Is the Atheist Argument For Morality Weak?

Is the Atheist argument on morality logical?

 Lets try to provide somewhat of a context here. 

In the spring of 1945, a thirty-nine-year-old Lutheran Pastor was hanged in the Flosenberg Concentration camp just days before its liberation from its allies, that put an end to Nazi Tyranny. Dietrich Bonhoeffer's deep Christian faith would not allow him to sit back, and watch his beloved Germany collapse to the evil of Hitler and his party. Bonhoeffer, was a pacifist;  but then he later reversed his view on pacifism, and orchestrated a plot to stop Hitler's genocide by killing him. 

Bonhoeffer's plot was exposed, and the Nazi's had him executed for it.  

Dr. William Lane Craig needs no introduction in philosophy. 

In this video below, William Lane Craig sites, and makes- distinct and systemic differences between Objective Moral Values and Duties, and that of mere Preference, or subjective moral values.

To simplify it: 

 To say that something is objectively wrong, means that it is always wrong. For example: The Nazi genocide against the Jewish people is objectively wrong no matter even if Nazis thought they were right in doing so. 

This deals with the ontology of Morality. Please watch this video below. While many Atheist reject Ontology of morality; many still don't. With the later, this posses a real problem for explanation.

http://youtu.be/Rmg720wO6tY

Should Christians Keep Up The Homosexual Fight?

Guest Blogger: Jason Helopoulos

Even before the Grammy Awards showcased Macklemore singing "Same Love" and Queen Latifah presiding over a "same sex couple's wedding" ceremony, I had most of this blog written as the topic has been on my mind for quite some time.

I am not a Kuyperian or a Neo-Kuyperian, but there are certain watershed cultural issues for every generation of Christians; issues in which they cannot be silent. For our generation, abortion and homosexuality are key watershed issues. They are watershed issues, because abortion snatches away life and homosexuality reaches out and grabs hold of death.

The average Evangelical Christian continues to believe we should speak out against the acceptance of abortion in our culture. And the pro-abortion forces have been losing ground over the past five years. No doubt, much of that is due to the church's resolve to stand against this agenda. However, it seems to me that in the past few years, Evangelical Christians in the United States have increasingly and passively grown in their acceptance of homosexuality. This should concern all of us.

I understand the discouragement. Our culture has done a quick "about face" on this issue. It was just yesterday that the Ellen DeGeneres sitcom announced its main character was homosexual (1997) and a firestorm erupted.  Now, it seems almost "normal" to have Queen Latifah presiding over a "wedding" ceremony of a homosexual couple. We cannot let it feel "normal." Make no mistake, homosexuality may be the issue of the day. It brings secularism to the forefront like few other agendas and it undermines the foundation of family, church, and the Scriptures.

Therefore, it should concern us when Christians throw their hands up and declare with finality that the homosexuality debate in this country is over--the battle has been waged and lost. This agenda has fooled us into thinking it is here to stay and must be adopted and adapted to. It has bullied us into believing we cannot continue to speak out against the acceptance of practicing this sin in our culture. Too many denominations, Christian schools, churches, and individual Christians are raising the white flag. This is something we cannot and must not do.

Homosexuality is a matter of  extreme importance to us. Make no mistake, this is a gospel issue. When our culture embraces something that sends people to hell (1 Cor. 6:9-10; 1 Tim. 1:10) then it must matter to us. We cannot roll over and play dead. We cannot give up and just let the issue go. We are compelled to continue to engage our culture on this issue and challenge its wayward course. We are not doing this because we are feverish to return to the 1940's or 1950's or because we are a "backwards people." Rather, we are a people looking forward to eternity and that is our motivation. Neither are we seeking to engage in this cultural battle because we are haters. We do so because we are lovers of men and God. We do not endeavor to be sticks in the mud, who refuse to change. We, of all people, know the value of change as we have been brought from death to life. However, we are only willing to change where we are freed by the Scriptures to do so. We are a people bound by the Word of God; our conscience is constrained by it, and from this position we cannot move.

