Some cool pictures

I really enjoy spectacular photographs, so I'm recommending a web site you might enjoy. It's naturesbestphotography.com. Click on "Galleries." Have fun.

A Defense Against Attacks on Christianity

I recently read a book that defends Christianity against modern criticisms. Here's a brief summary of its main points.


Summary of 7 Myths About Christianity by Dale and Sandy Larsen


1. "Christians force their morality on others."

First, it is a self-defeating argument for people in a society that refuses to agree on standards of right and wrong to condemn Christians. They are the ones who are judging Christians. This is judgmental language coming from those who say they are not judgmental. Critics say a Christian morality will not working in today's society, but the problems today are exactly those which Christian morality would help solve.

2. "Christianity suppresses women."

In some cases it is true that women in the church were not treated fairly, but male dominance has been generally true in all cultures. As the influence of Christianity grew, wives were given more protection and rights, including the inheritance of property. In many denominations today women have been granted a voice in ministry. Women are heavily involved in the Sunday school, on the mission field and in worship. Jesus treated women well by talking to them seriously and allowing them to interact with him. It was women who were the first to have the message about the risen Christ. The apostle Paul is often criticized as being against women, but Lydia was saved due to Paul's talking to her, he worked with Priscilla, he made a reference at the end of Romans to Phoebe, calling her a deacon. Paul tells husbands and wives to submit to each other. In some places Paul seems to make clear statements about women being silent in church and not teaching or having authority over men, but he also commends several women for doing exactly those activities.

3. "Christianity caused the ecological crisis."

Back in Genesis God commands the human race to subdue the earth and have dominion over every living creature. There is, however, no historical foundation for criticizing the Christian religion for promoting an exploitative view of nature. Ecological problems are not unique to Christian cultures -- other cultures have caused problems in nature. The God of the Bible is not part of the earth, but he is always here -- separate from but not separated from this world. In Genesis 2:15 God tells man to work the land, which means in Hebrew to serve the land, to tend it with a servant's heart. In the Old Testament, when Israel entered the Promised Land, they were instructed to let their land lie fallow every seventh year. Early Christians did not exploit the earth. In fact, history points in the opposite direction -- they refused to buy into the exploitative power structures of the cultures around them. In fact, many Christian organizations today support environmental issues.

4. "Christians are antiscientific."

However, history does not show this to be true. It was only in Christian cultures that science developed. Experimentation and verification, the basis of the modern scientific method, developed in places that saw God as rational in his creation. Many critics use the story of Galileo, saying he was hounded by the church until he was forced to recant his view that the earth revolved around the sun. Galileo criticized scientists of his day who followed Aristotle's ideas of the universe, which included a belief that the universe was finite, it was spherical, the earth was at the center, and physics of heavenly bodies were different from the physics of earth. Thus, Galileo did not attack the church but, instead, attacked Aristotle's model of the universe. His enemies turned to theology and the church to defeat him. Galileo saw no problem between science and theology. The conflict in the 18th century grew not between Christianity and science but between Christianity and naturalistic science, which took God out of the picture even before discussion began.

5. "Christians have done terrible things in the name of Christ."

Critics point to the Crusades, the Inquisition, the Salem witch trials for evidence. The Crusades, however, were actually a defensive struggle against Islam, which had swept over much of the earth and attacked Europe. The Inquisition actually was run more by the state than by the Christian Church. Whatever wrongs done by Christians pales in comparison with wrongs done by atheistic states such as Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, and Red China. The wrongs of the Christian faith have been done in opposition to the teachings of the founder, Jesus Christ.

6. “Christian missionaries destroy native cultures.”

But it was the missionaries who brought literacy to far-off tribes. Missionaries often protected the natives from government intrusions and greedy developers.

7. “Christians are arrogant.”

Our age believes in relativism, a view that says there is no ultimate truth. All religions, not just Christianity, claim to teach exclusive truths. We have to examine them all to see which is most closely correspondent with the way that the world really is.

Sad Words

I came across the following words that a Jewish rabbi reported were said to him by Michael Jackson. If you had heard Jackson say this to you, what would have been your response?


