Trinity Foundation Online Store - MP3 Download Lectures. Devastating Arguments Against Christianity (Courtesy of the Internet) | Well Spent Journey. I’m writing this post primarily for my own convenience. During my online journeys to r/atheism, “freethought” blogs, and beyond, I encounter the following arguments so frequently that it seems sensible to fact-check them all at once. The Claim: “Religion has been the primary cause of war and oppression throughout the history of mankind.” The Truth: In their comprehensive Encyclopedia of Wars, Phillips and Axelrod document the recorded history of warfare. Of the 1,763 wars presented, a mere 7% involved a religious cause. In terms of casualties, religious wars account for only 2% of all people killed by warfare. The Claim: “Thanks to modern science, the days of religion are numbered. The Truth: Modern atheists typically appeal to science™ as the authoritative source of human knowledge, meaning, and morality.
The following are expected net gains/losses in religious adherents, worldwide, from 2010-2050: (source: World Religion Database) The Claim: “Jesus was a mythical figure. Horus Mithra i. Exodus in the Bible and the Egyptian Plagues. This painting, “He turned their waters into blood,” by the 19th-century American folk painter Erastus Salisbury Field (1805–1900), depicts the first of the Biblical plagues inflicted on the Egyptians. One understanding of the Egyptian plagues explains them as expressions of natural events. A second view of the Biblical plagues sees them as attacks on the pantheon of Egyptian gods. Accordingly, the first plague described in Exodus in the Bible—turning the waters of Egypt to blood—is directed against one of several gods associate with Nile or with water. Photo: National Gallery of Art, Washington/Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch The Book of Exodus in the Bible describes ten Egyptian plagues that bring suffering to the land of pharaoh.
Are these Biblical plagues plausible on any level? Many of the Egyptian plagues could also be interpreted as “attacks against the Egyptian pantheon,” Zevit notes. A third way to look at the Biblical plagues is by asking, “why ten?” Unmoved mover. First philosophy[edit] Celestial spheres[edit] Final cause and efficient cause[edit] Simplicius argues that the first unmoved mover is a cause not only in the sense of being a final cause—which everyone in his day, as in ours, would accept—but also in the sense of being an efficient cause (1360. 24ff.), and his master Ammonius wrote a whole book defending the thesis (ibid. 1363. 8-10). Simplicius's arguments include citations of Plato's views in the Timaeus—evidence not relevant to the debate unless one happens to believe in the essential harmony of Plato and Aristotle—and inferences from approving remarks which Aristotle makes about the role of Nous in Anaxagoras, which require a good deal of reading between the lines.
Final causes are associated only with things which occur always or for the most part; and they are invoked precisely in order to explain those regularities. Aristotle's theology[edit] It is clear then that there is neither place, nor void, nor time, outside the heaven. Unmoved mover. Religion #1 cause of war | crusades | Stalin | Hitler. By Robin Schumacheredited by Matt Slick Atheists and secular humanists consistently make the claim that religion is the #1 cause of violence and war throughout the history of mankind. One of hatetheism's key cheerleaders, Sam Harris, says in his book The End of Faith that faith and religion are “the most prolific source of violence in our history.” While there’s no denying that campaigns such as the Crusades and the Thirty Years’ War foundationally rested on religious ideology, it is simply incorrect to assert that religion has been the primary cause of war.
Moreover, although there’s also no disagreement that radical Islam was the spirit behind 9/11, it is a fallacy to say that all faiths contribute equally where religiously-motivated violence and warfare are concerned. An interesting source of truth on the matter is Philip and Axelrod’s three-volume Encyclopedia of Wars, which chronicles some 1,763 wars that have been waged over the course of human history. Ecumenism. Ecumenism mainly refers to initiatives aimed at greater Christian unity or cooperation. These initiatives are often referred to as interdenominational. It is used predominantly by and with reference to Christian denominations and Christian Churches separated by doctrine, history, and practice. Within this particular context, the term ecumenism refers to the idea of a Christian unity in the literal meaning: that there should be a single Church. Ecumenism is separate and distinct from Nondenominational Christianity. The word contrasts with interfaith dialogue or interfaith pluralism aimed at unity or cooperation among diverse religions and referring to a worldwide "religious unity" by the advocacy of a greater sense of shared spirituality.
