The Moral Landscape

A few nights ago as I was driving home I listened to a discussion on Sam Harris' newest book, ' The Moral Landscape' on CBC radio one. This book came out in October 2010 so we have just hit the second anniversary of its publication which is probably why the CBC was running the interview again. The book is getting old and it got a lot of criticism by Christian and Non-Christian alike but since I am sure I wasn't the only person who caught the interview and the recent reply of the TED talk I thought I would write down the thoughts I had as I was listening.

Did Jesus Hear Wedding Bells?

In the Gospel of John Jesus debuted his miraculous abilities at a wedding in Cana. But that is not the wedding that people have been interested in of late. For the last few days people have been interested in the question, 'Was Jesus married?' This question has been brought to us by Harvard Divinity School Prof. Karen King. While far more learned people have already weighted in on this I thought I would toss in my two cents as well*.

Project- Keeping The Faith

Faith is not easily. It is a deliberate choice, a daily choice, and at times a very difficult choice. There are a lot of forces that attempt to tug, tear and trash our faith. Some of these forces are intellectual, some are emotional, some are spiritual but none can be overcome alone. We need each other.

If you have been following this blog for any length of time you have likely started to get a sense of my story. You know where I have struggled and where I am still struggling. You also know the issues that make me passionate.

But at my very core I want to help people grow in their faith, I want to help people keep their faith. And I need your help.

Over the next few weeks and months I want to share as many stories of faith I can find. Because I believe as we share our stories of how we have chosen and continue to choose faith, 'iron will sharpen iron'. If we share our stories more people will be able to proclaim with Paul; 'I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.'

Now here comes the ask. I need people, and I need stories. If you are a person who would like to share your story I want to hear from you. Or if you know someone who's story needs to be told, I want to hear from you. Connect with me via the comments section in this blog, or track me down on Twitter or Facebook.

Let me be clear on one thing. Your story does not need to be an epic spiritual battle, a major health crisis, or a time of near insurmountable loss to count. Faith struggles can come on red hot, or they can burn quietly under there surface unnoticed by anyone except yourself. If you have a story of faith struggle that you want to share, I want to hear from you.

Let's help people keep the faith together!

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-The Professor's Concluding Remarks

The time has come to start bringing our discussion of the Christian Student vs. Atheist Professor to an end. In this post we will take a look the professor's closing remarks;


Professor : According to Empirical, Testable, Demonstrable Protocol, Science says your GOD doesn’t exist. What do you say to that, son?

Student : Nothing. I only have my faith.

Professor: Yes, faith. And that is the problem Science has.

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- It's not true

As I mentioned earlier we are dealing with the story about young student Christian Einstein facing off against a older unnamed Atheist professor. There are some good points about this story, and we'll get to those later. But before that we are going to deal with some of the flaws. The first, and most glaring of them is;

THIS STORY IS NOT TRUE!

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;

Holy Tuesday 2012-Penny For Your Thoughts

Holy Tuesday contains my favorite sets of passages in the gospels. It is the showdown at the Temple. Picture it with me. Yesterday Jesus spent the morning clearing the Temple and the afternoon healing the sick and blessing the children in the newly freed up space. The religious leaders were fuming that Jesus would dare to come to their city and pull such a stunt.

They wanted him punished. But first they need the crowd to turn against him. And today on what is now known as Holy Tuesday it was time to try and do just that.

Our Mr Mom Who Art In Heaven

Over the past few weeks I have read two articles that talk about Christianity and masculinity.While each article has its own idiosyncrasies the main message of both is that only the hyper-macho, jock type masculinity is of true value to the church. All other types of men, and women are by default of lesser importance. This has bothered me quite a lot. I cannot help but hear echoes of locker room bullying in these pieces.

I am not sure if it is my past experiences (hearing someone basically pointing and laughing at me for not being 'man enough') or my current situation as a 'sort of' stay at home dad (as if I were not struggling enough with the gender role stereotypes of breadwinner and homemaker) that has set me on edge.

But I would like to respond in an altogether different vein . One that is a little more theological.

