CADRE Comments

It is a common misconception: In a religious worldview, morality is dictated by a god who has whimsically decided that X is good and Y is bad, therefore this god mandates that we humans follow his dictates or be punished eternally. If this god or these gods decree(s) murder is wrong then murder is wrong because the god(s) have the power to punish those who commit murder. The god or the gods could just as easily have decreed that helping widows or loving puppies is wrong, and while we might object that we cannot see any negatives to doing so, we would all need to fall into line because the god or gods have decreed it to be wrong and will punish us if we don't follow his decree. While I cannot speak for all religious views that may be out there, when applying this common view to the God of the Bible, the view is false. But saying it is false and explaining why it is false is not always easy -- not because the reason isn't clear, but because in many cases people have to come to ...

Recently atheists such as Nicholas Everitt and Richard Carrier have appealed to the immense size and age of the Universe as features we wouldn't expect if the latter were the creation of the Christian God. There are various ways to flesh out this argument, but Carrier captures the gist of it in his essay Why I Am Not a Christian : ...the Christian hypothesis actually predicts a completely different universe than the one we find ourselves in. For a loving God who wanted to create a universe solely to provide a home for human beings, and to bring his plan of salvation to fruition , would never have invented this universe, but something quite different. But if there is no God, then the universe we actually observe is exactly the sort of universe we would expect to observe. In other words, if there is no God then this universe is the only kind of universe we would ever find ourselves in, the only kind that could ever produce intelligent life without any supernatural cause or plan. Hen...

I know Black History Month is over and Martin Luther King, Jr. day was weeks ago but belatedly I would like to honor his legacy by quoting at length a remarkable passage from one of his essays. Whenever I despair about the state of the world and the immensity of human cruelty, these words inspire me to hope, and remind me that such hope cannot be based upon faith in human goodness, but only the power of God's love: In recent months I have also become more and more convinced of the reality of a personal God. True, I have always believed in the personality of God. But in past years the idea of a personal God was little more than a metaphysical category which I found theologically and philosophically satisfying. Now it is a living reality that has been validated in the experiences of everyday life. Perhaps the suffering, frustration and agonizing moments which I have had to undergo occasionally as a result of my involvement in a difficult struggle have drawn me closer to God. Whatever...