Culture

The killing of Trayvon Martin was “9-11” for the African-American community. What do I mean by that? In the same way that there are some events in our personal lives that leave a bruise—loss of a loved one, a bitter break up, bad report from the doctor—there are collective experiences like 9-11 that impact us on a cultural level such that we are not entirely who we were before they occurred. September 11th was, of course, not the first terrorist attack in American history. It

Question Should Christians have participated in the Women's March the day after Trump was inaugurated? - Shawn Tim's Response Wow, what a tough question, Shawn! I must say that I initially hesitated to interact with this question based on the civil (or not so civil) war across America today. With that said, after pondering this for several days, I do think this is an important question to address. First of all, let me make it clear that I am not a politician or a political

It was my first visit to Disneyland. I had been on numerous rides and was overwhelmed by the general atmosphere of the place (actually, I pretty much hate Disney, but will still go along with my friends and if I can get in for a steeply discounted price). I was almost to the front of the line of “Pirates of the Caribbean,” talking to a friend about our current cultural milieu, and somehow zombies came up. Not sure if it was because of the undead pirates we were about to see,

While we were milling around prior to the Richard Dawkins speech I wrote about in part one , I spotted the notorious Mitch Kahle, probably Oahu's most publicity-seeking atheist (some will remember him being marched/dragged out of the Hawaii State Capital after interrupting opening prayers in 2010). Mitch has an intolerant organization called "Hawaii Citizens for The Separation of Church and State". I view him as Oahu's Madelyn Murray O Hair. The Jefferson Memorial I had alrea

To even suppose that logic is false is to utter gibberish: 1. Logic is not a proposition that expresses a truth value; rather, it is merely the form that expresses true or false propositions. Logic cannot, itself, be called "false." 2. A rejection of the laws of logic actually affirms the laws of logic. If one says that logic is incorrect, then by rejecting the fundamental Laws of Thought they say, simultaneously, that logic is actually correct because (1) there is no such

In my previous post , I discussed Jeffery Jay Lowder's opening statement in his debate with Frank Turek on the topic "Naturalism vs. Theism". Lowder defends the following three propositions: (1) The best explanation is the explanation with the overall greatest balance of intrinsic probability and accuracy. (2) Naturalism is an intrinsically more probable explanation than theism. (3) Naturalism is a more accurate explanation than theism. In my previous post , I evaluated Lo

A friend invited me to see atheism evangelist Richard Dawkins speak at Aloha Tower recently. At some point while we were sitting there, I read the flier for the event, which falsely claimed America had a secular founding. "This is amazing!" I thought to myself; "just last night at another presentation somebody was trying to convince me that our Founding Fathers were Illuminati devil-worshippers! How cool it is that # 1) we have tons of documentation of their self-understandi

What is atheism? More importantly, what does an atheist believe? Believe it or not, most atheists I interact with are rarely confident about their beliefs. Those who think they are cannot make a logical case to support their claims. Much of this confusion is based on a misunderstanding of the word "atheism." According to Merriam Webster's Dictionary , the simple definition of an atheist is (accessed 1-25-17) : "a person who believes that God does not exist." It follows that

Jeffery Jay Lowder recently debated Frank Turek on the topic "Naturalism vs. Theism" (see https://youtu.be/ENZYEPpR2Jc ). In this post and the next, I wish to examine the arguments that Lowder advances in his opening statement in support of naturalism (the view that physical reality is the ultimate reality and that no supernatural, non-physical beings, such as God, exist). In his opening statement, Lowder defends the following three propositions: (1) The best explanation is t

“Don’t like abortion ? Don’t have one.” “Don’t like guns ? Don’t buy one.” “Don’t like drugs? Don’t use them.” You’ve probably heard one of these - or something similar - before. It expresses the notion that if you don’t like something, don’t do it, and don’t try to take away someone else’s right to do it either. It’s simple, persuasive, and sounds very . Liberty, freedom, independence, and all that good stuff. But there are serious problems with this line of reasoning. Mainl

