Randomer: September 2009

Wednesday, September 30, 2009

More Lake Russell shots

Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Finished Reading: "I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist"

I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist

by Norman L. Geisler and Frank Turek

I finally finished reading this book cover to cover. While I got an overview of it during my Apologetics course at Big Sky Bible Institute, I decided to go back through and read the entire thing word-for-word.

This is an excellent book! If you want to know why you believe what you believe, are looking for evidence to back up your faith or refute people posing hard questions, or are an atheist searching for truth, this book is a great place to start looking!

At 447 pages, it may look a little long at first, but I think that this book strikes a great balance between being too short and simplistic, and too long and wordy. They include great quotations, awesome facts, easy to read charts, and parable-like stories to aid understanding. These guys back up their facts and quotations with excellent citations, but still write in easy to understand english. Basically, they say really smart things and you can understand it.

A little bit about the authors: Norman Geisler has authored or coauthored over sixty books, has taught at the university and graduate level for over 40 years, and has debated in all 50 states and 25 countries, has a Ph.D. in philosophy, and is president of a seminary. Frank Turek has two masters, and (at the time of publication) is going for a doctorate of apologetics. He's vice president of the same seminary as Geisler (Southern Evangelical Seminary), and is a renowned writer and speaker.

Here is the general thought process that the book follows, and the points that it consequently proves beyond a reasonable doubt:

1. Truth about reality is knowable.
2. The opposite of true is false.
3. It is true that the theistic God exists. This is evidenced by the:
a. Beginning of the universe (Cosmological Argument)
b. Design of the universe (Teleological Argument/anthropic principle)
c. Design of Life (telological argument)
d. Moral Law (moral argument)
4. If God exists, then miracles are possible.
5. Miracles can be used to confirm a message from God (i.e., as acts of God to confirm a word from God)
6. The New Testament is historically reliable. This is evidenced by:
a. Early testimony
b. Eyewitness testimony
c. Uninvented (authentic) testimony
d. Eyewitnesses who were not deceived
7. The New Testament says Jesus claimed to be God.
8. Jesus' claim to be God was miraculously confirmed by:
a. His fulfillment of many prophecies about himself;
b. His sinless life and miraculous deeds;
c. His predictions and accomplishments of his resurrection.
9. Therefore, Jesus is God
10 Whatever Jesus (who is God) teaches is true
11. Jesus taught the Bible is the Word of God.
12. Therefore, it is true that the Bible is the Word of God (and anything opposed to it is false)

And I love how Geisler and Turek quote loads of atheist sources that support their points...

(Read this book online on Google Books)

Currently studying

Currently: studying biology and apologetics at the same time... hoping i have enough time to gather good information at a sufficient rate to refute all of the bad science. but with a secular TEXTBOOK THAT CONTRADICTS ITSELF, it's not too hard.

Singletrack

Lake Russell Singletrack

Monday, September 28, 2009

River Rapids

Lethargy

Lethargy: the quality or state of being drowsy and dull, listless and unenergetic, or indifferent and lazy; apathetic or sluggish inactivity.

(from dictionary.com)

We can not live our lives in state of television-induced lethargy.

American Lethargy: More Contagious than the Swine Flu

(My latest english essay)