Click on one of the main topics below for finding all related posts.
Biblical inerrancy and inspiration
Christ, God and the Son of Man
Interviews
Biblical Scholar and historian Mike Licona about the resurrection: Did Jesus leave his grave behind?
Sociologist and historian David Marshall about militant atheism: The Truth about the New Atheism.
Progressive Evangelical theologian Peter Enns about inerrancy: Renewing the Evangelical mind: an interview with Peter Enns
Philosopher Jerry Walls about Calvinism: Predestined to eternally suffer? An interview with philosopher Jerry Walls
Christian movie maker Kevin Miller responsible for the film Hellbound? concerning universal salvation: Intelligent design, eternal torment and the restoration of everything: an interview with Kevin Miller
Conservative theologian Matt Flannagan about Biblical genocides: Genocides in the Bible? An interview with Matt Flannagan.
Conservative Calvinist Chris Date about the nature hell: eternal torment or irremediable death? Eternal hell and conditional immortality: an interview with Chris Date
A prominent former Christian fundamentalist from Britain about his experiences: Leaving fundamentalism: an interview with Jonny Scaramanga
An Unbelievable faith? An interview with Justin Brierley
The ordeal of progressive Christianity in America: an interview with social activist Michelle Morr Krabill.
Progressive Christianity
The Definition of Christianity
On the Definition and Meaningfulness of Progressive Christianity
On the Inspiration of the Bible and other Books
Advice for a struggling Christian
Solo Scriptura and the unique inspiration of the Protestant Canon
On John Shore and right-wing Christian “rats”
Crude’s concern: progressive Christians and firing political opponents
How NOT to be a progressive: using the law to shut down your opponents
Longing for a solid foundation for one’s faith
The ordeal of progressive Christianity in America
Thom Stark on Blasphemy for God’s sake
Evangelicalism, intellectual honesty and academic freedom
Was William Lane Craig lying for Jesus?
Culture war: On loving one’s enemy and winning an argument
Divine genocides and Biblical inerrancy
Openly condemning all forms of racial hatred?
Reclaiming the word “progressive”
Biblical inerrancy and inspiration
On the difference between atheists, antitheists, Evangelicals and fundamentalists
Biblical Inspiration and Randal Rauser
Eric Seibert on Biblical atrocities
Genocides in the Bible? An interview with Matt Flannagan.
Should an inerrant Bible be the very foundation of Christianity?
Renewing the Evangelical mind: an interview with Peter Enns
Is there such a thing as “Biblical” marriage?
On the Art of Picking and Choosing
William Lane Craig and Divine Genocides
Moral Indignation and Divine Genocides
When did God pick up His Wife?
On the nice and ugly sides of the Biblical God
Is there such a thing as “Biblical” marriage?
Divine genocides and Biblical inerrancy
Homosexuality
On the Sinfulness of Homosexuality?
Homosexuality, Polygamy and One Night Stands
On conservative Evangelicalism and homophoby
“Sinful” homosexuality and the Golden Rule
The Church against perversions
Pope Francis and the importance of fighting homosexuality
Homophobia, Conservaphobia and legitimate criticism
How to pervert the legitimate fight against homophobia
A Lesbian coming out as a committed Christian
Gay marriage and the fall of American civilization?
New Atheism / Anti-theism
On the difference between atheists, antitheists, Evangelicals and fundamentalists
The New Atheism as a hate group
The link between religious fundamentalism and militant atheism
On the delusion of Crude and Lotharson: a response to Tildeb
Burning the Bible in the name of Reason?
How to rationally criticize a religion: the origin of misogyny
John Loftus and the instrumental mindset
The truth about the New Atheism: an interview with David Marshall
Bullying in the name of Reason and Science
On studying Religion without binary thinking and overgeneralization
Selling one’s soul to the cult of Dawkins
New Atheism, Child Abuse and Deception: a Response to Tildeb
Tribalism, love and God’s shameless ploy: a response to Cyngus and Valdobiade
From Chrisian fundamentalism to atheistic fundamentalism (Part 1)
Are all atheists immoral fools refusing to believe?
Anti-theists can’t help but overgeneralize
Trying to reason with an anti-theist can be a real ordeal
On Dawkins, God, ET and the nature of reality
Apologetics
Healed of Gastroesophageal Reflux Disease?
The transcendental Argument for God’s existence
A merciless fight / Een schonungslose Kompf
Can materialism be meaningful?
Does the progress of science vindicate naturalism?
Should a materialist be an eliminativist?
