L. Alfred James

By L. Alfred James When I was in junior high I learned about various cultures around the world. Among many other things, I learned that vast regions of Asia, Africa, and South America do not have the benefits of cutting edge medicine, chemistry, electricity, engineering, etc. My teachers never explained why Europe and North America were blessed to have these things in such abundance while other parts of the world are just now finally starting to use electricity, and some other parts of the world are actually stuck with primitive … Read More »

By L. Alfred James We are currently in a series of blog articles that provide an intellectual pathway for moving someone (or yourself) all the way from hardcore atheism to Christianity. We first saw reasons to move from belief in materialism to belief in the supernatural; then from belief in the supernatural to belief in a personal God; then from belief in a personal God to belief in Christianity. Today I want to make another argument for Christianity being true while the other major religions of the world (I simply … Read More »

By L. Alfred James “How do you know the stories in the Bible weren’t just written by some dude in a cave who was on drugs, or hallucinating, or just made them up?” I have been asked this question more times than I can count. It is a reasonable question, and it has been thoroughly addressed elsewhere. (For instance, Josh McDowell’s book He Walked Among Us or Holden and Geisler’s Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible are both excellent starting points.) It is not a subject I can adequately … Read More »

By L. Alfred James “I’ve got a spirit that appears to me almost every night. It takes on the form of my grandma. It totally pretends to be my grandma, and I used to actually believe it was my grandma,…for, like, 20 years. But now I’m pretty sure it isn’t, and I want it to go away. But I don’t know what to do.” The guy sitting in my office was very intelligent, level-headed, and admitted that his whole story probably sounded utterly bizarre. Nonetheless, he was as serious as … Read More »

By L. Alfred James Most people suspect that there is some kind of supernatural realm that transcends this physical universe. In the past couple of weeks we’ve seen several lines of evidence that confirm these suspicions. However, we have not yet addressed a huge question that is dying to be answered: What kind of supernatural realm exists? Should we believe that there is a personal God, a being who has thoughts, feelings, and free-will like us? Or is the supernatural realm primarily occupied by spiritual forces like Karma, luck, fate, … Read More »

By L. Alfred James Have you ever noticed how unsatisfying most pleasures in life are?1 To be sure, while we are anticipating some particular pleasure, while it remains in the future, our expectation makes it seem like it will be great, perhaps completely fulfilling. However, once we actually experience said pleasure the fulfillment (if there is any at all) is very short-lived. This is the undisputed pattern of life. But why? Why is this? Consider your own life and the lives of your friends: Before you married that person you … Read More »

By L. Alfred James What are human beings? Are they simply a kind of animal? Are they made only (and entirely) of matter? Or is there something more to human nature? Let me make this question more personal? What are you? Are you merely a mobile computer that is made of meat? If so, what makes human beings any more valuable than other living thing on this planet? In fact, what makes us human beings more valuable than even the bacteria that we kill with our anti-microbial hand soaps? Indeed, … Read More »

By L. Alfred James What do you do with that cantankerous uncle or brother-law who makes it a point (at every family gathering) to loudly proclaim, “I don’t believe in God! I only believe in science! I don’t believe that anything exists beyond what we can see perceive with our senses”? In the past you may not have known what to say, so you just kept quiet. But I’d like to equip you with three reasons for thinking it is almost 100% certain that a supernatural realm exists. All three … Read More »

By L. Alfred James The human appendix is a poster child of human evolutionary theory. Whenever human evolution is taught in public schools you can almost guarantee that the appendix will be mentioned. And if you were to poll people on the street, asking them for proof that we evolved, I’d bet that the vast majority would mention it as an important piece of evidence. In case you were never subjected to this kind of public education, allow me a moment to explain. For most of human history it was … Read More »

By L. Alfred James There is an old Alfred Hitchcock show in which a woman recruits a man to avenge her against some man who has supposedly harmed her. With much persuasion she finally convinces him to help, and they drive around the neighborhood looking for this awful person who must be destroyed. “There he is! That’s him!” she shouts, pointing at some guy nearby. Because of her certainty, her recruited helper goes straight to work and immediately kills this man. The body is then disposed of and they get … Read More »