"I am going to say something I have never said before and this is the truth. I have no reason to lie to you and God knows I am telling the truth. I think all my success and fame, and I have wanted it, I have wanted it because I wanted to be loved. That's all. That's the real truth. I wanted people to love me, truly love me, because I never really felt loved. I said I know I have an ability. Maybe if I sharpened my craft, maybe people will love me more. I just wanted to be loved because I think it is very important to be loved and to tell people that you love them and to look in their eyes and say it."

Another Kick in the Shins to Al Gore and Global Warming

After reading Michael Crichton's book, State of Fear, I grew alarmed at the alarmists. Seems to me the global warming crowd has gone way beyond the science to push its agenda. Note the following as an example.

Court Finds Truths Inconvenient for Gore
Iain Murray
October 10, 2007
The British government decided that it would be a good idea to send copies of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth to all schools, with then Environment Secretary (now Foreign Secretary) David Miliband declaring that “the debate over science is over.” Well, it may be, but not in the way Gore portrays it. A truck driver and school governor, Stuart Dimmock, took the government to court, alleging that the film portrays “partisan political views,” the promotion of which is illegal in schools under the Education Act 1996.
The judge has decided that this is indeed the case and that the Government’s guidance notes that accompanied the film exacerbated the problem. For the film to be shown in schools, therefore, several facts would have to be drawn to students’ attention:
In order for the film to be shown, the Government must first amend their Guidance Notes to Teachers to make clear that 1.) The Film is a political work and promotes only one side of the argument. 2.) If teachers present the Film without making this plain they may be in breach of section 406 of the Education Act 1996 and guilty of political indoctrination. 3.) Eleven inaccuracies have to be specifically drawn to the attention of school children.
The inaccuracies are:
* The film claims that melting snows on Mount Kilimanjaro evidence global warming. The Government’s expert was forced to concede that this is not correct.
* The film suggests that evidence from ice cores proves that rising CO2 causes temperature increases over 650,000 years. The Court found that the film was misleading: over that period the rises in CO2 lagged behind the temperature rises by 800-2000 years.
* The film uses emotive images of Hurricane Katrina and suggests that this has been caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that it was “not possible” to attribute one-off events to global warming.
* The film shows the drying up of Lake Chad and claims that this was caused by global warming. The Government’s expert had to accept that this was not the case.
* The film claims that a study showed that polar bears had drowned due to disappearing arctic ice. It turned out that Mr Gore had misread the study: in fact four polar bears drowned and this was because of a particularly violent storm.
* The film threatens that global warming could stop the Gulf Stream throwing Europe into an ice age: the Claimant’s evidence was that this was a scientific impossibility.
* The film blames global warming for species losses including coral reef bleaching. The Government could not find any evidence to support this claim.
* The film suggests that the Greenland ice covering could melt causing sea levels to rise dangerously. The evidence is that Greenland will not melt for millennia.
* The film suggests that the Antarctic ice covering is melting, the evidence was that it is in fact increasing.
* The film suggests that sea levels could rise by 7m causing the displacement of millions of people. In fact the evidence is that sea levels are expected to rise by about 40cm over the next hundred years and that there is no such threat of massive migration.
* The film claims that rising sea levels has caused the evacuation of certain Pacific islands to New Zealand. The Government are unable to substantiate this and the Court observed that this appears to be a false claim.
This is a far better result than refusing to allow the film to be shown at all. It requires that students be told by teachers that Al Gore is factually inaccurate, misleading and - in one case - making things up. These inconvenient truths for the former Vice President have been covered up or obscured by the hype surrounding his film. Students will now realize that there are significant shortcomings and inaccuracies in the way the global warming scare has been presented to them. This is a victory for honest debate, a victory for science and a victory for education.
The comprehensive guide to Gore's innacuracies is, of course, Marlo Lewis' "Al Gore's Science Fiction."

Rest of the List

So here's the rest of the list of tools and their functions.


TROUBLE LIGHT: The home mechanic's own tanning booth. Sometimes called a drop light, it is a good source of vitamin D, "the sunshine vitamin," which is not otherwise found under cars at night. Health benefits aside, its main purpose is to consume 40-watt light bulbs at about the same rate that 105mm howitzer shells might be used during, say, the first few hours of the Battle of the Bulge. More often dark than light, its name is somewhat misleading.