We must be bold and courageous in our day. Not rabble rousers, but valiant and resolute according to our convictions. Our starting place, should be to disapprove of homosexual practice, knowing that we do so in the context of our own sexual fallen state. We are not haughty. We are not decrying the sins of others and ignoring our own, but neither are we willing to sit silently when our culture calls that which is evil "good."

Let us resolve, that as we continue to speak against homosexuality and its acceptance in our culture, we will do so winsomely and lovingly; yet, we are also committed to doing so clearly. In our pulpits, in our conversations around the water cooler, with our children, or in simple talks over the fence with our neighbors, we will be clear that homosexual practice is a sin. We will not attempt to separate love and truth. A careful guard against the subtle language of "gay" and "gay marriage" should be in place.  Neither one of those terms should be used in our discourse about the homosexual lifestyle or homosexual union. There is nothing "gay" or God-honoring about the homosexual lifestyle, and it is not a God-ordained marriage when two homosexuals join together in a "state approved marriage," even if it is a monogamous and committed relationship. We, as a people of the Word, know the importance of language and words, and it is crucial we give clear articulation of God's purpose and plan for sex and marriage.

Even as we exercise our voice, we need a generation of Christians who are willing to do even more; willing to be courageous enough to minister with compassion and truth to the homosexual community. We need brothers and sisters in Christ, who know the depths of grace and are deliberate in ministering to others by that grace. We must raise an army of men and women, who are compelled, in all humility, to seek to understand the homosexual struggle and enter into relationships that will challenge, encourage, and hold friends and loved ones accountable. We need elders and pastors with a vision to establish churches where a person struggling with same-sex attraction or even homosexual practices are lovingly warned, discipled, and given care. We need to continue to declare that homosexuality is not the unforgivable sin, but that repentance is called for. We must be clear in our application of theology that identifying the sinful desire and abstaining from such practices does not negate personhood or necessitate the deprivation of joy.

Above all, we need to pray. We need to pray for those in our churches who struggle with same-sex attraction, for those who have given into this temptation and sin, and for the salvation of those who are trapped in a lifestyle that leads to death. We need to pray that our society would alter its present course on this issue and never look back.

It may be an uphill battle, but our God moves mountains. We serve a God who can change things in an instant. Does it seem impossible? Our God majors in the impossible. May it take a miracle? There is good news, we serve a God who performs miracles. We cannot roll over and play dead on this issue. It is too important. It is an issue with eternal implications for the souls of men and women. We believe in the power of the gospel, so let us believe it is good news even in the midst of this debate, and declare it without shrinking. May God turn the tide and do a mighty work of change in our generation, for His praise and His glory. He can do it. Never lose hope. 

Why political correctness = a Nation of Whiners

The Emotional Tyranny of Whiners

By Nick Peters 

Deeper waters blog

Did your fries come at the cost of a soul yesterday? Let’s talk about it on Deeper Waters.

Yesterday, my family and I went to our Chick-Fil-A. If your situation was like mine, we had police cars out front guiding traffic and long long lines outside the door. We waited well over an hour in line. We were there for dinner and were told we might not have any nuggets by the time we got in. I understand that Dan Cathy tweeted Rick Warren saying they had record sales even before the time came for our service. We just helped add to it.

At the one I was at, I saw no hatred of homosexuals. I saw no animosity. I saw a lot of happy and smiling people. I was even able to witness a youth ministry taking place with a youth pastor teaching his students from Scripture in the parking lot? What was he teaching on? Bashing homosexuals? Not a word said about it. How to judge others? No. He was teaching them to remain sexually pure for marriage.

What a message of hatred!

Compare this to what Chick-Fil-A has received. They were villainized in the media and told they were anti-gay and opposed to equality. A boycott was called on them. Two cities said they would not welcome Chick-Fil-A into their city, an affront on free speech which the left has generally so very much valued.

Why did they get this?

Because Chick-Fil-A believes in the family.

Thus, in the name of tolerance, Chick-Fil-A was not tolerated. In the name of inclusion, Chick-Fil-A was excluded. In the name of love, Chick-Fil-A was regularly smeared. In the name of diversity, Chick-Fil-A was cast out.

A lot of Christians decided this was the last straw. Mike Huckabee called for people to go to Chick-Fil-A to show their support. No one forced this on us. We chose to do so freely. It was a great day for Christians to come together.

