War in the name of atheism

It now seems that world views don't affect your actions - they are only as influential to your actions as facial hair: War in the name of atheism - The Oatmeal

Flashing the Laymen

More on Harris' Free Will book: Flashing the Laymen:

What I want to chortle about in this instance is the fact that Harris is blaming conservatives for doing simply what the space/time continuum is making them do. If you have a right view of the cosmos, Harris has been arguing, you won't blame individuals for doing things that are completely outside their control, and then he proceeds immediately to the edifying task of blaming those who don't think this way.

Driscoll Steps Down from TGC Council

Despite me sometimes posting some anti-Driscoll links, I do like the guy and am a bit sad he isn't on this board any more. But there is only so many things one person can do...: Driscoll Steps Down from TGC Council – The Gospel Coalition Blog:

Pastor Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church in Seattle has recently announced he is stepping down from the Council of The Gospel Coalition. Mark let us know in advance of his intentions, part of a major reorganization of his priorities and a changing of the guard in Acts 29. We are saddened by his departure but understand that all busy people must establish priorities. 

The Council is grateful to Mark for his contributions to TGC during the past decade. In the months and years ahead, we will certainly be praying for him, his family, and the ministries he influences.

failed doomsday predictions infographic

This is big, but I'm sure this isn't exhaustive: failed-doomsday-predictions-infographic-1.jpg (570×7043):

‘A Universe From Nothing'

A philosopher (and an atheist) reviews Krausses book and it isn't pretty: ‘A Universe From Nothing,’ by Lawrence M. Krauss - NYTimes.com:

Krauss, mind you, has heard this kind of talk before, and it makes him crazy. A century ago, it seems to him, nobody would have made so much as a peep about referring to a stretch of space without any material particles in it as “nothing.” And now that he and his colleagues think they have a way of showing how everything there is could imaginably have emerged from a stretch of space like that, the nut cases are moving the goal posts. He complains that “some philosophers and many theologians define and redefine ‘nothing’ as not being any of the versions of nothing that scientists currently describe,” and that “now, I am told by religious critics that I cannot refer to empty space as ‘nothing,’ but rather as a ‘quantum vacuum,’ to distinguish it from the philosopher’s or theologian’s idealized ‘nothing,’ ” and he does a good deal of railing about “the intellectual bankruptcy of much of theology and some of modern philosophy.” But all there is to say about this, as far as I can see, is that Krauss is dead wrong and his religious and philosophical critics are absolutely right. Who cares what we would or would not have made a peep about a hundred years ago? We were wrong a hundred years ago. We know more now. And if what we formerly took for nothing turns out, on closer examination, to have the makings of protons and neutrons and tables and chairs and planets and solar systems and galaxies and universes in it, then it wasn’t nothing, and it couldn’t have been nothing, in the first place. And the history of science — if we understand it correctly — gives us no hint of how it might be possible to imagine otherwise. 

The Next to Last Rock in the Avalanche

I got my hands on a ePub of this. Wilson does some good advertising for this book: The Next to Last Rock in the Avalanche:

Please note the precise nature of what I am saying. Harris is making sure that we know that if there is in fact no God, then of necessity it follows that there can be no atheists. An atheist, in case you are just joining us, is someone who affirms that there is no God because there isn't one, and not a person dealing with atheistical brain farts for no other reason than that they came to him out of the darkness of antecedent and inscrutable causes. Perfectly ingenious, and I follow his reasoning (if you can call it that, which you can't, but work with me here) exactly. I look forward to the time when Harris follows his reasoning too.

Diagnosing Diagnostics

Our desire is not that the Bible should topple Angry Birds. Our goal is not that our favorite rock star preacher would trend on Twitter. Our hope is the sure and certain truth that our Lord is bringing all things under subjection, is conquering all His enemies, including all the folly that remains within His own. We don’t need diagnostics to know how the story ends- Jesus wins. 

Diagnosing Diagnostics by R.C. Sproul Jr. | Ligonier Ministries Blog

Did God Die On The Cross?

