSCHE VS. JESUS (VIDEO)

Dallas Willard, professor of philosophy at the University of Southern California, spoke at Stanford University in 2002 on the topic Nietzsche vs. Jesus.  I found his talk intriguing.   Willard treats Nietzsche respectfully, offering a helpful explanation of Nietzsche's historical context, and the way his perspective on "truth" now predominates in the culture of our day.  Against Nietzsche Willard contrasts Jesus and Christ's way of discovering genuine truth and reality.  The talk is nonpolemical and offers much to ponder.  Go here.

Dallas Willard passed away in 2013 after teaching at USC from 1965 to 2013.  He left  behind an influential body of work.  I have read several of his books and go back from time to time in order to better digest and internalize his thought.  Willard offers fresh vocabulary.  He replaces traditional terminology such as "disciples of Christ" with "apprentices to Christ."   Some of his books include:

     The Divine Conspiracy: Rediscovering Our Hidden Life in God

     The Spirit of the Disciplines: Understanding How God Changes Lives

     Renovation of the Heart: Putting On the Character of  Christ

     Knowing Christ Today: Why We Can Trust Spiritual Knowledge,  

     Hearing God: Developing a Conversational Relationship with Christ. 

A book published after his death is  The Allure of Gentleness: Defending the Faith in the Manner of Jesus.

DOES SCIENCE ARGUE FOR OR AGAINST GOD?

Hats off to Eric Metaxas and Prager University for producing this excellent, skilful distillation of points made elsewhere, such as in The Privileged Planet, the book or DVD.

 

 

THREE TALKS BY TIM KELLER GUARANTEED TO CHANGE YOUR LIFE

Tim Keller is the pastor of 5,000 member Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  He is, in my judgment, the most insightful, articulate and persuasive preacher in the world today.  Not only can he communicate to church people, he can also communicate to secularists and non-believers in down-to earth, compelling, reasonable, persuasive language.  I have posted three videos below, all delivered in secular settings.

The talk below on The Reason for God was delivered at Google headquarters in Mountain View, California.  It draws on his book of the same title.  (Picture begins at the 9 second mark)

 

 

This video records Keller speaking at Google in New York City, this time invited to speak on the title of his book  - The Meaning of Marriage  (Picture begins at the 7 second mark)

 

-- "You Never Marry the Right Person" - an excerpt from Keller's book discussing one of the points in the talk

 

And finally, here is Tim Keller speaking in Cambridge, England on the subject of his book Counterfeit Gods. 

 

 Previous Tim Keller posts on this blog:

ERIC METAXAS ON MIRACLES

Eric Metaxas,  bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, Spy and the acclaimed Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, today published his latest book:  Miracles: What They Are, Why They Happen, and How They Can Change Your Life.  I checked Amazon and read the endorsements --  wow!  Genuinely impressive:

“As a secular reader, I come to such books with a certain resistance. Metaxas won me over instantly by meeting me where I live. His intellectual honesty, coupled with an open-hearted wonder at the sheer breadth of human experience, is irresistible.”
—Christopher Noel, author, Impossible Visits

“If you’re a skeptic, read this book with an open mind and you might just discover that miracles are real. If you’re already a believer, be ready to be inspired.”
—Kirsten Powers, columnist for USA Today and The Daily Beast

“A dense, edgy and awe-inspiring report on the possibility of the impossible.”
—Dr. Markus Spieker, Reporter for German National Television and bestselling author of Hollywood Cinema in Nazi Germany
 
““No Christian thinker today combines reason and wit, argument and imagination, to greater effect.”
—Joseph Loconte, Associate Professor of History at the King's College, NYC and author, God, Locke, and Liberty: The Struggle for Religious Freedom in the West.
 
"Metaxas has done it again....he presents hope for the tone deaf who cannot hear the splendor of the music of the spheres, and he brings in sunlight for modern cave dwellers who have become accustomed to only shadows on the wall of our increasingly windowless world."
—Os Guinness, author Long Journey Home

Metaxas produced a Breakpoint commentary today titled "Existence Itself Is a Miracle" which is well worth reading.  He writes (or speaks, if you click the audio below):

NOW | DOWNLOAD

In my new book “Miracles” I point out that possibly the greatest evidence for the existence of miracles is the fact that we exist.

The universe as we know it requires such a careful calibration of variables as to render its mere existence—never mind the presence of intelligent life—a miracle in itself. The British astronomer and atheist Fred Hoyle, who coined the phrase “the Big Bang,” summed up the sheer improbability of existence by saying “The universe looks like a put-up job."

For instance, if the earth were slightly larger, it would of course have slightly more gravity. As a result, methane and ammonia gas, which have molecular weights of sixteen and seventeen respectively, would remain close to the surface of the earth. Since we can’t breathe methane or ammonia because of their toxicity, we would die.

If Earth were slightly smaller, water vapor would not stay close to the planet’s surface, but would instead dissipate into the atmosphere. Obviously, without water we couldn’t exist.

What’s true of Earth is true of the Universe as a whole. What physicists called the four fundamental forces—gravity, electromagnetism and the strong and weak nuclear forces—are so finely-tuned that if any of them were in the slightest degree different, our universe would not exist.

What’s more, each of these crucially precise values was established once and for all within one millionth of a second after the Big Bang. In other words, immediately.

OXFORD MATHEMATICIAN JOHN LENNOX AT YALE - "IS ANYTHING WORTH BELIEVING IN?"

Yale professor Greg Ganssle interviews Oxford scholar John Lennox on questions of reason, faith, and the nature of evidence at The Veritas Forum at Yale, 2013.  

 

I love listening to Dr. Lennox, Professor of Mathematics and the Philosophy of Science at the University of Oxford and a professing Christian.  Lennox has debated Princeton ethicist Dr. Peter Singer and Oxford's evolution propagandist Dr. Richard Dawkins among others.  Lennox is the author of the following books:

-  God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God?

-  Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science.  

-   God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway?

-  Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target.

I have blogged previously of John Lennox speaking in New Zealand on "Natural Disasters, Pain and Suffering" and at Harvard in 2012 on "Miracles: Is Belief in the Supernatural Irrational?"

The Lennox-Singer debate can be found here and his first debate with Richard Dawkins in Alabama here and a follow-up with Dawkins at the Oxford Museum of Natural History here.   