"¡El Cristianismo NO es cierto!" Me ha sorprendido que un número cada vez mayor de pastores, maestros de la escuela dominical, y cristianos en general están afirmando esta misma declaración muy a menudo. Ahora, no me malinterpretes, esto no es una cita directa, pero la clase de cosas dichas detrás de los púlpitos en muchas iglesias evangélicas hoy en día están ciertamente insinuando que el Cristianismo no es cierto. Para ser claro, esta es una implicación inadvertida que es

http://freethinkingministries.com/lex-luthors-lousy-logic/ “¡Si Dios es todopoderoso él no puede ser bueno, si Dios es bueno él no puede ser todopoderoso!” – Lex Luthor en Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice ¿Por qué Lex piensa algo como eso? Él llega a su conclusión basado en todo el mal y el sufrimiento en el mundo (especialmente el sufrimiento que él experimentó de niño). Lex no está solo. De hecho, este razonamiento es presentado hoy como la más grande objeción contra l

"¡Solo necesito la biblia, no filosofía del hombre!", "¡No necesitamos usar filosofía ya que tenemos al Espíritu Santo!", "¡Mis creencias son conducidas exegéticamente, las tuyas son filosóficas!" Muchas declaraciones como las que se acaban de mencionar suenan reverenciales y benignas para el oído religioso, pero estas afirmaciones necesitan ser refinadas. A menudo cuando uno presiona este tipo de declaraciones para una precisión técnica encontrarán en ellas la actitud genera

Enlace Original: http:// freethinkingministries.com/ true-love-free-will-the-logic- of-hell/ El muy conocido pastor evangélico, Rob Bell, ha recientemente impulsado su perspectiva acerca del infierno al centro de atención en su bestseller, “Love Wins”, (El Amor Gana), <1> Esta perspectiva es llamada “Universalismo”, porque es la perspectiva de que hay salvación universal. Es decir, el defensor del universalismo rechaza la premisa de un infierno eterno.<2> Esto  típicamente

Enlace original: http://freethinkingministries.com/middle-knowledge-molinism/ En el libro Divine Foreknowledge: Four Views (Presciencia de Dios: Cuatro Perspectivas) cuatro teólogos debaten la soberanía de Dios y la responsabilidad humana. Este artículo estudia el ensayo provisto por William Lane Craig defendiendo su posición llamada "La Perspectiva del Conocimiento Medio", también conocida como "Molinismo". Esta perspectiva no depende solo de la clase de conocimiento que Di

Atención: Este blog contiene spoilers de Capitán América: Civil War (Guerra Civil) . Del Soldado del Invierno también. ¿Tenemos responsabilidad moral por nuestras acciones si estas han sido predeterminadas para nosotros? Esta cuestión tiene implicaciones masivas sobre nuestra perspectiva de la realidad y es brevemente tocada en Capitán América: Civil War . En Capitán América: El Soldado del Invierno , descubrimos que al compañero perdido del Capitán América, James “Bucky” B

MAKE GOD MAXIMALLY GREAT AGAIN Do not be fooled, God is a maximally great being by definition. He always has been and always will be maximally great (Psalm 145:3). With that said, however, for nearly 500 years many Christians have believed that God is not maximally great! One of the most viewed and controversial articles I have ever written is called, The Petals Drop: Why Calvinism is Impossible . By “impossible” I demonstrated that the famous five points of Calvinism -- T.U

A Note from Tim Stratton I just completed my rookie year of apologetics. I had no idea what I was getting myself into when I started, but one year ago  FreeThinking Ministries  was officially launched. FreeThinking Ministries  is devoted to helping  all people  see God for who He truly is so that they can fall in love with Him – and  all people  – as we were created to do. Our team seeks to rationally engage  all people  with truth and reason (Philippians 4:5; Colossians 4:5

This article contains spoilers for  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . You’ve been warned. The obvious theme of Rogue On e is hope. Many characters repeated the phrase “Rebellions are built on hope.” Hope is the last word uttered in the film. The events in this movie directly lead into the original Star Wars film (1977), which now is entitled A New Hope . It's the perfect subject for a movie released in the Christmas season. The theme of the first Sunday of Advent is hope. Hope i

SPOILER ALERT!!! I absolutely love the Star Wars saga! I have been a Star Wars fanatic since I was a little boy  when the first movie (Episode IV) was released in 1977. Not much has changed as far as this is concerned over the past forty years -- I even still purchase Star Wars action figures to this day! In my opinion, the recent movie  Rogue One: A Star Wars Story  is one of the best movies in the entire saga. I saw the movie three times in the first four nights after its