Some good questions about God

Last spring I led an apologetics class that discussed all sorts of interesting things. We watched a DVD series from Ravi Zacharias, and one of his lectures covered the existence of God. As a way to prepare for the issue, I sent out the following questions. They might interest you.

1. What is the value of offering arguments for the existence of God?

2. People ask for proof of God's existence -- can we offer absolute certainty? What beliefs do you live by that you cannot prove beyond a shadow of a doubt?

3. Take a look at Romans 1:20. What evidence for God's existence and character do you see in the world around you?

4. Read Hebrews 11:6. What is the difference between belief in God and saving faith?

5. Mortimer Adler, chairman of the board of editors for the Encyclopedia Britannica, wrote, "More consequences for thought and action follow from the affirmation or denial of God than from answering any other basic question." What are some of these consequences?

6. Read 1 Corinthians 2: 1-2. Does Paul condemn philosophical arguments here?

7. The famous lawyer Clarence Darrow once said, "I don't believe in God because I don't believe in Mother Goose." What did he mean? How would you respond to him?

8. Why do you believe God exists?

9. Why do so many people reject the idea of God's existence?

10. In your life what have been the most obvious signposts that pointed you to God?

Scientology--a rational religion??

A news item reports four former church officials have revealed much about Scientology. In an exercise dreamed up by the founder, L. Ron Hubbard, leaders who messed up were taken out to sea and made to walk the plank with the admonition, “We trust you will rise a better Thetan (immortal spiritual being).” Think about it—people who have rejected Christianity as being “superstition,” too “miraculous,” or “full of fairy tales,” have thought long and hard before committing themselves to Scientology. Now there’s a rational religion, right?

Do miracles exist?

Today we live in a skeptical world. People like Richard Dawkins sneer at the idea of miracles, especially those connected with Christianity. They envision a world of the future ruled by science and logic where there is no place for superstitions and silly stories of gods performing miraculous feats. But for the Christian, miracles are crucial -- the birth , life and ministry, and death of Jesus of Nazareth is the heart of the message.

Can we today in the 21st century make a case for miracles? I believe we can. So I would like to give some reasons to believe in miracles and consider objections from skeptics.

Let's start with the existence of God. Something like 98 percent of the world believes there is a God of some type. If you are talking to one of these people, your work is pretty well done if you are defending the idea of miracles. God exists in a supernatural world, so if miracles require divine intervention, we can readily argue that such a being is capable of performing them. If you're dealing with someone who does not believe in God, there are many good ways to argue that he or she is wrong. For example, there are three major ways to prove your case -- the cosmological argument (where did the universe come from?), the design argument (where did such exquisite design come from?), the existence of morality (how did morality come from atoms and molecules alone?).

The second line of evidence for the existence of miracles involves the New Testament, source of many miraculous stories. We can make a strong case for the reliability of the four gospels If we consider the existence of so many manuscripts, their existence so close to the original documents, and affirmation from hostile, non-Christian sources.

A third reason to believe in miracles has to do with science. That may seem surprising to some who believe science and Christianity are at war. But many recent discoveries of science actually suggest the possibility of a supernatural world. For example, physicists now believe that there were 10 dimensions at the Big Bang event. So at the beginning of the universe, extra dimensions (God’s realm) were there. In addition, we now know a great deal about DNA, the building blocks of life which are information-rich. Where did this language come from? Such information must come from a language maker.

Finally, we can argue for miracles based on experience. There are so many people who have witnessed miracles. A few weeks back I spoke to thirty people or so, and I asked them if they had either witnessed a miracle or trusted someone who told them about experiencing a miracle. Nearly one-third of the people responded positively.

So what is a key objection to miracles? The one I have run into the most says that miracles do not exist because they violate natural laws. But let's consider that for one minute. Natural laws tell how things have usually happened; they do not predict the future. Consider a tennis ball that I have my hand. If I toss it up in the air, I may expect it to fall to the ground because I have seen it happen many times in the past. However, my wife may decide to grab the ball in mid air as it heads to the ground. Did she violate the law of gravity? No, she simply intervened just as God may intervene in our world.

There are other objections to miracles, but they do not seem especially strong. Some say miracles must not exist because most of the time they do not happen, so we are correct to be highly suspicious whenever a miracle is claimed. However, that is circular reasoning. Truth is not decided by a majority. Secondly, some say miracles are anti-science since science deals with what you can see, hear, etc. But that's not true; miracles are not anti-science. They are beyond science. That's why they're called "supernatural." There are others who argue that belief in miracles is bad because it would stop scientific research and investigation since no one could count on a rational universe. However, this is an orderly world which has natural laws dealing with regular events. Early scientists, many of whom were Christians, had faith that they could investigate the world because of its rational, orderly nature. Finally, there are those who refuse to believe in miracles simply because they have never seen one. But they are willing to believe in electrons even though they have never seen them either.

So there is a good case to be made for miracles. This blog has only been able to skim the surface. If you'd like more information, consider web sites such as str.org, equip.org, rzim.org, and answers.org. Some good books that deal with this include The Case for Faith, I Don't Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Know Why You Believe, Skeptics Answered, When Skeptics Ask.

