“If there is no God, then everything is permissible”

Walking With Giants Posted on by

This is the topic of debate in chapter 3 of God or Godless?

Randal Rouser opens by imagining the mind-set of someone who tortures and kills people for fun.  He imagines the character denying that what he does is evil, because (on the assumption that there is no God) morality is a purely subjective concept, with no objective basis for deciding whose morality is right and whose is wrong.

John Loftus, in his opener, says that the title of the chapter assumes that there is one God, whereas there are multiple concepts of God, with their own moralities. …

‘The biblical concept of God evolved from polytheism to monotheism’

Walking With Giants Posted on by

In chapter 2 of God or Godless? John Loftus asserts that the biblical concept of God evolved over time from polytheism to monotheism. He infers from this that there is no unified teaching about God in the Bible, and that the choice of one (Yahweh rather than Baal, say) is more or less a historical accident.

John’s argument is full of sweeping statements, right from the start.  When he says, “biblical scholars long ago acknowledged…”, he should have said, “Some biblical scholars think…”.…

“If there is no God, then life has no meaning”

Walking With Giants Posted on by

This is the first topic debated by Randal Rauser (a Christian) and John W. Loftus (an atheist) in their book God or Godless?

John Loftus concedes that if there is no God, then life has no intrinsic purpose and we have to either (a) muddle along in a purposeless existence, or (b) construct some kind of purpose for ourselves.

Yes, I agree with that.  If it were proven to me that God did not exist, life would either become meaningless for me, or I would have to construct some kind of meaning.…

God or Godless?

Walking With Giants Posted on by

This is the title of a recent (2013) book of written debates by John W. Loftus (an atheist) and Randal Rauser (a Christian).

Twenty topics are covered in all, half chosen by one protagonist and half by the other.  For each topic there is an opening statement of about 800 words from each person, rebuttals of about 150 words, and closing statements of 50 words.

It’s an interesting approach, although not without its weaknesses and limitations:-

  • The opening statements were written completely independently, and so sometimes do not focus on the same subject-matter.
…

How the Old Testament deepens our love for Jesus

Walking With Giants Posted on by

When we read the Old Testament,

  1. we are reading Jesus’ Bible – the Old Testament Scriptures were Jesus’ Bible
  2. we are learning Jesus’ language – his teaching was saturated with Old Testament words and concepts; more than that, he saw the Old Testament scriptures as fulfilled in himself
  3. we are singing Jesus’ songs – the book of Psalms was Jesus’ hymnbook
  4. we are feeling Jesus’ feelings – passages such as Psalm 22 and 69 display Christ’s sufferings in an especially powerful way
  5. we are hearing Jesus’ voice – as the one mediator between God and us, it is his voice that we hear speaking to and pleading with sinners
  6. we are seeing Jesus in action – as the ‘Angel of the Lord’ he visited the earth many times
  7. we are admiring Jesus’ trophies – considering how much less they knew, the Old Testament saints are in some way even more remarkable the those of the New Testament

Summarising this article by David Murray…

What to say to Christian boys

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Roger E. Olsen has been been asked by a friend who is a youth pastor to speak with the boys of his Christian youth group.

Here, in outline, is what he plans to say:-

  1. It’s good to be a boy.  Just like girls and women, boys and men should be proud of what God has made them to be.
  2. A boy or a man may need to reign in the tendency towards testosterone-driven aggression.
  3. Ignore the popular sterotypes, such as, ‘men don’t cry’.
…

Questioning God

Walking With Giants Posted on by

My heart goes out to Dr Muhammad Taufiq Al Sattar, whose wife and three teenage children were killed when their Leicester home was set alight two weeks ago.  As a father myself, I can only begin to imagine the grief he must be experiencing at the moment.

I also admire Dr Taufiq’s attitude at this most difficult time.  He has paid tribute to the Leicestershire Police, for their thorough investigation of the tragedy, and has expressed his ‘delight’ that community relations in Leicester have remained peaceful.…

Hume and the question of miracles

Walking With Giants Posted on by

For many of today’s sceptics, David Hume clinched it: miracles don’t happen.  Miracles (if they occurred) would be violations of the laws of nature, and we know from experience that the laws of natures are not violated.

There are a number of problems with this argument, popular though it is.  For one thing, Hume was himself inconsistent regarding the ‘laws of nature’.  He argues elsewhere that even though we have observed the sun to rise every morning for thousands of years, we cannot infer that it will rise again tomorrow morning.…

Martin Luther King’s Dream

Walking With Giants Posted on by

Fifty years ago today (28th August, 1963) Martin Luther King, a Christian minister committed to non-discrimination and non-violence, led a march of 250,000 people, three-quarters of whom were African-American, to Washington DC.  There he shared his dream:-

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice and sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

…

Desiring Christ

Walking With Giants Posted on by

The Puritan John Flavel invites us to ask the following questions about our desires for Christ:-

‘Are they ARDENT? Has Christ the supreme place in our hearts? Do we esteem all things but dung that we may win Christ and be found in him?

Are they UNIVERSAL? Is everything about Christ desirable in our eyes? The hypocrite is for a divided Christ. The believer loves his government and his grace, his sovereignty and his mercy, his Lordship and his priesthood.…