ERIC METAXAS INTERVIEWS STEPHEN MEYER ON "DARWIN'S DOUBT"

Eric Metaxas of Socrates in the City interviews Stephen Meyer on Darwin, Intelligent Design, the scientific method, and the book Darwin’s Doubt: The Explosive Origin of Animal Life and the Case for Intelligent Design. Filmed at the Union League Club in New York City on September 12, 2013.  (HT: Justin Taylor) 

I viewed it last night in its entirety and heartily recommend it.  Metaxas employs entertaining wit and humor and Meyer is an interviewer's delight- he offers cogent, articulate responses to every question!  And as for the Q&A, Wintery Knight says "Those were some of the most intelligent questions I have ever seen from a lay audience." 

Winitery Knight summarizes:

It’s a very good discussion that starts with the 5 basic questions you need to understand before you can understand intelligent design.

Here are the first 5 questions:

• What is intelligent design?
• What are the three meanings of the word evolution?
• Is Darwinian evolution compatible with intelligent design?
• Is intelligent design science?
• What is biological information and where is it found?

ERIC METAXAS SUGGESTS BOOKS FOR UNBELIEVERS

Anything suggested by Metaxas is worth considering.  Metaxas writes:

Have you wanted to give an unbelieving friend a book about the Christian faith, but afraid it might come across in the wrong way? I’ve got some great reads to recommend.

Listen Now | Download

Recently, Christianity Today asked me to recommend five books that would help non-believers better understand, and hopefully embrace, the Christian faith.

This being the season of giving, I’d like to share the list with BreakPoint listeners and ask you to consider giving these books as gifts to the non-believers God has placed in your life. And all of these books are the best kind of apologetics: apologetics that don’t read like apologetics.

The first book is called “The Searchers: A Quest for Faith in the Valley of Doubt” by Joe Loconte. In an earlier BreakPoint, I called this book a “kind of field guide” to the spiritual restlessness that pervades our culture.

As Loconte tells us, notwithstanding the increasing number of people who don’t identify with any religion, our society is filled with what he calls “God Seekers.” These people “don’t always look in the right places, [but] there’s no doubt that they are seeking.”

C.S. LEWIS DIED 50 YEARS AGO TODAY; SAME DAY AS JOHN F. KENNEDY

No individual has had a more profound effect on my thinking than C.S. Lewis.  In saying that, I realize I am but one of thousands of people who gladly say the same.   Michael Gerson, former speech writer for George W. Bush, penned a good piece on Lewis today.   It sparkles.   I urge you to click through and read it.  In the course of his article he links to Lewis's essay "The Poison of Subjectivism," a profound short essay which I have reread many times over the years.   Gerson titles his piece, "C.S. Lewis, our guide to the good life."

- John Stonestreet of Breakpoint has penned several excellent pieces on Lewis and his writings this week.  Check out "Narnia's Got it All: The World According to C.S. Lewis."   For the audio:   Listen Now | Download

- Stonestreet interviewed author and Lewis aficionado, Professor Joe Rigney,  who explains "How to Live Like a Narnia."  It's a 24 minute audio interview.  Listen Now | Download  Rigney wrote "Live Like A Narnian: Christian Discipleship in Lewis's Chronicles.

My own previous posts on Lewis can be found here:  http://muddlingtowardmaturity.typepad.com/my_weblog/c_s_lewis/

Note: Breakpoint has been featuring C.S. Lewis all week:

Listen Now | Download

• Narnia's Got It All
  By John Stonestreet
• See-Through Morality
  By John Stonestreet
• C. S. Lewis, Reepicheep, and Our Chests
  By John Stonestreet
• Screwtape and the Cure of Souls
  By Eric Metaxas
• Remembering C. S. Lewis
  By Eric Metaxas
• God's Double Agent
  By Eric Metaxas

THE FOUR GOSPELS - ARE THEY RELIABLE?

I was recently given a DVD of this excellent discussion and am glad to see it available on YouTube.  The DVD allows hearing not only in English, but also in Turkish, Arabic, Mandarin, Cantonese, and Persian.  The video is especially good for those who labor under the misapprehension that the Biblical gospels have been changed or adulterated through the centuries.   "We have manuscripts of a good type of substantial material from every century. It is one of the great things that separates the New Testament from anything else. Evidence down from the centuries."   -Dr. Peter Head, Tyndale House and Cambridge University

Awards
- CBC Media Awards 2011 (UK) -- Gold prize in the BEST TEACHING PROGRAMME (VISUAL) category

- Finalist, Attic Film Fest, Austin, Texas, USA, March 2011

- Winner, Kingdomwood Christian Film Festival, Atlanta, USA, October 2010

- Winner, Redemptive Storyteller Award, Virginia, USA, November 2010

- Finalist, San Diego Christian Film Festival, La Jolla, California, USA, December 2010

- Semi finalist, Transforming Stories International Christian Film Festival, Cape Town, South Africa, October 2010

J.P. MORELAND EXPLAINS TO HIS DAUGHTER WHY WE CAN'T SEE A PERSON OR GOD

Moreland tells the story of his fifth grade daughter asking him during family prayers, "Dad, if I could see God, it would help me believe in him."  To which Moreland replied:

"Well, honey, the problem isn't that you've never seen God.  The problem is that you've never seen your mother."   And her mother was sitting right next to her!

"My daughter said , 'What do you mean, Dad?'  I said, "Suppose without hurting your mom, we were able to take her apart cell by cell and peek inside each one of them.  We would never come to a moment where we could say, 'Look -- here's what Mommy's thinking about doing the rest of the day.'  Or 'Hey, this cell contains Mommy's feelings.'  Or 'So this is what Mom believes about pro football.'  We couldn't find Mommy's thoughts, beliefs, desires or her feelings.

"Guess what else we would never find?  We'd never find Mommy's ego or her self.  We would never say, 'Finally, in this particular brain cell, there's Mommy.  There's her ego, or self.'  That's because Mommy is a person, and persons are invisible.  Mommy's ego and her conscious life are invisible.  Now, she's small enough to have a body, while God is too big to have a body--so let's pray!"

"The point is this, Lee:  I am a soul, and I have a body.  We don't learn about people by studying their bodies.  We learn about people by finding out how they feel, what they think, what they're passionate about, what their worldview is, and so forth.  Staring at their body might tell us whether they like exercise, but that's not very helpful.  That's why we want to get 'inside' people to learn about them."

