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Why God Is Necessary For Morality

Guest post by Darwin to Jesus Dostoevsky famously said, “If there is no God, then everything is permitted.” For years, as an atheist, I couldn’t understand what he meant, but now I do… Here’s a simple analogy that shows why only theism can make sense of morality: Imagine you just got hired at a company. You show up, set up your desk, and decide to use two large monitors. No big deal, right? But then some random guy walks up to you and says: “Hey, you’re not allowed to do that.” You ask, “What do you mean?” They say, “You’re not permitted* to use monitors that big.” In this situation, the correct response would be: “Says who...

What did Jesus actually sacrifice?

Sometimes the question, or accusation/criticism maybe, is posed by atheists and critics of Christianity that Jesus didn’t really sacrifice anything because he is God and also because he got his life back three days later. So where’s the sacrifice if you know that what you give up will be given back, and given back even better than you previously had it? It’s an interesting question, and one that should cause us to stop and think about what we, as Christians, say to non-believers in case the question is ever given to us. Most people will say Jesus  gave up his life for us – but is that such a big deal if he knew he’d have it back in three days; and th...

Jesus, Mithras and Ancient Roman Cults: Separating Fact from Fiction

...Typical atheist meme with incorrect “facts” The Mithraic Mysteries Now, this is where things start to get a bit intriguing. The cult of Mithras was what you might call a secret society, complete with its own set of initiation rituals and beliefs that were only shared with members. The kind of thing to give the Da Vinci Code a run for its money! Unfortunately, due to the secretive nature of the cult, many aspects of the Mithraic mysteries remain unknown to this day, though we do have some insights we can glean from the early church fathers who interacted with these cultists. Justin Martyr was an early Christian apologist who wrote about the similariti...

When did Christians become so whiny?

...The Church is so whiny at times. At least in the West it seems, from the various news outlets which like to showcase the "worst" (and actual worst) of the bunch. Sometimes I read articles and wonder why do certain Christians care so much about this!? It's usually a non-issue really, often under the guise of "principles" or "persecution." Now I realise that some of the articles I linked to above could also relate to serious issues that we, as Christians, should face and discuss. But even from a quick search on Huffington Post and the BBC News for "Christian", the majority of articles (as of writing) from America relate to homosexuality in some form, and for...

Lent: Day 12 - Justin Martyr: First Apology, Chaps. 1-11

...“as an atheist and a profane person” — a charge which was similar to what the Christians were accused of. Here Justin does a nice contrast between the reasoning used by the Greeks in condemning Socrates, and the pure Reason (Jesus) which condemns them all for following demons. The word play is lost in English, but the word for “reason” is logos and so he says that the Greeks used their own reasoning (logos) to pass judgement, but that they, along with the Barbarians, were condemned by Reason Himself (the Logos), “who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ”. It is because of this, Justin argues, that the Christians denounce the go...

The Coming of Jesus: Our Future Hope - What Now?

...g from an atheist blog on the topic(!), the author does make a valid point here in the way he describes the unconscious effect of the Futurist doctrine, especially that of the Rapture: “Worse, it encourages people to take no action in the face of humanity’s problems in the belief that such assistance would be pointless since God will soon return to claim his own anyway. Such belief encourages a view of the world as a “sinking ship” – not something to be protected or cherished, but only something to be escaped as soon as possible.”   Escapism is not the Christian way. The New Testament is full of exhortations to hold fast to the faith (Heb 10:...