Probabilities and a magical disproof of God’s existence
God and the argument from external cause
Missionary atheism, intellectual honesty and John Loftus
God and the cause of the universe
Did Jesus leave his grave behind? An interview with Mike Licona.
An Unbelievable faith? An interview with Justin Brierley
On the Compatibility of Materialism and Moral Realism
The Greatness of the Apostle Paul
On the burden of proof of the atheist
Is John Loftus a consistent biological robot? Can he avoid redefinitions?
On Dawkins, God, ET and the nature of reality
Philosophy
Philosophy of religion
Does the absence of evidence mean evidence of absence?
Do extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence?
On divine perfection, mysteries and logical contradictions
Christian exlusivism and the problem of divine hiddenness
On “objective” statistics and political propaganda
Can all our beliefs be based on evidence?
On God’s hiddenness and the nature of faith
Probabilities and warranted knowledge
On the ontology of the objective Bayesian probability interpretation
A mathematical proof of Bayesianism?
The crazy bookmaker and the Cult of probability
Knowledge-dependent frequentist probabilities
On the probability of evolution
Probabilities and a magical disproof of God’s existence
Thinking critically about false memories
Ockham’s razor
Deconstructing the Popular Use of Occam’s Razor
Ockham’s razor, the Origin of the Universe and the Search for an Airtight Argument
A mathematical proof of Ockham’s razor?
Metaphysics
On the feeling of a lonesome bat
Should a materialist be an eliminativist?
Can materialism be meaningful?
Can we define the truth of materialism?
On the Compatibility of Materialism and Moral Realism
On Dawkins, God, ET and the nature of reality
Fundamentalism
On the difference between atheists, antitheists, Evangelicals and fundamentalists
Accelerated fundamentalist education
Leaving fundamentalism: an interview with Jonny Scaramanga
The sad testimony of the daughter of a Calvinist apologist
Recovering from the Conservative apologetic industry
How fundamentalism hinders creativity from unfolding
Is fundamentalism destroying Christianity?
On Biblical inerrancy and the priorities of fundamentalists
The main root of religious evil
The Advice of a Former Christian to Religious Apologists
How fundamentalists create hell(s)
Are all atheists wicked fools hurtling towards hell?
Calvinism
A short introduction to Calvinism
Naked Calvinism: motivation and methodology
Naked Calvinism: on the sinful nature of man and Genesis
Naked Calvinism: the secret will of God
Naked Calvinism: why the difference between single and double predestination does not matter
Naked Calvinism: presuppositionalism
Naked Calvinism: a reformed preacher at the doors of heaven and hell.
Predestined to eternally suffer? An interview with philosopher Jerry Walls
Fostering communion and unity with committed Calvinists?
Social and global justice
Economical injustices
On the definition of Socialism
Petition against an egregious evil in Florida
On the virtue of being pro-death
On upholding inhumanity and some ethical implications
On the war on drugs, cannabis and schizophrenia
Austerity or how to screw both the economy and the poor
Do lower classes vote against their own interests?
Why pseudo-progressives don’t follow Martin Luther King
Western imperialism
On Syria and Western imperialism
Edward Snowden isn’t welcome at all in Germany
Is America becoming a police state?
On the pain of being driven out of one’s own land
The day America will become a true civilization
Miscellaneous
Fostering Justice on the battle fields of the Culture War
Out of Eden: are we approaching a Golden Era?
Becoming better persons
Blogging as a spiritual experience
The rational tail and its emotional dog (and its practical ethical implications)
Creation / Evolution
Creationism and Tim Chastain’s spiritual crisis
CreationWiki, evolution and the inerrant Bible
Young Earth Presuppositionalism
Young earth creationism and the demise of Christianity
The great duel: Ken ham versus Bill Nye
Design Detection and Endless Space
My fictional writings
Christmas story / Wiehnachtsgeschicht / Conte de Noel
Easter tale / Ostermärchen / Conte de Pâques
The cave where death never was
Feminism and equality
Reclaiming female ministry within the Church
Complementarianism, egalitarianism and the differences between men and women
Egalitarianism and complementarism, statistics and exceptions
Gender equality and the liberal agenda
Heaven, hell and immortality
Do we posses an eternal soul?
Do we have a soul (according to the Bible)?
Are fundamentalists denying hell?
Eternal hell and conditional immortality: an interview with Chris Date
Endless torment and cognitive dissonances
On hell and cognitive dissonances
Hell, callous indifference and embarassment
On hell and a psychopatic mindset
Hell, Motivations and Reasons for Believing in God
God’s love and the question of universal reconciliation
The tentative apologist and the friendly atheist discuss about heaven
Cosmos reborn (happy theology on the new creation) by John Crowder
Afterlife, near death experiences, fundamentalism and Christianity
Yearning for the end of the world?