After The Debate: Simple Vs Simplistic

On Thursday night I got to watch a debate that I had been looking forward to for a number of months, Religion Soup hosted at Saint Mary's University by the Navigators. This was the first of what is shaping up to be an annual event. What a first debate it was, we listened to the arguments for and against the historical reliability of the gospels. Bart Ehrman argued that they were not reliable; Craig A. Evans argued that they were.

Before Ehrman began his opening statement he asked two questions. First he asked how many Christians were in the audience, to which a large percentage of hands went up. Then second he asked how many people wanted to see him get thumped, to which a similarly large percentage of hands went up.

I suspect that a similarly large percentage of people went home disappointed. In my opinion Ehrman won the debate.

Are There Christian Aliens Out There?

The popularity of science fiction has really grown. What used to be the beloved past time of nerdy guys in their parent’s basement has become much more mainstream. But the belief in extraterrestrial life is hardly confined to science fiction. The SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence) project, the Hubble telescope, and a myriad of other things are all trying to answer one question, ‘Are we alone in the universe?’

Where There's Smoke

Yesterday I did a good deed. 

Or at least I tried too. 

When I pulled into a grocery store parking lot I noticed the car beside me looked a little off. It seemed like smoke was coming from the engine. Now I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me or if the truck that had just driven by kicked up a lot of exhaust fumes. 

So I walked over for a closer look. Sure enough as I looked I saw a faint yet steady cloud of smoke wafting into the air.

Hell's Bell's and Jesus

A friend posted on his Facebook Wall an article titled Rob Bell's Replacement Speaks Out on Bell and Hell by Shane Hipps (who is the pastor that replaced Rob Bell at Mars Hill in Detroit). Now Hell is hardly a favourite topic of mine. But after I read this article I knew I wanted to respond.

Before we start I have to say it is telling, and very sad that the editor included a note that says, "...we encourage you to share your thoughts in the comment section below--we also encourage you to be civil and use Scripture to back up your arguments." After skimming the comments I can't help but think may of those who left comments choose to ignore this this 'suggestion'.

With that out of the way let's wade into this 'fun' debate.

Halloween, Yea Or Nay?

In Christian circles Halloween seems to drudge up some pretty heated and rather divided discussions. I think a convincing case for participating in Halloween and a convincing case for not participating in Halloween can both be made equally well.

There is a good reason for that.

Halloween is two distinct holidays that have been meshed together. Now I don't mean that literally, as in there were two holidays that have combined, but in practice that is what we have.

Allow me to elaborate.

Dinosaur Pee

I remember being in grade school and learning about the water cycle. We were taught the the earth has a closed system, and no new water is introduced. Therefore all rain is water that has evaporated, raised into the sky, cooled to form water vapour, condensed, and then falls back down to the ground.

However there is one in every class. You know the person I mean , the one who connects odd things together and asks strange questions. I won't lie I have often been that person, but not this time. Someone, I don't remember who asked the question; 'is the water we are drinking dinosaur pee?'

My teacher was somewhat taken back but after she thought about it for a moment she sheepishly agreed that yes the water we drink, cook with, and bath in, was at one time dinosaur pee. And as it turns out the American Water Resources Association agrees (sort of).

So it's true! We are in fact drinking dinosaur pee.

Reflective Inaction

Do you want to know what one of my pet peeves is? (Other than the ones I outlined what feels like ages ago) To date my current biggest pet peeve is unreflective action (followed very closely by unreflective speaking). That is in fact my biggest concern with the Missional Church movement. I don't like loose ends, or uncertainties, or otherwise sloppy thinking. I want to understand why we ought to be doing something, and what the goal it is supposed to achieve.

I really do believe that getting your thinking right precedes getting your actions right. Or more simply put I think wrong thinking leads to wrong acting. However I am feeling very convicted right now having spent the afternoon in study and reflection.

Right now I am feeling convicted about my reflective inaction.

Freedom

In Mere Christianity C.S.Lewis warned us about elevating one virtue or characteristic too high**. His example was love, an apt one for the time he wrote in, and in many ways an apt one of our time as well. However if I had to guess I would say our current cultural's most preferred virtue, the thing that we are told must be protected at all cost is; freedom.

It is my belief that we are beginning to see the disastrous affects of making freedom the unquestionable, unassailable virtue that all other virtues, laws and desires must bow to. Not to put to fine a point on it but I believe our cultures quest for ultimate freedom will doom us.