We saw in yesterday’s article “Whose Common Sense?” that the call for a Common Sense approach to apologetics is naïve and counterproductive. Competing worldviews are not “willing to work inductively, from particular facts to general conclusions” unless both sides agree (maybe) on the starting point of inquiry. Of course, establishing the starting point is the fundamental problem, the very thing th [...]

For some time now I have been receiving emails from a belligerent atheist. Some of his emails are so vile that to describe them in general terms would be enough to offend you. Atheists are like a tube of toothpaste. The harder you squeeze them to be consistent with their operating assumptions, the more they spill what is really contained deep in their God-hating soul. Jesus described it this way: [...]

“The stereotype of a fully rational and objective ‘scientific method,’ with individual scientists as logical (and interchangeable) robots, is self-serving mythology,”[1] argued Stephen Jay Gould. Gould (1941–2002), who served as professor of geology at Harvard and New York University, stated that “no factual discovery of science (statements about how nature ‘is’) can, in principle, lead us to ethi [...]

On a flight to New Mexico last year, the in flight movie was Fracture (2007). It starred Anthony Hopkins and Ryan Gosling. Hopkins had killed his wife, and while all the circumstantial evidence pointed to him, there was no actual physical evidence to link him to the murder. The detectives and the prosecutor, played by Gosling, looked at all evidence over and over again and could not figure out how [...]

Many Christian organizations and churches exist exclusively as spiritual fire houses. When they see a fire, they send a fire engine to douse it. They then return to the fire house to polish the fire engine awaiting another call. There is certainly a need for fire engines and fire houses. But there is no real community if there are only fire houses. For the most part, a fire house is inactive. [...]

Two opinions vie for our attention in current Christian thinking regarding the legitimacy of social involvement and kingdom demonstration this side of heaven.[1] The escapist view proposes that gospel proclamation is the church’s singular duty and no more. Concern for this world is a distraction. Heaven, and heaven alone, is the Christian’s only calling and sole domain. The Christian’s citizenship [...]

Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) was the grandson of Thomas Huxley, “Darwin’s Bulldog,” and the author of the futuristic dystopian novel with the utopian veneer, Brave New World (1932). His book The Doors of Perception (1954) was the inspiration for Jim Morrison and “The Doors,” and he appears on the album cover of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Huxley had the fateful distinction of [...]

The ostrich with his head in the sand is the usual picture we get of cultural indifference. This image assumes the ostrich knows there’s a problem and by hiding his eyes, the problem will go away. I believe a more accurate illustration is based on an old Chinese proverb that goes like this: “If you want to know what water is, don’t ask a fish.” Never having experienced another environment, a fish [...]

American Vision received the following email from Peter who objected to our commercial forcing the moral implications of atheism. I am a big supporter a freedom of speech. I have no qualms regarding an individuals' persuasion religiously or otherwise. I am complaining about your advertisement against ‘Militant Atheism’ you intend to broadcast globally via the Internet and Television. T [...]

Kay Haugaard has taught creative writing since 1970. As with most of her classes, students read and discuss Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery.”[1] Jackson’s lottery isn’t about winning millions of dollars by picking the right Lotto numbers; it’s about human sacrifice that a small town accepts and takes Part 1n with no questions asked. Of course, the premise is absurd. Or is it? As the yea [...]

The Democrats, if you don’t know it by now, are pro-homosexual. They actually believe that homosexuality is a natural sexual act that should be sanctioned by law. Former Sen. Mike Gravel and Congressman Dennis Kucinich, both from Ohio, delighted the mostly homosexual studio audience at the “gay debate” held in Los Angeles on August 9, 2007 because they are the only candidates who believe that homo [...]

With some variations, those who hold to a biblical economic model share many fundamental principles with advocates of a free market, or, as I hope to demonstrate, free marketers share many fundamental economic principles with advocates of a biblical worldview. John W. Robbins writes, in his critique of Ayn Rand’s Objectivist philosophy, “That the structure of knowledge that she erected, in which m [...]

Crazy for God is Frank (Franky) Schaeffer’s tell-all book about his life with his parents Francis and Edith Schaeffer and how he “helped found the religious right and ruin America.” It’s an angry book, and an immature memoir. By the time someone is a grandfather, memories of sex, drugs, rock and roll, and idiosyncratic parents should be a distant memory. I sure hope my sons are more kind if they e [...]

Poor Michael Vick. The multi-talented quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons picked the wrong side business. Football doesn’t seem to be enough to satisfy his interests. Vick and his associates got involved in the dog fighting business. His story has made front-page news across the country. USA Today carried an editorial that read, “Window on a cruel world.” The editorial reports that “Vick and two a [...]

With the best-seller status of books supporting atheism and attacking religion in the news, it’s remarkable to see so much talk about religion by the presidential candidates and liberals in general. Can you identify who said this?: “Science is a gift of God to all of us, and science has taken us to a place that is biblical in its power to cure.” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said this during a debate [...]

One of the debates surrounding the “celebration” of the 400 the anniversary of the Jamestown colony is that the English “invaded” the land of a native people. It’s true; it was an invasion, an invasion of a superior worldview even if the people who did the invading weren’t always moral in the advance of that worldview. Can you imagine what the world would be like today if the invasion was the othe [...]

I’m reminded of Jim Croce’s song “Don’t Mess with Big Jim” when asked to mediate disputes with fellow Christians and their ministries: “ You don’t pull on Superman’s cape/You don’t spit into the wind/You don’t pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, and you don’t mess around with Jim.” The Bible was ahead of the song’s wisdom when it warned not to take a dog by the ears when it’s fighting with anot [...]

The other side finds a way to get its people involved, to raise money. Our side is thinking about something else. —James Dobson Druid Hills Presbyterian Church in Atlanta, Georgia, is dealing with the issue of homosexual clergy. The Evangelical Lutheran Church must come to a conclusion on whether practicing homosexual pastor Bradley E. Schmeling of St. John’s Lutheran Church should be relieved of [...]

Can the gospel and social activism co-exist? Should Christians involve themselves in the world by participating in politics, pursue advanced degrees in education, medicine, science and law, produce films on a wide range of subjects, seek careers in journalism, and develop non-governmental programs for long-term social reform based on a well thought out biblical worldview? Or should Christians spen [...]

Pastor Oliver “Buzz” Thomas wrote an article that appeared in USA Today (November 20, 2006) under the title “When religion loses its credibility.” Similar articles have been written before. Jimmy Carter wrote “Judge Not” in the February 27, 1996 issue of the _Atlanta Constitution._1 Similar to the Thomas article, Carter reserves his jabs for the “religious right.” He considers abortion and homosex [...]