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Is the Bible Inspired? Part 1

Tuesday, 09 January 2018 by ccfadmin

 

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Scientific and Philosophical evidence for God’s existence – Episode 001 – CCFinRL

Friday, 24 November 2017 by ccfadmin

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5 Reasons to attend church

Wednesday, 04 October 2017 by Johnny Harwood

There is a disturbing trend I am noticing in churches. Maybe it is more in larger, contemporary churches than smaller, traditional churches. But since the majority of all churchgoers now attend larger churches this is of real concern. The trend is the decline in percentage attendance. In other words there are less people attending each church service in comparison with the number of people who call the church their home. For years a good percentage would be around 75%. Three out of every four people would be in church on any given Sunday. Now that number may well be 50% or even worse. Regular church attendance is extremely valuable, is very important and should be practiced by anyone who claims to be a follower of Christ. A Christ-follower needs to regularly attend church. Not counting the times that you might miss for vacation or sickness or a particular work commitment you should be in church.

Church is not something that you do individually it is something that you do collectively. To be a follower of Christ is not just what you do by yourself it is what you do together with other people. We are what the Bible calls the “family of God.” A family is by its very nature inter-dependent. What it means to be a part of a local church is that you’re inter-dependent with other people in your church. There are strong reasons why you should come to church regularly.

It Is What Jesus Did

Luke 14:6 says, “Jesus went back to Nazareth, where he’d been brought up and as usual he went to the meeting place on the Sabbath.” The Bible tells us that “as usual” or another translation of the Bible says “as was His custom” Jesus went to the place of worship. This is in keeping with obeying one of the Ten Commandments which is, “Observe the Sabbath by keeping it holy.” When we say we are followers of Christ, we’re supposed to do what Jesus has done. What would Jesus do? Jesus would go to church and we as followers of Christ should do the same. If we take seriously our followership of Christ, then we should go to church regularly.

It Is a Good Habit

Hebrews 10:25 says, “Some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship. But we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord’s coming is getting closer.” The Bible says to us there is a good habit of regularly going to church. Most of the time when we think of habits we think bad habits but there are good habits. Some have developed the bad habit of missing church. Maybe you’ve gotten out of the habit or maybe you have yet to develop the habit of regular church attendance. Sunday morning offers a lot of options. It offers the sleep in option, it offers a brunch option, it offers the read the Sunday paper option, and it offers all kinds of options having to do with recreation. Good habits bless your life and produce positive results. When you practice the good habit of regular church attendance you reap some very good outcomes.

It Is a Positive Example

Going to church is a positive example. When you go each Sunday, you’re setting an example. You are setting an example that other people notice. It is an example that becomes an inspiration for others. People who are trying to make their lives better, people who want a positive change are going to be impacted by an example of someone who is committed to regular church attendance. For those of you who are married, it’s a positive example to your spouse. For those of you that have children, it’s an absolutely positive example for your kids to know that on Sunday you go to church. For the people around you, whether it’s your friends or your co-workers, whether it’s your family, when they see that you have a commitment that is leading you to living a better life – that is a positive example that other people can follow.

It Is Important for Fellowship

Look again at what the Bible says, “Some have gotten out of the habit. We should not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other.” The church is an encouraging place. We all need encouragement. Life is hard. Life is difficult. We all run into various kinds of challenges; health problems, financial issues, conflict within our families. We have an opportunity to encourage one another and that is part of what church is about. Sunday service is where fellowship begins. Being in classes, groups and serving is where you get to know people on a deeper level. But it starts on Sunday; the launching point to fellowship and community is in church services. Every Sunday that you come, there are going to be people who are looking for you, wondering if you’re there. People will miss you. And the longer and more consistently you come, the more you will be missed. Because the more that you are in church, the more you are involved, the more people miss you and notice that you’re not around. It is a marvelous thing to be a part of a local church it is like having a much larger family.

It Is Essential for Growth

It is absolutely essential for spiritual growth to regularly attend church. I have this phrase, “The service you miss is the service you need.” Each service is tailored and designed to maximize your Sunday worship so that you can leave with the best possible spiritual experience. You can praise and worship God and you can learn things that you didn’t know before. You will be challenged. You’re going to be motivated. Church is where you will be inspired to go higher than you’ve gone, to live a life that is godlier and greater than you’ve been living, to sync your life up with Jesus and His purpose and plan for your life. You will come to understand why you’re here on this earth: to serve, to give and to love.