Free speech and other myths

I just heard about another battle in the ongoing war over free speech on the college campus. Being a teacher myself, I cringe when I hear of schools, in the name of political correctness, shutting off any speech which they find “offensive.”

In this case, which happened last year, a San Jose City College biology professor was fired for answering a student's question on the relationship between homosexuality and heredity. In class one day, a student asked what makes someone attracted to a member of the same sex. She referred to the textbook and said there were several ideas, but she discussed one which indicated the role of maternal stress and homosexual behavior in males. She then said the class would learn in a later chapter of the textbook that homosexual behavior may be influenced by both genes and the environment.

Of course, you can guess the next step. She was accused by a student of giving the class statements which were "offensive and unscientific." Let’s see . . . the statements came from the textbook. This is “unscientific”? The instructor was later terminated by the district's board of trustees.

Here’s where the plot thickens. She contacted the Alliance Defense Fund, a legal alliance set up to defend our Constitutional rights, which has sued the district on her behalf. It should be interesting to see how the court rules.

I hope you consider helping the ADF. It’s a quality group that needs to exist and to prosper in our upside-down world of American education. Something else you might like to see is a website called noindoctrination.org, which lets college students list examples of their free speech rights being violated by propagandizing instructors.

Wise (?) sayings

There are times we need to step back, take a deep breath, and relax. Here's a list I took from Car Talk, the show with Click and Clack, two fun guys who provide people with advice about car repairs and have a good time doing it.


All those who believe in psychokinesis raise my hand.
Early bird gets the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
I almost had a psychic girlfriend but she left me before we met.
OK, so what's the speed of dark?
How do you tell when you run out of invisible ink?
If everything seems to be going well, you have obviously overlooked something.
Support bacteria -- they're the only culture some people have.
Ambition is a poor excuse for not having enough sense to be lazy.
Hard work pays off in the future. Laziness pays off now.
Everyone has a photographic memory. Some don't have film.
Shin: a device for finding furniture in the dark.
Many people quit looking for work when they find a job.
I intend to live forever -- so far, so good.
If Barbie is so popular, how come you have to buy her friends?
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
What happens if you get scared half to death twice?
I couldn't repair your brakes, so I made your horn louder.
Why do psychics have to ask you for your name?
If at first you don't succeed, destroy all evidence that you tried.
If at first you don't succeed, then skydiving definitely isn't for you.
A conclusion is the place where you got tired of thinking.
Experience is something you don't get until just after you need it.
For every action, there is an equal and opposite criticism.
No one is listening until you make a mistake.
Success always occurs in private, and failure in full view.
The hardness of the butter is proportional to the softness of the bread.
The severity of the itch is proportional to the reach.
To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research.
Two wrongs are only the beginning.
The problem with the gene pool is that there is no lifeguard.
Monday is an awful way to spend 1/7 of your life.
A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
Change is inevitable ... except from vending machines.
Plan to be spontaneous tomorrow.
If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of payments.
Bills travel through the mail at twice the speed of checks.
Borrow money from pessimists -- they don't expect it back.
99 percent of lawyers give the rest a bad name.

The top 100

We all like lists--the best places to eat, the best books to have while on a desert island (one quick-witted soul said he would want The Art of Shipbuilding), the world's most livable cities, etc. The following is a list I found on the internet. There are a couple of names here that I don't necessarily agree with, but overall it's a great resource. Out of all the names here, I highly recommend Beckwith, Copan, D'Souza, Dembski, Geisler, Habermas, Hanegraaff, Johnson, Keller, Koukl, Lewis, both McDowells, McGrath, Moreland, Ross, Schaeffer, Strobel, Zacharias. I would add a couple of names to this last--Chuck Colson, Philip Yancey, Os Guinness, Nancy Pearcey. How about you? Any you'd toss off this list? Any you'd add to it?


Get to know 100 Christian apologists. Most are current. Some are dead. A couple are very old. Some are not popular. They range from world-class philosophers and thinkers to internet and radio apologists. But all have made an impact with their works and ministries. They are in alphabetical order. (This is not a top 100, and theologians and church fathers have been left out.)


