Fear and Trembling

Conversations with Kevin over at HeathenZ inspired me to write this post. I have tried to expand the comment I posted at HeathenZ and make it a little more understandable. It is a cogent argument for God’s existence from God’s creation, a cosmological argument . I exist. I must exist in order to deny my own existence. This may seem an obvious point, but some make much of the idea that everything we see is an illusion. Even if that is the case, I must exist in order to have the illusion. I was caused. There was a time when I came to be. My own self-awareness and the empirical evidence that I find support this. There must have been a cause of my existence. Something must have existed before me in order to bring about my existence. Out of nothing, nothing comes. There is something now, so there was never nothing. Remember this is about causing to be. It is about existence itself. If I trace back from the cause of my existence to the cause of the cause of my existence, and so o...

The Ministry of Reconciliation blog gives an article on Egyptian women and their fight against Female Circumcision. More should be said about this horrible practice and about the Islamic nations which allow it!

I have a copy of John Macarthur’s book The Truth War on the shelf at home. I was a great read. I have an mp3 disc of the messages at last’s years Ligonier conference where Macarthur spoke. In both places, he handled the ‘problem of evil’ very well. Ligonier Ministries has now posted links to Macarthur’s address . These are great links to follow.

Breakpoint commentaries are always informative and help me to think clearly. That is true even when I do not necessarily agree with the conclusions reached. Today’s commentary by Mark Earley is a good example. Titled: Google and Our Heart's Desire, today’s commentary bounces off an article from the Atlantic Monthly’s July/August edition by Nicholas Carr, “Is Google Making Us Stupid? What the Internet is doing to our brains.” To the Breakpoint commentary: …Google and the Internet-at-large are convincing us that knowledge ought to be at our fingertips; whether it is a map, stock-price, article, quote, or video clip…As author Carr puts it, “the Net seems to be . . . chipping away my capacity for concentration and contemplation. My mind now expects to take in information the way the Net distributes it: in a swiftly moving stream of particles.” Carr is right. No wonder we are so crazy about it—it gives us the instant gratification we crave. While the Scriptures teach us that one of t...

Stand to Reason’s Blog relates the story of a Hamas Leader's Son named Mosab Hassan Yousef who has become a Christian. The FOXNews version is here . Here’s a quote from Yousef: When I studied the Bible carefully verse by verse, I made sure that that was the book of God, the word of God for sure, so I started to see things in a different way, which was difficult for me, to say Islam is wrong.

Thanks to Between Two Worlds for links ( here and here ) to interviews of Steven Curtis and Mary Beth Chapman and family. I grieve with that family on the tragic loss of their daughter to a freak accident. I have been a fan of Steve Curtis Chapman’s music for a long time, and I cannot imagine the grief they feel. I applaud the courage they are showing by undergoing the interviews.

Try the article on modern atheism by Veith here . Here’s a taste: ...The atheists' problem, though, is that however much they attack belief in God, their own worldview lacks all appeal. They get hung up on the last remaining absolute: Atheism is not beautiful. It is so depressing.

I have grown to appreciate the apologetics ministry of Ravi Zacharias , so it should come as no surprise that I purchased and read a copy of his latest book. The short little book is titled: The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2008), and it is a winsome and effective counter-argument to Harris, Dawkins, et. al. Zacharias’ polemics are clear and convincing. His version of the moral argument for God’s existence is emotional and intellectually vital. Here is part of his response to Harris’ argument that evil and suffering prove that an all-powerful, good God cannot exist: Harris’ antagonism toward God ends up proving that he finds some things reprehensible. But he cannot explain his innate sense of right and wrong – the reality of God’s law written on his heart – because there is no logical explanation for how that intuition toward morality could develop from sheer matter and chemistry. Popularly stated, I would put it this way: * W...