Don’t come occasionally to church. Don’t just come when you feel like it. Make regular church attendance a priority and let it be a good habit that becomes a part of who you are. Nothing does more for your spiritual health than regularly being in church. Being in a church service is irreplaceable. It is a moment in time and once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. There will always be competition for your time and other things that you could do on a Sunday. But these are really good reasons you should regularly attend church.

 

Full Article can be found Here

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Ten Objections to Christianity and how to respond Part 2

Wednesday, 02 August 2017 by Johnny Harwood
  1. Being a good person is all that really matters.Some argue that even if a person’s religion is false, what really matters is that she’s sincere about being a good person. This notion is based on the mistaken belief that God is pleased by “religion.”Sincerity doesn’t determine truth, however. One can be sincerely convinced of the truth—and be sincerely wrong. For example, many evil men such as Hitler were very sincere in their beliefs. God judges people based on truth, not opinions—and that truth is Jesus Christ.
  2. What about those who’ve never heard about Jesus?Such a question implies that God lacks compassion because he’s imposed his plan of salvation on us. Often such inquirers seem to imply that they’re more compassionate than God!An important biblical principle to understand is that no one has ever remained lost who wanted to be found. Just as God sent the apostle Philip to the seeking Ethiopian (Acts 8:26-39), Jesus promises all who seek will find (Matthew 7:7-8).
  3. The Bible is filled with errors.Because the Bible is God’s Word and God cannot lie (Isaiah 55:10-11; John 17:17; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 4:12), it’s totally trustworthy, free from any error. God’s Word is described as “the word of truth” (2 Corinthians 6:7; Colossians 1:5; 2 Timothy 2:15; James 1:18). Inerrancy isn’t a theory about the Bible; it’s the teaching of the Bible itself.What most people claim as errors in the Bible aren’t errors but difficulties. People think they’ve stumbled upon apparent inconsistencies when they haven’t taken the time to find out all the facts, or made an in-depth study of the passage. Many Bible questions have been answered as new discoveries have been made in fields such as language, history, archeology, and other sciences.

    Regardless of the kind of difficulty found, not a single irreconcilable error can be found in the Bible’s pages.

  4. If God is so good, why is there evil?The thrust of this charge is that evil’s presence disproves God’s power. But is the presence of evil consistent with the God of the Bible? Consider:
    • God didn’t create evil. Sin entered the world through Adam’s disobedience (Genesis 3).
    • Evil is necessary for a free world. Freedom, or free will, gives humans the opportunity to make wrong choices.
    • God hesitates to stop evil for an important reason. Just as parents often allow their children to make mistakes and suffer the consequences, God acts in a parental fashion with his creation.
    • God has the solution for evil. Jesus accomplished the ultimate defeat of evil on the cross. But just as we don’t yet have eternal bodies, evil has yet to be removed from the world.
  5. Why is there suffering?Many hold that pain is evidence against God’s concern for humankind. However, pain can be used for good and bad purposes. Not all pain is bad. Pain is an essential mechanism for survival. Without pain, the body is stripped of vital protection. Pain is an important signal to warn of even greater danger.Suffering is a signal. It also can be a spiritual signal that reminds us of the fragile balance of life and our mortality. In The Problem of Pain, Christian apologist C.S. Lewis writes, “God whispers to us in our pleasure, speaks to us in our conscience, but shouts to us in our pain; it is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.”

    Some suffering actually helps to bring greater good. This is best seen in Jesus’ own suffering. Jesus traveled down the road of pain, loneliness, and death—a road that led to the cross. Jesus isn’t just a Savior, he’s our suffering Savior. The cross is the ultimate example of innocent suffering.

    At the heart of this issue is the underlying challenge that God isn’t fair. The problem is, society holds pleasure as its chief goal in life. This philosophy is known as hedonism, and those who live by this philosophy find any form of suffering offensive. To say God isn’t fair is an extremely dangerous charge.