1. Kerby Anderson - Head of Probe ministries.
2. John Ankerberg - Founder of Ankerberg Theological Research Institute; Great podcast.
3. Greg Bahnsen - the late great presuppositional apologist. Debated Gordon Stein.
4. Andy Bannister - London School of Theology / Oxford Centre for Christian apologetics.
5. Francis Beckwith - noted philosopher and apologist, especially in the area of ethics.
6. Ken Boa - relational evangelism, discipleship, apologetics.
7. Darrell Bock - Research Professor of NT Studies at Dallas Theological Seminary.
8. Joe Boot - apologist, educator, author and pastor.
9. Robert Bowman - noted apologetics and theology teacher (Biola)
10. Justin Brierley - host of Unbelievable? on Premier Christian Radio, UK.
11. Kyle Butt - staff at Apologetics Press and editor of Discovery magazine. Debated Barker.
12. Ted Cabal - general editor of The Apologetics Study Bible.
13. Charlie Campbell - itinerant apologist and head of AlwaysBeReady.com.
14. Ergun Caner - president of Liberty Baptist Theological Seminary; author.
15. Edward John Carnell - was a prominent and influential Christian theologian and apologist.
16. G.K. Chesterton - famous author, philosopher, theologian, apologist.
17. David K. Clark - apologist with notable books; teaches at Bethel Seminary
18. Gordon Clark - Christian philosopher, apologist, and theologian. Contemporary of Van Til.
19. Kelly James Clark - notable philosopher of religion, author; Calvin College.
20. Gene Cook - host of UnchainedRadio; reformed pastor and apologist. Owns a pit bull.
21. Paul Copan - Philosophy and ethics; noted apologist and author.
22. Winfried Corduan - Christian philosopher of religion; noted author.
23. Steven B. Cowan - Associate director of Apologetics Resource Center; Areopagus Journal
24. William Lane Craig - philosopher, theologian, apologist; Debater par excellence.
25. Dinesh D’Souza - writer, speaker, debater. Various notable debates.
26. William Dembski - philosopher of science and mathematician; ID theorist.
27. William Edgar - Professor of Apologetics Westminster Theological Seminary; jazz pianist.
28. Lenny Esposito - founder of ComeReason apologetics ministry.
29. C. Stephen Evans - philosophy of religion; apologetics; great author. Baylor.
30. Paul D. Feinberg - the late philosopher of religion and apologist; author.
31. Harold Felder - founder of GivingAnAnswer apologetics ministry.
32. Phil Fernandes - Christian philosopher, apologist, debater. Tremendous audio resources.
33. John Frame - Reformed Theological Seminary; reformed apologist; Van Til expert.
34. Norman Geisler - prolific author of over 70 books; Classical apologist.
35. R. Douglas Geivett - Professor of Philosophy Talbot Department of Philosophy / Biola
36. Simon Greenleaf - legal scholar famous for his book Testimony of the Evangelists.
37. Douglas Groothuis - Christian philosopher, author, teacher.
38. Shandon L. Guthrie - philosophy, apologetics, atheism, comparative religions, ethics.
39. Gary Habermas - the world's foremost expert on the resurrection of Jesus.
40. Ken Ham - young Earth creationist famous/nororious for the Creation Museum.
41. Hank Hanegraaff - today's Bible Answer Man.
42. Craig Hazen - director of Biola's Christian Apologetics program.
43. J.P. Holding - founded Tektonics apologetics website; author.
44. Anthony Horvath - Athanatos Christian Ministries and online Apologetics Academy.
45. Phillip E. Johnson - one of the key leaders of the Intelligent Design movement.
46. Walter Kaiser - scholar, writer, educator, and distinguished Professor of Old Testament.
47. Timothy Keller - urban pastor and apologist noted for his clear communication.
48. Greg Koukl - apologist and president of Stand to Reason; excellent radio program.
49. Peter Kreeft - professor of philosophy at Boston College, noted apologist.
50. John Lennox - philosopher of science, mathematician, Oxford debater of Dawkins.
51. C.S. Lewis - famous author, lecturer, apologist; Narnia books, Mere Christianity.
52. Gordon Lewis - philosopher and theologian; author of Testing Christianity's Truth Claims.
53. Mike Licona - historian and apologist; authority on the resurrection of Jesus.
54. Bruce Little - philosopher noted for work on the problem of evil and theodicy.
55. Paul Little - late apologist and author noted for his simple style and easy communication.
56. David Marshall - world cultures, outspoken against new atheism.
57. Walter Martin - most famous for his Kingdom of the Cults book; the original Answer Man.
58. Stuart McAllister - Scottish itinerant cultural apologist with RZIM.
59. Josh McDowell - famous for Evidence that Demands a Verdict.
60. Sean McDowell - worldview youth minister / itinerant apologist.
61. Alex McFarland - itinerant apologist targeting young people, teens.
62. Alister McGrath - Oxford professor of theology, author and opponent of new atheism.
63. Chad Meister - philosopher of religion, ethics, logic; apologist, author; Bethel College.
64. Angus Menuge - Concordia University professor of philosophy.
65. Albert Mohler - president of SBTS, worldview cultural commentator, author, radio host.
66. John Warwick Montgomery - perhaps the most famous evidentialist apologist.
67. J.P. Moreland - Christian philosopher, noted author, apologist.
68. Ronald Nash - Professor Philosophy and Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary
69. Randall Niles - itinerant and multimedia apologist.
70. David Noebel - founder of Summit Ministries and worldview apologist.
71. Scott Oliphint - Professor of Apologetics and Systematic Theology WTS
72. Amy Orr-Ewing - Director of Training of the Zacharias Trust.
73. Craig Parton - trial lawyer and noted Lutheran apologist.
74. Alvin Plantinga - world-class philosopher; reformed epistemology, philosophy of religion.
75. Doug Powell - excellent multimedia apologist at SelflessDefense.
76. Michael Ramsden - European Director of Zacharias Trust, speaker for RZIM.
77. Fazale Rana - PhD biochemist with Reasons to Believe.
78. Ron Rhodes - author and apologist founder of Reasoning from the Scriptures.
79. John W. Robbins - reformed apologist, founder of Trinity Foundation.
80. Mark D. Roberts - pastor, author, speaker, blogger. Emphasis in NT / Gospels.
81. David Robertson - Scottish pastor famous/notorious for his Dawkins Letters.
82. Hugh Ross - astrophysicist apologist and old Earth creationist; founder Reasons to Believe.
83. Kenneth Samples - reformed philosopher, theologian, apologist with Reasons to Believe.
84. Francis Schaeffer - famous late cultural apologist, author, philosopher; founder of L'Abri.
85. Mary Jo Sharp - author, apologist, debater; founder of Confident Christianity.
86. James Sire - influential worldview author, apologist, and speaker.
87. Matt Slick - founder of CARM.org, one of the best apologetics encyclopedias on the web.
88. R.C. Sproul - notable theologian, author, and classical apologist.
89. Don Stewart - prolific author, apologist, and host of the Bible Explorer.
90. Lee Strobel - journalist famous for his Case for Christ series of books; popular apologist.
91. Richard Swinburne - world-class Oxford philosopher of religion; author.
92. Frank Turek - itinerant apologist and founder of CrossExamined; debated Hitchens.
93. Cornelius Van Til - the most famous presuppositional reformed apologist.
94. Jim Wallace - cold case detective, pastor, and apologist; excellent podcast.
95. James White - theologian, author, prolific debater, and reformed apologist.
96. Dallas Willard - Christian philosopher; notable works in philosophy, discipleship,
97. Peter S. Williams - Christian philosopher; notable works countering Dawkins
98. Douglas Wilson - presuppositional apologist; number of atheist debates (Hitchens, Barker)
99. N.T. Wright - Archbishop of Canterbury; notable work on the resurrection.
100. Ravi Zacharias -perhaps today's most notable international cultural apologist.

