rebelling against low expectations
Have you ever tried to share your faith with someone, and they told you they don’t even believe in God? How did you respond? New Atheism has become more popular since the early 2000’s with the rise of four prominent atheists: Stephen Hawking, Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. Two of these men have since passed away but have quickly been replaced in influence by agnostic...
One of today’s most notorious agnostics is Bart Ehrman, whose books have undermined the faith of many young Christians. His theory is that Jesus was just a preacher from rural Galilee who never even claimed to be God — that it was His followers who slowly, over time, exalted Him to be equal to the Creator. Ehrman explains that the ancient Romans gradually elevated their emperors to gods and...
According to statistics, only 31% of America’s population believes that the Bible is absolutely accurate and should be obeyed word-for-word. 19% believe that the Bible is simply fables, legends, or ancient history, and 47% percent believe that the Bible may be inspired by God but shouldn’t be taken literally. Although so many people have dismissed the Bible as false, how many of them have...
I was staring at my phone, waiting for a message from my good friend. I felt pretty confident about the last text message I had sent him. I was proud of myself; it was so well thought out and full of truth. Finally, my friend’s message came through. Upon reading it I was suddenly filled with frustration and anger. “Well, Ryan,” it read. “We are both just on different paths, headed to the same...
The hymn came to an end. That’s my cue, I realized, clutching a printed copy of my testimony. Barefoot and wearing a swimsuit under a heavy blue robe, I calmly stepped down into the water in a tub behind the stage at my church. My pastor told the church my name and shared a few words about baptism then gently pushed me closer to the microphone. To my surprise, I wasn’t as anxious as I’d expected...
A few months ago, I sat with a close friend in one of the booths of our university’s coffee shop. My friend, whom I will call Tom, is an atheist. Tom is a genuine truth-seeker, and he would be a Christian if he thought Christianity were “actually true.” During our conversation, we found ourselves discussing the topic of faith. After probing his views of the world and his justifications for them...
The origin of the first living cell is one of the great mysteries of science. Charles Darwin theorized that the first life arose spontaneously in a warm little pond—and this idea seemed somewhat plausible as long as scientists believed a cell was a simple, jelly-filled blob. Today, however, we know that every cell is a miniature factory filled with organelles and protein machinery, all...
I’ve struggled with it. You’ve struggled with it. We all have. Does God really exist? Billions of people think that the Bible is false, and Christians are sometimes tempted to believe them. Jesus can start to look like a fairytale at times because of how bad the world around us is. “Is God real?” This question isn’t bad in itself, but we need to make sure we come to the right conclusion. We need...
rebelling against low expectations