The word is derived from Greek οἰκουμένη (oikoumene), which means "the whole inhabited world", and was historically used with specific reference to the Roman Empire. Christian ecumenism and interfaith pluralism[edit] Ecumenical movement[edit] Arguments against Calvinism and Predestination. Introduction This short paper contains a list of common-sense and biblical arguments and counter-arguments against Calvinism and predestination. I am not saying that Calvinists are going to hell or anything radical like that. Calvinists are Christians and Calvinists and non-Calvinist Christians share a multitude of common ideas and beliefs. Truly, in the end, it doesn't matter if God elected us or if we elected God, for we are with Him. My main beef against Calvinism is the belief that God predestined certain people to be "elect"; in normal words, Calvinists believe that God dictated who will be saved before that person was even born.
What is Calvinism? There are five main points to Calvinism spelled out by the TULIP acronymn: otal Depravity/Inability This is saying that man is hopelessly sinful. Why is Calvinism based on an unstable foundation? The last four points rely so strongly on the first point. Regarding Predestination Wrap-up Yes, God is omnipotent and omniscient. -Ben Perry. Give Me An Answer. Root. Refuting Evolution 2 -- chapter 4: Argument: Natural selection leads to speciation. A sequel to Refuting Evolution that refutes the latest arguments to support evolution (as presented by PBS and Scientific American). by Jonathan Sarfati, Ph.D. with Michael Matthews Argument: Natural selection leads to speciation Evolutionists say, ‘Natural selection has been observed to cause profound changes in populations—providing abundant evidence for speciation.’
First published in Refuting Evolution 2, Chapter 4 Galápagos finches—evolution in action? The opening episode of the PBS Evolution series makes much of the Galápagos finches—considered one of the classic evidences of ‘evolution in action.’ But PBS admits that Darwin didn’t even realize that the birds were finches and he failed to label which island they came from. The problem is that Darwin and the PBS series taught that this adaptation could explain the general theory of evolution (GTE). PBS also discusses the change in beak length of hummingbirds, to adapt to changes in the lengths of flowers where they obtain nectar. 11. Postmodernism and Christianity - Research Resources. Introduction The new way of thinking (as opposed to modernism: the old way of thinking). Postmodernism is the cultural worldview that now penetrates and owns our society. This worldview deeply values the following: spirituality, pluralism, the experiential, relativity, altruism, community, creativity, the arts, environmentalism, globality, holism, and authenticity.
In many ways we are transitioning away from the "modern" values of rationalism, science, dogmatism, individualism, pragmatism, capitalism, nationalism, compartmentalism, and veneered religiosity. The postmodern cultural context is very similar to that of the New Testament. Therefore we believe that God's message will not only survive, but will thrive in this cultural milieu. We are witnessing a broad based backlash against reason in our culture. Rejecting objective truth is the cornerstone of postmodernism. Postmodernism abandons modernism, the humanist philosophy of the European Enlightenment. Enter postmodernism. The Word. Did Muhammad Believe in Women’s Rights? - Christian Research Institute. This article first appeared in the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL, volume 34, number 05 (2011).
For further information or to subscribe to the CHRISTIAN RESEARCH JOURNAL go to: The view of women in Islam has long been a hot topic, but even more so due to the amount of attention Islam has received in the press lately. Even with all of the media coverage, the actual theological doctrine on women has hardly been addressed. There are troubling passages concerning women in the Qur’an and in the collections of hadith that have seen little criticism in the public square. In 2010, I debated a Muslim woman in a mosque in Toronto, Ontario, during which I brought to light many of the difficult and demeaning passages about women in the Qur’an, and defended the high level of respect for women in the Bible. A couple of my friends recently traveled to Europe for their honeymoon. Why the positive image campaign? Is the Veil a Choice? Women in Creation. Spinozism. Spinozism (also spelled Spinoza-ism or Spinozaism) is the monist philosophical system of Baruch Spinoza which defines "God" as a singular self-subsistent substance, with both matter and thought being attributes of such.
History[edit] French philosopher Martial Guéroult suggested the term "Panentheism", rather than "Pantheism" to describe Spinoza’s view of the relation between God and the world. The world is not God, but it is, in a strong sense, "in" God. Not only do finite things have God as their cause; they cannot be conceived without God.[3] In other words, the world is a subset of God. Pantheism controversy[edit] In 1785, Friedrich Heinrich Jacobi published a condemnation of Spinoza's pantheism, after Lessing was thought to have confessed on his deathbed to being a "Spinozist", which was the equivalent in his time of being called a heretic. The unity of all that exists;the regularity of all that happens; andthe identity of spirit and nature. Comparison to Eastern philosophies[edit] Scientific Foreknowledge and Medical Acumen of the Bible. While it is the case that the Bible does not present itself as a scientific or medical textbook, it is only reasonable that if God truly did inspire the books that compose the Bible, they would be completely accurate in every scientific or medical detail found among their pages.
