My "go-to" attempt at theodicy for the problem of suffering and evil being allowed by a kind, just, and benevolent God has always been free will. I like to point out things like without pain, we would have no way to conceptualize pleasure, and without sorrow we could not truly appreciate joy. Likewise, some of my best evidence that the New Testament is true is that half of it was written by Paul, who persecuted and murdered Christians when he still called himself Saul. Few serious people question whether Paul was a real historical figure or that he went from being an executioner of Christians to ultimately become an early Christian martyr. However, I'm not the least bit afraid of challenging my own beliefs on a regular basis, and the question recently popped into my head: did God interfere with Saul's free will? Saul hadn't been looking for God -- in fact, he was actively searching for more Christians to murder when Jesus appeared on the road to Damascus and completely changed his life. Yet if it weren't for Paul, Christianity would not be what it is today. So, how do we solve this conundrum? Atheists like to argue for determinism, but if determinism is really true, how can we as a society justify putting criminals into prison if they have no choice except to rob, rape, and murder other people? That doesn't seem fair, if we really and truly cannot choose between right and wrong. My counterargument has been that without free will, humans would become slaves to their DNA and their environment. But if determinism is true and we really are slaves to our … [Read more...]
The Ghost Who Solved Her Own Murder
On February 21, 1977, respiratory therapist Teresita Basa was brutally murdered by an unknown assailant. Her body was discovered by firemen. It was immediately apparent that Teresita was a murder victim because the butcher knife used to murder her was still embedded in her naked body. Police assumed Teresita had been sexually assaulted and then the fire set deliberately to cover up her murder, but the autopsy results showed that the murder was not an attempt to cover up a rape. The fe only clue found at the scene was a note that simply said "Get theater tickets for A. S." Four months passed, and the investigation began to go cold. However, in August detective Joseph Stachula received a phone call out of the blue that blew the case wide open. A doctor named Jose Chua who worked at the same hospital as Teresita called to report a most unusual circumstance -- his wife Remy had begun to go into trances and claimed to be temporarily possessed by the spirit of Teresita Basa, who then provided the doctor with specific information about her murderer. The Chuas claimed they did not know Teresita Basa--the only thing they had in common was the doctor worked at the same hospital and all three of them were Filipino. The Chuas had not wanted to come forward or get involved out of the fear of looking ridiculous, but Basa's ghost would not leave Remy Chua alone until Dr. Chua helped her by telling police what he "knew" about Basa's murder. According to Basa's ghost, a man named Allen Showery had come to her apartment to fix her broken television but while there decided to steal … [Read more...]
The Inspiration Network
I've made numerous derogatory comments about those television evangelists I like to call prosperity pimps because their primary goal is not to preach the Gospel of Christ but to line their own pockets with the hard-earned money of their followers. For example, I've criticized Joel Osteen quite a bit because he's probably the most famous example of these inspirational speakers disguised as pastors and preachers, but Osteen is hardly the worst example of a greedy entrepreneur posing as a man of God. Robert "Bob" Tilton might take the cake as the sleaziest prosperity pimp of them all with an insatiable greed for your money, but Diane Sawyer of ABC's PrimeTime famously kneecapped him while he was still (allegedly) making more than Madonna and Michael Jackson combined. Mike Murdock Even so, Tilton and Osteen have some stiff competition from the likes of Mike Murdock of Inspiration Ministries. Earlier this morning I watched Mike Murdock attempt some verbal gymnastics that might make Simone Biles jealous. With his first breath, Murdock compared tithing to paying protection money to the Mafia - but why would he do that? Apparently so God doesn't do anything bad to us. We should pay God (or his substitute, Murdock) ten percent so we don't get hurt. But then with his very next breath, Murdock talked about planting a financial seed as an investment so later we can reap the harvest as God magically sends wealth our way. In other words, he whacks you over the head with a stick before offering you the carrot. Defenders of Joel Osteen often like to say that he … [Read more...]
The attributes of God
When people talk about the attributes of God, know they are speaking from their opinions, not sharing epistemic evidence. In fact, if I claimed to know beyond question that what I'm about to say is absolutely true I'd be lying. There is a difference between what is true and what I believe to be true. I'd be claiming to intimately know God on a personal basis, and that would simply not be true. I may wholeheartedly believe I've had one intense personal experience with my Creator, but that doesn't mean I know God well enough to describe Him to you. What are the most commonly accepted "attributes" of God? Most people would say that God is omniscient, or all-knowing. Does God know everything there is to know? I can't speak from knowledge or experience because I've never had an extended conversation with God, but my best guess is that if it is worth knowing, God knows it. He probably even knows everything that isn't worth knowing, too. We're talking about the supernatural creator of our planned universe--the alternative of an unplanned universe is simply untenable. In a planned universe, the odds of success are improved to 100 percent guaranteed because an intelligent mind is responsible for guiding creation through every decision-making possibility that must be resolved in order for planned universe to exist. In the unplanned universe, statistical improbability dictates whether or not it is reasonable to expect success of any given anomaly, whether it be the origin of the universe (Big Bang), the initial expansion of the universe (cosmic inflation), or the … [Read more...]
The magic of Time
It's funny how sharing a silly cartoon can turn into a teachable moment. My cohort-in-crime Wilfred recently posted this cartoon poking gentle fun at the theory of macroevolution to my Facebook page titled The God Conclusion, which is aptly named after my book. The cartoon is silly because no one in their right mind would ever look at a snowman and think it could have come to exist due to random natural processes. Obviously, the snowman must be a human creation, the product of a primitive but nevertheless intelligent design. How can we know this? In part, due to entropy. Before a snowman could ever form by purely natural processes, the ambient temperature would rise and the snow would melt. No matter how much snow accumulates and how much time elapses, before the snowman could ever acquire two wooden arms, a knit cap, a carrot for a nose, and various buttons to represent eyes, mouth, and vest due to purely random processes. But first and foremost, a snowman isn't a living organism. Snowmen don't have DNA to analyze. Comparative anatomy doesn't really work, either, when one of the items being compared doesn't have an anatomy. There is no fossil record of a snowman. Nothing about a snowman would ever suggest it could exist due to random selection taking place over a very long period of time, even though a snowman is comprised of only one basic ingredient, which is snow. You can't use any of the tools an ordinary evolutionary biologist would use to determine any relationships allegedly due to common descent because a snowman isn't alive. By comparison, … [Read more...]
