Years ago there was a book entitled Listening to Prozac . I don’t want to suggest by my title that I think Atheism is a mental illness that requires medication. I wouldn’t be so arrogant or dismissive as to think those who fundamentally disagree with me are wicked or insane or both,  though some prominent Atheists have said as much about Christianity. As I’ve mentioned a few times, for whatever reason, I have a soft spot for atheists. Today I want to look at an atheist who seems to have a soft spot for Christians. Jason Rosenhouse has written a book entitled Among the Creationists: Dispatches from the Anti-Evolution Front Line. I won’t go into a critique of his ideas about the Creation/Evolution/ID debate in this post. We can save that for another time. What I am interested in his opening chapter entitled “My Problems with Religion.” I want you, dear reader, and I to do exactly what my title says. Honestly listen to this particular atheist and thoughtfully respond. In order  to do that, I’m going to attempt to summarize Rosenhouse’s chapter accurately and fairly. And then I’m going to stop. I’m going to ask you to do the same. I’ll save my critique until next week. Norman Geisler once said that atheists should be respected as the loyal opposition because they make us stronger and better. Continue reading …

If you have been watching the news over the last couple of weeks, you might not know that a very controversial trial is taking place in Philadelphia. Kermit Gosnell is accused of murder. Allegedly he murdered one of his patients in the process of doing a late term abortion under abominable sanitary conditions at his abortion clinic. She died from a drug overdose. He was charged with infanticide since he allegedly delivered late term babies and then snipped their spinal cords with scissors. As I was writing this post, it was reported that the charges of infanticide were dropped because the prosecution could not prove the babies were born alive. Gosnell’s abortion clinic has been called a house of horrors by anti-abortion advocates. I’m sorry I can’t give you more details about the conditions or Gosnell because there seems to be a sort of collective ignoring of the case by the media. As one blogger pointed out, there seems to be an asymmetry of the coverage of outrage between those who were so exorcised that the Susan G. Komen foundation withdrew support from some clinics who also did abortions and  the near non-outrage regarding Gosnell’s almost macabre nonchalance at infanticide (apparently he kept the severed feet of some of the fetus’ in a jar). Continue reading …

Last week I risked souring the fruit of the Spirit when I expressed my “discontent” with self-proclaimed “Thought Leader” Steve McSwain’s “6 Things Christians Should Just Stop Saying.” However, my feeble attempt at wrath only had room for three. Here are the others.

The rapture of Jesus is imminent.

Again, if you want to believe in some secret rapture of Christians from the earth just before the Tribulation, if you want to believe in and carry around in your hip pocket detailed charts and graphs of how its all going to happen, then so be it. But do the rest of us a favor and stop saying so in public.

So far, your record of correctly predicting the future earns a flunking grade. And I and scores of other Christians are frankly tired of apologizing for your arrogant — and so far, absolutely wrong — predictions as to when it’ll happen.

If you’ve been following along in the last post, you will see a familiar theme. Steve, in a flurry of tolerance, admits that Crazy Christians can believe whatever they want but really should just keep it to themselves. Trouble is that Steve doesn’t take the time to distinguish his targets and and does the columnist equivalent of carpet bombing Damascus. There is a HUGE difference between those who believe there will be a rapture at any time and those who think they can play pin-the-tail on the Antichrist. Let’s do a quick test, Continue reading …

Dear Reader, I was prepared to write this week about a really bad  Abortion Argument on Salon.com. But it seems that stupid arguments must alas trump bad arguments. Self-proclaimed “thought leader” Steve McSwain decided to vent his frustration with American Christianity by posting “6 Things Christians Should Just Stop Saying” at the mixed-bag that is Huffington Post. This particular post follows his other attempts at criticism such as “I Wish Christian Preachers Would Just Shut Up“  and “Why Christianity is Dying but Spirituality is Thriving.”

As I read through McSwain’s commentary I was struck with what I hope is righteous indignation but I’m humble enough to admit is probably my sin nature bathed in deep and cultivated sense of sarcasm. My friends, there are some things that people say with such thoughtless disregard for both decency and logic, that perhaps the only appropriate response is sarcasm.

