Christian Student Vs. Atheist Professor -The Student's Concluding

I had intended for the concluding remarks to be one blog. However after I finished writing the about the Professor's concluding remarks two posts seemed to make more sense. So here we are to bring our discussion on the parable of the Christian Student vs. The Atheist Professor to a conclusion by looking at the student's concluding remarks;

Christian Student Vs. Atheist Professor-Challenge and Response 2: Scientific Method

Today we are continuing our look at the parable of the Christian student vs. the Atheist professor by looking at the professor's second challenge and the student's response. The professor's first challenge was centered on the presence of evil. The professor's second challenge takes us in a different direction. Here is the professor's challenge;

Christian Student Vs. Atheist Professor-Challenge and Response 1: The Presence of Evil

Finally after our opening comments, and one slight detour it is time to starting working our way through the story of the Christian student verses the Atheist Professor.

The first challenge the professor gives to the existence of God is the existence of evil. A little more than a year ago I tackled this question in five different posts (1 2 3 4 5) so I won't go into great length here. Instead I want to make some quick comments on what the professor says and then talk about the response from the student.

Christian Student Vs. Atheist Professor- Afraid of School

We are going to take one more post to speak in broad strokes about the apocryphal story about Einstein as a Christian student facing down an unnamed atheist professor. I think it is important to put into words the reason why this and other like stories tend to be repeated.

Many Christians are afraid of universities.

Christian Student Vs. Atheist Professor- The Story

I have heard/read this story plus of minus a few details a number of times. And it seems to be making it's rounds on Facebook again right now so I feel it bares reflection. There are a number of items that are good about this tale, but a great many that are incorrect and not overly helpful. I originally thought I would do this all in one sitting. But then I realized I would have a blog post as long as a term paper, which no one would read in one sitting (including me) .Instead we're are going to take some time to pull this parable apart piece by piece and really try and think clearly about it.

Without further adieu here is the story;

Gird Up Now Thy Loins

Thunderstorms have been in the forecast here lately.To be clear by thunderstorms I mean actual thunderstorms, I am not being poetic. It`s been raining a lot, and we have had a chance of thunderstorms for the past three days.

For some reason when I heard yesterday's prediction of a possible thundershower I started to think of Job. More specifically I started to think of God questioning Job. The take home message of God questioning Job is, if you cannot understand or control the natural world around you, how can you possibly hope to understand or control God?

We've come a long way since God and Job had this little chat. And it almost seems  like we have taken God up on his challenge; we are trying our best to understand and control the entire natural world.

The question is, where does this leave us?

Forget Paul, Stick With Jesus

OK so the title may have been a little misleading. To be clear I mean forget Paul the alien not Paul the apostle.

A few days ago Paul hit theaters. This movie is brought to you by the same duo who brought us Hot Fuzz and Shawn of the Dead. Seeing the trailers I was conflicted. I enjoy a good sci-fi movie but I didn't care for the other movies made by these guys. In the end I skipped it. Which I guess I am grateful for. The trailers never showed that this movie has a strong anti-religious tone.

Paul through touch was able to convince a devote Christian girl, Ruth Buggs that God did not exist.

It's Written In The Stars

Something interesting happened in the last few days that could potentially bring science and religion into conflict again...but this time it's not conflicting with Christianity. Astronomer Parke Kunkle thought it was high time the astrology chart got updated. Kunkle at some point thought to himself that 3000 years or more has gone by since someone checked into this, and since the earth was not in the same orbit around the sun then as it is now things needed adjusting.

The Christian Theories

So just how can a Christian respond to evolution, and other like things? As it turns out we can respond in a number of ways that fall well within the Christian faith. But before that we need to outline what makes a good Christian response.

On the Origin of the Argument

November 24th 1859, changed the world. Charles Darwin finished his trip, collected his thoughts and published his findings in a book called "On the Origin of Species" Some 151 years later we are still grappling with the idea of evolution.

Their Not All From Our Imagination

Now I am what would be considered a Conservative Baptist. I believe that the Bible is true, that Jesus lived, died and rose again, I believe in the virgin birth and miracles and so on.Yet I've been carrying around a deep dark secret for years now and I think I am finally ready to talk about it.

Science and Moral Relativism

I found myself thinking yesterday as I was putting groceries in my car that the 'New Atheists' have been somewhat quiet of late. What was a red hot debate between New Atheists and Christian Thinkers had cooled some and it had been a while since I found myself engaged in a conversation or debate that really hinged on 'New Atheist' arguments. I joked, really to myself, that everyone must be busily writing their next book and are too busy to argue right now.

In The Beginning

I had wondered for sometime what my first real post would be once I finally finished creating the draft pages. As it turns out I just could not get the idea of 'beginnings' out of my mind, perhaps for obvious reasons. This is in some sense my beginning as a 'blogger' and as a person who puts the written word out for some kind of public consumption. I certainly wouldn't be so bold as to say writer, but still this is the first kind of public writing I have ever done.