Searching for God

How can we discern who really loves Jesus?

… and who is faking it? So many people claim the name of Jesus. But sometimes, what looked like love for Jesus turns out to be a mask that conceals a lust for money, power, fame, or sex. It is a stunn

4 min read

Does teaching the Bible lead to abuse?

Let’s get the Sunday school answer out there: no, teaching the Bible doesn’t lead to abuse. It doesn’t. After all… how could teaching God’s own words lead to abuse? Remember, 2 Timothy 3:16 assures us

6 min read

Who Created God?

A surprising agreement with Richard Dawkins Richard Dawkins, emeritus fellow of New College, Oxford, and an author of worldwide renown, has on many occasions challenged the idea that Christianity is a

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Reality Has Consequences

Reality has consequences. This is a more important truth than the very popular (and important) saying “Ideas have consequences.” And it is far, far more important than the saying “Elections have conse

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At the 2013 Harvard Law School Commencement, the J.D. speaker, Josie Duffy, shared a beautiful insight from the beginning of her studies. To set the stage, Josie related a story from one of the first

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One of the more challenging claims against the Christian faith is the historical claim that the earliest writings about Jesus don’t even claim that Jesus was God. After all, if the earliest biographer

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Have you seen the documentary Kumaré? It is a fascinating expose of false religious movements: how they are created, maintained, and grow to influence others. The filmmaker, Vikram Gandhi, said he mad

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Many feel that Jesus was just a good moral teacher. Others believe Jesus was a prophet. Some are unsure, but don’t think Jesus was crazy enough to think he was divine. Perhaps Jesus was an inspiring t

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Intellectually honest people don’t want to believe something because they find it comforting. Rather, they want to believe whatever is true, no matter the consequences. However, this very good commitm

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The idea that faith is opposed to reason is a popular one. But is it true? For instance, some Christians feel that “faith needs no reasons.” I mean, if you really believe in God, what is the point of

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Books for Skeptics and Seekers

Do you ever feel like you have to have all the answers for your skeptical friends? Here’s the problem: it is way, way easier to ask a hard question than to give a good answer. In the space of five min

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Christianity Is For Failures

I am the kind of guy who can watch The Biggest Loser (a show about people losing weight) while I sit on the couch, eating cake and ice cream. I find that the subtle pressure of needing to live a healt

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One of the most common questions I receive is on the topic of the unique truth claims of Christianity. This is also known as the problem of pluralism. The basic issue is that there are many religions

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People are changing their minds about a great deal of moral and religious truth claims. Because of these dramatic changes, I’ve heard many people advocate for adopting the future moral consensus as th

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This talk was given at Peachtree Road United Methodist Church during their 2012 “Voices of the Nativity” Advent Forum. A quick summary of the talk: Main point: The wise men were wise because they pass

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One of the most common phrases I hear about research scientists is that they love to be wrong. Why? Because when they are wrong, it means there’s a good chance they have discovered something new. This

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Jesus was once asked what the most important commandment of all. How did he reply? The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. And you shall love the Lord your God with

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Many people think that God is basically mysterious. This is both a pop sentiment, like, “OMG! God is like, so, you know, mysterious! I mean, God is GOD, so that’s BIG!” And it seems to be the careful

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Recently I heard someone object to the idea that we can know anything at all by saying, “How do you know the universe wasn’t created five minutes ago?” I responded: “What in the world do you mean? Why

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The disappointing gospel is a very real problem. I’m not talking about the gospel itself, but the gospel that becomes disappointing because of how we present it. The disappointing gospel is one of the

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The parable of the blind men and the elephant “has crossed between many religious traditions and is part of Jain, Buddhist, Sufi and Hindu lore.” One version goes like this: “A number of blind men cam

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In this post I want to explore a very specific objection: is it delusional to believe in God on the basis of personal experience? First, what does it feel like to have personal experience of God? This

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Imagine overhearing someone say: “I love my unicorn Billy. He is the best imaginary friend! He always encourages me when I’m feeling down and he makes the rainbow shine so bright. Billy is the best un

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Earlier this week a student at Harvard asked a great question in a small group meeting: How should a nihilist behave? When asked for the context, he said he had just had lunch with another student, wh

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One of the common attacks on the reliability of the Bible, and the New Testament in particular, is the idea that “people back then were a lot more gullible about things like miracles and people rising

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The following is the transcript of a talk given at Church of the Cross during the “Dealing with Doubts” series on August 19, 2012. Today we are going to look at perhaps the most difficult question tha

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One of the most honest and heart-wrenching objections to Christianity that I’ve ever heard goes like this: “I would absolutely love to believe that Christianity is true. The idea that I am uncondition

