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Science vs religion: what do scientists really believe?

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This is the title of a new book (not yet available in the UK) by Elaine Howard Ecklund.  It reports the results of a survey of nearly 1700 leading American academic scientists.  The questionnaire survey (with an impressive response rate of 75%) was followed up by 275 interviews.

A summary of the findings of the research is available here.  There is an interesting (and, I think, even-handed) interview with Ecklund on the Point of Enquiry website.…

Biblical rationale for apologetics

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Here are a few reasons, drawn from Scripture, why Christians should engage in apologetics:-

  1. Apologetics is a biblical command, 1 Peter 3:15.
  2. Christians are to contend for the faith, Jude 3.
  3. Christians are to pull down strongholds that stand against Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:4.
  4. Christians are to eliminate doubts in the mind of the convert, 2 Corinthians 10:5.
  5. Christians are to give a reason for their hope in Christ, 1 Peter 3:15.
  6. False doctrines and ideas should be addressed, Titus 1:9-11.
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Religion as ‘wish-fulfilment’

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It was Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872) who first popularised the notion that religious belief is merely the projection of human longing, the objectification of a false idea that people wish to be true.  ‘God’ is, according to this view, an entirely human invention, ‘a dream of the human soul’, brought into being to give comfort along life’s difficult and dark path.

Religious people are unaware of this.  They think that the God they have imagined has some objective existence. …

Free agency and free will

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Clear thinking about humankind’s fallen nature requires a careful distinction to be made between ‘free agency’ and ‘free will’.

Free agency is part of what it means to be human.  We all make decisions as to what we will do and how we will behave, based on our personal inclinations and our sense of what is right and wrong.  We are moral agents, accountable to God and to one another for our voluntary choices.

Free will, on the other hand, has been defined as the ability to choose from all the moral options that may be available in a given situation. …

Approaching Bible ‘contradictions’

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Christians adopt a high view of the reliability and trustworthiness of the Bible for a number of reasons, not least on the testimony of Jesus Christ himself.  But what kinds of responses are available to those who question the truthfulness of certain sections of the Bible?

Paul Copan makes a number a helpful suggestions:-

  1. Clarify a passage by examining its context or by using clear passages to examine the unclear. Context reveals that “justify” and “works” in James 2 mean something different than they do in Romans 3.
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Judges 19:11-28 – The priest and the concubine

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As evidence for the nastiness of the Old Testament and its God, Richard Dawkins (The God Delusion, 240f) can find no better example than the account of an unnamed Levite and his concubine while travelling in Gibeah (Judges 19:11-28).

Quoting the Authorised Version (why?), Dawkins outlines the ghastly unfolding of events.  The two of them spend the night in the house of an old man.  While eating their supper, the men of the city come to the door and demand that the old man hands over his male guest so that they can have their way with him. …

Preacher, guard your character

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There is, as Bryan Chapell points out, no shortage of scriptural teaching on the necessity of the minister of the word to be a man of good character (2 Cor 6:3-4; 1 Thess 2:3-8, 11-12; 2 Tim 2:15-16, 22-24; Titus 2:7-8; James 1:26-27; 3:13).

Those who preach Scripture should take care that their lives are under the rule of Scripture.  John Wesley once explained to a young preacher why his ministry was ineffective: “Your temper is uneven; you lack love for your neighbors.…

Mt 13:3-9; 18-23 – The Christian and the Bible – sermon notes

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It is springtime by the Sea of Galilee. Great numbers have come enthusiastically to hear Jesus preach, but what will be their response? The seed was being faithfully sown, but what will the harvest bring? We can picture Jesus sitting in the prow of a boat, pointing, perhaps, to a field where a sower is scattering corn seed onto the ground. Look: some of it is falling onto the pathway, and you can already see the birds coming along behind and pecking it up off the hard ground.…

Evangelical Biblical Illiteracy

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David R. Nienhuis writes in Modern Reformation of the problem of biblical illiteracy in America.

Among the general population, although 84% of Americans regard the Bible as important in helping them make decisions in everyday life, only half can name even one of the four Gospels, only a third are able to name the individual who gave the Sermon on the Mount, and only a minority can identify the first book of the Bible.

But the situation is also worrying among self-confessing evangelicals. …

What church-goers think of the Bible

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In 2008, research conducted on behalf of the Bible Society asked church leaders and ordinary church-goers (i.e. non-leaders) from across England and Wales about their atittudes towards the Bible.

The main findings, as summarised on the Evangelical Alliance’s Slip Stream web site, are as follows:-

Leaders

  • 98% of church leaders believe the Bible is divinely inspired and 47% think that is free from errors.
  • 90% of leaders say that the Bible actively challenges them to live in a way which runs counter to the present culture in Britain
  • 76% leaders associate Bible poverty with “our own land where the Bible is no longer at the centre of public and family life” and 90% think that the church should work towards a society that takes the Bible more seriously.
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