The end is at hand: New Testament prophecies and the future of the world
Abortions
Abortion and the pride of the Western world
On the war on abortion and incitment to terrorism
How to be CONSISTENTLY pro-life or pro-death
Paranormal realms?
The Myth of the Good Alien: on Skeptical Wishful Thinking
The reincarnation of a WW2 pilot?
Politics
A daunting task: defending human rights in France
Gay marriage in France /Mariage homo en France / Homoehe in Frankräich
Racism has no color: an affront against political correctness.
On anti-white racism and extraordinary claims
The confessions of a heretical progressive
White privileges or lingering anti-black racism?
How so-called “leftists” react to heresies
Was this tragedy caused by anti-black racism?
Have sexism and racism lost any meaning?
Healing from toxic group thinking
Christ, God and the Son of Man
Was Jesus just your average Joe?
Jesus and political involvement
Struggle, Pain and doubt
On Luther, Hitler and Religious Confusion
The Problem of Evil revisited by Lotharson
Miscellanous
Holy feasts / Heelische Feschte
Wunervolle Igel = wonderful hedgehogs
Willkumme zu Fuchsi / Welcome to Foxy
Can one forgive a non-forgetful man?
Christmas without any gift / Wiehnacht ohne Geschenk / Noël sans cadeau
(Signal me please broken or false links)
lotharlorraine 
ich mag die Mehrsprachigkeit auf dem Blog … nur “Deutsch” scheint hier bei der Vorstellung zu fehlen 😀
Awer Lothringisch isch doch gar niet ze schlimm, oder? Es isch fast wie hochdäisch 😉
Vielen Dank, meinen Blog zu verfolgen, das werde ich auch fortan machen. Vielleicht können wir uns in der Zukunft gegenseitig Mut bringen :=)
Gottes Segen aus Lothringen, seiner Juwel in der Schöpfung!
Es gibt leider so wenig christliche Blogs (und dann auch noch auf Deutsch … lese sehr ungern englisch) – da ist es gut, wenn man sich zusammentut 🙂
Wünsche dir auch SEINEN Segen 🙂
I’m glad you are blogging and are here in the world making it a better place with your presence. I’ll be back often to check out your excellent material…and, no, you are not “crazy”! But, daring to think critically can make anyone think he/she is from time to time. Btw, you recently noted in a response to one of my posts, “But psychopathy and the lack of empathy seems to be worse” than schizophrenia. Could you elaborate a bit on that? Thanks.
Hello literary lew, thanks for your nice comment!
I am extremely glad to know that from time to time, some people think I am not crazy :=)
Psychiatric diseases and the existence of God:
I actually have an attention deficit and hyperactivity syndrome. This causes lots of pain but also have positive aspects concerning creativity and intuitions, that’s why I can accept that’s the way God wanted me to be and I have to learn to cope with it in an optimal way and increasingly become a more loving person.
It is much harder to see the positive aspects of Schizophrenia, but I can perhaps accept the idea that God allows that as a by-product of other features of His creation.
But what about psychopaths who lack empathy and act in an extremely evil way and CANNOT do otherwise because they lack moral feelings?
Why would God allow this? And how can we consider them guilty if they were entirely determined to act in a horrendous way?
Christianity has traditionally always interpreted human evil as being the consequence of the free decisions of agents. But here this is clearly not the case.
Would that mean that God predetermined people to act badly, like most Muslims and Calvinists believe?
I think such a God can only be considered as a moral monster.
I haven’t a clear solution to this problem, it just a logical consequence of God’s perfection He is only going to judge these people according to what they could have done and will try to change them so that they’ll be ripe to live eternally with him.
I am currently writing a response to an interesting video from atheists about the problem of evil (which I’ll post soon enough on this blog) and while I believe their argumentation is really not compelling, I am troubled by the problem of psychopathy.
But it’s quite possible I will finally view that as less problematic as I have come to terms with the idea God allows psychosic disorders to exist.
But I am struggling and I think everyone should.
And atheists should also struggle much more with despair while considering the fact that according to their worldview all the horrible things in the world will never been redeemed, all the people having died under an atrocious pain will never be comforted or consoled.
The word is both beautiful and freakingly absurd and this should concern everyone.
I think it is generally important to make a difference between what we subjectively feel (from our current perspective) can only be wrong and what is objectively the case if one considers all the good things God can do to the victims of evil during 1000, 100000, 10000000000, 1000000000000000000… years of afterlife.