PHILLIPS SCREWDRIVER: Normally used to stab the vacuum seals under lids and for opening old-style paper-and-tin oil cans and splashing oil on your shirt; but can also be used, as the name implies, to strip out Phillips screw heads. Women excel at using this tool.

STRAIGHT SCREWDRIVER: A tool for opening paint cans. Sometimes used to convert common slotted screws into non-removable screws.

AIR COMPRESSOR: A machine that takes energy produced in a coal-burning power plant 200 miles away and transforms it into compressed air that travels by hose to a Chicago Pneumatic impact wrench that grips rusty bolts which were last over tightened 30 years ago by someone at Ford, and instantly rounds off their heads. Also used to quickly snap off lug nuts.

PRY BAR: A tool used to crumple the metal surrounding that clip or bracket you needed to remove in order to replace a 50 cent part.

HOSE CUTTER: A tool used to make hoses too short.

HAMMER: Originally employed as a weapon of war, the hammer nowadays is used as a kind of divining rod to locate the most expensive parts adjacent the object we are trying to hit. Women primarily use it to make gaping holes in walls when hanging pictures.

MECHANIC'S KNIFE: Used to open and slice through the contents of cardboard cartons delivered to your front door; works particularly well on contents such as seats, vinyl records, liquids in plastic bottles, collector magazines, refund checks, and rubber or plastic parts. Especially useful for slicing work clothes, but only while in use.

Just For Laughs

Have you ever tried to work with tools? My son's father-in-law is good at it, but I'm a klutz. So I really enjoyed this list. This is only the first part--I'll do the rest later.

DRILL PRESS: A tall upright machine useful for suddenly snatching flat metal bar stock out of your hands so that it smacks you in the chest and flings your beer across the room.

WIRE WHEEL: Cleans paint off bolts and then throws them somewhere under the workbench with the speed of light. Also removes fingerprints and hard-earned guitar calluses from fingers in about the time it takes you to say, "Oh shit"

ELECTRIC HAND DRILL: Normally used for spinning pop rivets in their holes until you die of old age.

SKILL SAW: A portable cutting tool used to make studs too short.

PLIERS: Used to round off bolt heads. Sometimes used in the creation of blood-blisters. The most often the tool used by all women.

BELT SANDER: An electric sanding tool commonly used to convert minor touch-up jobs into major refinishing jobs.

HACKSAW: One of a family of cutting tools built on the Ouija board principle. It transforms human energy into a crooked, unpredictable motion, and the more you attempt to influence its course, the more dismal your future becomes.

VISE-GRIPS: Generally used after pliers to completely round off bolt heads. If nothing else is available, they can also be used to transfer intense welding heat to the palm of your hand.

OXYACETYLENE TORCH: Used almost entirely for lighting various flammable objects in your shop on fire. Also handy for igniting the grease inside the wheel hub you want the bearing race out of.

TABLE SAW: A large stationary power tool commonly used to launch wood projectiles for testing wall integrity.

FLOOR JACK: Used for lowering an automobile to the ground after you have installed your new brake shoes, trapping the jack handle firmly under the bumper.

EIGHT-FOOT LONG YELLOW PINE 2X4: Used for levering an automobile upward off of a trapped hydraulic jack handle.

TWEEZERS: A tool for removing wood splinters and wire wheel wires.

E-Z OUT BOLT AND STUD EXTRACTOR: A tool ten times harder than any known drill bit that snaps neatly off in bolt holes thereby ending any possible future use.

RADIAL ARM SAW: A large stationary power saw primarily used by most shops to scare neophytes into choosing another line of work.

TWO-TON ENGINE HOIST: A tool for testing the maximum tensile strength of everything you forgot to disconnect.

CRAFTSMAN 1/2 x 24-INCH SCREWDRIVER: A very large pry bar that inexplicably has an accurately machined screwdriver tip on the end opposite the handle.

AVIATION METAL SNIPS: See hacksaw.

The Movie "Up"

Sharon and I went to see "Up" the other day and were really impressed. This is a movie with a heart and a brain. The leading character is an old man--when was the last time you've seen a movie with an elderly character that wasn't just played for laughs or stereotyped as the neighborhood crank? An opening sequence showing the man's life with his one true love is done without dialogue in a highly effective manner that gives the audience an understanding of his later desires. Yes, there are laughs, but the movie gives the audience much to think about as the character attempts to complete a task he had promised his wife to do.