Women and Christian apologetics

Last weekend I listened to Greg Koukl’s radio show, Stand to Reason (KBRT-AM 740, 2-5 p.m.). This is a quality show that encourages all Christians to think clearly about their faith. I highly recommend it (get more information at str.org). Greg had as his guest Mary Jo Sharp (confidentchristianity.com), a woman who has become a successful Christian apologist for her faith. I made a list of women I knew who were involved in defending the faith—Nancy Pearcey, Gretchen Passantino Coburn, Amy Orr-Ewing, and Mary Jo Sharp. That’s a pretty small list when compared to men who are doing the same thing. Why is the proportion of women so small? Here are some possible answers. Do these make sense? Any other ideas?

First, there may be a difference in how men and women are wired. Men may care more about abstract issues while women may be more interested in the practical aspects of life involving family, friends, and the society around them. Men seem to be more aggressive, enjoying argumentation’s give-and-take.

Secondly, women have been heavily involved with other things. They raise children, hold jobs, get connected with various church ministries, create comfortable home environments, etc. I get tired just thinking of what my wife and my daughters-in-law do during a typical day.

Finally, churches may unintentionally send a message that this area isn’t for women. For example, many women’s ministries focus on traditional female events like teas while high school and college groups may stick with males doing all the teaching. Lots of churches have been uncomfortable with the idea of women teaching men.

The Value of Defending the Faith

Many question the value of apologetics in bringing a person to faith in Jesus. They may say you can't argue someone into the kingdom. Of course, it's all God's doing, but some individuals have been impacted greatly by a clear defense of the faith. The following is a good example by Francis Collins, a physician/geneticist, who was the head of the Human Genome Project. This highly educated individual thought he had it all figured out until someone gave him a book to read. Here's the story as told by Collins. Let's consider the impact of that one person who handed him the book; we can have that same impact in the lives of those around us.



Perhaps the books that have changed my life most profoundly are a couple of books written by the Oxford scholar, C.S. Lewis. Not about science, actually, about faith. When I was 27, I was a medical intern; I was a pretty obnoxious atheist at that point. I began to realize that while in other parts of my life I didn't make decisions without accumulating data and then looking at it, I hadn't really done that when it came to this very important decision about, "Do you believe in God, or not?"

Because I had no real grounding for that, I discovered in college that I couldn't debate those who said, faith was just a superstitious carry-over from the past and we've gone beyond that. I assumed that must be right, and I promoted that same view. And at 27, particularly as a medical intern, watching so many tumultuous things happening around me -- young people dying for terrible reasons that shouldn't have come to pass -- you can't avoid noticing some pretty scary questions that don't seem to have answers. So I decide I'd better resolve this.

Somebody pointed me towards C.S. Lewis's little book called Mere Christianity, which took all of my arguments that I thought were so airtight about the fact that faith is just irrational, and proved them totally full of holes. And in fact, turned them around the other way, and convinced me that the choice to believe is actually the most rational conclusion when you look at the evidence around you. That was a shocking sort of revelation, and one that I fought bitterly for about a year and then finally decided to accept. And that's a book I go back to regularly, to dig through there for the truths that you find there, which are not truths that Lewis would claim he discovered for the first time, but he certainly expresses them in a very powerful way to somebody who is not willing to accept faith on an emotional basis, and I wasn't.