"So my conclusion is that there's more to me than my conscious life and my body.  In fact, I am a 'self,' or an "I,' that cannot be seen or touched unless I manifest myself through my behavior or my talk.  I have free will because I'm a 'self,' or a soul, and I'm not just a brain."  - From in J.P. Moreland, ch. 10,  "The Evidence of Consciousness," in Lee Strobel, The Case for a Creator, pp. 260-261

WHY DO ATHEISTS LIKE DAN BARKER ABANDON THEIR FAITH?

Wintery Knight's post of the same headline as mine reads:

Unbelievable’s latest radio show featured a discussion with former Christian Dan Barker, the founder and co-President of the Freedom From Religion Foundation.

The MP3 file is here. (60 minutes)

And then Wintery Knight offers four major reasons why people leave Christianity:

1. They want to do something immoral with impunity. This type of person wants to do something immoral that is forbidden by Christianity, like pre-marital sex. They dump Christianity in order to feel better about seeking happiness in this life, apart from God and his moral duties.
2. They want to pursue happiness in irresponsible ways. This type of person thinks that God’s job is to save them when they act irresponsibly while pursuing happiness. When God disappoints them by not giving them what they want in order to be happy, they leave the faith.
3. They want to be loved by people, not by God. This type of person thinks that Christianity is a tool that they can use to become popular. When they first try to articulate the gospel in public, they find that people don’t like them as much, and they feel bad about offending people with exclusive truth claims that they cannot back up using logic and evidence. So, they water down Christianity to get along with atheists, liberal Christians and other religions. Finally, they jettison Christianity completely and focus on making everyone feel good about whatever they believe.
4. They don’t want to learn to defend their faith. This type of person is asked questions by skeptics that they cannot answer. Usually this happens when people go to university after growing up in the shelter of the Church. The questions and peer pressure make them feel stupid. Rather than investigate Christianity to see if it’s true and to prepare to defend it in public, they dump it so they can be thought of as part of the “smart” crowd.

WK then analyzes the interview Dan Barker gave.  Highly recommended.  It's important to know (as you will soon realize) that WK believes in a highly rational, thoughtful, truth-filled, approach to Christian faith.  I do too.   Read WK's analysis.

JOHN LENNOX SPEAKS ON NATURAL DISASTERS, PAIN AND SUFFERING

John Lennox, professor of mathematics and philosopher of science at Oxford University, spoke as a Christian layman to a congregation in Christchurch, New Zealand following the February 2011 destructive earthquake that killed 185 people.  

I found his talk extraordinarily instructive and helpful.  The audio can be accessed here or see the video below.  (Note:  See my previous post on Lennox's February, 2012 talk at Harvard University on  "Miracles: Is Belief in the Supernatural Irrational?") 

 

 Other Lennox talks from his 2011 New Zealand visit:

• Howick Baptist Sunday morning service (27 Feb) – Why? Considering the Goodness and Sovereignty of God in the Midst of Suffering (video here).  [The talk posted above]
• Greenlane Christian Center evening service (27 Feb) – A Conversation with John Lennox about the Christchurch earthquake (includes Q and A).
• Compass at St Pauls (28 Feb) – An evening with John Lennox: God, Suffering, and the Christchurch Earthquake. (right-click and “save as”)
• Interview on Radio Rhema (1 March) – Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4
• Interview on NewstalkZB with Leighton Smith (2 March) – Mathematics, Stephen Hawkings, God, faith, and Christchurch (with some caller interaction) (right-click and “save as”)
• Spreydon Baptist morning service (6 March) – A City in Pain
• Spreydon Baptist evening service (6 March) – A Living Hope

DR. JOHN LENNOX SPEAKS AT HARVARD ON "MIRACLES: IS BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL IRRATIONAL?"

Yesterday I listened to this YouTube video of Oxford mathematician Dr. John Lennox speaking at the Veritas Forum at Harvard this past February.    Off hand I can't think of a talk I have enjoyed more, or found more engaging and delightful.  I listened to the audio, and am glad I did, as I find the camera angle of the video leaves a lot to be desired.

Lennox's talk is full of meat and crystalline in its clarity.  I love his spirit and his humor.  I recommend listening straight through to the Q&A.  His story of his encounter with a Russian man in a Belgian train is phenomenal.  

I am thankful to God for this man!  I already have two of Lennox's books, God's Undertaker: Has Science Buried God? and Seven Days that Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science.   In his talk he mentioned two additional books recently published, which I think I shall have to add to my library as well: God and Stephen Hawking: Whose Design is it Anyway? and Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target.

AN INTERVIEW WITH CRAIG BLOMBERG ON JESUS AND THE RELIABILITY OF THE GOSPELS

Craig Blomberg is a top evangelical New Testament scholar.  Justin Taylor, who conducts the interview, writes:

Craig L. Blomberg, Distinguished Professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary, is one of the most prolific scholars of our day. Among his many books, Historical Reliability of the Gospels is one of the most helpful books ever written on the topic, and his Jesus and the Gospels: An Introduction and Survey, is the best accessible one-volume resource on this that I know.

Here are the first 3 questions . . .

- Can you tell us a bit about your own personal experience in coming to embrace the historical reliability of the gospels? Was there a period of time in your life when you seriously doubted the historical integrity of the gospel accounts?

- One can easily find blogs and websites claiming that Jesus never existed. Even if we didn’t have the New Testament, what would we know about Jesus from non-Christian sources?

- What are some of the major categories of alleged gospel contradictions?

Read his  answers to these and many more questions.

TIM KELLER, CELEBRATED PASTOR OF REDEEMER PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN NYC, SPEAKS AT GOOGLE HEADQUARTERS

Yesterday in conversation with a pastor friend from New York, we chatted about numerous topics, including the subject of Tim Keller, the justly well-known pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  I asked my friend if he knew that Tim Keller had spoken at Google headquarters in California on "The Reason for God." That surprised my friend.  Keller's talk (below)  is well-worth viewing.   (Keller's book carries the same title,  "The Reason for God,"  which I blogged about previously here).

 

I also mentioned to my friend that Tim had recently written a book, The Meaning of Marriage, and that Google had once again invited him to speak, but this time at their New York City headquarters.  That talk can be viewed below.