Some preferred not to.

Enter Rachel Evans.

Rachel wrote about feeling out of step with her faith. Notice that right at the start. This is about how Rachel feels. It is not about the truth of the matter. Is homosexuality right or wrong? Not discussed. As a Christian, what does Scripture say? Irrelevant. Should marriage be between a man and a woman only? Who cares?

Rachel wants to know if Christianity is all about eating a sandwich to prove a point.

No. Not at all, but that can go right in line with our Christianity. Christianity is about making Christ the Lord of your life. It is not about making your feelings the Lord of your life.

Rachel complains about having pictures shoved on Facebook in the face of homosexuals. Rachel. Let me remind you of how Facebook works.

Facebook is a social media where you can put up on your page your views and your opinions. No one is forced to look at it. If someone wants to unfriend me because of my stances, then that will be their choice. Are you wanting to say that I should not put my opinion up on my own Facebook page? I don’t know about you, but I would hope my friends are better than that and if they break with me on that point, well they weren’t really much of friends to begin with.

Keep in mind the homosexual community has been in our faces. One can hardly watch a TV show without having homosexuality treated like normal, especially in the program being advertised during the Olympics, The New Normal. Keep in mind some homosexual groups are planning a kiss-in for Chick-Fil-A. This is where homosexual couples will come in and publicly kiss each other in front of the clientele of Chick-Fil-A.

Somehow, I doubt Rachel will be complaining as much about that.

Now let’s look at what else Rachel says that will show us where she’s coming from.

“Suddenly, my religion is alien to me—small, petty, reactive. My faith has lost its bearings. I don’t feel like praying anymore, not even for the mom who begged me to pray for her gay son who vowed yesterday never to return to church again.

Can I blame him? Perhaps it is better if he stays away.”

Yes. Our religion is being small and petty. We only have the sacred institution of marriage that is the foundation of our society and celebrates the love we have for the most important person in our lives being under attack! How dare we stand up for the institution of marriage we believe was designed by God Himself in this way!

Rachel doesn’t feel like praying. Tough! I don’t feel like praying a lot of times and I do it anyway. When I wake up in the morning, I read Scripture first. Sometimes, I don’t feel like doing it, but I do it. I don’t feel like loving my neighbor a lot of times. I don’t feel like loving the Mrs. sometimes. I don’t feel like honoring God sometimes.

I cannot live my life based on feelings. Somehow, when I stand before the throne of God, when He asks me why I didn’t do X, I don’t think saying “I didn’t feel like it,” will cut it. “Why did you not love your fellow man that time?” “Well Lord, I just didn’t feel like it.” “Oh my! You should have said so earlier! I’m so sorry for you! All is forgiven!”

The next section from Rachel will clinch the point.

“I am hanging by the tips of sweaty fingers on this ledge of faith, wondering if letting go will bring freedom or death. I’ve hung on before—through the science wars, the gender wars, the Christmas wars, the culture wars—but I’m just so tired of fighting, so tired of feeling out of place. “

Yes everyone. People went to Chick-Fil-A and Rachel considers apostasizing from the one who is to be called King of Kings and Lord of Lords. In this, Rachel is guilty of idolatry and needs to repent. She has not asked the question of if God exists. She has not asked the question of if Jesus rose from the dead. She is not asking if Jesus is the God-man. She is looking and saying “Christians went to Chick-Fil-A! Christians stood up for what they believed in! Some people were hurt!”

If you’re hurt by someone getting a chicken sandwich, get over it.

Reality is that we all get hurt most every day. I am married and happen to live next door to my folks with my aunt and uncle being my other neighbors. Even in a close-knit community like this, we all can hurt each other at times. It happens. Sometimes it’s intentional. Sometimes, it’s unintentional.

What we cannot do is be forced to walk on eggshells because someone’s feelings might be hurt. We will not sacrifice truth in the temple of feelings.

Rachel is a whiner engaging in emotional tyranny. She is saying that because of what happened, she is tempting to give up. Because a homosexual person was hurt, she is considering not taking a stand for Christian sexual principles.

And this is a form of tyranny.

