Religion

Religion is born of the same curiosity that led to philosophy and science, but it’s a premature birth due to an impatience for answers. Before people started figuring things out with philosophy and science, people made up a variety of answers, and these became various religions. The articles in this section are on the topic of religion, on various topics within religion, or on particular religions.

Answering “10 Questions for Atheists”

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Can atheism stand the test? The Cornerstone Church Kingston has a list of “10 Questions for Atheists” they believe atheists need to be able to answer if atheism is to be taken seriously. So, I have provided serious answers to their questions. Since I have already answered some questions at length in earlier articles, I have linked to those articles where appropriate. The ten main questions appear as the main section headings, and follow-up questions appear as subheadings.

What Happened on Easter?

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For Christians, Easter is a celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. There are different accounts of this story in the Bible, and these accounts sometimes contradict each other. Gung-ho skeptics sometimes claim that anything smelling like a contradiction is a contradiction, and die-hard inerrantists insist that all the apparent contradictions can be explained away. This essay is an attempt to sift the genuine and inescapable contradictions from what may be no more than apparent contradictions.

Dear Jehovah’s Witness

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Dear Jehovah’s Witness,

Like you, I would love to live forever in paradise, I care about right and wrong, and I care about the truth. The main difference between us is that I did not grow up as a Jehovah’s Witness, and I have never become one. From your perspective, this makes me a worldly person, deserving of death when Jehovah ends the world and creates a paradise for his followers. My perspective is not so black and white.

Does Atheism Make Reason Impossible?

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This is a response to a post by Frank Turek called WHY ATHEISM MAKES REASON IMPOSSIBLE. I will quote some of what he says to add context. If we are just molecules in motion as atheists assert, then every thought we have is the result of the non-rational laws of physics.

Does God Exist?

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The main problem with the question Does God Exist? is that there are different ideas about what God is or could be. So I will examine multiple conceptions of God, not just one. If none of them stand up, then atheism will be justified, but if a single idea of God does stand up, even if all the rest fail, then some form of theism is justified, though it may be different from the theism you are accustomed to.

Who Was Jesus?

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Christians typically regard Jesus Christ as the Jewish Messiah, the savior of mankind, and the incarnation of God on earth. Non-Christians don’t agree with this, but they do normally agree that he was a real historical figure. But was he even that?

Questions for Religious People

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This post is for a video I made in 2011. I actually got answers from someone today, and I realized it would help to have a list of the questions asked in the video for my own reference, if nothing else. It may also prove useful to someone answering the questions.