 

More Tim Keller videos follow:

GETTING CAUGHT UP ON WINTERY KNIGHT POSTS

I scanned recent posts from Wintery Knight and wish to highlight the following:

     - How to respond to an atheist who complains about slavery in the Bible

     - Can atheists be moral?  Sean McDowell and James Corbett - debate-2

     - Jennifer Roback Morse lectures on sex and sexuality at Harvard University

WINTERY KNIGHT'S FAVORITE APOLOGETICS LECTURES

Wintery Knight, whose blog I cite frequently, has listed "the lectures that made me who I am today."  WK is a man with many interests, and Christian apologetics heads the list.  If he recommends these lectures, I have no doubt they are well worth listening to (or viewing).  He lists each man's educational achievements on his post.

Dr. J.P. Moreland

• Atheism, Theism, and the Meaning of Life
• The Importance of the Mind in Christian Living
• Love Your God with All Your Mind (for Christians)

Dr. Walter L. Bradley

• Truth in Religion
• Scientific Evidence for an Intelligent Designer
• Journey to Faith (his testimony)
• Giants in the Land

Dr. Philip E. Johnson

• The Grand Metaphysical Story of Science
• Can Science Know the Mind of God?
• Darwinism on Trial

Dr. Douglas Geivett

• The Problems of Evil and Suffering (at Apologetics 315)

Dr. William Lane Craig

• In Intellectual Neutral (at Apologetics 315)

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG, A TOP DEFENDER OF CHRISTIAN FAITH, IS INTERVIEWED AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CENTRAL FLORIDA

Wintery Knight posted this helpful conversation about faith and reason with one of the world's foremost Christian apologists.  

 

You can get an MP3 of the lecture here. (33 MB)  For more information on William Lane Craig: http://reasonablefaith.org

Wintery Knight helpfully offers a helpful guide to the conversation:

Questions from the interviewer: (40 minutes)

• What started you on his journey of studying faith and reason?
• How would you define the word “faith”?
• Are faith and reason compatible? How are they related?
• How can reasonable faith help us to avoid the two extremes of superstition and nihilism?
• Who makes the best arguments against the Christian faith?
• Why are angry atheists like Dawkins and Hitchens more well known than better-informed academic atheists?
• Does the Bible require Christians to give the unbeliever reasons for their faith?
• How does faith spur Christians to think carefully about the big questions in life?
• Should the American church prod churchgoers to develop their minds so they can engage the secular culture?
• When talking about Christianity intellectually, is there a risk of neglecting the experience of being a Christian?
• Which Christian apologist has shaped your thinking the most?
• Which Christian philosopher has shaped your thinking the most?
• Does the confidence that comes from apologetics undermine humility and reverence?
• If you had to sketch out a 5 minute case for Christianity, what would you present?
• Can non-Christians use their reason to arrive at truth?
• Are there cases where atheists must affirm irrational things in order to remain atheists?
• Can the universe have existed eternal, so that there is no need to explain who created it?
• Even if you persuade someone that Christianity is true, does that mean they will live it out?

There is also a long period of questions, many of them hostile, from the audience of students (55 minutes).

• Haven’t you said nasty things about some atheists? Aren’t you a meany?
• What do you make of the presuppositional approach to apologetics?
• Can a person stop being a Christian because of the chances that happen to them as they age?
• Why did God wait so long after humans appeared to reveal himself to people through Jesus?
• Can a person be saved by faith without have any intellectual assent to truth?
• How do you find time for regular things like marriage when you have to study and speak so much?
• How would you respond to Zeitgeist and parallels to Christianity in Greek/Roman mythology?
• Do Christians have to assume that the Bible is inerrant and inspired in order to evangelize?
• If the universe has a beginning, then why doesn’t God have a beginning?
• Can you name some philosophical resources on abstract objects, Platonism and nominalism?
• How can you know that Christianity more right than other religions?
• Should we respond to the problem of evil by saying that our moral notions are different from God’s?
• Define the A and B theories of time. Explain how they relate to the kalam cosmological argument.
• How can Christians claim that their view is true in the face of so many world religions?
• What is the role of emotions in Christian belief and thought?
• Can evolution be reconciled with Christian beliefs and the Bible?
• When witnessing person-to-person, should you balance apologetics with personal testimony?
• Is there a good analogy for the trinity that can help people to understand it? [Note: HE HAS ONE!]
• How can Christians reconcile God’s omniscience, God’s sovereignty and human free will?

Wintery Knight has more to say, including the following:

If you are looking for a good basic book on apologetics, then I would choose “Is God Just a Human Invention?” by Sean McDowell and Jonathan Morrow. And you can even be part of a reading group that Brian Auten of Apologetics 315 just announced, that I will be participating in. We will all be reading the book together, chapter by chapter, and lots of people will be available to answer your questions.

Note: See my previous post, William Lane Craig's Remarkable Wife

See also my previous posts on "faith and reason" here.

USEFUL WINTERY KNIGHT BLOG POSTS

Wintery Knight continues to produce excellent blog posts.  He's especially good on Christian apologetics, politics and economics.   Here are some posts I looked at tonight and found helpful:

    -  "Rick Santorum for President of the United States"  - (I heartily agree!)    

    -  "A Christian and a postmodern relativist debate atheism and Christianity"

    -  "Michael Murray explains how to talk about religion in the public square."

    -  "Bad news for believers in naturalistic explanations of the Cambrian explosion"

Wintery Knight appended a note as he closed out 2011:

I also wanted to report to you that Wintery Knight was recently named to the Top 40 Conservative Blogs for the fourth quarter of 2011 by John Hawkins of Right Wing News. And we were also received one of the Fabulous 50 Blog Awards from Doug Ross. We tied for “Best Political Blogging”. I also want to thank Brian Auten of Apologetics 315 for frequently linking to my posts on Christian apologetics and theology in his Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links.

ISLAM'S CREDIBILITY PALES COMPARED TO CHRISTIANITY

If news reports are accurate (which I reported a short while ago), Iranian Christian Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani's captors are forcing  him to read Muslim arguments against Christianity to try and persuade him to convert or else he will be hanged! (Nice, friendly people, these Muslims:  "Renounce Christianity!  Convert or die!")