    If God gave us what we deserve, we’d be in trouble. It would be foolish to ask God for justice; what we need is mercy. God’s mercy and grace are so taken for granted that suffering and pain shock us.

      6. If there’s a hell, why would a loving God send people there?

God hates evil, and one day, evil will cease. While evil and suffering and pain are very real, they are also very temporary.

The day God deals with evil, he will deal with all evil. In the meantime, God strives for as many people as possible to accept Jesus’ death and resurrection as payment for their sins, so they     can live eternally with him. The sad fact is, many will make the decision not to be a part of God’s heaven. God won’t send them to hell; they’ll send themselves.

For God to force people to go to heaven against their wishes wouldn’t be heaven—it would be hell. Atheist author Jean-Paul Sarte noted that the gates of hell are locked from the inside by the free choice of men and women.

Full Article can be found here

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Ten Objections to Christianity and how to respond. Part 1

Tuesday, 18 July 2017 by Johnny Harwood

Are you prepared to answer the spiritual seekers in your world? Are you wondering if Christianity’s really true? Here’s a look at ten objections skeptics pose toward Christianity—and how to respond.

  1. Christians are hypocrites.A hypocrite is an actor, a person who pretends to be something she isn’t. Jesus’ harshest words were reserved for hypocrites.

    The reality is, there always have been and always will be some hypocrites in the Church. But Jesus doesn’t ask us to follow others; he asks us to follow him.

    Although Christians can represent Jesus either poorly or well, the real question isn’t whether there are hypocrites in the Church, but whether Jesus is a hypocrite. If someone can prove that Jesus was a hypocrite, then the whole structure of Christianity falls into ruin. The Bible, God’s Word, presents Jesus as nothing less than perfect. Jesus’ disciples testified that Jesus was without sin (1 Peter 2:22; 1 John 3:5). Even Jesus himself challenged others to prove that he’d ever sinned (John 8:46).

  2. What about the atrocities Christians have committed?Some blame Christianity for religious wars, the Crusades, burning witches, the Inquisition, slavery, even the Holocaust.

    The issue of atrocities is simply an extension of the question of hypocrites. So-called believers who didn’t practice true Christianity have perpetrated evil. In reality, these people were Christian in name only.

    Focusing on their atrocities is a smoke screen to avoid the real issue. Christianity has far more positive achievements than negative influences. It’s been instrumental in the formation of countless hospitals, schools, colleges, orphanages, relief agencies, and charity agencies. No other religion in history can compare.

  3. Christianity is a crutch.Karl Marx, author of The Communist Manifesto, said, “Religion is the opiate of the masses.” Critics such as Marx have charged that religion is an invention designed for people incapable of coping with life’s pressures. Some critics respond that they don’t need this type of emotional comfort, as though that fact falsifies Christianity. Such individuals often claim to be “stronger” because they’re brave enough to face life without a “crutch.” To imply non-religious people don’t need a crutch is misleading. Dependence on drugs, alcohol, tobacco, sex, money, power, other people, and material possessions demonstrates some people’s need for a crutch. Atheism—the belief that there is no God—can become a crutch for those addicted to a lifestyle contrary to God’s standards of morality.

    Rather than being weak, Christians are strong—not because they depend on themselves, but because they depend on Jesus.

    Everyone needs assistance. The question is, what will you lean on? Christianity provides what atheism or other religions never can: spiritual fulfillment, peace, and forgiveness.

  4. It’s narrow-minded to think Jesus is the only way to God.Jesus claimed he was the only way to God (John 14:6). Such a claim is either totally true or totally false. Some people claim to be Christians, yet ignore Jesus’ claim to be the only Savior. Critics argue this view is exclusory.

    But if Christianity is true, then we must accept Jesus’ own teachings. If one believes Jesus’ assertions to be true, then the issue is settled

Full Article can be found here: 

 

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5 Reasons Prayer Is Good For You

Tuesday, 25 April 2017 by Johnny Harwood
5 Reasons Why Prayer is Good For You

Prayer is a crucial part of our spiritual relationship with God. Here are five reasons why prayer is beneficial to your life.