The writer and director is a Christian who has said his faith is part of all he does; he's a man who understands the idea of a worldview faith that colors all of life rather than compartmentalizing it for Sunday only. He said there was initial opposition to the movie because it would be hard to tie in toys, but he stuck to his concept. I'm glad he did. I hope you consider seeing this movie and supporting Pixar for bringing something good to the public.

Time for Some Fun

As an English teacher, I love words. So when I come across some word fun, I have to share it. Hope you like these.

Once again, The Post has published the winning submissions to its yearly neologism contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words.

The winners are:

1. Coffee (n.), the person upon whom one coughs.

2. Flabbergasted (adj.), appalled over how much weight you have gained.

3. Abdicate (v.), to give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.

4. Esplanade (v.), to attempt an explanation while drunk.

5. Negligent (adj.), describes a condition in which you absentmindedly answer the door in your nightgown.

6. Lymph (v.), to walk with a lisp.

7. Gargoyle (n.), olive-flavored mouthwash.

8. Flatulence (n.) emergency vehicle that picks you up after you are run over by a steamroller.

9. Balderdash (n.), a rapidly receding hairline.

10. Rectitude (n.), the formal, dignified bearing adopted by proctologists.

11. Pokemon (n), a Rastafarian proctologist.

12. Frisbeetarianism (n.), (back by popular demand): The belief that, when you die, your Soul flies up onto the roof and gets stuck there.


The Washington Post's Style Invitational also asked readers to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition.

Here are this year's winners:

1. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

2. Giraffiti (n): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

3. Sarchasm (n): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.

4. Inoculatte (v): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

5. Hipatitis (n): Terminal coolness.

6. Karmageddon (n): It's like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it's like, a serious bummer.

7. Decafalon (n.): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

8. Dopeler effect (n): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

9. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after you've accidentally walked through a spider web.

10. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

11. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a grub in the fruit you're eating.

Another Bogus Global Warming Scam

Do you remember Kofi Annan, the former head of the United Nations? Well, he's now involved in a global-warming-will-destroy-life-as-we-know-it group that has issued a report. Take a look at the dishonesty of it in the following from the Wall Street Journal.

Global warming alarmists are fond of invoking the authority of experts against the skepticism of supposedly amateur detractors -- a.k.a. "deniers." So when one of those experts says that a recent report on the effects of climate change is "worse than fiction, it is a lie," the alarmists should, well, be alarmed.

The latest contretemps pits former U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan, now president of the Geneva-based Global Humanitarian Forum, against Roger Pielke, Jr., an expert in disaster trends at the University of Colorado. Mr. Annan's outfit issued a lengthy report late last month warning that climate change-induced disasters, such as droughts and floods, kill 315,000 each year and cost $125 billion, numbers it says will rise to 500,000 dead and $340 billion by 2030. Adding to the gloom, Mr. Annan predicts "mass starvation, mass migration, and mass sickness" unless countries agree to "the most ambitious international agreement ever negotiated" at a meeting this year in Copenhagen.

Even on its own terms, the numbers here are a lot less scary when put into context. Malaria kills an estimated one million people a year, while AIDS claims an estimated two million. As for the economic costs, $125 billion is slightly less than the GDP of New Zealand. Question: Are targeted campaigns using proven methods to spare the world three million AIDS and malaria deaths a year a better use of scarce resources than a multitrillion-dollar attempt to re-engineer the global economy and save, at most, a tenth that number? We'd say yes.

But the Annan report deserves even closer scrutiny as an example of the sleight of hand that so often goes with the politics of global warming. Unlike starvation, climate change does not usually kill anyone directly. Instead, the study's authors assume a four-step chain of causation, beginning with increased emissions, moving to climate-change effects, thence to physical changes like melting glaciers and desertification, and finally arriving at human effects like malnutrition and "risk of instability and armed conflicts."

This is a heroic set of assumptions, even if you agree that emissions are causing adverse changes in climate. Take the supposedly heightened risk of conflict: The authors suggest that "inter-clan fighting in Somalia" is a product of climate change. A likelier explanation is the collapse of a functioning Somali government and the rise of jihadists in the region.

