Entries that relate to Pascal’s wager.
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…]
This post will address a fundamental question: How do you persuade someone that Jesus was divine, was the Son of God? This is important, and I think framing this issue properly is a little more complicated than it first appears. Caveats. Consider: You can persuade someone to believe that God exists without persuading him that … [Read more…]
Here are three published letters to the editor relevant to this blogsite. 1. From the July 18, 2011, Los Angeles Times (link here): Re “Imagine no religion,” Opinion, July 18 The fact that we have a hardwired moral sense can just as easily be viewed as evidence that God exists, as C.S. Lewis said. More … [Read more…]
My first post on this blogsite was, “Why I Am a Christian (and You Should Be, Too), in 600 Words.” Here’s much the same argument, in one-tenth the words (i.e., 60): There is strong evidence that God exists; there is strong evidence that Jesus is Lord; and you are much better off believing in Him and … [Read more…]
The author of this book is both a scientist (with a Ph.D. in microbiology) and a theologian (with ties to Oxford and Regent College in Vancouver); he used to be an atheist and is now an Anglican priest. The central focus of the book is explaining how to evangelize to intellectuals, especially by familiarizing oneself … [Read more…]
This blogsite is named for C.S. Lewis and Blaise Pascal but, besides them, if I had to recommend to a skeptic a set of apologetics, I would probably choose Lee Strobel’s trilogy: The Case for Christ, The Case for Faith, and the book this post will discuss, The Case for a Creator. The latter book … [Read more…]
Ravi Zacharias is one of today’s leading Christian apologists. He lectures and has written many books, some of which are discussed elsewhere on this blogsite; I read something that mentioned this one, and thought that it might, in particular, have arguments for why, just in terms of our lives here on earth, believing is better … [Read more…]
Introductory notes In this post I’ll address the objection to Pascal’s Wager that it somehow encourages people to weigh truth less heavily than they ought to. Is it not an invitation to reify the joke about the definition of faith being when you believe something even though you know it is not true? An initial … [Read more…]