1. Connect With God

Prayer is a form of worship and an act of praise. When offering our requests to God, we are vulnerable, humbly asking for divine help.

Prayer is the opportunity to share our wants and needs with God, including him in our daily lives.

2. Restore or Build Faith

We can start out or reach a point in our Christian walk, with weak faith. Faith can be born on shaky ground – as a new believer who is just learning about Christ – and faith can be whittled down by our jaded outlook or life struggles.

Sending our prayers to God strengthens and builds our spiritual life. The more time we put in, learning about him through study of his word and prayer, the more we learn about his love and our faith.

3. Express Yourself

Some things we say in prayer, we don’t say out loud. Prayer is the time to express yourself.  You can “lay your burdens down,” talk to God about your secrets, your feelings, or just say a simple, “Thank you.”

4. Live Healthier and With Longer Life

Studies show that prayer can lead to a healthier life as well as extend it. Spending a few minutes each day to worship can provide physical and emotional benefits such as lightening our mood, improving our cardiovascular health, and lowering blood pressure.

5. Humble Ourselves

When we bow our heads and lift our heads in prayer to go before God, it is in humility. Our selfishness, our arrogance is gone because prayer acknowledges that we are servants to God. His power, love and grace, is abundant, more than enough, and He is to be praised.

It can also change our attitude towards our problems, as we pray for others who may be doing much worse.

Full Article Can Be Seen Here

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You Need Spiritual Food for Spiritual Strength

Wednesday, 19 April 2017 by Johnny Harwood

“Search, You Need Spiritual Food for Spiritual Strength for the LORD and his strength. Always seek his presence” (1 Chronicles 16:11 GW).

Just like you need physical food for physical strength, you need spiritual food for spiritual strength. The Bible describes itself as spiritual food — the water, milk, bread, and meat of our spiritual lives. It’s everything you need for sustenance.

If you were a construction contractor, you wouldn’t consider sending out a guy who hadn’t eaten anything in two weeks. If you were a commander in the Army, you wouldn’t send a person into battle who hadn’t eaten in a month. Right? We need to feed ourselves to have the strength to accomplish the tasks ahead of us.

You’re not going to have much success in winning the spiritual battles you face if you’re starving yourself to death. That’s why we need to feed on the Word of God.

Unlike eating physical food, whenever I feed on God’s Word, I get even hungrier. The more I taste and see how good God is, the more I want.

The Bible says in Colossians 3:16a, “Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly” (NIV). Paul is telling us to let the Bible take up residence in our lives in a rich, profound, and life-giving way.

So how do we feed ourselves on the Word of God and allow that to happen?

  • Receive the Word with your ears. Commit yourself to go to church and listen to God’s Word being preached.
  • Read the Word with your eyes. Having a Bible in your house is not going to bless your life. You have to have the Bible in your heart.
  • Research the Word with your hands and mouth. When studying the Word of God, keep a pencil in your hand. Write down what God teaches. Talk about what you’re discovering with other believers in a small-group environment.
  • Reflect on the Word with your mind. Think about and chew on God’s Word.
  • Remember the Word with your heart. You’ll rarely have a Bible with you when you need it. Commit God’s Word to memory.

Talk It Over

  • What changes do you need to make in your life so that you are spiritually nourished?
  • Do you write down what God teaches you? What you are memorizing from Scripture?
  • What spiritual battle are you fighting today? Have you turned to God’s Word for sustenance?

Full Article can be found Here

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5 Things That Keep Pastors Awake at Night

Monday, 13 March 2017 by ccfadmin

A recent cover story in the Harvard Business Review was titled, “What Really Keeps CEOs Awake at Night.” The article explored such things as brand building, executive pay and managing millennials.

It made me wonder about a similar question for my field: “What really keeps pastors awake at night?”

I travel a fair amount speaking at various pastors’ gatherings and, as a result, hear from a large cross section of pastors from across the country. I also am a pastor and have been for nearly 30 years.

So what does keep the majority of us up at night? At least five things, and I will offer them in ascending order.

No. 5: Money

As in lack of, raising of and stewarding of. I believe it was R.C. Sproul who once posed the question, “How much ministry can you do for $1?” The answer was, “One dollars’ worth.”