The Gospel of Judas--a new understanding of Jesus??

Every once in a while, we get brash headlines, declaring the finding of a "new" gospel, one that throws out our traditional understanding of Jesus as seen in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Not too long ago, it was the Gospel of Judas. Here's Chuck Colson's take on the uproar over this document. By the way, I highly recommend anything by Colson, one of the clearest, most challenging Christian writers today.

Just last weekend I was in an airport bookstore and saw the new book counter filled with numerous editions of The Da Vinci Code. Then I picked up the New York Times, and there I was greeted with the headline on the front page that read, “In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal.”
You probably have seen the hype, including a one-hour National Geographic TV spectacular: After seventeen hundred years, the story goes, the long-lost text of the so-called “Gospel of Judas” has re-surfaced. It claims that Jesus secretly told Judas to betray Him; so Judas is really a good disciple.

Well, it’s not a new discovery. This “new gospel” and the heresy it espouses—Gnosticism—were rejected as fiction by Christian leaders and the Church as early as 180 A.D.

Gnosticism was an attempt to add to Christianity an essentially Eastern worldview dressed up with Christian language. It was presented to the Roman world as the true Gospel—complete with endless mysteries that only those with secret knowledge could unravel. Many unsuspecting people were enthralled with Gnostic writings, particularly their sometimes gory and salacious initiation ceremonies. Christian pastors and theologians repeatedly rejected all forms of Gnosticism, until, by the middle of the third century, it had all but disappeared.

But now it is back with a vengeance, with supposed discoveries and works like Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. It provides the means for Christianity’s detractors to debunk the historical Jesus, and it certainly sells books. Seven million copies of The Da Vinci Code is testimony to that. Gnosticism has particular appeal today because of the postmodern age, which has rejected historical truth. So you can find God any way you wish, through your own group. This, of course, is the belief that is at the root of the spreading New Age movement.

The danger is that we have a biblically illiterate population. People today don’t know—maybe don’t care—whether there is a difference between the Gospel of Judas and the Gospel of John. They are unfamiliar with the work of the ancient canonical councils of the Church (which rejected the Gnostic “gospels” time and again) or even of the basic creeds or confessions of the Christian Church. Sadly, people are as gullible today as ever.

Now it is tempting to get angry at National Geographic and the liberal press for unleashing this fraudulent “gospel” at the beginning of the holiest week of the year. But don’t. Instead, let’s use the media attention to debunk the debunkers, to point out to friends that this regurgitated Gnosticism—the Da Vinci Code and the “gospel” of Judas included—is nothing more than historically unsupportable fantasy.

Then we can point them to the knowledge that is accessible to all people that has been accessible to Christians for two thousand years and proven historically accurate. It’s called the Bible.

But whatever you do, get informed first. Come to our website (see further reading below) or call us here at “BreakPoint” (1-877-322-5527) and find some of the resources that we are offering. And get busy because millions can be suckered in—unless you and I set the record straight.

For Further Reading and Information

Please help support the Christian worldview ministries of BreakPoint and the Wilberforce Forum. Donate online today! Or call 1-877-322-5527.

Ted Olsen, “Weblog: Kisses for Judas,” Christianity Today, 11 April 2006.

John Noble Wilford and Laurie Goodstein, “In Ancient Document, Judas, Minus the Betrayal,” New York Times, 7 April 2006.

Larry Hurtado, “The Gospel of Judas,” Slate, 10 April 2006.

James Martin, “No Revelations in Gospel of Judas,” Boston Globe, 11 April 2006.

BreakPoint Commentary No. 020329, “An Unholy Hoax?: The Authenticity of Christ.” (Free registration required.)

BreakPoint Commentary No. 040527, “False Advertising: Da Vinci Doesn’t Even Get Heresy Right.” (Free registration required.)

BreakPoint Commentary No. 060308, “The Da Vinci Hoax: A Tour de Distortion.”

Visit the “Da Vinci Challenge” website.

Also see the “Da Vinci Deception” website.

Cal Thomas, “The Gospel of Unbelief,” Townhall.com, 11 April 2006.

John Leo, “A Dud of a Gospel,” U. S. News and World Report, 10 April 2006.

Ben Witherington III, The Gospel Code: Novel Claims about Jesus, Mary Magdalene and Da Vinci (InterVarsity, 2004).

Luke Timothy Johnson, The Creed: What Christians Believe and Why It Matters (Doubleday, 2003).

Watch your wallet

Last fall I watched a poised, assured Barack Obama promise the vast majority of the American people their taxes wouldn't go up if he was elected (just the evil rich would pay). After listening to all his proposals for "change" and considering the vast sums necessary to implement them, I was amazed that he could make such promises about keeping our taxes where they were. Now we see the truth coming out. Check this recent dispatch from the Wall Street Journal regarding your future taxes needed to pay for all the plans Obama has in the works.