Hopefully, Pastor Nadarkhani is well armed against the myriad falsehoods, misrepresentations, and ignorance that characterizes most Muslim argumentation.  An example of a person who faced the question, "Islam or Christianity?" is Nabeel Qureshi.  He recounts his story in "An Intellectual and Spiritual Journey from Islam to Christianity."  He writes:

MAJOR CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS CONFERENCE IN CHARLOTTE THIS WEEKEND

This is a biggie!  NATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS,  Oct. 28-29   Northside Baptist Church Charlotte, NC  FEATURING  William Lane Craig, Josh McDowell, William Dembski, Gary Habermas, Mike Licona, Richard Howe, Frank Turek, Greg Koukl.  Heavyweights all!!   Organized and presented by Southern Evangelical Seminary

Check out the fantastic schedule of speakers and topics.  More info at www.ses.edu     800 - 77 -TRUTH

SCIENCE AND RELIGION WITH DAVID BERLINSKI (VIDEO)

Peter Robinson's interview with David Berlinski is a lot of fun to watch.  The interview focuses on Berlinski's book, The Devil's Delusion: Atheism and Its Scientific Pretensions.  The full 42 minute video can be seen here.   If you prefer, you can watch it in five part segments at the NRO website:

Part 1  David Berlinski introduces The Devil’s Delusion.

Part 2  David Berlinski discusses why he thinks Darwin’s theory is flawed.  

Part 3   Is the Big Bang theory consistent with Christian beliefs? David Berlinski responds.

Part 4  David Berlinski discusses right and wrong.    

Part 5  Can scientists disprove the existence of God? David Berlinski responds.

What initially attracted me to the video was the extraordinary quote I came across on the NRO website linked to Part 5, quoting Berlinski:

 “The Old Testament is the greatest repository of human knowledge and wisdom in the history of civilization, any time, any place…. [E]very attitude current today in the discussion from Richard Dawkins to me to Christopher Hitchins, the lonely pastors in the Bible Belt on Sunday morning ranting from a particular text, is discussed in the Bible. There is a character in the Bible who expresses that point of view and there is sympathy expressed for that point of view and there are reservations expressed for that sympathy. It is enormously complex, rich, and dramatic piece of work.”

This is all the more fascinating coming from a self-described secular Jew and agnostic.  David Berlinski received his Ph.D. in philosophy from Princeton University and was later a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics and molecular biology at Columbia University. He has published widely across multiple academic disciplines.  Wikipedia has more...   Note also his book, The Deniable Darwin and Other Essays. 

On the subject of Darwinism and evolution, it's a good idea to regularly consult Evolution News and Views, something I need to do myself.

Blogger "Wintery Knight" has a great many posts on evolution worth perusing.

FOX NEWS: COWARDLY ATHEISTS AFRAID TO DEBATE WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

I've borrowed the heading from Wintery Knight's blog post which offers important reading and viewing.  It includes video of William Lane Craig debating Christopher Hitchens, a report of a non-Chrisitian who found Craig's presentation "flawless",  plus important (and honest) quotes from Aldous Huxley, Thomas Nagel, and Mortimer Adler on the real reason for their flight from God.

HARRY POTTER & JESUS & ANCIENT MYTHS

Charles Colson does an excellent job sorting out the question:

This month, the final Harry Potter film had the most successful opening weekend of any movie ever. Among the fans who lined up for the opening midnight showing were Christians, many of whom see striking similarities between the story of Jesus -- with its sacrificial death, burial and resurrection -- and the story of Harry Potter.

But at least one atheist has also noticed these similarities, and he’s written a book about it. In the newly-released (and blasphemously-titled) "Jesus Potter Harry Christ," Derek Murphy makes the case that J. K. Rowling -- the author of the Harry Potter series -- achieved her success by tapping into some of the deepest and most ancient longings of the human heart. These same longings, Murphy argues, compelled first-century pagans to construct what he calls “the Jesus myth.”

Murphy writes, “Jesus and Harry Potter are both...fictional...characters which incorporate classical (pagan) spirituality and religious ideology...I start by using the similarities between Jesus and Harry to raise the question, ‘how can Jesus be historical if Harry is fictional?'"

Murphey points to similarities between the Gospel accounts of Jesus’ virgin birth, His passion and His return from the grave with the myths of pagan idols like Isis, Sarapis, Horus and Apollo, Murphy hopes to convince his readers that Jesus -- just like the gods of mythology -- is fiction. In fact, he believes that Jesus is just an amalgam of history’s best myths.

Well, Murphy is certainly right in recognizing a common thread through pagan religious beliefs. As C. S. Lewis writes in Mere Christianity, the heathen religions are full of “...those queer stories...about a god who dies and comes to life again and, by his death, has somehow given new life to men.”

But what Murphy misses -- and Lewis got -- is the fact that the human longings for sacrifice, resurrection and redemption are stamped on our hearts for a reason: They point us straight to the God who stepped into history to fulfill them!

 

LESS STROBEL INTERVIEWS BRIAN AUTEN, FOUNDER OF THE BEST CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS WEBSITE ON THE NET: "APOLOGETICS 315"

Before beginning his interview with Brian Auten, Lee Strobel introduces "Apologetics 315" by saying:   (HT: Wintery Knight)

Apologetics 315 features a terrific compilation of material for Christians to equip themselves to better define and defend the faith. It’s full of links to resources dealing with every imaginable area of apologetics. As a regular reader of the site, I became curious what its creator, Brian Auten, thinks about the current state of apologetics around the world—and he was willing to share his insights by answering a few questions.

Strobel then asks Auten:

• Every year, the U.S. president gives a “State of the Union” address to Congress. What’s your assessment of the “State of Apologetics” today?

The “state of apologetics” today should encourage us. Not only has there been a large proliferation of publishing on both the academic and popular levels, there is a growing online presence of apologetics resources and ministries. Within the last five years the number of apologetics websites, blogs, and podcasts has increased dramatically. We have now reached the point where anyone with an Internet connect has access to more resources for defending the faith than any time in the past.

In addition, seminaries across the U.S. are offering more courses in apologetics, with some featuring Masters of Arts in Apologetics, such as Biola, Southern Evangelical, and Liberty University.

At this point I will pick and choose a few questions and answers but you really need to read the whole interview.

• What websites do you find helpful for apologetics?

For apologetics resources that are great for the layman, www.PleaseConvinceMe.com is a great place to go for material in the form of both articles and podcasts. Stand to Reason is another great resource. I also appreciate www.BeThinking.org for a lot of good audio resources, as well as articles. Finally, William Lane Craig’s website, www.ReasonableFaith.org, is a good place for scholarly work in the areas of philosophy and classical apologetics

• Who are your favorite contemporary apologists and why?

