RESPONSE TO LOFTUS
Guide to the Response to “Why I Became An Atheist”
My response to John Loftus’ book “Why I Became An Atheist” has taken the form of numerous posts. This post will guide you through them. I recommend they be read in the following order (after the list I describe why these posts and this order are important): Initial Review / Limits of Reason / The Subjective Truth Initial Review... [Read more of this article]
Initial Review of “Why I Became an Atheist” by John Loftus
As some of you may know, I have taken the Debunking Christianity challenge, which is confronting evidence in the case against theism and Christianity. This evidence is set forth in a number of books, and chief among them is “Why I Became An Atheist” by John Loftus, a former evangelical minister. I have examined and read what I considered... [Read more of this article]
Link to Series: “An Overview of the Limitations of Reason”
Here’s the link to the series on the limits of reason. You can click on “limits of reason” in the website header or you can click here. Following are the links to the individual posts of the series: Introduction: An Overview of the Limitations of Reason Hume’s Destruction of Causality Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason Kant’s... [Read more of this article]
The Living Subjectivity of Michel Henry
For some time now, I have been pondering certain questions and concepts, such as: Why does God exist? God is Life; and according to chaos / complexity theory, life lies on the cusp of order and chaos. Is God and His Life the dynamic tension that lies between Being and Nothingness? God is a Person, and must be approached as such. God as Person upholds... [Read more of this article]
Michel Henry: Greek Truth Denies Real Truth
As I have noted earlier, French philosopher Michel Henry has done some great work in distinguishing exterior, objective truth from interior, subjective truth. Here’s my summation and review of his chapter, “The Truth of the World’ from his book, “I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity”. The chapter aims to... [Read more of this article]
Michel Henry: On the Inward Truth
So, if the exterior, outward truth manifests itself in a gap between our consciousness and the object, then how does the interior truth manifest itself? Here’s my summation and review of Michel Henry’s chapter, “The Truth of Christianity’ from his book, “I Am the Truth: Toward a Philosophy of Christianity”. We frequently... [Read more of this article]
Michel Henry: True Life and Biological Life
If you’ve been following my blogs on Henry, you know that he is concerned with phenomenality and that he posits two basic types of phenomenological truth – the outward truth, which manifests or appears by being thrown outside of us (separated from the perceiver), and the inward truth, which manifests through immanence. Now we want to turn our attention... [Read more of this article]
The Starting Point of All Inquiry is the Human Condition
In his book, “Why I Became An Atheist,” John Loftus relates how one of his former teachers told him that “in order to get to God, we have to start with God.” Loftus disagrees with this and so do I. Loftus asserts that we should start from below, beginning with the world, but even that is assuming too much. Why should I... [Read more of this article]
The Gospel of Jesus Christ
This man Jesus - who was God - was crucified and resurrected for me. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Into the dark cloud of uncertainty over who I am, where I came from, and whether there is any purpose or meaning to my existence, the light of this gospel shines. Into the dread and anxiety, the turmoil over suffering, a word is spoken, into the... [Read more of this article]
The Tanakh and the Gospel
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is something that is preached, it is the conveyance of the Spirit of Jesus to the individual. I’ve been having a conversation with my friends at Crosswalk Forums about the Jewish influence on the Christian conversion experience. We’ve been discussing how big of a role the Jewish Tanakh played in the experience... [Read more of this article]
The Meanings of the Cross of Jesus Christ
The meanings of the Cross are multiple and deep. To understand these meanings, we need not know that the Cross is objectively true, I need only observe its effect on me by considering it as if it were true. Even without an objective confirmation, I can see that meaning in an otherwise absurd world is possible through the Cross. The Cross is Atonement... [Read more of this article]
The Gospel: Decision, Faith and Authentic Existence
For the German philosopher Martin Heidegger, there are two modes of being for man: the authentic existence - where one “lays hold of his potentiality for being and attains the full stature of his selfhood” - or the inauthentic existence, where one’s decisions are made by the collective mass, where one’s desires are “scattered... [Read more of this article]
Salvation IS Resurrection
Salvation is being made whole, as an eye-salve heals; it is the restoration of function - such as the ability to hear. When I appropriate the Meaning of the Cross through my resolve, my radical decision, my faith, then meaning is given to my ambiguous and meaningless existence. For, in my human condition of absurdity and meaninglessness, I have... [Read more of this article]
The Schema
In my initial review of “Why I Became An Atheist” I agreed with author John Loftus that the best approach in evaluating theological evidence is the development of a schema that best explains that evidence. The schema does not succeed or fail on one particular argument - it must be evaluated as a whole. Mr. Loftus believes that the best schema for... [Read more of this article]
On the Outsider Test of Faith
I promised John Loftus I would read once again read “The Outsider Test of Faith” (which is Chapter 4 of his book, “Why I Became An Atheist” - see my initial review here - and comment on it, so I spent a whole lot of my recent time trying to be true to that promise). Mr. Loftus and I agree on one big thing and that is, we’re all fighting to... [Read more of this article]
A World With No Suffering
This is a reposting of my October 22, 2008 blog: Whew. My next blog was supposed to be a schema which laid out some basic principles with power to explain the problems posed by those who challenge the gospel of Christ. Along the way, however, Mr. Loftus (whose book, “Why I Became An Atheist” I’ve been reviewing) became engaged in an... [Read more of this article]
Meaningless Suffering: Hume’s Definition of the Problem
I’ve been reading a number of essays on the problem of evil recently and they confirm and elaborate on the blogs that I have posted on the subject. See A WORLD WITHOUT SUFFERING (10/22/08) and THE TRYING OF MEN’S SOULS (10/31/08). First of all, they make clear that in our consideration of the problem of evil, we often misunderstand the Christian... [Read more of this article]
What is the Meaning of “Good”?
Christianity does not define “The Good” - or God - as equal to pleasure. Hume’s contention, as I blogged earlier this week in MEANINGLESS SUFFERING AND PAIN: HUME’S DEFINITION, is that the suffering in the world and God’s goodness are incompatible. This has led to the constant refrain of “How can an all-loving or... [Read more of this article]
Meaningless Suffering: Animal Suffering as Collateral Damage
If collateral damage is acceptable in war as atheist Sam Harris suggests, is it acceptable in the actions of God? Suppose that poor, lonely deer that nobody’s aware of out in the woods horribly suffering from a forest fire, suffering that apparently has no purpose to anyone, anywhere - suppose that’s just the collateral damage to a great... [Read more of this article]
Animal Suffering and Moral Orders
Throughout the history of ethics there have been a reasons given to exclude animals from the realm of moral concern. Men possess souls, animals do not. Men are rational or have the capacity for rational thought, while animals do not. Men possess language or the ability to use symbols, while animals do not. Men are end-in-themselves, not to be used... [Read more of this article]
Incredulous Morality: Not a Single Animal Dies in Australian Forest Fires
No, of course not, are you crazy? But read the following story and ask yourself what you would have thought if not a single animal had been killed, maimed or caused to suffer. (And for further clarification read posts Animal Suffering as Collateral Damage and Animal Suffering and Moral Orders) Animals suffer ‘horrific’ toll in Australian fires By... [Read more of this article]
Sartre: Suffering and Evil Create Freedom
This is an excerpt from Sartre’s The Republic of Silence: “We were never more free than during the German occupation. We had lost all our rights, beginning with the right to talk. Every day we were insulted to our faces and had to take it in silence. Under one pretext or another, as workers, Jews, or political prisoners, we were deported... [Read more of this article]