This is what whining does. It makes the rest of the world your emotional hostages. You are not allowed to say or do anything because that might hurt someone’s feelings and they will hold you personally responsible for that. It’s so odd. When we were growing up, most of us were told to not pay attention to people who called us names and to learn to ignore and move on.

I somehow think that that principle can still work today.

Rachel. Jesus told us all that if we love anyone more than Him, we are not fit to be a disciple of His. For me, that means if I love my own wife more than Jesus, my wife who I am commanded to love and to be willing to lay my life down for, if I do not love Him more than her, I have no right to be His disciple.

His call is severe. It is serious. It is lifelong. It is not based on feeling. It is based on the identity of Jesus as king of the universe.

If you say you are not sure if you can hold on because some people offended homosexuals, then you are more concerned about offense to the cause of homosexuals than you are about offense to the cause of Jesus Christ.

That’s why I say to repent.

Now if you see this, you will not like it. You will cry about it. You could label me as someone who hates. You can go ahead and do that all you want, but it will not change the reality. The reality is Jesus Christ must be Lord of your life and you are not to hold the rest of the world hostage to your emotions as you are being held hostage by the homosexual community. God gave you a mind. Use it.

Does that mean ignore feelings altogether? No. Feelings will not tell you the truth about right or wrong. Feelings will tell you only about yourself. If you want to know about the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality or SSM, you need to look at those topics.

Rachel ends her piece with the passage about Jesus saying that He will give rest and decides she can maybe hold on for one more day.

Thus, the emotional tyranny continues.

Rachel. I am not your parent. I am not responsible for how you feel. If you abandon Christianity, you cannot blame me. It is your choice. Don’t dare hold the rest of the world hostage to your emotions. Don’t make us responsible. When you stand before God, you will give account for what you have done as will I. You can say I was a mitigating factor in your apostasy as were others, but it will have been your choice. There will be no partiality before the greatest judge of all.

Remember, the blame game began in the Garden of Eden. It did not work then. It won’t work now. It will not work in the future.

Take control of your own life. Realize what right and wrong is. Don’t be a slave to the emotions of everyone else around you and don’t be a slave to the emotions that are within you. There is nothing wrong with having emotions but there is wrong with emotions having you.

You want to show love to the homosexual? By all means do that! I encourage that! Don’t hesitate to call sin, sin however. I can love the homosexual, but I will not tolerate sin in the name of love. That is not love. I will not change the institution of marriage to make it be what it is not. That is a denial of reality and again, it is not love.

Remember Rachel, if your love for God is not first, it will put all others love out of place in life. Nothing will really fit. If you are more concerned about the heart of homosexuals than the heart of God, you will have a problem. It’s the same for the most important relationships we have. If I put my wife before God or she puts me before Him, our marriage will have problems. If I put my parents or friends before God, there will be problems.

Jesus came to give rest, but it was not rest from emotional struggles. That would have made no sense. It was rest from having to do everything exactly right as the Pharisees did. It does not mean the way of Christ is easy. If anything, Jesus raised the bar. Yet despite that, Jesus gives rest in that He fulfills His promises to us if we remain faithful to Him.

Rachel. It’s time to put your emotions in the right place. Don’t hold the rest of the world hostage to them and don’t hold yourself hostage to them. Grow up and take charge for yourself without having to bend the halo to please everyone.

Utilitarianism and its consequences

Danger of Utilitarianism 

On ideas that screwed up the world Brings me to another writer of the 18th century 

John Stuart Mill 1806-1873 Book "Utilitarianism" 

We begin at his childhood. John Mill reported that his father didn't treat him like a son, but an *Experiment* pushing him far beyond his young mind should have been pushed. He hadEpicureanism shoved down his young throat.     

Fast forward: since John Mill grew up an Atheist rejecting the idea of original sin; he most likely never could have imagined how damaging the ideas from his book would be on a world: 

Nutshell: Utilitarianism can be broken down into a very overly simplistic

 *Double Equation*..

Good = Pleasure 

Evil = Pain 

Besides the very obviously flawed view. E.G sleeping with my Neighbor's wife might bring  her and I pleasure but the effects of adultery on her family and mine will be damaging.