Apologists who have an attitude of Christlikeness in their tone and character—along with demonstrating wisdom and integrity—really earn respect from me and make me want to learn from them and emulate those characteristics. Although I could mention a large number who have had an impact on me, let me just share three who I find to be good examples.

William Lane Craig is among my favorites, not only for his intellectual clarity and brilliance, but also for his humility, tone, and consistency. On a scholarly level, he is certainly worthy of much respect, but I wouldn’t place that above his personal manner, carefulness in properly representing views, and being a faithful teacher in the local church.

Ken Samples is another favorite. One will immediately notice his love of learning coupled with a humble tone. He has a clear, careful, and charitable style. Ken is both extremely knowledgeable and a great communicator.

I would also point to pastors like Tim Keller (New York) or David Robertson (Scotland) as examples of pastors who are excellent apologists. They both have been engaged on the front lines with contemporary issues for quite some time, they have a broad knowledge base, and they communicate warmly and effectively with a wide variety of audiences.

I close with a final quote:

Certainly my favorite part of Apologetics 315 is the apologist interviews. These are a chance to interact and gain insights from some of the best Christian thinkers today. Past guests have included William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, J.P. Moreland, Frank Turek, Paul Copan, Michael Licona, Greg Koukl, Sean McDowell, Craig Hazen, Douglas Groothuis, and many more.

ROBIN COLLINS ON THE FINE TUNING OF THE UNIVERSE

Wintery Knight offers an outstanding post on the work of Robin Collins, professor of philosophy at Messiah College and a specialist in the interface of religion and science.  The post abounds with helpful excerpts and links.  The "fine tuning," incidentally, includes three aspects: the fine-tuning of the laws of nature, the fine-tuning of the constants of physics, and the fine-tuning of the initial conditions of the universe.

FRANK TUREK INVOKES "CRITERION OF EMBARRASSMENT" TO UNDERGIRD NEW TESTAMENT'S TRUSTWORTHINESS

 

Wintery Knight offers comments on various documentary criteria here.  If you want to witness various criteria used in a debate, see this debate between William Lane Craig and James Crossley.

MORE WINTERY KNIGHT POSTS ON APOLOGETICS

I have referred to Wintery Knight's website many times (e.g. here, here, and here).  Browsing his website last night I came across the following posts which look extremely helpful:

 **  Is atheism more rational than Christianity? Greg Koukl and Michael Shermer debate

Wintery Knight provides a transcript from the Hugh Hewitt radio show.

 ** Can atheists be moral? Sean McDowell and James Corbett debate (audio)

Wintery Knight:  "The question of the foundations of morality is without a doubt the easiest issue for beginning apologists to discuss with their neighbor. If you’re new, then you need to at least listen to his opening speech. He’s an excellent speaker, and his rebuttals are very, very smooth. . .   When I listen to Frank Turek, he seems to struggle in his rebuttals. McDowell sounds like he foreknew exactly what his opponent would say and pre-wrote responses. He even had powerpoint slides made in advance for his rebuttals!

  **  Ten resources to help you defend the resurrection of Jesus as history

  After some thoughts of his own, WK offers incredibly valuable links.

 ** Why doesn’t God gives us more evidence that he exists?

WK draws on the work of Dr. Michael Murray

**  Why does God allow people to experience evil and suffering?

WK:  "I just wanted to draw your attention to this 4 page essay by Joe Manzari, which is the best darn summary of the state of the art on the problems of evil and suffering I have seen."

**  What happens to people who never hear about Jesus and the gospel?

After a discussion, WK offers a link to William Lane Craig's paper, "No Other Name": A Middle Knowledge Perspecdtive on the Exclusivity of Salvation Through Christ."

Be sure to check Wintery Knight's blog regularly.  In addition to apologetics, he blogs on numerous other issues as well.

 

BEST DEBATE ON THE HISTORICAL JESUS: WILLIAM LANE CRAIG vs. JAMES CROSSLEY

So says Wintery Knight, whose judgment I respect.

 

FRANCIS SCHAEFFER LECTURES

Francis Schaeffer lectures can be found here and here.   YouTube videos can be found here. 

Update:   J.I. Packer (via "Between Two Worlds") lists Seven Things that Francis Schaeffer did for Evangelicalism.

First, with his flair for didactic communication he coined some new and pointed ways of expressing old thoughts (the “true truth” or revelation, the “mannishness” of human beings, the “upper story” and “lower story” of the divided Western mind, etc.).

Second, with his gift of empathy he listened to and dialogued with the modern secular world as it expressed itself in literature and art, which most evangelicals were too cocooned in their own subculture to do.

BEST DEFENSE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

So says Gordon Wenham and Christopher J.H. Wright of Paul Copan's Is God a Moral Monster? Making Sense of the Old Testament God (Baker, 2011).  Wenham and Wright are Old Testament scholars of the first rank.  Their opinion carries weight, as does the exuberance of a galaxy of other excellent scholars found at the end of this blog post.

Gordon Wenham says:

“Lucid, lively, and very well informed, this book is the best defense of Old Testament ethics that I have read. A must-read for all preachers and Bible study leaders.”

Christopher J. H. Wright says:

“This is the book I wish I had written myself. It is simply the best book I have read that tackles the many difficulties that the Old Testament presents to thinking and sensitive Christians and that give such ammunition to the opponents of all religious faith. Paul Copan writes in such a simple, straightforward way, yet covers enormous issues comprehensively and with reassuring biblical detail and scholarly research. Use this book to stock your mind with gracious but factual answers in those awkward conversations. Better still, give it to those who are swayed by the shallow prejudice of popular atheism without reading the Bible for themselves. I strongly recommend this book. We have wanted and needed it for a long time.”

I learned about the book from Justin Taylor who links to a synopsis found in Copan's own blog post:

DID THE EARLY CHURCH DECIDE RIGHTLY ON ONLY FOUR GOSPELS?

Some think a conspiracy arose to exclude a number of books that present a different perspective than that found in the four gospels.  Between Two Worlds offers the following post:

  D.A. Carson writes about Charles Hill’s new book Who Chose the Gospels? Probing the Great Gospel Conspiracy, just published by Oxford University Press:

For those willing to examine the documentary evidence, there is no better guide than this book by Charles E. Hill. Hill is meticulous, even-handed, careful to distinguish between historical datum and speculation—and a good writer to boot. Not many books that are so informed are such a pleasure to read.”

Dr. Hill recently had an article on The Huffington Post on this issue: “The Conspiracy Theory of the Gospels.”