I'm going to have to think more on this. I always thought the cross did change God and the relationship between the Father and Son: Did God Die On The Cross? by R.C. Sproul | Ligonier Ministries Blog:

We should shrink in horror from the idea that God actually died on the cross. The atonement was made by the human nature of Christ. Somehow people tend to think that this lessens the dignity or the value of the substitutionary act, as if we were somehow implicitly denying the deity of Christ. God forbid. It’s the God-man Who dies, but death is something that is experienced only by the human nature, because the divine nature isn’t capable of experiencing death.

Grace to You in Your Bible Reading; Grace with You as You Live Your Day

Interesting observation: Grace to You in Your Bible Reading; Grace with You as You Live Your Day - Desiring God:

In 1994 Pastor John began explaining a theme he noticed in the introductions and conclusions to all 13 of Paul’s epistles. Paul begins each epistle with grace, and he closes each epistle with grace. The pattern is “a bracing trumpet call to the centrality of grace in Christianity.”

Atheist ‘flabbergasted’ at Christians’ assistance

What a good story: Atheist ‘flabbergasted’ at Christians’ assistance » Local News » Athens Review, Athens, Texas:

Greene said he was “flabbergasted” to learn that a group of Christians in Henderson County was reaching out to help an atheist, who in February had informed Commissioners Court that he would sue if the manger scene reappeared this year.

An Interview with Daniel B. Wallace on the New Testament Manuscripts

A good summary of the reliability of the text in the NT: An Interview with Daniel B. Wallace on the New Testament Manuscripts – Justin Taylor:

..the most significant find was a fragment from Mark’s Gospel, which a leading paleographer has dated to the first century! 

What makes this so astounding is that no manuscripts of Mark even from the second century has surfaced. But here we may have a document written while some of the first-generation Christians were still alive and before the NT was even completed. All seven of these manuscripts will be published by E. J. Brill sometime in 2013 in a multi-author book. Until then, we should all be patient and have a “wait and see” attitude. When the book comes out it will be fully vetted by textual scholars.

Way Up in the Middle of the Air

Wilson is giving away the punchlines before I can find this book: Way Up in the Middle of the Air:

That blind shuffling of atoms produced Presbyterian thoughts in my head, and atheistic thoughts in his, but neither of us are thinking, any more than we are choosing. 

Harris disclaims any authorship for his thoughts. What does that mean? It means that an impersonal blind chance wrote his book, which undercuts my confidence in its veracity, which in turn undercuts any reason for believing that it was written by blind processes. 

Put it this way. Why did Harris drink a glass of water? He claims that he has absolutely no idea (p. 19). Now I have a real stumper for him, given all that he has been affirming here. Why does he affirm atheism? The answer has to be the same. He has to acknowledge that he has no idea. If atheism is the case, the first thing we should settle in our minds is the fact that the atheists don't and can't know it -- given the premises, knowing, arguing, choosing, and deciding are all as illusory as Farley's ghost....

If free will is an illusion, one of the first questions we should ask is how many other cherished illusions are there? One of those illusions is that Sam Harris thinks he wrote a book.

 

Audio And Video Now Available — 2012 National Conference

This looks like it was a good conference. Its a shame you cant download for free the audio, but still its free: Audio And Video Now Available — 2012 National Conference by Nathan W. Bingham | Ligonier Ministries Blog

The Basic Ingredient

An encouraging quote: The Basic Ingredient | Who Is Sufficient?:

"All God needs to make a universe is nothing; all He needs to make a preacher is a nobody" (Capon, The Foolishness of Preaching, p. 26).

Sam Harris, Moist Robot

I found this rather entertaining, perhaps I will get Harris new book, of cause not because I want to, but because I am programmed to: Sam Harris, Moist Robot:

since we modern deterministic rationalists know this to be true, we have no reason for believing our thoughts to be true . . . but this would have to include the true belief that our thoughts are chemicals steeping. Wait a minute. Playing chess alone, it is pretty hard to checkmate yourself, but I think they have managed it. 

These high thinkers crack me up. They apply their worldview convictions to absolutely everything in the cosmos, with the one singular and miraculous exception of the mysterious processes that went into their statement of their thesis. That is being urged upon us because it is "true," and some of the brighter sophomores in the back row are scratching their heads. The brightest of them have already dropped the class last week and have changed majors over to mechanical engineering.