Dr Paul Allen

7 Lucky Gods of japan (Photo credit: Steve-kun ) "What goes around, comes around." This American idiom suggests a view of history that has more in common with ancient Greek philosophy than with the Judeo-Christian understanding of history. The grand difference between the ancient view of history and that found in Scripture is the difference between what is called "cyclical" and "linear-progressive." A cyclical view indicates that there was no beginning to the universe and no goal for it; rather, history creates itself and eventually repeats itself—forever. It was this ancient perspective that generated the skepticism that inspired Friedrich Nietzsche 's view of "the myth of eternal recurrence." Over against this view stands the biblical view of linear-progressive history. This understanding does not say that history moves in a steady incline, moving toward some evolutionary climax; rather, it indicates a movement of history that looks...

Sigmund Freud, founder of psychoanalysis, smoking cigar. Español: Sigmund Freud, fundador del psicoanálisis, fumando. Česky: Zakladatel psychoanalýzy Sigmund Freud kouří doutník. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) But He said to them, “Why are you so fearful ? How is it that you have no faith?” And they feared exceedingly …(Mark 4:40–41a). “I don’t need your religion,” hearers of the Christian message sometimes reply. “That’s just a crutch for those who are too weak to cope with life on their own.” So goes one of the most frequently heard objections to the faith. How should we respond? The roots of this response go back to the Enlightenment of the eighteenth century. Many of the leading thinkers of that period were skeptical as to the existence of God . But as means of travel improved and Westerners began to move about the world, an undeniable truth began to make itself clear—there was religious activity everywhere. Man, it seemed, was incurably religious. This presented a problem for...

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 ...

Cover via Amazon Worldwide trends indicate that multi-faith is both a current reality and our future. The number of people who claim adherence to the major world religions is growing. German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche and other post-Enlightenment thinkers predicted the death of God and the decline of religious belief over 100 years ago, but their predictions were premature. In fact, secular thinking has long embraced the idea that religion was the socio-political problem, not so much the solution. If anything, " God is dead" has been replaced with " God is back ." Economists John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge , an atheist and a Roman Catholic, wrote a fascinating book in 2008 with that title. In it they noted that while statistics about religious observance are notoriously untrustworthy, most surveys seem to indicate that the global drift toward secularism has halted. Quite a few surveys show religious belief to be on the rise. They reference one sou...