Dr Paul Allen

English: Alvin Plantinga after telling a joke at the beginning of a lecture on science and religion delivered at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The twentieth century has seen philosophers of religion, such as Alvin Plantinga and Richard Swinburne , reaffirm the rationality of faith and reinvigorate traditional debates about reasons for belief in God—catalysed in part by new scientific understandings of the origins of the universe. There’s a growing consensus that belief in God is perfectly rational—unless, of course, you define rationality in terms that deliberately exclude such a belief.5 Rationality is less concerned with adopting a particular starting point or conclusion than with the rules that regulate reflective discussion leading to a conclusion. New Atheist writers often define the term beyond its fundamental sense, holding that it demands we interpret the world in a specific way that excludes belief in God. Yet this interpretation c

Page 18v: Healing of the two demon-possessed, Mt 8:28-34 (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) “Be quiet!” Jesus said sternly. “Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down before them all and came out without injuring him ( Luke 4:35). What about demonic possession ? There can be no doubt but that the Bible presents us with a real demonic realm, a host of fallen angels who hate humanity and who seek to destroy us because we are made in the image of God. We are so familiar with the stories of Jesus casting out demons that we often miss an important aspect of their uniqueness. The miracles Jesus did were not really unique. The prophets of the Old Testament had also multiplied food, healed the sick, and raised the dead. One thing they had not done, however, was cast out demons. Moreover, in the rest of the New Testament after Jesus’ resurrection, we see few cases of demonic possession and the subject does not occupy much attention in the epistles. It would be an error to think tha