If President Obama has his way, you will soon have to submit to government rationing of medical care and drive a tiny car. But at least your taxes won't go up if you make under $250,000 a year, right?
Oh, you poor naive soul. The Associated Press delivers the bad news in a dispatch by Stephen Ohlemacher titled "PROMISES, PROMISES: Obama's Tax Pledge Unrealistic":
Obama made a firm tax pledge during the presidential campaign, repeating it numerous times in the weeks and months leading up to Election Day: no tax increases for individuals making less than $200,000 a year or couples making less than $250,000.
"Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes," Obama told a crowd in Dover, N.H., last year.
But less than a month after taking office, Obama signed an expansion of child health care financed by 62-cent tax increase on each pack of cigarettes.
Obama also signed an anti-smoking bill in June that grants authority to the Food and Drug Administration to regulate tobacco. To pay for the new program, a fee is being imposed on the industry--and presumably passed on to consumers--estimated to generate more than $5 billion over the next decade.
While not directly increasing taxes, a House-passed version of Obama's plan to reduce greenhouse gases blamed for causing global warming would similarly increase American families' home energy bills by $175 a year on average, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
Obama hasn't offered a detailed plan to fix health care, though his aides are working with lawmakers as they craft proposals. Obama included only a down payment for health care reform in the budget proposal he unveiled this spring.
He proposed limiting itemized tax deductions for individuals making more than $200,000 and couples making more than $250,000. The plan, which faces stiff opposition in Congress, would limit deductions for mortgage insurance, state and local taxes and charitable contributions, raising about $270 billion over the next decade.
Obama also proposed a series of business tax increases and accounting changes that would raise an additional $30 billion.
If only someone had warned us back when Obama was running for president! Well, actually, John McCain and the Republicans did issue such warnings--but the AP, in a series of "fact check" articles, declared that the warnings were false and implied that they were lies.

How do we explain the success of crazy ideas like those in The Da Vinci Code?

I get so frustrated at rational people who end up seriously considering the goofy claims of people like Dan Brown, author of The Da Vinci Code. I'm starting a book by a noted scholar, Ben Witherington (What Have They Done With Jesus?). In the early pages he deals with this same issue--why are we so easily taken in by radical claims about Jesus and the New Testament? I'm including his response here. After I've read more of this book, I hope to use later blogs to explore some of his points about this ongoing distortion of Jesus and the early church.

What is there about American culture that makes normally rational people extremely gullible about sensational claims about Jesus? For one thing, our society is biblically illiterate and, therefore, swallows almost any wild theory about Jesus. In addition, Americans today are burned out and skeptical of anyone offering traditional answers; they would rather listen to new theories even if there's no evidence behind them. Furthermore, our commercial-based society says that if something is new it must be better. One other reason has to do with fundamentalists on television where they preen and make foolish pronouncements, causing scholars to go crazy and to react by presenting a Christianity which is completely different. A fifth reason deals with scholars who want to win praise from fellow scholars by appearing to be mavericks; a good way for them to do this is to discount or discredit much of the traditional view of Jesus or the New Testament. One final reason deals with presuppositions that many modern scholars, including historians, use to shape their views of Jesus. For example, some of these people assume that miracles cannot happen and therefore do not happen. They have not proved this; they merely assert this to be true.

A Muslim tells his story

I read an interesting account by a Muslim who encountered a Christian and debated several key questions with him--has the New Testament been corrupted? did Jesus ever claim to be God? did Jesus really die on the cross?. Like all Muslims, the narrator believed the New Testament had been changed, that Jesus never claimed to be God, and that He did not die on the cross. Read his story to see the results. What would be your response to these crucial questions?


Has the Bible been corrupted?
I challenged David, stating that no reasonable person could trust the Bible. As a Muslim, I knew that the Qur’an was the uncorrupted word of God transmitted from God Himself, through the Prophet of Islam. And although the Qur’an says that the Gospels (al-Injeel) were given by God, they had been irretrievably modified and corrupted in the centuries after Jesus. Why else would there be so many versions of the Bible throughout history, with constant editions and revisions even today? I advocated the position that Christ never claimed to be God, but rather that Christians had forged all verses that would indicate such a claim. And without a divinely inspired book worth trusting, Christians have no ground to stand on. False ideas were introduced into Christianity by power-hungry followers such as Paul, a self-proclaimed "apostle," and others like him.
Unbeknownst to me, David was not just a Bible-reading Christian, but a Christian with every intention of becoming a devoted apologist. So when he heard this argument, he wasn’t overcome by its logic (as I had assumed) but instead was shocked that I had decided to enter into such a discussion without any prodding of his own. And so began our series of informal debates about the truth of Islam versus Christianity, as well as my intellectual journey towards the throne of Christ.
David’s response to my argument ran as follows. First, while there are indeed many variations of the Bible obtained from more than 5,000 Greek manuscripts, there is such a large amount of early manuscript evidence and such a concordance between those manuscripts that we can reconstruct the Bible and be certain of about 95% of the original content. Second, no doctrine of the Bible is in jeopardy by any of the variations. Third, there are so many quotations of and references to the New Testament from the ancient world that we can reconstruct practically all of it from early quotations alone. Fourth, there are multiple fragments of manuscripts that can be dated to within a couple of centuries after Christ’s death which we have in our possession even now (the earliest dating to less than 100 years after Christ, 125 AD). Fifth, he claimed that whole copies of the Bible are available from around three centuries after Christ’s death. Finally, the previously mentioned estimate of 95% accuracy was a conservative one; in actuality it is closer to 98 or 99%.
Blown away by the overwhelmingly convincing argument he provided, I determined that he had made it all up, and I decided to investigate the issue myself. The result of my investigation was that there is no evidential reason to believe that the modern editions of the New Testament are in any way substantially different from the original autographs themselves. To challenge the scriptural integrity of the New Testament after sincere investigation is to reflect a bias against it.