I’m really impressed by the multi-lingual quality in this intro by the way ;). That’s so cool! Maybe someday I’ll pick up a couple extra languages outside of just reading some Greek.
I’m looking forward to reading that :=)
But since my time is short, I currently just write in English though new translations will perhaps come in…
That’s pretty cool 😉
Hey Marc!
Mike Morrell and I really appreciate your blog, and think you’d be an
excellent candidate for our Speakeasy Blogger Network. Do you like to
review off-the-beaten path faith, spirituality, and culture books?
Speakeasy puts interesting books in your hands at no charge to you. You
only get books when you request them, and it’s free to join. Sign up here,
if you’d like: http://thespeakeasy.info
You’re not on any contact lists whatsoever; if you don’t respond, that’s
it, and the invitation is open as long as you’re actively blogging. We hope
you join us!
Thanks,
Terry, The Speakeasy
Hello!
If it is not a spam, I am certainly interested and quite flattered 🙂
It’s not spam, promise. You’ll get a few emails a month from Mike Morrell offering you a free book. Considering you’re outside the US, we’ll only be able to offer you e-books. We’ve been scouring the internet for bloggers who we feel would be a good fit for the Speakeasy. Check out our site listed above.
Thanks! I live in the UK (Lancaster) but ebooks are fine!
Liebe Marc!
Thank you for your kind reply.
Orthodox are not “universalist” in the technical sense of the word: we don’t believe that “everyone goes to heaven after they die.” The Orthodox church does not speculate about the kinds of things Protestants get tied up in knots over… We believe that Christ will judge, and that coming face to face with him will reveal the state of our hearts – whether we love and can receive his love, or whether we don’t. The first will be experienced as joy and light and is Paradise; the second as pain and is “hell”. Beyond that, we are not certain. Most believe that pain may last eternally, but some saints, as I wrote, hold another view, and their teachings have never been officially condemned. The only official dogma of the Orthodox Church is to be found in her services, and there is exceedingly little in the services regarding details of the afterlife.
The best thing for you to do if you have any questions about Orthodoxy is to find an Orthodox priest with whom you feel comfortable conversing. Here is a link to Orthodox churches in Britain with English services: http://www.englishliturgy.org/directory
I’m sure you can find someone near where you are. There are other Orthodox churches; typically their services are in Russian or Greek, but you could certainly find a compatible English-fluent priest among them as well.
You could email Prof. Andrew Louth at Durham for information:
https://www.dur.ac.uk/theology.religion/staff/profile/?id=670
Another option would be to visit a monastery. A very well known monastery is in Essex, St John the Baptist:
Address: The Old Rectory, Rectory Road, Tolleshunt Knights, By Maldon, Essex CM9 8EZ, United Kingdom Tel.: (+44) (0) 1621 816 471
I know of a monastery in France that derives from the same monastic tradition:
http://monastere-saint-silouane.eu/Saint_Silouane/Accueil.html
A list of French monasteries is here:
http://orthodoxwiki.org/List_of_French_monasteries
For Switzerland:
http://www.orthodoxie.ch/directory/main-de.htm
You can Google “Gabriel Bunge” for some interesting interviews with this Swiss monk.
Here is an Orthodox monastery in Germany:
http://www.spyridon-skite.de/39994/home.html
Here are some other German links that might help:
http://kokid.de/
That’s probably much more information than you need; start where you are there in Lancaster.
Alles gute-
Dana
You are walking a dangerous road. There is no balance between theism and atheism. If you aren’t with God, then you are against him.
Christianity is not about being popular and balanced, it’s about truth and taking the truth to the world. The Bible is our sword of the spirit. It is the source of our knowledge of God. Perverting the word of God is NOT something that Christians should do. Fundamentalism is basically what we need to have. We need to have the basics of Christianity and work our ministry around that. We SHOULD NOT cherry pick verses we want and toss out the ones we don’t, and we SHOULD NOT attempt to alter or misinterpret the teachings of the Bible to fit popular themes or societal norms.
If you can’t put faith in God and the Bible, then who or what are you going to put faith in? Yourself? You can’t chop off parts of the Bible and then substitute the old parts with new ones that you or somebody else just made up and still be a true Christian. That isn’t how truth works.
Reading on Jesus being raised …Oh whoops, you forgot about Lazarius, oh whoops you forgot about Ezekiel and God raising a whole army…There ‘s probably more but hey who’s counting.
To have a ‘whole’ spiritual practice is to incorporate the best of all faiths. Most model the believe, ‘love one another.’ Whether you think the bible is fact, fiction or story at the very least it’s telling people to love one another.