That may have been a bit crass, but you get his point.

But even crasser would be, “How much of an electric bill can you pay with $1?” Answer: “One dollar’s worth.”

And most pastors are the ones getting the bill and having the responsibility to make sure it’s paid.

But it’s not just money in regard to the church. It’s also money in regard to their personal lives. Most pastors are underpaid. They do not have adequate benefit packages. They do not have a provided retirement plan. And—forgive me for stating the obvious—they don’t have end-of-the-year stock options or sales bonuses.

So many pastors I know feel the stress of personal finances and corporate finances.

No. 4: Staff

I know that many churches are singularly staffed, but a lot of churches have at least a few. That makes hiring and firing, training and managing, big deals.

But what keeps us up at night the most revolves around staff conflict. Not every church staff is healthy. Not every relationship is a good one. Anyone in the marketplace knows how stressful a bad working relationship with another employee can be. Imagine what it’s like in the confines of a church’s mission and ministry.

No. 3: Departing Members/Attenders

Here’s a little secret you may not know: Every pastor takes every member departure personally.

We can’t help it.

Every pastor worth his or her salt treats and leads their church like a family. And they are the parent of that family. When someone leaves, it’s a knife in their relational hearts. It feels like disloyalty, abandonment and relational treason.

It doesn’t to the person departing. All too often (sadly) it’s a consumer decision, like switching from Costco to Sam’s Club. But not to the person who has invested his or her life in building that Costco.

No. 2: The Needs of Members

Most pastors genuinely care about the people they serve. They care about the marriages in crisis, the children who rebel, the cancer being treated and the grief over the loss of a loved one.

They come home at the end of a day prayerfully carrying the weight of many people’s lives, and it’s not easy to disengage. To be sure, being at the side of someone who just lost a son or daughter is nothing compared to what that mother or father is going through. But when you are at the side of grieving parents week in and week out, the toll is real.

And you lie awake at night overwhelmed at the depth of grief you’ve experienced.

No. 1: Feelings of Inadequacy

Yep, you read that right. Most pastors would tell you that they do not feel up to their task. They are only too aware of their sin and shortcomings. They are overwhelmed at a job that never ends, never has a 5 p.m. cut off, never has a finish line.

And then there’s that little thing called a “message.” Every week, weekends come along with amazing regularity. And pastors are expected to have something helpful, something fresh, something arresting and something encouraging. And too many times, they feel it’s all they can do to keep themselves afloat.

Let’s be clear … almost every pastor I know would say it’s a privilege, an honor and the greatest joy of his or her life to serve in this role. I would add my name to that list. This isn’t about enabling collective whining or even engendering sympathy.

It’s just to say to other pastors, “You’re not alone in how you feel.”

And to say to the many attenders of the churches they serve, the next time you feel led to pray for your pastor, perhaps now you can pray for him or her a bit more specifically.

 

Originally posted here

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The Defense for Creation

Tuesday, 31 January 2017 by Johnny Harwood

THE ISSUE: Does current scientific data support the theory that the universe was created with intelligent design?

WHAT SKEPTICS SAY: Belief in an intelligent designer is a religious theory that has no basis in science. Scientific data supports evolutionary theory, and everyone knows it.

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1). “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands” (Psalm 19:1).

THE DESIGN HYPOTHESIS

“A big, fundamental question, like belief in God (or disbelief), is not settled by a single argument,” said physicist-turned-theologian John Polkinghorne in Quarks, Chaos, and Christianity. “It’s too complicated for that. What one has to do is to consider lots of different issues and see whether or not the answers one gets add up to a total picture that makes sense.”

That’s the approach I took in my investigation. I probed six different scientific disciplines to see whether they point toward or away from the existence of an intelligent designer.

When I opened my mind to the possibility of an explanation beyond naturalism, the theory denying any supernatural existence in the universe, I found that the design hypothesis — that says there is a purposeful, intelligent, created order to the universe — most clearly accounted for the evidence of science. Consider some of the facts from my investigation:

The Evidence of Cosmology

Thanks to scientific discoveries of the last 50 years, the ancient kalam cosmological argument has taken on a powerful and persuasive new force. As described by William Lane Craig, the argument is simple yet elegant: First, whatever begins to exist has a cause.

