General

Why Religious Teaching Doesn’t Change You

By L. Alfred James Have you ever wondered why toddlers never need to be taught to smack their siblings? Or why elementary school children never need to be taught to be selfish and refuse to share? In fact, why is sharing something that has to be learned at all, while selfishness comes automatically? Other questions: Why is it that people never need to be taught to be lazy? A good work ethic is something that is learned, it certainly does not come automatically. Why? Why do teenagers never need to … Read More »

Why Does the Doctrine of the Fall Matter?

By L. Alfred James Recently, we’ve seen that there is something very wrong with the human race. In the last couple of months, we’ve seen that human beings are not good by nature. Indeed, our experience is more like that of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde than the Frankenstein monster. And we also saw how the selfishness and cruelty of human beings requires us to believe in some kind of fall, an event in history where human nature changed. To see why this matters you need to first see how … Read More »

The Secret of Happiness

By L. Alfred James Starting in 1988, with a study by Martin Seligman, the academic world discovered something very disturbing about American culture. A seismic shift took place in the generations following the Silent Generation (1928-1945). The shift began with the next generation, the Baby Boomers (1946-1964): The Baby Boomer generation has ten times the number of people suffering from depression as any of the generations that preceded it. That is, in the span of one generation the number of people suffering depression did not just double, or triple, or … Read More »

Warning: You Might Be Wasting Your Life

By L. Alfred James Human beings can find their identity in some very weird things. A former classmate once told me that his uncle was the world champion in wellie boot throwing (also known as “wellie wanging”). Apparently, this uncle was very proud of this accomplishment and mentioned it often. By the way, if you aren’t aware (and I wasn’t), wellie throwing is a sport in which contestants try to throw a rubber boot farther than anyone else. Yes, it seems totally ridiculous. Some people take a great deal of … Read More »

Jesus Is Offensive And That’s A Good Thing

By L. Alfred James Before I was married, I rarely went on a date. But in my dating experiences I discovered something important about relationships: In order for a woman to be attractive to me, I need her to occasionally disagree with me, to contradict me, or even to confront me. More than once I dated women who laughed at every joke that I made—and I’m not that funny—and they laughed harder than my humor deserved. Worse, they agreed with everything that I said. Within an hour I was very … Read More »

How Could God Make People So Selfish?

By L. Alfred James A few weeks ago, we saw how the reality evil is actually evidence for God’s existence. But I’m willing to go farther than that in the claims I’m making. For I believe it can be demonstrated that the evil streak we see in humanity is actually evidence for the God of the Bible. That is, the presence of evil doesn’t just point to God’s existence, it also points to his identity. How could that be? It’s actually a rather simple argument. As we’ve seen, there is … Read More »

Can Atheists Condemn the Crusades?

By L. Alfred James Atheists are often very loud in their condemnations of atrocities, particularly if professing Christians committed them. They thunder against the inquisition, the Salem witch trials, and especially the crusades, pronouncing them utterly immoral. However, there is something important you need to know about these pronouncements. Whenever you hear them, it is perfectly appropriate to ask, “How do you know that?” Or, “What’s your basis for saying that?” NOTE: This is simply a request for intellectual justification, a request you can make anytime anyone asserts anything: “JFK … Read More »

Evil and Suffering: Evidence for God

By L. Alfred James The title of this article might strike you as click-bait, or an attempt to be funny. But my intentions are both sincere and utterly serious. Believe it or not, the evil that exists in the world is actually evidence that supports the Christian worldview. In my last article I demonstrated how, if atheism is true, there is no such thing as objective right and wrong. That is, atheists have no justification for morally condemning anything, even murder. William Lane Craig makes this point very succinctly: If … Read More »

Which Monster Are You?

By L. Alfred James In my previous article we compared two different theories about human nature. The most popular theory claims that human beings are born morally pure. The only reason they do bad things is because of the evil influences of their environment (e.g., a greedy society, a flawed education, harsh circumstances, etc.). The Christian theory claims that human beings have an evil streak within them; they are fallen. They do bad things because they have a nature that has been corrupted, a nature that has been changed from … Read More »

Are Human Beings Good By Nature?

By L. Alfred James In Luke 11:13, Jesus says something that sounds a bit strange: “If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!” Within the context (see 11:1) it is clear that Jesus is talking to his disciples. He is not talking to the religious leaders who are plotting to kill him. He is not even talking to Jewish people who are agnostic or disinterested … Read More »