Here’s an excerpt where he examines one conspiracy theory and the problem with it:

Proof is said to reside in the ancient papyrus documents which archaeologists have dug from the sands of Egypt over the past century and a quarter. The Christian books yielded up by the unbiased, ancient trash heaps are, we are told, mostly books which were excluded from the New Testament. This would seem to show that the four Gospels were once minority reports and that some popular alternatives have been suppressed by the “winners.” All I will say here is that the papyri have both less and more to tell us than this argument lets on.

The problem for the conspiracy theory is a man named Irenaeus. Irenaeus was crystal clear in his claim that the church, from the time of the apostles, had received just four authoritative Gospels—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—and that all the others were bogus. This is just what we would expect from a fourth-century re-writer of history. The problem is that Irenaeus wrote in the second century, long before the conspiratorial rewriting of history is supposed to have taken place.

Does, then, the conspiracy approach to early Christian history, in either its popular or its academic forms, have it right? Should it bother anyone that those who stress so loudly that the winners wrote the histories are the ones now writing the histories? Let the reader judge . . . but also be aware of conspiracies.

Me: A commenter wrote:

In a related matter, there’s a detailed review/critique of Elaine Pagels’s book Beyond Belief: The Secret Gospel of Thomas over at ThirdMill.

These look like valuable resources to me.  It's always good to be aware of careful, factual, reliable argumentation.

Update 11/15/10 - Between Two Worlds posts:

From Craig Blomberg’s review of Chuck Hill’s Who Chose the Gospels?

People have frequently asked me what I recommend they read for a sane introduction to the formation of the New Testament canon, and I have regularly referred them to F. F. Bruce’s The Canon of Scripture, published by IVP in 1988. It continues to be an outstanding resource, but what about all of the revisionist theories of the last twenty years? Finally, we have an accessible work, delightful to read, yet painstakingly accurate, that debunks so much of the nonsense passing as scholarship in canon studies these days. 

"CHRIST ON CAMPUS INITIATIVE" FROM TRINITY EVANGELICAL DIVINITY SCHOOL

TEDS recently announced the following essays can now be accessed on the internet.  Trinity is one of the foremost Christian seminaries in the world today.  The editorial team of CCI is led by Dr. D.A. Carson.  Here are the essays published to date.  More will follow.

• Human Flourishing - Danielle Sallade
  
• Sin: Not the Way It's Supposed to Be  -  Cornelius Platinga Jr.
  
• Five Arguments for God  -    William Lane Craig
  
• Christianity and Sexuality  -    Christopher Ash
  
• Naturalism and the Biblical Worldview   -  Kristen Birkett
  
• Jesus Christ and Religious Diversity   -  Harold A. Netland
  
• Do Christians Have a Worldview?  -   Graham Cole
  
• Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why it Matters  -   Craig L. Blomberg
  
• A Christian Perspective on Islam   -   Chawkat Moucarry
  

 

C.S. LEWIS - "MERE CHRISTIANITY" and THE SIGNIFICANCE OF "DESIRE"

I am facilitating a Sunday morning discussion class on C.S. Lewis's "Mere Christianity."  In the process I came across a wonderful 60 minute audio introductory lecture to "Mere Christianity" by Boston College philosophy professor Peter Kreeft. 

Also, I was pleased to discover a helpful outline/summary of the book here.

One of my favorite chapters in Mere Christianity is Lewis's chapter on "Hope."  Here he touches on the theme that lies at the center of his life:  human desire and longing as a pointer to God and heaven.  We  experience it as "joy".  This feeling of longing and desire is what the Germans call "sehnzucht," which Louis Marcos explains as:

 a German word that means "longing" or "yearning."  Lewis often used it to signify moments in his life when he felt an intense, overwhelming desire for an indefinable, numinous "something" that was just beyond his grasp.  For Lewis, the reality of these moments of longing (he more often calls them simply, "joy") and the stubborn fact that he could find no object for them, either within himself or the natural world, proved to him that their source must be supernatural (a "proof" of the existence of God and heaven that is  generally referred to as the "argument by desire").  - From Louis Markos, Course Guidebook to "The Life and Writings of C.S. Lewis," published by The Teaching Company.

Perhaps Lewis's premier discussion of longing and desire may be found in his masterful sermon preached at Oxford University, "The Weight of Glory", which some regard as the best sermon of the 20th century.

Boston College philosopher Peter Kreeft dissects the subject in his internet article, "The Argument from Desire." He offers a longer discussion in his contribution to G.K. Chesterton and C.S. Lewis: The Riddle of Joy, (a wonderful book for anyone interested in GKC or CSL).  Check also his audio lecture here.

Finally, I will simply add that I thoroughly enjoyed and profited from a book I read shortly after it was published in 1974, Bright Shadow of Reality: C.S. Lewis and the Feeling Intellect by Corbin Scott Carnell.  It is still in print, though with a revised subtitle: "Spiritual Longing in C.S. Lewis."  Highly recommended.

N.T. WRIGHT - "SIMPLY CHRISTIAN: WHY CHRISTIANITY MAKES SENSE"

Is there a better communicator than N.T. Wright?  Not many, I'm convinced.  The following 50 minute talk flies by, and what Wright says, stimulates and enlivens.  Dorothy L. Sayers, writing about conditions in England in 1949 said, "The brutal fact is that in this Christian country not one person in a hundred has the faintest notion what the Church teaches about God or man or society or the person."  (Creed or Chaos).  It's worse now, if that can be imagined, and the U.S. is about where England was in 1949.

My thanks to the Veritas Forum for permission to embed the lecture below.

A RESPONSE TO "THE CHRISTIAN DELUSION"

From Justin Taylor:

For those who may have come across the book The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, edited by John W. Loftus, here is a free online book responding to it: The Infidel Delusion. Click here for an overview.

PAUL COPAN VIDEO DISCUSSES EVIL AND SUFFERING IN 18 MINUTES

Video here.  I got this link from Wintery Knight who prizes Copan as one of his favorite Christian apologists.  He especially recommends two books edited by Copan and William Lane Craig:  Passionate Conviction and Contending with Christianity's Critics.

 

WORLDVIEW TRAINING - SUMMIT MINISTRIES

Teenagers need assistance in clear thinking.  Thankfully, a number of worldview programs are now available.  Charles Colson introduces one such program -- Summit Ministries -- with his helpful post:

A few years ago, a teenager named Chris attended a worldview training program run by Summit Ministries. He learned a great deal and had a great time. But by the end of the intensive, two-week program, he was exhausted.

