HillFaith

The Fine-Tuning Of The Universe Is Best Explained By God Or Chance?

Scientists are steadily adding new measures to the already lengthy list of aspects of the universe that illustrate how it is incredibly finely tuned to allow the existence of life on Earth.

Take for example the relationship of the energy of the universe to its mass. If that relationship was off by an incomprehensibly tiny one part in 10 to the 10 to the 123rd, I wouldn’t be here composing this post and you wouldn’t be reading it.

The following video from Philosophy Professor William Lane Craig’s reasonablefaith.org group lays out multiple examples of how incredibly, amazingly fine-tuned our universe is.

The logical inference from the precision and multiplicity of these measures is that the universe isn’t here by chance, it must have an intelligent designer, or, that is, God:

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STAFF MOVES: Look Who’s Getting Promoted On The Hill

Recent Staff Moves, As Reported By Legistorm:

Stephen Smith is the House Republican Conference’s new press secretary, working with Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wy.). He was previously communications director for Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.). Stephen is a 2010 graduate from the University of Indiana, Bloomington, with a BS in business.

Got a scheduling question involving Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV)? Ronald Mak is who you want to see, as he is the new scheduler in that office. Ronald was previously a policy fellow working on the House Financial Services Committee for the panel’s chairman, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.). Ronald earned an MPA/MA in economics in 2017 from Syracuse University, and a BA in economics and political science from the University of Redlands in 2015. Continue reading “STAFF MOVES: Look Who’s Getting Promoted On The Hill”

THINK ABOUT THIS: Why Can’t Plato’s Forms Explain Morality Without God?

It may seem like a question with no relevance in the real world, but the issue of the source and nature of concepts and principles like justice influences pretty much all aspects of everybody’s daily lives.

It’s not often that Plato’s forms are discussed in campus discussion forums these days, but then Dr. Frank Turek of cross-examined.org has a way of inspiring spirited conversations on topics of eternal significance.

In the following video, Turek is asked by a student who appears to be deeply interested in philosophy about Plato’s forms and whether they explain the existence of moral laws apart from the existence of God.

So, You Think That Jesus Story Is Nothing More Than A Mass ‘Shroom’ Hallucination?

You may if you’re susceptible to conspiracy theories, love to get high with the assistance of natural or chemical “friends,” or just can’t be bothered with coming to grips with the central fact of history.

Meet well-known comedian, religion critic, and podcast host Joe Rogan, who, according to The Federalist’s Hans Fienne, has fallen under the spell of a little-known Dead Sea Scroll scholar, John Marco Allegro, who back when real Hippies roamed the Earth authored the book “The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross.”

Allegro explained away the resurrection with a theory that said Jesus never really existed but was instead simply the product of a mass hallucination among a bunch of muchroom-loving ancient Sumerians. Somewhere along the way, the early Christians took it all way too literally and the rest is history.

Fienne, a Lutheran minister with a genuine sense of humor and an impressively learned mind, disassembles this conspiracy theory that helpfully illustrates the absurd lengths to which we humans will go to avoid “the man (or woman) in the mirror.” That’s a reference to the book, by the way, not the Michael Jackson recording (the lyrics of which are also worth pondering).

I guarantee you will enjoy reading Fienne’s analysis, and you will probably also come away with a better understanding of the genuine significance of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Go here.

GREAT QUOTES: Josh McDowell On When Christians Challenged Him To Disprove Christ, Christianity

“I decided to start with the Bible. I knew that if I could uncover indisputable evidence that the Bible is an unreliable record, the whole of Christianity would crumble …

“I took the challenge seriously. I spent months in research. I even dropped out of school for a time to study in the historically rich libraries of Europe.

“And I found evidence. Evidence in abundance. Evidence I would not have believed had I not seen it with my own eyes. Finally, I could come to only one conclusion:

“If I were to remain intellectually honest, I had to admit that the Old and New Testament documents were some of the most reliable writings in all of antiquity.

“And if they were reliable, what about this man Jesus, whom I had dismissed as a mere carpenter in an out-of-the-way town in a tiny oppressed country, a man who had gotten caught up in his own visions of grandeur?

“I had to admit that Jesus Christ was more than a carpenter. He was all that He claimed to be.” — Josh McDowell, *”More Than A Carpenter.”

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SCIENCE AND FAITH: Free Will Is An Illusion If Choices Are Simply Determined By The Chemistry Of Our Brains

If thinking is merely a product of chemical reactions within the brain, what does that make of ideas like “individual liberty” and “social justice?”

It is not uncommon to hear the claim that human thoughts and choices are actually nothing more than the product of material processes of neurons acting and reacting within our physical brains.

Put another way, our minds are illusions. We only think we think of our own free will. As Stephen Hawking, the famous physicist and atheist advocate, put it in a 2011 interview with Britain’s The Guardian:

“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail. There is no heaven or afterlife for broken down computers; that is a fairy story for people afraid of the dark,” Hawking said. It’s striking that such a smart man apparently missed the irony of his own analogy contradicting his assertion. Continue reading “SCIENCE AND FAITH: Free Will Is An Illusion If Choices Are Simply Determined By The Chemistry Of Our Brains”

STAFF MOVES: Look Who Is Getting Promoted On The Hill

Recent Staff Moves, As Reported By Legistorm:

Kate Gould is the new senior policy adviser to Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), following a stint as a foreign policy fellow at the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center. She is a 2007 graduate

of Western Washington University with a BA in international development, political science and international relations. Gould was formerly a registered lobbyist for the Friends Committee on National Legislation.

Speaking of new faces, Jonathan Arias is now the senior defense policy adviser on the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee. The committee is chaired by Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). Arias has worked for the Florida senator since 2011. He lists as his hobby running triathlons. Continue reading “STAFF MOVES: Look Who Is Getting Promoted On The Hill”