Enter Mr. Pielke, who, we hasten to add, does not speak for us (nor we for him). But given the headlines the Annan report has garnered, his views deserve amplification. Writing in the Prometheus science policy blog, Mr. Pielke calls the report a "methodological embarrassment" and a "poster child for how to lie with statistics" that "does a disservice" to those who take climate change issues seriously.

Mr. Pielke's critique begins by citing a recent peer-reviewed paper by three German researchers that "it is generally difficult to obtain valid quantitative findings about the role of socioeconomics and climate change in loss increases." Reasons for this, the researchers explain, include "the stochastic [random] nature of weather extremes, a shortage of quality data, and the role of various other potential factors that act in parallel and interact."

The report does admit to a "significant margin of error," but this hardly excuses the sloppiness of its methodology. "To get around the fact that there has been no attribution of the relationship of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions and disasters," Mr. Pielke notes, the Annan "report engages in a very strange comparison of earthquake and weather disasters in 1980 and 2005. The first question that comes to mind is, why? They are comparing phenomena with many 'moving parts' over a short time frame, and attributing 100% of the resulting difference to human-caused climate change. This boggles the mind."

It gets worse. The Annan report cites Hurricane Katrina as a case study in the economic consequences of climate change. Yet there's not even remotely conclusive evidence that temperature increases have any effect on the intensity or frequency of hurricanes. The authors also claim that global warming is aggravating the El Niño effect, which has "ruined livelihoods, led to lost lives and impaired national economies." Yet new research "questions the notion that El Niños have been getting stronger because of global warming," according to Ben Giese of Texas A&M.

We could go on, except we're worried about the blood pressure of readers who are climate-change true believers. Our only question is, if the case for global warming is so open and shut, why the need for a report as disingenuous as Mr. Annan's?

A Definition of Success

I really liked the following taken from a speech by John Maxwell, a leader in motivational seminars.

How to be a REAL Success (John C. Maxwell)

I think success is three things. First of all, it's knowing your purpose in life. As I have studied the lives of successful people, I've noticed that they really do have an understanding of why they are here. Finding your purpose -- your reason for being here -- is huge. By the way, it's a process; it takes a while. But once they've discovered their purpose in life, it becomes an anchor. It's the thing that holds them steady, the thing that keeps them focused. There are two ways to discover your purpose. The first is discovering your passion. What you passionate about? Passion is a wonderful l thing; it's the great energizer. However, that's not always true. I have known people who are very passionate about something that was clearly not their purpose. All you have to do is watch the tryouts for American Idol. That's why the passion test is only about 85 percent accurate. However, there is another way that is 100 percent accurate... that is, find your strength. Find the thing that you do well -- your area of real ability or giftedness.

Highly successful people not only know their purpose in life, but secondly, they grow. They grow to their maximum potential. They understand that the greatest way to be successful is to find out what they do well. When you discover what you do well, be the best that you can be in that strength zone. You and I don't get better by accident. We don't get better because we live longer. We don't get better because we have more experience on the job. If you're going to grow, you're going to have to do it intentionally. You're going to have to grow on purpose. As I began to study personal growth, I found that it's not mystical. The secret to your success and my success is determined by our daily agenda. Each day we are either preparing or repairing. Every day we are either lighting our life up in such a way that we are almost guaranteeing success for tomorrow, or we're having to go back to yesteryear or last week and repair stuff that we should have never done or said back there. The secret of your success and mine is determined in our daily agenda.

People who are highly successful know their purpose in life, grow to their maximum potential, and thirdly, they seek to benefit others. Highly successful people understand that their main responsibility is seed-sowing, not harvest-reaping. They understand that if they just add value to people, in the process of life, all the reaping will come to them. Sowing is not automatic; reaping is. So therefore, they concentrate their time and effort on what they give and how they add value to others. However, most people get up every day and ask one question: "How's life going to treat me today? What’s somebody going to do for me? How’s somebody going to meet my needs?" Robert Louis Stevenson once said, "The success of my days is determined by the seeds that I sow, not by the harvest."

There are four things successful people do, regardless of their careers. The first is RELATIONSHIP. Highly successful people get along with people. They're good to people. People won't go along with you if they can't get along with you. Highly successful people understand this point, so they work hard on their relationship skills. The question that every person needs to ask is, "Am I an adder or subtractor to people's lives?" If you add value to people and sow positively into people's lives, you have to do it intentionally, because I don't think it comes naturally to any of us. People who add are relationally strong people. People who subtract are people who are relationally weak people.

