Teaching the Bible in Public School

It looks as if Texas is not the only place one can find the Bible being taught as part of the public school curriculum. A school district in California has just unanimously passed a vote to include an elective class that teaches the Bible from the standpoint of its being a work of literature and history.

The school district must carefully craft this curriculum so as not to breach any California statutes and it must adhere to the state’s education code. Therefore, the class cannot actually promote Christianity, but merely teach “the Bible as a monumental piece of literature.”

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Florida School Sued for Banning Bible Distribution

For years, the Collier County School District allowed World Changers to offer Bibles to interested students during non-school hours on Jan. 16 in honor of Religious Freedom Day. But since last year, the superintendent and the Community Request Committee have refused to grant permission to the Southern Baptist Convention-related mission group to do so. Now World Changers is suing the school for banning Bible distribution on public school campuses on Religious Freedom Day.

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Wisconsin Supreme Court Upholds Gay Marriage Ban

The Christian Post is reporting that the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld a state constitutional amendment today that affirms traditional marriage and bans same-sex civil unions. The court ruled 7-0, stating in the opinion that “the marriage amendment was adopted by the people of Wisconsin using the process prescribed by the constitution, and is properly now part of our constitution.” A victory indeed in the fight to preserve “traditional marriage.”

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Another Blow To Religious Freedom: Supreme Court Rules against Christian Legal Group

In yet another blow to our religious freedoms, the U.S. Supreme Court recently ruled that a Christian student group must accept gays and non-Christians as members if it wants to be officially recognized by a public university. Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, writing for the court’s 5-4 majority, said the “all-comers” policy at the University of California’s Hastings College of the Law is “reasonable” and “viewpoint neutral.”

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God of the Gaps

You’ve probably heard the term “God of the Gaps” before. If not, another phrase used for this concept is the “argument from ignorance.” This is basically an anti-theist argument which tries to make theists look like wishful thinkers.

The main premise is that the anti-theist claims that believers will give the credit to God for anything that they can’t think of a natural explanation for. Essentially, they like to make it look like we just throw up our hands when we can’t find a reason for something and just claim that “God did it.”

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Straw Men

There are so many interesting (and often humorous) ways non-believers attack Christianity. From moral arguments against Christianity (yeah, right!) to the Problem of Evil to the so-called Euthyphro Dilemma and so on.

One of the ones that I find the most hilarious is when they start trying to pick apart the Bible itself and try to point out inconsistencies. For example, I remember once hearing a call-in, public-access TV show asking callers (specifically Christians) to call in and answer some pre-determined questions. The questions were ones like, “Who was at the empty tomb first?” and “How many young men (or angels) were in the tomb when they arrived?”

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The Problem of Naturalism

Lately, I’ve thought a bit about the idea of what is known as “naturalism.”  There have been a lot of different thoughts about why this philosophy does not have the explanatory scope or power necessary to explain much of the universe. However, I’ve been thinking about a different aspect of naturalism lately. Mostly, I’ve been thinking about how closed-minded and limited this worldview is.

Ironic that I would feel that way, considering most people would argue that it is Christianity that is closed-minded and limited. If you think about it, however, the very idea that one would only consider “natural” (translation: “material”) things as having the possibility of being existent is the more limiting view.

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Wearing the Bulls-Eye

One thing that one commonly hears about Christianity is that once a person accepts Christ, they begin to experience a lot more trouble. You might think that I’m going to go into people’s impression that accepting Christ meant that life would be easy, but that’s not where I’m going with this. (Though, that would be good, too!)

Instead, I’d like to address something that I’ve heard from non-believers. Often, I’ve heard rebuttals to this that basically try to claim that these “new” trials are just psycho-somatic. They contend that new believers are more sensitized to looking for things like this and falsely attributed it to their new-found faith.

For such things as personal illness, emotional struggles, etc. I can see where this argument might seem somewhat convincing. However, it does not take into account allof the data. For example, it doesn’t explain how people can suddenl face such trials as a home burning down, car accidents, loss of loved ones, etc.

Once again, taken individually, one person seems as likely to experience these types of things as any other (to a degree). But what about those people who accept Christ and suddenly begin to experience a whole string of these negative experiences in life? I’m not going to claim that their faith is the only explanation. I won’t even say that it’s the only plausible explanation.

What I am saying, however, is that the number of these testimonies belies the randomness of simple chance. While other explanations are possible, and even plausible, are they the most plausible? In many cases, I would have to say no. In many of these instances, it seems far too coincidental to chalk it up to pure, random chance. However, another explanation seems to have better explanatory power.

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“Middle” Knowledge

This week, I thought I’d try getting into some things that are not very well-known. Namely, the concept of “middle” knowledge. You’re probably wondering what the heck that is and it’s my purpose here to do my best to explain the concept.

The concept of middle knowledge has been attributed to the sixteenth-century theologian, Luis de Molina. But before we get too far into what this is, it might bear some explanation of a couple of the major reasons Molina arrived at this concept in the first place.

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“Pseudo Science”

I am always fascinated at how spirited discussions can get when people try to discuss science and theology at the same time. Mainly, the way this happens is that one person is talking about science and the other is talking about theology. When this happens, it’s quite difficult to come to a conclusion together, never mind how frustrating it can be.

Yet, there is something far more frustrating than even this. Strangely, it usually happens when both opposing parties are talking about the same discipline. Where I see this happen most, of course, is in the area of science. It can be almost infuriating to witness, let alone take part in, conversations about biblical doctrines from a scientific standpoint.

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