 Or. Suppose I want to kill someone because they happen to be in the lives of people I care about. But They are blocking my goals of having the types of friendships with them that I want. So I decide to murder them. It may bring me pleasure knowing this person is erased from my life. But I still committed murder. And even though I don't "feel" pain doesn't mean that what I did wasn't evil! 

In conclusion: To bad John Stuart Mill never followed is ideas to their logical conclusion. And to bad henever bothered to ask "What is a moral pleasure" and "what makes pleasures moral?"

Ideas That Have Screwed Up The World

Ideas That Screwed Up the world 

My take on "Ideas that Screwed Up the World!" 

Today I'm spotlighting *Jean Rousseau* who lived 1712-1778 

Who has done an Immeasurable amount of damage on our world. In one book. "Discourse on the Origin and foundation of inequality among men"

Nutshell: Rousseau reasoned with that words like God, Love, & Beauty were meaningless words for the salves of society! 

Rousseau Believed Man was primarily a caveman and in order to be fulfilled needed to live and run wild in the forest...under this view man only needs to "eat, sleep, and have sex whenever and with whomever without all of the duties and responsibility of Love! 

Rousseau also believed Father-hood was for salves, therefore the mother can raise the offspring besides (according to Rousseau) The woman is convinced she needs to love her offspring. As if a father couldn't care less about his children. 

Sounds strangely firmilure today! Where some men in our society make babies, and leave all the responsibility to their mothers. I'm really not sure if I really need to explain why this is a bad idea! If one happens to think that this philosophy is a good one to adopt,  than you have more problems than simply trying to understand this blog. I recommend you read and try to understand Paul's writings in the book of Romans.

Which by the way could have really helped Rousseau get a grasp of the reality that shirking one's responsibility doesn't make one free. It just puts more responsibility on the shoulders of those that are Noble! I wish Rousseau was alive today to see the bounced checks of this idea on society. I'm pretty confident that this idea is at the heart of needed Well fair programs in the world. Ideas have consequences. HERE

And this is why Rousseau gets one of the top places of Ideas that helped damage our world!

Arguments For Universalists

Great Arguments For Universalists?


Do Universalists have well thought arguments?
Let's discuss it.   

"Christian Universalism" is the position that all of mankind will ultimately be saved through Jesus whether or not faith is professed in him in this life.
Christian Universalism teaches that God's qualities of love, sovereignty, justice, etc., require that all people be saved and that eternal punishment is a false doctrine. Salvation is not from hell under this view http://i.word.com/idictionary/universalism

Moreover, Those who teach that the unrepentant will be punished in a future state, and that their punishment will be proportional to the degree of sin committed in the mortal state. They generally hold that the punishment is moral and not physical. There is no hell. They do not maintain that salvation is merited through these sufferings.
Those who teach that all the punishment for sin occurs in this life and that God's discipline in our lives is for the purpose of purifying us, though this purification is not our merit for salvation. In eternity, there will be a loss of reward for those who did not trust in Christ in this lifetime.

Christian Universalists claim to hold many of the tenets of historic Christianity: Trinity, deity of Christ, deity of the Holy Spirit, salvation by grace, etc. As always, it is necessary to inquire and ask what is meant by the terms they use because the diversity that exists in universalist beliefs warrants further examination. Nevertheless, the Christian universalists claim to affirm:
The inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible. Which of course creates problems for coherence with regard to scripture when rejecting other major Christian doctrines.

Universalists do not accept the standard doctrine of the Trinity, but lean more towards either Arianism (God is one person, Jesus is created) to modalism (God takes different forms in history). This is, of course, heretical.

"Jesus is the Son of the Living God
Many cult groups say the same thing. What they mean by the phrase is what is important."

The Christian Universalists tend to say the Son is a manifestation, an image, a representation of God's essence, yet he is not equal to the Father. Therefore, they are denying His true deity.
But, not all who claim to be Christian Universalists deny this.
Some hold that Jesus is not God but that He is divine. This is perplexing since divinity is a quality of God, not angels or men.
Jesus' Resurrection

Most Christian Universalists affirm the physical resurrection of Jesus. But, some still claim he did not rise from the dead physically, but was assumed into heaven to dwell with God. Which also adds to massive confusion.