The second thing highly successful people do is they EQUIP people well. They train and develop teams, and they know how to bring people together. They understand that it takes teamwork to make the dream work.

Thirdly, highly successful people have an ATTITUDE that is different from other people. Your attitude makes a difference. I'm talking about how we think about ourselves, how we think about life and how we think about other people. However, a great attitude will not replace incompetence.

The fourth quality is LEADERSHIP. Highly successful people have learned how to influence people, which is what leadership really is. Being a leader is not a title, nor is it the position. It's the ability to influence.

A Short Challenge to Atheism

The following is a great summary of the problems with atheism. It suggests Christians and other theists can turn the tables on atheists who criticize the idea of God's existence. The author is associated with Ravi Zacharias, a noted apologist (no relation, darn it). Next time you hear Christopher Hitchens snidely attack theists, think about this article--what does he offer in theism's place? What joy, what answers, what satisfaction is there is his position?


A Hearty Offense for the Atheistic Worldview

“The story I have to tell is the history of the next two centuries....For a long time now our whole civilization has been driving, with a tortured intensity growing from decade to decade, as if towards a catastrophe: restlessly, violently, tempestuously, like a mighty river desiring the end of its journey, without pausing to reflect, indeed fearful of reflection....Where we live, soon nobody will be able to exist."(1)

Friedrich Nietzsche penned these words as he looked out onto a world devoid of God. His vision casts a bleak view of humanity and paints a frightening portrait of atheism. Nietzsche’s vision directly contrasts with the optimistic musings of a world without God penned by John Lennon:
Imagine there’s no heaven
It’s easy if you try
No hell below us
Above us only sky
Imagine all the people
Living for today
Imagine there’s no countries
It isn’t hard to do
Nothing to kill or die for
And no religion too
Imagine all the people
Living life in peace.(2)

In fact, the twentieth century told a far different tale than a life of present bliss and peace without God. Under atheistic regimes like Stalin in Russia or Pol Pot in Cambodia millions of people were slaughtered. Indeed, Nietzsche offers a healthy critique of the optimistic atheism of Lennon or the current popular British slogan that there is probably no God so we should stop worrying about it and enjoy life. In reality, there is great cause for worry if Nietzsche’s picture of a world without God is allowed full sway. That world is a very grim place filled with darkness, amorality, and despair.

Nietzsche’s vision in and of itself helps the theist formulate a healthy offensive to the typical onslaught of the atheist’s critique of religion. But it also provides an impetus to ask additional questions of those who see a positive view of atheism. If there is no God, for example, “the big questions” remain unanswered. Where did everything come from and why is there something rather than nothing? Why is there conscious, intelligent life on this planet and is there any meaning? Does human history lead anywhere or is it all in vain since death is merely the end? How does one come to understand good and evil, right and wrong? If these concepts are merely social constructions or human opinions, where does one look to determine morality?

Second, we not only have a crisis of morality, we have a crisis of meaning without belief in God. Without God, as Nietzsche articulated, meaning becomes nothing more than one’s own self-interests, pleasures, or tastes. Without God, the world is just stuff, thrown out into space and time, going nowhere, meaning nothing.

In addition, the problems of evil and suffering are in no way solved without God. Where does one find hope for the redemption of suffering and evil? Suffering is just as tragic, if not more so, without God because there is no hope of greater meaning. Without God it is neither redemptive nor redeemable, since no interventions in this life or reparations in an afterlife are possible. It might be true that there is no God to blame now, but neither is there a God to reach out to for strength, transcendent meaning, or comfort. There is only madness and confusion in the face of suffering and evil.

Moreover, without God or any sort of transcendent standard, how can atheists critique religions or religious people in the first place? Whose voice will be heard? Whose tastes or preferences will be honored? Without God, human tastes and opinions have no more weight than we give them, and who are we to give them meaning anyway? Societies might make things “illegal” and impose penalties or consequences, but human cultures have at various times legally or socially disapproved of everything from believing in God to believing the world revolves around the sun, from slavery to interracial marriage, from polygamy to monogamy. Human taste or opinion, societal laws or culture are hardly dependable arbiters of truth.

