Clarifying the Clutter

Tuesday, April 16th, 2013 by Dan Carrington posted in Marriage & Family, Political Issues, Society & Culture | No Comments »

There has not been, to my best recollection, a more polarizing topic in our society than the current issue of same-sex marriage. Now, before we get further along here, I'd like to point out something about this issue. That is...it is not “gay” marriage. This is an important distinction, even if only for rhetorical purposes. And by that, I mean that referring to it as “gay” marriage is often used as a rhetorical bludgeoning device that ...

The Paradox of Karma

Wednesday, July 6th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in World Religions | Comments Off

I wonder if many people have really ever thought about the idea of Karma. The way that I have always understood it, when you did something selfish, insensitive, rude, cruel, mean, or otherwise unkind you will accumulate "bad Karma." On the other hand, when you do things that are kind, considerate, selfless, caring, loving or otherwise "good" you will earn "good Karma." My guess is that this is the understanding that most people have with regards ...

Emotions vs. Reason

Wednesday, May 25th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Belief | Comments Off

For Easter this year, my family and I were out of town. We ended up attending Easter services at Central Christian Church in Henderson, NV. After the opening worship band left the stage, there was a young man who came out and presented a monologue/poem/rap that highlighted a good deal of what Christianity is about. I was impressed at the broad spectrum of doctrine, challenges and truths that were professed during this brief presentation. While following ...

The God-Man

Wednesday, May 11th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Belief | Comments Off

If you've been around Christianity long enough, you've probably heard someone say that Jesus was "fully man and fully God." Perhaps you've heard some other variation. Perhaps you've wondered how that is possible. Hopefully, at the very least, you took it on faith. Better than that, hopefully you've wrestled with it a bit in order to get an understanding that you feel comfortable with intellectually. One way that I have seen this characterized is that Jesus ...

Picking and Choosing

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics, God's Character | Comments Off

If you were to ask most apologists, Christian philosophers or theologians what the most difficult objection was to Christianity, they would mostly give you the same answer. The Problem of Evil. Some might refer to this as the "Problem of Evil and Suffering" or some such thing, but it usually involves the same idea. Briefly, the Problem of Evil is the argument that says that if God is all loving and all good and all powerful, ...

Easy Wins or Baby and Bathwater

Friday, April 29th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Christian Living | Comments Off

Recently I had one of those strange moments. I had seen something that made me think that it was not something that I would do. What it was isn't important. What is important is that the reason I felt that I wouldn't do the same was because it wasn't a very "Christian" thing to do. Immediately after that thought, it occurred to me that if were to mention that to someone, they might respond with something ...

Double Standards

Tuesday, April 19th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | Comments Off

It always is fascinating to me when people will try to refute a theistic claim and then turn around and make a claim based on the very logic they are trying to use to refute the other's claim. An example of this came up during a recent debate with Dr. William Lane Craig and Dr. Lawrence Krauss. The topic of the debate was "Is there Evidence for God?" It seemed to me, while listening to the ...

The Truth – Works Both Ways

Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | 2 Comments »

The truth has an interesting characteristic about it. If something is true, you can generally work the idea backward or forward and it just works. Let's take a simple math problem, for example. If you add together 2 + 3, you get 5. Now, if you work it backwards and start at 5 and subtract 3, you end up back at 2. Most math teachers will tell their students that this is a good way ...

What About the Alternatives?

Tuesday, April 5th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | Comments Off

There are many arguments for the existence of God. Many of the best philosophers in the marketplace today will use various cosmological arguments, teleological arguments (arguments from design) and moral arguments among others. A common tactic from non-believers is to post some alternative explanation and claim that this eliminates the necessity of belief in God. These alternatives can often seem like  very powerful arguments against the Christian faith. It is not without certain problems, however. Before I ...

Guilt and Shame

Tuesday, March 29th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Christian Living | Comments Off

I thought this would be a good time to go back into the recesses of history and bring up a topic that was taught in my church quite a number of years ago, now. That is, as the title of this post suggests, guilt and shame. I still recall several of the distinctions that Pastor Ray from Desert Breeze Community Church made regarding these two topics.  It is those distinctions that I'd like to go ...