Dr Paul Allen

"Had an accident? Okay, I am sending good thoughts.” What that means, our thoughts go out to you at this time? I think you mean that you wish me the best possible outcome. I’m not alone in facing this. I don’t think you mean that you really believe that your good thoughts have some sort of telepathic power to actually create positive change in my situation. But maybe you do. Or maybe sending me “good thoughts” is your way of encouraging me to think good or positive thoughts because you believe there is power in those thoughts to help to bring about a positive outcome. Even though I’m not exactly sure what you mean, I want you to know how I receive the “good thoughts” you sent my way. First, I appreciate your kindness.  You reached out to me in this hard place, and I want you to know that is meaningful to me. Second, I admire your integrity.  There is integrity in that determination that I respect. Third, your words remind me to think good thoughts. I’m beginning...

God desires to be known in a world that he designed to reveal him, Christians believe that revealed truth is real. God made a real world, and God reveals the real truth about himself in and through that world. In short, the truth is part of the real world that God made, a world that includes humans as creatures specially designed to receive truth so as to know God. But the Bible’s teaching involves more than creation and salvation. The Bible also teaches that humans fell into sin and subsequently corrupted their nature and society. So sin prevents humans from receiving the truth. Here postmodernity prudently points out that even if there is the real truth, humans may not be able to know the truth truly. There are two reasons for this limitation. First, humans are finite, even apart from sin; humans can know truth only partially, so their knowledge is subjective, selective, and incomplete. Second, humans are sinful. When we add the problem of sin, humans are no longer able to know tr...

Reason and Reasoning Believers who aim to defend their faith make a serious mistake when they imagine…that something like “reason” should displace Christ as the ultimate authority (Lord) in their thinking and argumentation. They also fall into very sloppy and confused thinking due to misunderstanding over the word “reason.” Christians are often befuddled about “reason,” not knowing whether it is something to embrace or to eschew. This is usually because they do not pinpoint the precise way in which the word is being used. It may very well be the most ambiguous and obscure word in the field of philosophy. On the one hand, reason can be thought of as a  tool —man’s intellectual or mental capacity. Taken in this sense, reason is a gift of God to man, indeed part of the divine image. When God bids His people “Come let us reason together” (Isa.  1:18 ), we see that we, like God, are capable of rational thought and communication. God has given us our mental abilities to se...