Finally, if there is no God, we don’t make sense. How does one explain human longings and desire for the transcendent? How do we explain human questions for meaning and purpose or inner thoughts of unfulfillment or emptiness? Why do humans hunger for the spiritual? How can we understand these questions if nothing exists beyond the material world? How do we get laws out of luck or predictable processes out of brute chance? If all that makes us different from animals is learning and altruism, why do the brutish still widely outnumber the wise in our world?
Nietzsche argued that the death of God would bring the upheaval of all morality and meaning and not its preservation. By raising these questions, Christians remind atheists who see the possibility of morality, meaning, and hope without God of their own prophetic heritage.

Margaret Manning is a member of the speaking and writing team at Ravi Zacharias International Ministries in Seattle, Washington.
(1) As quoted by Erich Heller in The Importance of Nietzsche (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1988), 5.
(2) John Lennon, Imagine (September, 1971).
Author: Margaret Manning

A Bible Overview

You may know someone who has expressed an interest in reading the Bible but needs some help in deciding what to read. You may feel that the entire Bible is overwhelming; you'd like a list of the best chapters for this person to read. The following is an article that you can give him or her.


The Best of the Best

As a college instructor, I cringe whenever my class comes across a Biblical allusion in an essay or story. I know what’s going to happen—nothing. Very few know anything about the Bible today, so I have to explain the reference, which, of course, ruins the impact on the students.

We are a Biblically illiterate group of people these days. Yet most people will acknowledge the value of the Bible—its unforgettable stories, uplifting poetry, timeless wisdom, and spiritual insights. One problem is that many have an erroneous picture of the Bible, thinking it’s all one big sermon. Of course, if they read it, they would discover the stories, poetry, proverbs, letters, and other literary forms that make this book so varied and interesting.

Let’s say someone decides to read the Bible. If this person is typical, he or she plunges into Genesis, enjoying the stories of the well-known Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. But somewhere along about Leviticus, our hypothetical reader bogs down and quits, having lost interest. What people need is a list of Biblical highlights that will allow them to become familiar with the Bible’s best parts. I prepared such a list for my Biblical literature class at the college where I teach. It ended up being about one-third the length of the total Bible, and it could be read in less than thirty hours.

A list by itself would be useful, but in the following paragraphs I have added an overview of the Bible, which places the important chapters in the context of the entire book. This list can give any interested person a head start toward a life-long reading habit in this perennial best seller.

The first part of the Old Testament gives the early history of the human race as well as the history of a select people—the Jews. Genesis contains a fascinating collection of great stories—the first people, the flood, crimes and punishments, the faithful Abraham, the sneakiness of Jacob, Joseph’s rise to power against tremendous odds (Genesis 1-4, 6-9, 13, 15-19, 21-22, 24-25, 27-30, 32-33, 39-45). The book ends with the Jews moving to Egypt; Exodus tells of their miraculous escape from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of the hero Moses (Exodus 1-17, 19-20). Life could have been good for the Jews, but like so many of us they blew many opportunities (Numbers 11-14, 20). Finally, after a long delay, they entered the land promised them and conducted a fierce campaign of total war (Joshua 2, 6-8, 24).

Even after gaining a foothold in the land, the Jews had to fight constantly against local tribes antagonistic to the newcomers. They turned repeatedly to leaders who rescued them from their problems, yet they soon forgot the lessons learned and fell into further difficulties (Judges 4-7, 13-16). Right in the middle of this struggle and uproar comes a small book that has been praised as a perfectly written love story of a foreigner in the land of the Jews (Ruth). The people later cried out to God, wanting a king like those around them in spite of God’s warnings against such a request. Their first king turned out to be a failure, but the story of his fall reads like a Greek tragedy. He was followed by the most famous political figure the Jews would ever have—David. The stories of Saul, the first king, and David’s meteoric rise to power have fascinated people for centuries (1 Samuel 8-31 and all 2 Samuel).

