Several weeks ago, 700 Club founder and utterer of controversial soundbites Pat Robertson stuck his foot in his mouth with the following comment about married people and Alzheimer’s:
How do you react to Robertson’s statements, regardless of what you do or do not believe?
Since we’re relaunching the site, we’re going to spend a few weeks discussing each viewpoint. Today, Aaron chimes in with three reasons he believes in the Christian God:
I’ve been immersed in Christianity all my life. My faith is my own. I don’t believe because my parents told me to. I have researched the core beliefs of Christianity, and have found them to be true. Here are the three main reasons I believe what I believe, the reasons that make Christianity reasonable:
THE COMPLEXITY OF THE UNIVERSE
From the complexity of subatomic particles to the almost daily discoveries from the edges of the universe that we can currently observe, to say our universe is complex is an understatement. Take our planet. Earth just happens to be in the “butter zone” of our solar system where life not only survives, but thrives. Earth’s atmosphere and biosphere are unmatched (as far as we know) for thriving life. The complexity of all living things, from their life processes to the makeup of DNA, continues to amaze and astound us. Knowing that we’ve only begun to unlock the complexities of the human genome and how it works boggles the mind. Does this prove that the Christian God exists? No. But science cannot explain how life supposedly arose from non-living substances. Science also has yet to explain how something came from nothing. To me, it requires more “faith” to believe that matter is eternal or that our version of the universe is just one of innumerable cycles of the universe than it does to believe in the existence of God.
MANKIND’S LONGING FOR SOMETHING GREATER
Every civilization in history has had some belief in deity. The point of this post isn’t to argue which beliefs are right or wrong. It is simply to affirm that mankind in general has always believed in the divine. Those who have chosen not to believe have always been in the minority. Does this prove that the Christian God exists? No. But it may be a clue that we were designed to connect with that which created us.
THE RESURRECTION OF JESUS CHRIST
This is the reason I believe in the Christian God and no other. We’ve dealt with the resurrection in multiple posts (Part 1, Part 2, the Conversation). To summarize, the resurrection of Jesus is attested to by the gospel accounts in the Bible, extra-biblical accounts from ancient secular historians, eyewitness testimony, the willingness of the original apostles of Jesus to die for proclaiming his resurrection, the explosive growth and cultural impact of the early church–all of these point to the plausibility of the resurrection of Jesus. If it is true, then it deserves our consideration. And if it is true, then no other belief system can match it because no other belief system has a God who has died and come back from death in real time and space history.
Dear faithful readers of NI:
After a longer than expected summer siesta, we’re reopened for business. We’ve made a few changes:
NEW CONTRIBUTORS
In addition to Aaron and Franny, we now include Dave (Christian), Justin (Atheist) and Andrew (spiritually promiscuous) among our ranks. Having multiple viewpoints will only add to the spice and variety of our content.
NEW LOOK
Yeah, it’s not a big deal, and we may change it again down the road. But the “bar” has been remodeled. It still has that new paint smell.
NEW TAGLINE: ”DRAFTS, NUTS, AND THEOLOGY”
With five contributors, we needed something better than “Two Christians, an Agnostic, an Atheist, and a Spiritually Promiscuous Dude Walk into a Bar.” So we came up with this. Think drafts as in beer or posts, nuts as in bar nuts or the NI contributors, and theology as, well, what we muse about.
NEW FORMAT
Most importantly, this will benefit us and you. In the past, we published two posts per week. Each post dealt with a differing viewpoint of one subject. We then added a third post to start the conversation. Long story short, that was way too much work for us and too much waiting for you. Now, one contributor will post per week, and you’ll be able to jump into the conversation immediately. No more waiting! We will continue with our Ye Olde Viral segment to end each week, and one of our contributors will add something in the middle of the week to spark some additional conversation. Hopefully this will increase the conversation and make things smoother for all our patrons.
We still have the Rabbit Room, which has a listing of all our conversations. So feel free to look around and get reacquainted. If you’re new to NI, we kindly ask you read the Pub Rules before the conversation begins anew tomorrow.
It’s good to be back. Come back tomorrow for our first conversation.
Sincerely,
The New Inklings
The summer has flown by and a lot has happened with the New Inklings. Franny B and her family have moved and are loving their new home. Aaron has been busy with his work in hospice chaplaincy. And our newest contributor, Andrew, has ventured through Mormanism and Islam with Project Conversion. Long story short, we need a little more time.
We’re still discussing issues for how to make the New Inklings even more user friendly. Thus, our new planned relaunch will be in October.
We’ll see you in the fall.
All the kids are out of school, and so are the New Inklings. Starting today, we’re going on summer hiatus. We’ll take the summer to improve the site and prepare a whole new set of conversations. In the meantime, throughout the summer we’ll remind you of some previous conversations, which will always remain open for discussion. We’ll be back September 6, 2001.
Have a great summer. Use lots of sunscreen.
