Dr Paul Allen

Image of Stephen Fry (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) STEPHEN FRY AND CANCER Stephen Fry  was  asked  what he would say if he were "confronted by  God ."   Fry replied,  "I'd say, bone cancer in children? What's that about?  How dare you create a world to which there is such misery that is not our fault. It's not right, it's utterly, utterly evil.  Why should I respect a capricious, mean-minded, stupid God who creates a world that is so full of injustice and pain. That's what I would say." Interviewer:  "And you think you are going to get into heaven, like that?"  Fry replied:  "I wouldn't want to. I wouldn't want to get in on his terms. They are wrong. Now, if I died and it was Pluto,  Hades , and if it was the 12  Greek gods , then I would have more truck with it, because the Greeks didn't pretend to not be human in their appetites, in their capriciousness, and in their unreasonableness.  They didn't p...

English: Icon showing the Resurrection of Jesus, at the inner side of the Resurrection Gate to the Red Square, Moscow (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) Apologetics is a necessary discipline for the Christian faith . Jesus and the apostle Paul regularly defended their beliefs through rational arguments. The apostle Peter tells us to be ready to give a reason for the hope we have in Christ (1 Pet. 3:15). This lost world needs to hear and believe the gospel of God , so, when unbelievers ask questions about the truth and rationality of Christianity, we must be ready with sufficient answers, trusting in the Holy Spirit to apply the message to their souls (Acts 1:8). Some apologetic arguments, however, have virtually no chance for success and are destined to fail right from the start—no matter how sincerely or repeatedly stated. These nonstarters fall flat and do not serve the cause of Christ simply because they are bad arguments. Four of these arguments are so common and so detrimental to th...

English: Illumination of Christ before Pilate Deutsch: Jesus vor Pilatus (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) As usual, great weather events bring out the Christian crazies, like those proclaiming that Hurricane Sandy is God's judgment ("God sent the whirlwind. Thank God for righteous judgment," said one) against (pick one) homosexuals, pornography, materialism, secularism, Darwinism , and so on and so forth. But I'm not linking to these statements because, well, you've got better things to do with your time than read sub-Christian, one might even say nonchristian, theology. Granted when storms do appear in the Old Testament , they are often seen as God's act of judgment, to prod repentance. The classic case is when Egypt was bombarded with hail and lightning so Pharoah would know God was in charge. Pharoah indeed was temporarily scared into faith, but as soon as the storm ceased,"the heart of Pharaoh was hardened, and he did not let the people of Israel ...

An  interesting paper  was recently published by David Depew and Bruce Weber in the journal Biological Theory . The paper bears the title "The Fate of Darwinism : Evolution After the Modern Synthesis." Its abstract summarizes the article's contents: We trace the history of the Modern Evolutionary Synthesis , and of genetic Darwinism generally, with a view to showing why, even in its current versions, it can no longer serve as a general framework for evolutionary theory . The main reason is empirical. Genetical Darwinism cannot accommodate the role of development (and of genes in development) in many evolutionary processes. We go on to discuss two conceptual issues: whether natural selection can be the "creative factor" in a new, more general framework for evolutionary theorizing; and whether in such a framework organisms must be conceived as self-organizing systems embedded in self-organizing ecological systems. This paper is interesting in at least t...

Cover via Amazon Recently I was interviewed by Jonathan Morrow for his excellent new book  Thinking Christianly   ( Zondervan , 2011). He asked me about Darwinism as well as reaching the next generation. Here is my brief excerpt. Enjoy! Jonathan Morrow:  It is commonplace to hear about the “overwhelming evidence” for evolution. Have you found this to be the case? Can you talk a little about the role that Darwinism plays in our culture? Sean McDowell:  There’s a well-known joke for lawyers that says when the facts are on your side, argue the facts. However, when you don’t have the facts, use emotion and state your case with absolute certainty. This is precisely what is going on with claims about the “overwhelming evidence” for evolution. We live in an information age, and materialist theories such as Darwinism are slowly going the way of the Dodo. Intelligent design (ID) is on the move. Many Darwinists know this, which is why they focus their primary attacks on ID be...

Image via Wikipedia Oh the cruel trick fate played on Nietzsche . Christians aren’t apt to afford compassion to the man who coined the phrase “ God is dead .” Nevertheless my heart goes out to him. The man who some say is the father of Nazism , existentialism, and modern relativism is the victim of one of the cruel ironies of history. The core of Nietzsche’s ethic was what he called the “ will to power ”. He bemoaned the baleful influence of Christianity which he claimed promoted a “herd morality .” The “will to power” was a rejection of herd morality, a bald affirmation of individual autonomy so radical as to be indifferent to the autonomy of others. It was an ethical Darwinism , survival of, indeed conquest by, the fittest. The good news is that this “will to power,” the elevation of self, has caught on like wildfire. The bad news is that this bold, defiant ethic has spread so wide, infecting even the church, that it has become the morality of choice among the herd. Just as rock ...

Image via Wikipedia Science as we know it grew from pagan, occult, and biblical roots. Christianity Today  likes to emphasize the biblical sources. The story of creation, told in Genesis and elaborated in the New Testament , pictures a rational intelligence creating an orderly and predictable cosmos. Without that predictability in the natural world, neither Newton nor Einstein would have been possible. There are times, however, when a careful reading of the natural world seems to conflict with our reading of Scripture. Sometimes, Christian ways of thinking must adjust. Two famous names—Copernicus and Galileo—tell that tale. Other times, Christian thinkers adopt some of what scientific research suggests, but hold firm on key aspects of biblical knowledge.  The name B. B. Warfield tells that tale: The Princeton theology professor (d. 1921) taught in the wake of the Darwinian revolution. He and fellow evangelical leaders saw good reasons to believe that humanity's physical fo...