As Chris wrote to John Stonestreet, executive director of Summit, “I had never had to think so hard...before in my life! So I decided I was just going to veg out for the next few days.”

When some friends invited Chris to a movie, he thought it would be a good way to relax and recover from all that hard thinking. They went to see the latest version of War of the Worlds.

But the film wasn’t the mental vacation Chris expected it to be. As he explained in his letter, “Mr. Stonestreet, I tried to veg out during the movie, but I just couldn’t. I am watching it and thinking, ‘Wait a minute, that’s secular humanism, and wait a minute, that’s not true. And, what do they mean by that, and how do they know that’s true!’”

Chris then joked, “I just wanted you to know that you ruined my movie!”

After the film ended, Chris and his friends went out for food and talked about the themes in the movie. His friends were astonished at how much Chris had gotten out of the film. As he told Stonestreet, “They kept asking me, ‘How did you see that? How do you know all that stuff?’ It was a great conversation. And I [learned] I can’t just turn this worldview thing off!”

Good! What a wonderful testimony to the power of worldview training. It’s the kind of training all young people need to undergo, but so often don’t.  (more . . .)

WINTERY KNIGHT CONTINUES HIS EXCELLENT BLOG POSTING

I am trying to keep up with Wintery Knight and his outstanding links and resources.  If you are like me, you may not have time right now to do them justice.  Let's make a note of his posts and read (or listen to) them as soon as we can!  Here is a partial listing:   (To be continued)

Brian Auten reviews new apologetics essay collection.  Wintery Knight offers a synopsis of select chapters from Contending with Christianity's Critics edited by Paul Copan and William Lane Craig.  This looks like a terrific book.

J.P. Moreland talks about the Meaning of Happiness   Moreland is a highly-regarded philosopher who has gone through  difficult life experiences and has come out wiser and more profound than ever.  Wintery Knight offers a bonus link to his favorite lecture of all: William Bradley's "Giants in the Land."

Can Atheists Trust the Truth-Detecting Ability of Their Own Minds?  This is a fascinating topic.  Wintery Knight includes a three-minute presentation by William Lane Craig, and follows that up with a six-part, 54 minute lecture by Alvin Platinga, considered by many to be one of the top philosophers in the world today.

GOOD STUFF FROM WINTERY KNIGHT

As I have often urged, you really need to visit Wintery Knight on a regular basis.  Here are some recent posts that caught my eye:

Craig Evans vs. Bart Ehrman debate on the reliability of the gospels  (followed by invaluable related links)

John Lennox and Paul Davies debate about aliens and the origin of life.

William Lane Craig Discusses Calvinism and the Problem of Evil

Me: On the subject of Calvinism, Prof. Ben Witherington (a non-Calvinist) offers helpful comments. A robust discussion follows.  Also of interest is Witherington's November, 2005 Christianity Today article, "The Problem with Evangelical Theologies."

DOUG GROOTHUIS DECONSTRUCTS MICHAEL SHERMER'S CASE AGAINST "INTELLIGENT DESIGN"

Groothuis remains one of the most clear-headed thinkers around.  I learned great deal years ago from his earlier books on the New Age movement [Unmasking the New Age, Confronting the New Age, and Revealing the New Age Jesus, later revised and updated as  revised as Jesus in an Age of Controversy and more recently from his book Truth Decay.]  His blog post on Michael Shermer is worth reading.  (HT: Wintery Knight).

I previously blogged about Michael Shermer and his debate with Greg Koukl on Hugh Hewitt's radio program here.

CHRISTIAN APOLOGETICS - AUDIO LINKS

I came across an  astonishing collection of links to great audio lectures and debates.  This is a website begging to be bookmarked and thoroughly explored.

Update 2/23/10 - Another Christian audio site with great links.  HT:

QUICK TAKES ON FAITH AND REASON (APOLOGETICS)

Recent discoveries:

William Lane Craig on the Flying Spaghetti Monster (3 min 39 second video)

Tawapologetics:  Did Jesus Really  Say that?  The Reliability of the New Testament Gospels (Web article) 

Wintery Knight - The Case for Christian Theism  (Web links to articles and debates)

Book (ed. by John Piper and Justin Taylor): The Supremacy of Christ in a Postmodern World.  Video and audio of the talks here.

Truthbomb Apologetics: Free Apologetics e-book library

Wintery Knight (On Intelligent Design) - Audio of Debate Between Stephen Meyer and Peter Atkin

Note: Charles Colson has important things to say about Stephen Meyer's book Signature in the Cell   Dr. Douglas Groothuis, for his part, rhapsodizes:

The book is no less than magisterial, an adjective that curmudgeons such as myself seldom use. At every level--philosophical, scientific, historical and literary--it is a superb treatise.    Reading every word of its 508 pages of text (not counting end notes)--as I did--repays the reader greatly.

ATHEISM VS. CHRISTIANITY: MICHAEL SHERMER & GREG KOUKL HASH IT OUT

They do so on the Hugh Hewitt radio program, the transcript of which Wintery Knight helpfully formatted:  Koukl offers as his final summary statement the following:

I started out talking about worldviews. And as a man trying to make sense of my world and finding a worldview that seems to fit reality as I experience it, I think atheism is way too austere for me, Hugh. It  commits me to too many counterintuitive things – everything comes from nothing, life comes from nonlife, consciousness comes from matter, morality comes from a reorganization of molecules. None of this seems to make sense to me. There is another alternative that seems to make a lot more sense, that a big bang needs a big banger, that a moral law comes from a moral lawgiver, that design comes from a designer. These notions are captured well, I think, in the Biblical account of life. And the person of Jesus, especially, exemplifying these notions, and then giving us a way to live that makes sense. And this is why I’m a Christian and not an atheist. I think it makes the best sense of the world as we know it. 

Me:  As I read the lengthy exchange between Shermer & Koukl, I felt something serious was left out.  Both men agree that there is inbred morality in human beings, though they arrive at that conclusion via vastly different means.  But the next step was never taken.  "So what happens when one breaks the moral law?  Is there such a thing as genuine "guilt"?  How does one deal with that?"    Such an existential dilemma -- it can be of crisis proportions -- they never dealt with.  I would have liked to have heard Shermer's response, especially since he takes inward intuitions seriously.