Furthermore, if the omniscient Ruler of the Universe actually did inspire these books, scientific and medical errors that fill the pages of other ancient, non-inspired texts should be entirely absent from the biblical record. Is the Bible infallible when it speaks about scientific fields of discipline, or does it contain the errors that one would expect to find in the writings of fallible men in ancient times? That the first five books of the Old Testament are a product of Moses is a matter of historical record (Lyons and Staff, 2003). Furthermore, the story of Moses’ education among the Egyptian culture was well understood. It Will Cure You—If It Doesn’t Kill You First As medical doctor S.E. Quarantine. Ontological argument. An ontological argument is any one of a category of philosophical arguments for the existence of God using ontology.
Many arguments fall under the category of the ontological, but they tend to involve arguments about the state of being or existing. More specifically, ontological arguments tend to start with an a priori theory about the organization of the universe. If that organizational structure is true, the argument will provide reasons why God must exist. It is widely accepted that the first ontological argument was proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in 1078 in his Proslogion. Anselm defined God as "...that than which nothing greater can be conceived," and then argued that this being could exist in the mind.
He suggested that, if the greatest possible being exists in the mind, it must also exist in reality. If it only exists in the mind, a greater being is possible—one which exists in the mind and in reality. Classification[edit] Development[edit] Anselm[edit] René Descartes[edit] Mandaeans. Mandaeans (Modern Mandaic: מנדעניא Mandaʻnāye, Arabic: الصابئة المندائيون aṣ-Ṣabi'a al-Mandā'iyūn) are an ethnoreligious group indigenous to the alluvial plain of southern Mesopotamia and are followers of Mandaeism, a Gnostic religion. The Mandaeans were originally native speakers of Mandaic, a Semitic language that evolved from Eastern Middle Aramaic, before many switched to colloquial Iraqi Arabic and Modern Persian.
Mandaic is mainly preserved as a liturgical language. During the century's first decade the indigenous Mandaic community of Iraq, which used to number 60–70,000 persons, collapsed in the aftermath of the Iraq War of 2003; most of the community relocated to nearby Iran, Syria and Jordan, or formed diaspora communities beyond the Middle East. The other indigenous community of Iranian Mandaeans has also been dwindling as a result of religious persecution over that decade.[3] History[edit] Origin[edit] There are several indications of the ultimate origin of the Mandaeans. Mennonite. The Mennonites are a Christian group based around the church communities of Anabaptist denominations named after Menno Simons (1496–1561) of Friesland (at that time, a part of the Holy Roman Empire). Through his writings, Simons articulated and formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders. The teachings of the Mennonites were founded on their belief in both the mission and ministry of Jesus Christ, which they held to with great conviction despite persecution by the various Roman Catholic and Protestant states.
Rather than fight, the majority survived by fleeing to neighboring states where ruling families were tolerant of their radical belief in believer's baptism. Over the years, Mennonites have become known as one of the historic peace churches because of their commitment to pacifism.[2] In contemporary society, Mennonites either are described only as a religious denomination with members of different ethnic origins[3][4] or as both an ethnic group and a religious denomination.
Knanaya. The Knanaya, also known as the Southists or Tekkumbhagar, are an endogamous group in the Saint Thomas Christian community of Kerala, India. They are differentiated from another part of the community, known in this context as the Northists. Today there are about 300,000 Knanaya in India and elsewhere.[1] The origins of the division of the Saint Thomas Christians into Northist and Southist groups are unclear. Various traditions trace it back to the arrival of the Syrian merchant Thomas of Cana in the 4th century. Other versions trace the origins of the Knanaya to Jews in the Middle East. The rift in the community was noted through the period of European colonization. Today the majority of Knanaya are members of the Syro-Malabar Catholic Church and the Malankara Churches. Names[edit] The usual Malayalam name for the group is Tekkumbhagar. Origins and traditions[edit] It is not clear how the division of the Saint Thomas Christians into Southern and Northern groups originated.
History[edit] St. John Y. Barlow. Joseph Smith Jessop.