If, by what is written above here is their view -the physical resurrection of Jesus is denied, as it seems it is, then anyone who holds to that position is indeed a non-Christian since it denies one of the essential doctrines of Christianity.

The Holy Spirit is God's presence
There is a surprisingly common denial of the personhood of the Holy Spirit. (Personhood is self-awareness, a will, the ability to speak, etc.). This is a serious error on the part of those who hold to it. But to be fair, many universalists affirm the Holy Spirit as the third person in the Godhead.


There is no salvation without trusting Jesus as Savior. This is basic Christianity 101
Since, to many universalists, Jesus is not truly God by nature, they have an improper object of faith (denying the Trinitarian nature of God and the deity of Christ). Please see: Daniel Mann's World

Their faith, then, is useless since they have violated the command to worship no other God (Exodus 20) and are worshiping a false god. The Jesus they believe in, is not the real one. This means they are definitely not Christian.
There is a second chance theology at work here
 where people who have rejected Jesus in this life can come to faith in the next life, even though he has flatly rejected Jesus' sacrificial atonement.
Some Universalists believe...
in consciousness after death, others do not.
in limited punishment of sinners in a type of hell that is not of fire, but of some moral chastising.
that punishment in the afterlife was for a limited period during which the soul was purified and prepared for eternity in the presence of God.
In conclusion: Universalism is at best, a cult smoothly blended up with about five competing world views in it. And, at worse, it's more contradicting than former governor of Florida Charley Crist's switching political party's at every run!

How Atheist Market Their Theories and The Public buys.

How do they sell it? 

The analogy below is helpful to put this in context. 

Lets suppose you owned a exotic jewelry store and for years you had the publics trust through cultivated relationships, Trust and fine craftsmanship. Now let's say another knock off jewelry store moves in next door to yours. They have copied everything you sell in yours, but everything in their store is fake imitation. 

To make matters worse 

For you,  the man who owns the knock off jewelry store is telling everyone in town that you have been ripping people off for years and they should quit doing business with you. 

But it gets worse, because, in this analogy, months have gone by and now this man owns 10 stores and there are bill boards all over the city, and the news media is covering his store and helping to spread the deception that your authentic jewelry is somehow the inferior one.

Well this is like what's been happening in colleges around the world in the like, for the last 80 years+ Many people have been working hard to get us to believe marketing slogans and the slogans are..?

"Reason over dogma"

"Religion poisons everything"

"To question science is tantamount to rejecting truth all-together!"

But wait a minute. Aren't there hundreds of scientific fields of inquiry? I mean take the word "Inquiry" its defined as.. "To investigate" To examine" "to dig" to find out"

Find out what? 

Ah yes, if a theory passes tests. Find out if it Is it true? Now certainly in many scientific fields questioning is good. But not all. Take The Evolution debate: If you question evolution today watch the powers that be come after you with fury! 

If you don't believe me ask Dr. Behe and see if he agrees with me. Or try to go into a "civil chat room" where evolutionist are. And see how they treat you for challenging the belief.

There are problems with Darwinism. Many problems. For one the heavily contested fossil record.
In Darwin's day, it was easy to claim that the fossils were there but had not been discovered. Problem is, we now have hundreds of thousands of well-catalogued fossils, from all continents and geologic eras, and we still haven't found these intermediate forms. 

As Denton puts it,
"Despite the tremendous increase in geological activity in every corner of the globe and despite the discovery of many strange and hitherto unknown forms, the infinitude of connecting links has still not been discovered and the fossil record is about as discontinuous as it was when Darwin was writing the Origin."

But wait! Isn't one of the atheist marketing slogans they use all the time, "Where's the evidence"?

Scientist that argue for Darwinism, will say things like.., "Close enough to be fact"  but the fact is in the words of Dr. David Berlinski "Darwinian evolution: We aren't even close, to being close to calling this a theory"

But just like the analogy above the pubic has bought right into the Marketing slogan!

Now I don't for a second agree that science is inferior to religion. I believe the two are compatible. And friends of each other. Religion is a friend of science. And vice versa. It has always been a false dichotomy to pin one over the other.

For further reading Book "Who made God" by Edgar Andrews