Second, the universe had a beginning. Based on the data, virtually all cosmologists now agree the universe began in the Big Bang at some specific point in the past. Craig stressed that even alternate theories for the origin of the universe require a beginning.

The conclusion then follows from the two premises: Therefore, the universe has a cause. Even once-agnostic astronomer Robert Jastrow conceded the essential elements of Christianity and modern cosmology are the same: “The chain of events leading to man commenced suddenly and sharply, at a definite moment in time, in a flash of light and energy.”

The Evidence of Physics

One of the most striking discoveries of modern science has been that the laws and constants of physics unexpectedly conspire in an extraordinary way to make the universe habitable for life. For instance, said physicist-philosopher Robin Collins, gravity is fine-tuned to one part in a hundred million billion billion billion billion billion.

The cosmological constant, which represents the energy density of space, is as precise as throwing a dart from space and hitting a bull’s-eye just a trillionth of a trillionth of an inch in diameter on Earth. One expert said there are more than 30 physical or cosmological parameters that require precise calibration in order to produce a universe that can sustain life.

The Evidence of Astronomy

Similar to the fine-tuning of physics, Earth’s position in the universe and its intricately choreographed geological and chemical processes work together with exquisite efficiency to create a safe place for humans to live.

For example, astronomer Guillermo Gonzalez and science philosopher Jay Wesley Richards said it would take a star with the highly unusual properties of our sun — the right mass, the right light, the right age, the right distance, the right orbit, the right galaxy, the right location — to nurture living organisms on a circling planet. Numerous factors make our solar system and our location in the universe just right for a habitable environment.

What’s more, the exceptional conditions that make life possible also happen to make our planet strangely well-suited for viewing and analyzing the universe and our environment. All of this suggests our planet may be rare, if not unique, and that the Creator wanted us to be able to explore the cosmos.

“If the universe had not been made with the most exacting precision, we could never have come into existence,” said Harvard-educated astrophysicist John A. O’Keefe of NASA. “It is my view that these circumstances indicate the universe was created for man to live in.”

The Evidence of Biochemistry

Darwin said, “If it could be demonstrated that any complex organ existed which could not possibly have been formed by numerous, successive, slight modifications, my theory would absolutely break down.” Biochemist Michael Behe has demonstrated exactly that through his description of “irreducibly complex” molecular machines.

These complicated, microscopic contraptions, such as cilia and bacterial flagella, are extremely unlikely to have been built piece-by-piece through Darwinian processes, because they had to be fully present in order to function. Other examples include the incredible system of transporting proteins within cells and the intricate process of blood clotting.

More than just a devastating challenge to Darwinism, these amazing biological systems which far exceed the capacity of human technology point toward a transcendent Creator. “My conclusion,” said Behe, “can be summed up in a single word: design. I say that based on science. I believe that irreducibly complex systems are strong evidence of a purposeful, intentional design by an intelligent agent.”

The Evidence of Biological Information

The six feet of DNA coiled inside every one of our body’s one hundred trillion cells contain a four-letter chemical alphabet that spells out precise assembly instructions for all the proteins from which our bodies are made. Cambridge-educated Stephen Meyer demonstrated that no hypothesis has come close to explaining how information got into biological matter by naturalistic means.

On the contrary, he said that whenever we find a sequential arrangement that’s complex and corresponds to an independent pattern or function such as books and computer code, this kind of information is always the product of intelligence.

“Information is the hallmark of a mind,” Meyer said. “And purely from the evidence of genetics and biology, we can infer the existence of a mind that’s far greater than our own — a conscious, purposeful, rational, intelligent designer who’s amazingly creative.”

The Evidence of Consciousness

Many scientists are concluding that the laws of chemistry and physics cannot explain our experience of consciousness. Professor J.P. Moreland defined consciousness as our introspection, sensations, thoughts, emotions, desires, beliefs and free choices that make us alive and aware. The “soul” contains our consciousness and animates our body.

According to a researcher who showed that consciousness can continue after a person’s brain has stopped functioning, current scientific findings “would support the view that ‘mind,’ ‘consciousness,’ or the ‘soul’ is a separate entity from the brain.”

