Entries that relate to Pascal’s wager.
Here are four basic points that I think apologists should make: (1) There is a variety of strong evidence that a Supreme Being — that is, God — exists. (2) There is also strong evidence for the historicity of the Gospels, and in particular their core message that Jesus is God. (3) Pascal’s Wager makes … [Read more…]
This book’s author, Michael Novak, was erudite and rightly acclaimed. He was around for a long time; he cites in this 2008 book a few times his own book Belief and Unbelief — which he wrote in 1965, more than forty years earlier. And I enjoyed the book I’ll be discussing here. *** The book’s overarching … [Read more…]
I thought it worthwhile to include this link to T.S. Eliot’s introduction to an edition of Blaise Pascal’s Pensees. As the name of this blogsite indicates, I am a great fan of Pascal’s — and T.S. Eliot is, well, T.S. Eliot. I learned about the introduction from a recent Wall Street Journal review by Joseph … [Read more…]
This 1975 book is essentially a beautiful 191-page essay by Malcolm Muggeridge, giving us his take on the Gospels. Now, when you think about it, those four mini-biographies of Jesus are together the most important 80,000 written words (the length of a quite short novel) we humans have, and of course Muggeridge is one of … [Read more…]
This excellent 1976 book by Malcolm Muggeridge is a little over 200 pages long (no index or footnotes) and lavishly illustrated, with all of the color illustrations being works by William Blake. There was a television series by the same name, produced in association with Time-Life Films and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation among others, and … [Read more…]
This post, presented as a dialogue, addresses what I think are some basic issues raised by Christians’ recognition and use of Scripture. What do you mean by Scripture? Most dictionary definitions say simply it is writing that a particular religion holds to be “sacred” or “holy.” So it is writing that is God-related, but of … [Read more…]
I read this book because it was cited in another of Peter Kreeft’s books, namely his Handbook of Christian Apologetics (coauthored with Ronald K. Tacelli and discussed here on this blogsite). It was described there (250) as a book-length treatment of the Sehnsucht (longing) argument for the existence of God. I recommend Heaven. Its thesis … [Read more…]
This book, published by InterVarsity Press, was written in 1994 by two Catholic philosophy professors at Boston College. I hasten to add that the arguments made here should be welcomed by all Christians, not just Catholics, and indeed the first chapter says explicitly that the book embraces “mere Christianity” (12, 24-25). It is is a … [Read more…]
Did Jesus implicitly use an argument similar to Pascal’s Wager in his parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl (Matthew 13:44-46)? Here are the parables: 44 “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he … [Read more…]
I’ve listed below what I bet are the responses most likely to be given to the question, “Why aren’t you a Christian?,” followed by my brief answers to those responses. “Because the Bible is not reliable.” Actually it is, especially the historicity of the Gospels, which tell us about the life and death and Resurrection … [Read more…]