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The other night, while I was at an outdoor cookout, I got into a very interesting conversation with a friend of a friend. Her outlook on life was quite different from my own, which led me to ask a num

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Does moral relativism make sense? Are all ethical theories equally good and deserving of our respect? Can a moral code be wrong? Should we always tolerate people and cultures who have different moral

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About a year ago while I was at Harvard, talking with one of the students I regularly mentored, it happened that two of his friends walked by and stopped to say hello. We began to talk about their per

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The following talk was given at Boston College Law School on March 19th, 2012, through a partnership between the Christian Legal Society and Telos Ministries. We are grateful for the partial funding p

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Imagine with me two different parenting styles: Type A and Type B. When these two types are scientifically compared to one another, and the outcomes of each approach to children are carefully measured

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The problem of Christian hypocrisy is a major reason for unbelief. As Ghandi perceptively noted, “If Christians would really live according to the teachings of Christ, as found in the Bible, all of In

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In talking with skeptical students around Boston, I have learned that few things drive them as crazy as Christians with a blind faith. They are perplexed: “How can your core convictions be completely

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One very common question about Christianity goes like this: “If you were born in another country, a place like Saudi Arabia, Egypt or Iran, would you still be a Christian?” The presumptive answer, fro

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Depending on where you grow up or currently live, it is possible that all or nearly all the Christians that you know strike you as crazy. For instance, they might: Be opposed to science Be hypocritica

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Our experiences, perhaps more than anything else, powerfully shape our lives and our beliefs. There’s a reason “love at first sight” is a cliché, but “love after multiple, rational deductive tests” is

2 min read

The search for God can seem so puzzling and so difficult that many people feel like, “All that God-stuff is a mystery, and no one really knows what’s true.” If this is how you are feeling, it makes se

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According to some estimates, there are about 2.1 billion Christians in the world, or around a third of the world’s population. Whether you are a Christian questioning your faith or simply curious abou

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Today I’d like to look at a very commonly held idea regarding religious belief. It is often expressed somewhat like this, “It is arrogant to say that Christianity is true and that all other religions

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“And when they came to the place that is called The Skull, there they crucified Jesus, and the criminals, one on his right and one on his left.” – Luke 23:33 Historically speaking, there’s nothing spe

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Let’s talk about memorizing the “Did Jesus rise?” argument. (I recognize that if you’re still weighing whether or not the argument is true, this is probably not your first concern, and I appreciate th

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In their excellent book, The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus, Gary Habermas and Michael Licona offer a very readable and thoroughly researched argument for the publicly accessible, historical, bodi

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There are a lot of unending processes in the world. Crops will always need rain. Cars need maintenance. Dishes have to be washed, clothes need to be cleaned, floors must be swept and mopped. We all ha

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One of the responses to yesterday’s item was this insightful comment: “[A] lot of people have the impression that they would be different. They’ll say, “Sure, those silly Israelites made that mistake,

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One of the more frustrating elements in the search for God’s existence, at least for some people, is this nagging question: why doesn’t God just shout “HELLO! YOU THERE! BELIEVE IN ME! I AM REAL!” On

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Debating between monotheism, polytheism, and atheism leads to one of those famous “stay-up-late-in-your-dorm-room-and-talk-for-hours” conversations. Typically these discussions bring in all kinds of o

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“Does God exist?” is a huge, daunting question. When you’re trying to figure out the existence of God, you need to break the intellectual search down into smaller pieces. Here are some good questions

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If you’re trying to find God, one thing you need is humility. What is humility? First, humility is not thinking terrible, false thoughts about yourself. It is no virtue to believe harsh, negative lies

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One often neglected component that is essential, when conducting a thorough investigation for God’s existence, is participating in community. Think about it: how did you learn math or chemistry or Eng

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One of the most important virtues, in a genuine search for truth, is open-mindedness. The Free Dictionary defines open-mindedness as, “Receptive to new and different ideas or the opinions of others.”

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Today we’re taking another close look at a statement from The Octavius of Minucius Felix. This writing comes from 160-250A.D. and includes a long section of objections to Christianity from a man named

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Let’s go back 1,800 years to one of the earliest Christian apologetic writings. There is a very interesting writing, The Octavius of Minucius Felix, which can be dated to 160-250A.D. In this document,

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One of the most common phrases I hear as I talk to students at Harvard University is “Prove it to me!” Have you ever said this or heard this? Perhaps you personally want 100% certainty before you will

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Your friend wants to know: “I understand you have a basically trusting attitude towards knowing things. But this strikes me as naive. Don’t you watch The Daily Show? Have you been in a cave while the

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We all fear being wrong. Nobody likes to be embarrassed, hurt, or put down because they made an error. This is, to a large degree, a very sensible fear that often leads us to seek truth and avoid erro

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