As Moreland said, “You can’t get something from nothing.” If the universe began with dead matter having no conscious, “how, then, do you get something totally different — consciousness, living, thinking, feeling, believing creatures — from materials that don’t have that?” But if everything started with the mind of God, he said, “we don’t have a problem with explaining the origin of our mind.”

This article can be found Here

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A Critical Look at Common Atheist Talking Points

Monday, 05 December 2016 by ccfadmin

Atheist blogger Kevin Davis attended a Lifetree Café gathering at a Lutheran church where the topic of discussion was atheism.  Davis was annoyed by something:

The next discussion question: What is the attraction to atheism?  This one bothered me. I took the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions.  Atheism isn’t something people get recruited into or attracted to from an ideological perspective.  It has no dogma or doctrine.  Atheism is a conclusion based on a lack of evidence.  No one decides to become an atheist because it’s glamorous.  Why would you willingly join a minority position that is attached to an unshakable stigma and is legally discriminated against?  We’re not “giving up on God” or “angry at God” or any of those other assertions. We simply used critical thinking to come to the conclusion that the supernatural folklore of millennia ago is unfounded and archaic.  

This is a very common self-serving talking point among the atheist activists and I find it to be highly inaccurate.

First, when Davis insists it is the mere use of critical thinking that leads to atheism, he paints a picture where it is atheists alone who have a special talent for such thinking.  For it is clearly implied that those of us who are Christians lack this skill, otherwise, why are we still Christians?  The problem for Davis is that there are many Christians who use critical thinking to reach the conclusion that Christianity is likely to be true.  This means that since critical thinking can lead to two opposite conclusions, the mere use of critical thinking is insufficient at explaining why people become atheists.

Of course, at this point, the atheist is likely to double down on that self-serving self image, arguing that critical thinking skills are not involved in anyone becoming a Christian because if critical thinking skills were involved, the person would reach the conclusion of atheism.   And round and round it would go.  So let’s use some critical thinking skills to analyze Davis’s talking point.

I took the opportunity to clear up some misconceptions.  Atheism isn’t something people get recruited into or attracted to from an ideological perspective.  

This is simply false.  There is clearly a distinct evangelistic dimension to the New Atheism movement.  Consider just some of the evidence (off the top of my head):

  • Atheist activist Richard Carrier has said , “My objective is to make more atheists. I am an evangelist for atheism.”
  • Atheist activist Peter Boghossian wrote a book, popular among the atheists, entitled, “A Manual for Creating Atheists” and Carrier taught on online course around it: “Boghossian proposes a particular approach to one-on-one atheist evangelism that is science-and-experience based, and valuable to learn. If you have friends, family members, colleagues, whom you want to escape religion, and improve their standards of belief-formation, this course is for you. If you want to make more atheists through one-on-one interaction with anyone (people you meet on the street, at events, while manning an “Ask an Atheist” booth, anywhere), his book is a must-read, and definitely worth taking a course on, even if you don’t agree with everything it says.”
  • American Atheists are putting up billboards around the country trying to attract people to atheism:

The billboard features a mother looking over her daughter’s shoulder as she reads a text from a friend who asks her if she’s going to church this Christmas. Her response? “Lol. No way. I don’t believe that stuff anymore.”  This isn’t the only design American Atheists is using this year.

Other cities across the nation are getting another billboard that puts a political spin on the holiday by modifying President-Elect Donald Trump’s famous campaign slogan: “MAKE CHRISTMAS GREAT AGAIN,” followed by “Skip Church!”

  • Here’s an atheist activist whose video (promoted by Dawkins’ webpage) is entitled, How to Convert a Christian to Atheism

  • New Atheist authors often brag about the email they get telling them how their atheist book converted people to atheism.

I’ll stop.

Suffice it to say that there is a distinct evangelistic dimension to the atheist movement that seeks to convert people into atheism.

Next claim from Davis:

It has no dogma or doctrine.  Atheism is a conclusion based on a lack of evidence. 