Did Jesus claim to be God?
After being satisfied that the New Testament is trustworthy, I decided to take David to task on a different point. Nowhere, ever, did Christ claim that He was the literal Son of God, let alone God Himself. Christ, being the Messiah for Muslims as well as Christians, was a holy man. How dare the Christians ascribe such hubris to one of the greatest men of history, especially when He never claimed divinity in the Gospels themselves!
This discussion took more time than the first. David’s claim was that Christ did say that He was the Son of God, though He didn’t run around proclaiming it from the rooftops, as this would have gotten Him killed immediately. Here is some of the evidence David offered.
In the Old Testament, Isaiah prophesied that a child would be born who would be called "Mighty God" (Isaiah 9:6). But this isn’t the only Old Testament support for the deity of Christ. Jesus’s most common title for Himself was "Son of Man," which referred back to a prophecy in the book of Daniel:
In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence. He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all peoples, nations and men of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed. (vv. 7:14-15, NIV)
According to the New Testament, Jesus was worshiped shortly after His birth (Matthew 2:11), during His ministry (Matthew 14:33; John 9:38), and after His resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:9, 28:17; Luke 24:52), yet He never told his worshipers to stop what they were doing. Jesus claimed to have existed before Abraham (who lived in the 18th century BC). When asked whether He was the Son of God, He answered, "I am . . . And you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Mighty One and coming on the clouds of heaven" (Mark 14:62). Jesus also claimed to be the final Judge of all mankind (Matthew 25-31-32).
After actually reading parts of the New Testament itself instead of merely reading Muslim books on the topic, I came to agree with David’s claim: both the New Testament in general and Christ Himself claimed that Jesus is God.

Did Jesus die on the Cross?
As a Muslim, there was one thing I had always believed that would make Christianity completely invalid, regardless of anything else. According to Qur’an, Christ did not die on the cross.
That they said "We killed Christ Jesus the son of Mary, the Messenger of Allah." But they killed him not, nor crucified him, … of a surety they killed him not. (Al-Qur’an 4:157-158)
If Christ did not die on the Cross, then Christianity is without question a vain belief, even according to Paul himself! Paul said that if Christ was not raised from the dead, then the faith of a Christian is worthless (1 Corinthians 15:17). Of course, His resurrection requires His death, and so Paul is stating that if Christ did not die on the cross, then the Christian faith is worthless.
Thus we are presented with a question: "Which is right—the Qur’an or the Bible?" Of course, if I were to pick the Qur’an without perusing the evidence, I would not be searching for the truth; rather, I would be robotically defending what I had prejudicially taken as the truth. After investigating the facts surrounding the crucifixion of Christ, I was amazed by how incontrovertibly clear it is that He did die on the cross, a fact which is considered by some historians to be among the best established facts of history. Based on the first century evidence (including both Christian and non-Christian sources), as well as our historical knowledge about Roman crucifixion, there turns out to be no rational way to deny the death of Jesus. Any notion that says otherwise requires an elaborate conspiracy theory of some sort, and even those fail because the conspirators would have been His apostles, the very disciples who were quite obviously convinced of the truth of the Gospel message.

Novels you might like

As you may know, I teach English at a community college. This coming fall I will be introducing one class to literature (short stories, poetry, drama, and the novel). I created a list of novels for students to read from. The list represents books I think would make for a good read. The genres cover war, humor, Biblical history, science fiction, minority issues, and everyday life. There might be one there you haven't read. Check out Amazon or some other site that can provide info about the book if you'd like to follow up on this.

Lynn Austin--Gods and Kings
Greg Bear--The Forge of God
Elizabeth Berg--The Handmaid and the Carpenter
Lothar-Gunther Buchheim--The Boat
Olive Ann Burns--Cold Sassy Tree
Octavia Butler--Kindred; Parable of the Sower
Orson Scott Card--Ender’s Game
Sandra Cisneros--Caramelo
Michael Crichton--The Andromeda Strain; Eaters of the Dead
Anita Diamant--The Red Tent
Philip K. Dick--Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?
India Edghill--Wisdom’s Daughter
Eva Etzioni-Halevy--The Triumph of Deborah
William Gibson--Neuromancer; Count Zero
Margaret George--Mary, Called Magdalen
Gail Godwin--Evensong
Tony Hillerman--The Blessing Way
Marjorie Holmes--Two From Galilee
Susan Howatch--Glamorous Powers
Charles Johnson--Middle Passage
Maxine Hong Kingston--The Woman Warrior
Rebecca Kohn--The Gilded Chamber
John LeCarre--Our Game
Ursula K. LeGuin--The Lathe of Heaven; The Left Hand of Darkness; A Wizard of Earthsea
Bobbie Ann Mason--In Country
Cormac McCarthy--All the Pretty Horses
James Michener--The Source
Nicholas Monsarrat--The Cruel Sea
Patrick O’Brian--Master and Commander
Tillie Olson--Yonnondio
Steven Pressfield--Gates of Fire; Tides of War
Brenda Ray--The Midwife’s Song
Anne Rice--Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana
Francine Rivers--Redeeming Love
Derek Robinson--Goshawk Squadron; Piece of Cake
Kim Stanley Robinson--Red Mars
Jeff Shaara--The Rising Tide; To the Last Man
Michael Shaara--Killer Angels
Anne Tyler--The Accidental Tourist; Saint Maybe
Gore Vidal--Lincoln
Connie Willis--The Doomsday Book
Tom Wolfe--The Bonfire of the Vanities

