Students
Man Up!
In our debate, at a recent atheist convention (May 18, 2012), my colleague Paul Chamberlain and I squared off against Christopher DiCarlo and Matt Dillahunty in front of an audience of 300 people comprised of mostly atheists along with a few Christians. One of the themes of the debate, as it turned out, was the [...] Read More >
Debate: Does A God or Gods Exist?
On Friday May 18, my colleague Paul Chamberlain and I participated in a debate at an Atheists’ Convention. The debate question was Does A God or Gods Exist? and our opponents were Christopher DiCarlo and Matt Dillahunty. It drew about 300 people, most of them attending the North American wide “Imagine NoReligion” conference hosted by [...] Read More >
Is it Arrogant to Make Exclusive Claims to Truth?
In my search for truth about God and religion it has become clear to me that there is some confusion with respect to exclusive claims to truth. There is a widespread view today that it is arrogant and intolerant to make exclusive religious claims to truth because the implication is that anyone who disagrees with [...] Read More >
We Don’t Have the Original New Testament Documents. Is This a Problem?
We don’t have the original New Testament documents. Is this a problem? In my early years of investigating the trustworthiness of the Bible I discovered that even though a lot of people at the popular level thought this was a problem, the scholars who worked in this field (called textual criticism) did not think it [...] Read More >
A Universe Balanced on a Razor’s Edge
Is our universe the result of impersonal, unguided chance or an intelligent mind? In recent decades scientists have been stunned by the remarkable discovery that our universe appears to have been fine-tuned for the existence of intelligent life with incredible precision. It appears that our universe is balanced on a razor’s edge. For example, if [...] Read More >
Three Ideas that Changed My Life
“Josh is Coming” was all over the campus at the University of Calgary. It was painted on all the plywood fences surrounding construction areas. It was written in chalk all over the sidewalks. It was on posters, banners, flyers. Everyone on campus knew that Josh was coming. I certainly did, and so I was really [...] Read More >
The Worst Birthday Present Ever
“All the evidence we have says that the universe had a beginning.” At least that is what cosmologist Alexander Vilenkin said at a January 2012 conference in Cambridge held in honor of Stephen Hawking’s 70th birthday. But in a pre-recorded speech given at the conference Hawking had reiterated why he was uncomfortable with the idea [...] Read More >
Torturing Toddlers
How do you help someone who claims that there are no objective moral values and obligations? I have found that when specific examples of morally abhorrent behavior, like torturing toddlers for sport, are brought to their attention, most people’s moral intuitions are brought to the surface and they recognize that they do believe in objective moral [...] Read More >
Are the Written Accounts about the Resurrection of Jesus Faulty?
I find that many people who are skeptical these days about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead believe that the written accounts are either contradictory or are borrowed from pagan stories. And in either case they believe these are good reasons to distrust the writings. Since this weekend is Easter the celebration of the Resurrection of [...] Read More >
Are Intuitions for Real?
When we claim to know that torturing toddlers for sport is morally wrong because of our direct awareness of the injustice of the behavior, we are justified or warranted in our claim to knowledge, unless or until a defeater of our belief arises. I have been making a case for moral knowledge based on the [...] Read More >