Solomon, David’s son, took the kingdom to new heights, but a tragic civil war split the nation. The kings of both sides were mostly huge disappointments. In the midst of the internal troubles two men, Elijah and Elisha, appeared on the scene to confront the evils of the spiritually bankrupt regimes. But the people ignored all the danger signs until fierce enemies invaded the land (1 Kings 1-3, 6, 10, 12, 17-22 and 2 Kings 2, 4-6:23, 17-19, 25). After an extended captivity many Jews returned to their land, but conditions there were harsh—enemies surrounded them, the words of Moses had been forgotten, city walls lay in ruins. Two strong leaders overcame these difficulties, providing great lessons in leadership (Ezra 3 and Nehemiah 1-2, 4-6, 8-9, 13). The history books end with an amazing escape from sure annihilation at the hands of a rabid Jew-hater (all Esther).

The next section of the Old Testament is composed of poems, some of which are among the best ever written. We encounter the sufferings of a righteous man, we hear his complaints directed to God, and we are struck by God’s reply (Job 1-14, 38-42). For centuries people have taken comfort and courage from the Psalms, seeing in these poems a full range of emotions as the writers addressed their God (Psalms 1, 8, 19, 22, 23, 51, 68, 90, 103, 139). Proverbs and Ecclesiastes provide examples of wisdom literature—thoughts on life by those who have experienced it fully (Proverbs 1, 4, 10, 31 and all Ecclesiastes). Song of Solomon has made many church leaders uncomfortable with its erotic love poems exchanged between a man and a woman (Song of Solomon 2, 4).

The last section of the Old Testament is devoted to the writings of the prophets, men who delivered blistering social and spiritual rebukes aimed at Jews and other nations. The most famous is Isaiah with his beautiful phrases warning of impending disasters and his visions of a better future (Isaiah 6, 25, 36-40, 52-53, 55). Other prophets offered similar visions, prophecies, and warnings (Ezekiel 1-4, 37-39 and Daniel 7-12). The first half of Daniel is unusual for this prophetic section; it contains some of the best-known Bible stories (Daniel 1-6). For those who believe there’s no humor in the Bible, there is one other prophet they should read, one who runs from his duty and ends up whining to God (all Jonah).

The New Testament is split into three sections also. The first are the historical books, similar to the initial section in the Old Testament. Three different authors give the reader varying views of the life of Jesus, much like impressionistic painters creating works of art that resemble the world but are not exact replicas of it. People can read any of the three, but I would suggest Luke because it gives a lot of details (it’s the longest of the three gospels mentioned), he emphasizes the international appeal of Jesus, and he shows Jesus interacting with outcasts of the time—women, children, the poor, and the oppressed (Matthew, Mark, Luke). Readers should also complete the book of John because it is a very different gospel, much less a history and more of a meditation on the theological significance of Jesus (all John). To finish the history of Jesus and his church, people need to read portions of Acts, which really is the second part of Luke’s history that started with his gospel. Here readers encounter the courage, joy, conflicts, and outreach of the early believers. It’s also a chance to encounter one of history’s most resilient and determined characters—Paul (Acts 1-4, 6-8:3, 9, 15-17, 26-28).

The second section of the New Testament is composed of letters sent by Christian leaders to their churches or to individuals they knew well. The reader is getting only one half of a discussion, so he or she must be prepared to figure out what the writer is reacting to. People should start with the longest one that lays out a clear, complete explanation of salvation and the Christian life (all Romans), but there are others that discuss important specific issues—church worship, spiritual gifts, and the coming resurrection (1 Corinthians 11-15), an emphasis on salvation by grace rather than works (Galatians), the church and personal relationships (Ephesians), the return of Christ (1 Thessalonians 4-5), faith (Hebrews 11-12), difficult areas in the Christian life (James), and the importance of obedience and love as characteristics of the Christian (1 John).

The last section of the New Testament is composed of only one book, but what a book it is. Revelation is a visionary roller-coaster ride that has puzzled people for centuries. It is full of strange symbols, unusual animals, and awful future events. After all the upheaval and destruction, the ending leaves the reader with a comforting vision of God’s triumph and the creation of a new world (Revelation 1, 4-6, 11-13, 17, 19-22).

That’s it. If people follow the above reading suggestions, they will have worked their way through most of the most important Bible passages in less than thirty hours. Considering how much time is invested in forgettable novels, this is not a huge undertaking. It’s a chance to improve knowledge of one of the world’s literary treasures. Later, the reader may feel confident enough to go back and read more of the Bible. It’s a book that will reward anyone willing to invest the time.