Heinlein on life

I have taught science fiction and enjoy its flights of fancy. One of the premier sf writers was Robert Heinlein. He is considered one of the top two or three authors due to his fertile imagination, his intelligence, and his maverick themes. Check out some of his statements I have collected here. You can see the sparkle and wit. Let me know if you'd like a list of some of his best tales.


You live and learn. Or you don't live long.

Always listen to experts. They'll tell you what can't be done, and why. Then do it.

A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.

A society that gets rid of all its troublemakers goes downhill.

An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.

Anyone who considers protocol unimportant has never dealt with a cat.

Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors... and miss.

Don't ever become a pessimist... a pessimist is correct oftener than an optimist, but an optimist has more fun, and neither can stop the march of events.

Don't handicap your children by making their lives easy.

Everything is theoretically impossible, until it is done.

For me, politeness is a sine qua non of civilization.

I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; if I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am morally responsible for everything I do.

I never learned from a man who agreed with me.

It's an indulgence to sit in a room and discuss your beliefs as if they were a juicy piece of gossip.

"Love" is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own... Jealousy is a disease, love is a healthy condition. The immature mind often mistakes one for the other, or assumes that the greater the love, the greater the jealousy.

May you live as long as you wish and love as long as you live.

Never insult anyone by accident.


Never underestimate the power of human stupidity.

Never worry about theory as long as the machinery does what it's supposed to do.

No statement should be believed because it is made by an authority.

One could write a history of science in reverse by assembling the solemn pronouncements of highest authority about what could not be done and could never happen.

One of the sanest, surest, and most generous joys of life comes from being happy over the good fortune of others.

The supreme irony of life is that hardly anyone gets out of it alive.

There is no way that writers can be tamed and rendered civilized or even cured. The only solution known to science is to provide the patient with an isolation room, where he can endure the acute stages in private and where food can be poked in to him with a stick.

They didn't want it good, they wanted it Wednesday.

To be matter-of-fact about the world is to blunder into fantasy - and dull fantasy at that, as the real world is strange and wonderful.

When a place gets crowded enough to require ID's, social collapse is not far away. It is time to go elsewhere. The best thing about space travel is that it made it possible to go elsewhere.

Writing is not necessarily something to be ashamed of, but do it in private and wash your hands afterwards.

You can have peace. Or you can have freedom. Don't ever count on having both at once.

Some words of wisdom

I took the following from an old Car Talk show. Tom and Ray crack me up.


"If a woman has to choose between catching a fly ball and saving an infant's life, she will choose to save the infant's life without even considering if there is a man on base."
Dave Barry

"My mom said she learned how to swim when someone took her out in the lake and threw her off the boat. I said, 'Mom, they weren't trying to teach you how to swim.'"
Paula Poundstone

"You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'Wow! You're right! I never would've thought of that!'"
Dave Barry

"If you can't beat them, arrange to have them beaten."
George Carlin

"A study in the Washington Post says that women have better verbal skills than men. I just want to say to the authors of that study: duh."
Conan O'Brien

"Why does Sea World have a seafood restaurant? I'm halfway through my fish burger and I realize, 'Oh my goodness... I could be eating a slow learner.'"
Lynda Montgomery

"The day I worry about cleaning my house is the day Sears comes out with a riding vacuum cleaner."
Roseanne

"I think that's how Chicago got started. A bunch of people in New York said, 'Gee, I'm enjoying the crime and the poverty, but it just isn't cold enough. Let's go west.'"
Richard Jeni

"If life was fair, Elvis would be alive and all the impersonators would be dead."
Johnny Carson

"Sometimes I think war is God's way of teaching us geography."
Paul Rodriguez

"My parents didn't want to move to Florida, but they turned sixty, and that's the law."
Jerry Seinfeld

"In elementary school, in case of fire you have to line up quietly in a single file line from smallest to tallest. What is the logic? Do tall people burn slower?"
Warren Hutcherson

"Suppose you were an idiot... and suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself."
Mark Twain

"When I die, I want to die like my grandmother who died peacefully in her sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in her car."
Author Unknown

Advice for the day: If you have a lot of tension and you get a headache, do what it says on the aspirin bottle: "Take two aspirin," and "Keep away from children."