Davis insists there is no dogma or doctrine to atheism and immediately proceeds to list it. The whole notion that atheism is simply a conclusion based on a lack of evidence is the dogma/doctrine of modern day atheism.  Let’s consider the evidence to support my claim.

First, the dogmatic nature of this position is evident to anyone who has actually argued with an atheist.  After arguing with hundreds of atheists, I have yet to encounter one who will not back off the extreme nature of this dogmatic posture.  That is, I cannot find an atheist who argues as follows:

I agree there is some evidence for theism, enough such that theism can be considered a reasonable position.  However, I find this evidence to be unconvincing and weak, thus I remain an atheist.

Instead, I have reliably discovered, time after time after time, that atheists cling to the “there is no, NO, NO(!) evidence for the existence of God” dogma.

The extreme, dogmatic nature of this doctrine shows itself in how the atheist movement portrays religious people as delusional, mentally ill, stupid, and/or dishonest.  You can only view theists in such a way if a) you perceive yourself as having superior thinking skills that b) discover there is NO evidence for the existence of God.  It’s so obvious that only the delusional and mentally ill would dare disagree with you.

Second, Davis wrote something else that undercuts his position:

On to the next topic. We’re starting to get into the nitty gritty now. We were provided the definition of atheism — a lack of belief in a deity and lack of belief in anything supernatural.  I’d go with the former and drop the latter.  Atheism doesn’t reject supernatural concepts by definition; it just refers to the lack of belief in gods.  While it’s true most atheists reject all supernatural ideas, some do believe in ghosts or spirits or other supernatural concepts not related to gods.

He is correct in noting there are many atheists who believe in ghosts, spirits, and other supernatural concepts.  In addition, some believe in UFOs and various conspiracy theories.  Thus, while we are told that atheists, as a group, reject belief in God because of critical thinking and a lack of evidence, there are many who believe in ghosts, spirits, along with other supernatural and paranormal phenomenon, ……because of the same critical thinking and consideration of evidence?  Look, if the atheist is going to posture as a member of a group devoted to critical thinking and evidence, that message is contradicted when you also admit the existence of ghost-believing fellow atheists.

Third, and perhaps most damaging, is that while atheists believe their atheism stems from a consideration which finds no evidence for God, it turns out the “no evidence” position is not rooted in critical thinking.  How can we tell?  Simply ask the atheist to explain what type of data they would count as evidence for God.  What type of data would cause them to merely suspect God might exist?  If you do that, you will find that the vast majority of atheists struggle mightily with this simple question (that stems from a position of critical thinking).  After all, how can anyone claim there is no evidence of X is they don’t have the foggiest idea of what would even count for X?  Such a person is admitting they are intellectually blind when it comes to the consideration of X.  If you are sure there is no evidence for X when you have no idea what evidence for X would look like, you are being classicly dogmatic.

If the atheist does answer the question, you will find that the vast majority of them will demand some type of demonstration/event for which no natural explanation is possible.  Put simply, they need some type of miracle.  Yet if one were to argue that God exists because there is something that cannot be explained by natural causes, this would be shot down as the illegitimate appeal to the “God of the Gaps.”  So it’s “Heads I win, Tails you lose.”  Only miracles can count as evidence for God, but holding up miracles as evidence of God is the “God of the Gaps” fallacy.  What guides this heads I win, tail you lose approach is a strict adherence to dogma: there is no evidence, and can be no evidence, for God.

The “no evidence” position of modern day atheism is not rooted in careful analysis guided by critical thinking.  It is more of a slogan and rallying cry that is rooted in shallow thinking.

Finally, Davis claims:

No one decides to become an atheist because it’s glamorous.  Why would you willingly join a minority position that is attached to an unshakable stigma and is legally discriminated against?  

I’m not buying this one, as Davis seems to think we still live in the 1950s.  In 2016, it’s considered cool, edgy, and hip to be an atheist.  It’s supposed to mean you are smart, you stand out, you are different, you think for yourself, you love science.  In fact, it’s so cool and edgy that you can hang out with others online and mock the religious kooks.

There are plenty of reasons to become an atheist that have nothing to do with some well-developed critical thinking skill set.  After all, how else do you explain the fact that so many atheists have so much trouble with critical thinking?

Originally posted here

 

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