Douglas Wilson has defended the use of sarcasm in Christian commentary with his book, A Serrated Edge: A Brief Defense of Biblical Satire and Trinitarian Skylarking. He points out several examples of the use of satire in the Bible. When Elijah taunted the prophets of Baal who were desperately trying to make a altar burn, I smugly imagine he was feeling the way I was when I read McSwain.  Before I launch into my snark, I would like you to know that I have thought and prayed over how to respond to McSwain’s post. I even sought council from several Godly people to make sure I wasn’t simply wallowing in angst or just trying to make a name for myself. After seeking their council, they agreed: Continue reading …

[Warning from Dr. Jonathon Miles:  The following Blog Post contains a frank discussion of prime-time television, reader discretion is advised]

Recently I had the dreaded stomach flu that is going around and to put it in Victorian terms, I was indisposed. It seemed that the only thing that helped with nausea (besides the prescriptions) was watching sit-coms. I got the 3rd and 4th season of the Big Bang Theory from my library because I am a geek and the show is very funny. In my last post, I said something about the difference between watching a 22 minute show and watching a 3 DVD season of a show:

But one wonders if Aristotle’s philosophy can hold up to an age of Netflix and the 4 DVD collection of Season one of Downton Abbey. One wonders if Paul and Aristotle would scratch their heads or shudder at the thought of  us setting up the theater in our homes every single night after dinner.

Watching back-to-back seasons of Big Bang Theory did confirm to me there is a difference between imbibing a little television and downing the equivalent of a box of Merlot. But I also noticed something else. The sexual content of the show is more noticeable after a 4 hour straight viewing session. As a philosopher I like to engage in thought experiments. So I imagined if I were an alien race listening in on our prime-time television, what they deduce from watching our prime-time sitcoms. One thing is for sure,  they would definitely think sex is one of our top priorities–having, losing it, getting better at it. So suppose this same alien race were to compile a dossier of our sexual behavior via prime-time television. I think it would look something like this: Continue reading …

I am a sucker for a good story. Strike that. I’m addict for a good story. In this age of 30 million dollar special effects budgets and two-bit writers, I will stay up, literally till 3 am to watch an entire season of a well written show. When I find a good story I am transfixed whether it be TV (Downton Abbey) or Movies (Safety Not Guaranteed), Novels (I just read 450 pp. novel in 2 days) or if my geekiness is really flaring, a graphic novel. I have never watched The Walking Dead on TV but I devoured (pardon the pun) the graphic novels.

I’m in awe of great storytellers like Chesterton, Tolkein, and Neil Gaiman. And here’s where the confession comes in: Sometimes my lust for a good story trumps my discernment. And it worries me. Recently Douglas Wilson wrote on his blog that the most important acronym in our culture may very well be: WMWJWOO. “What movies would Jesus walk out of?” I used to walk out a few movies. I used to tell my students that there are some things which, once you see them, you can’t not see them. Pauly Shore movies are like that. However I worry about my tolerance for vice and debauchery when it permeates a good story. Is is possible that nudity, violence, and crudity can serve a good story? Sure. Is it ever enhanced by it? Rarely. but it does happen. Would Les Miserables be the incredible tale of grace and self-sacrifice without Fantine and the Prostitutes singing the bawdy and heartbreaking “Lovely Ladies” or would The Walking Dead be a penetrating meditation the dangers of anarchy and the value of community without Roamers and Lurkers? Continue reading …

There is a game being played in discussions between Atheists and Christians without most of us realizing it. Let’s call it the Genocide Ante. In order to make out that the other side is worse for the world, both sides start comparing body counts. It starts when someone asserts that religion or atheism is more immoral. Of course both sides are sure its obvious that there is more blood on their opponent’s side than their own. Sometimes its a more subtle version of this game that gets played. The debate may be about which worldview Christian or Atheist is the most consistent morally. Either way, someone starts comparing body counts and atrocities. Usually its the atheists that insist its absolutely obvious that Christianity is as Christopher Hitchens claimed, a violent and evil system responsible for untold deaths and lots of nastiness. Almost always the Crusades are brought up.

Sure that Christianity is responsible Continue reading …