Posted on 12/04/2010 12:31:53 PM PST by antiobamacare
Dinesh D’Souza, one of the foremost Christian apologists of our time, spoke at the University of Oklahoma on Wednesday night with an address titled “The God Decision: Delusion, Confusion, or Truth?” He gave an elegant espousal on why there is a large amount of evidence that points toward the existence of some sort of supernatural being, namely God.
For those relatively unfamiliar with the Indian born speaker he was mesmerizing. Having seen him in almost twenty speeches and debates, I was still awestruck with not only his intelligence but his ability to convey his message in layman terms. Upon the conclusion of the speech an overwhelming majority of individuals came away from the speech invigorated and reaffirmed about Christianity.
Nonetheless, some of the most consequential questions were left unanswered. He began his speech detailing some of the tactics new atheists employ when seeking to influence young minds. One tactic he referred to was asking the question, “Is it not because of cultural and geographical situations that most people subscribe to a certain religion? For example one becomes a Christian because one was born into a Christian home in Dallas, Texas and conversely one is a Muslim as a result of being born into a Muslim family in Saudi Arabia." I had never heard him address this point before and was excited to hear his analogy. Regrettably he never addressed this subject and no one asked him the question during the Q&A. I got in line to ask the question but unfortunately the event ran out of time before it was my turn.
(Excerpt) Read more at thewoodwardreport.com ...
Absence of Mind:
The Dispelling of Inwardness from the Modern Myth of the Self
(The Terry Lectures Series)
http://www.amazon.com/Absence-Mind-Dispelling-Inwardness-Lectures/dp/0300145187
Robinson's new nonfiction work is drawn from her 2009 Terry lectures at Yale. More precisely, they are "lectures on religion in the light of science and philosophy." The charge is ambitious, and Robinson brings to the task a suitably wide-ranging perspective. She takes aim at the modern scholarly propensity to debunk, a practice she calls "flawed learnedness." It pitches out the babies of human insight with the bathwater of the past, preferring what she calls "parascience," a kind of pseudoscience that prizes certainty. This "parascience" is a latecomer in human thought, the product of only the last 150 years or so. Because it closes off questions, it's not even scientific. Nor does it allow space for the human mind and all the mind has produced in history and civilization. This is heady stuff that will particularly appeal to those familiar with the history of ideas and the many thinkers she cites, and to anyone willing to ponder broadly and humanistically about imponderable matters. Those who savor Robinson's clear prose will also be gratified; her mind, in thought, is elegant.
As a work-in-progress Christian (aren’t we all?), I’m always tickled when I see one of those documentaries on the “Big Bang Theory” and they run a 24 hour clock backwards from today and stop a millisecond or so from midnight.
That millisecond contains the trigger to their Big Bang but, like most humanists/atheists/agnostics, they don’t have a clue whose finger is on that trigger or they’d continue to the top of the hour.
But we know, don’t we?
I like Dinesh but I still think Ravi Zacharias is one of the best apologists and coming from India himself makes his voice very, very powerful!
Ravi is also one of my favorites.. I have him bookmarkedand receive daily writings from him or his staff....
I don’t know anythng about Dinesh... the last apologist I really liked (before Ravi) was/is C.S. Lewis writings.
Ravi is aways very inspiring for me.
I like Ravi and Dinesh too. There are other excellent ones: William Lane Craig, Craig Hazen, J.P.Moreland, John Mark Reynolds, Sean McDowell, Lee Strobel. All great.
I agree. Not only is Ravi one of the most intelligent Christian apologist I’ve ever heard or seen, he is also one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever heard or seen.
One is not a “Christian” until one has accepted Christ. The Bible would agree with this.
One is considered a “Muslim” when born into a Muslim family, and, unfortunately, the Koran would agree with this. However, I believe many would say one is not formally of any religion until they profess it themselves, save for a race defaulting to a “people,” as Jews were once considered.
Add Francis Collins.
I take exception to the author´s equating volcanoes, earthquakes, etc., with ¨natural evil¨. These things are necessary for the environment in which we live, whereas true evil is transmitted only through the mind of Man against other humans, animals and however far out we can strike.
A fantastic abundance of evidence points very clearly toward God in, of and transcending the universe. There is NO evidence however, of evil, or Satan or the devil, outside the human imagination at all...except perhaps in the ¨mind¨ of some other sentient being elsewhere in existence.
¨Watch out for this one, swami¨ ping.
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