There is a kind of scholarship that starts with a very literalistic reading of a source text, finds contradictions in it, and concludes either that it is a combination of contradictory texts or that a very non-literal reading is justified. This is a method that seeks to justify one extreme by criticizing another extreme. No […]
Google’s Ngram Viewer gives the frequencies of words and phrases in books since about 1800. It is an interesting way of looking at history in the last two centuries. What follows are some observations about the usage of words associated with religion and Christianity: Usage of the word religion has gradually decreased since 1810, steeply until 1860.
If someone from an isolated, technologically undeveloped culture sees an electronic gadget, they may think this took a long time to make. Does the gadget have apparent age? No, someone is merely ignorant of how it was made. Similarly, Adam and the original creation did not have apparent age. Some people may be ignorant of
There is a dualism between naïveté and skepticism. In ancient and medieval times there was a kind of skepticism about science. Zeno’s paradoxes for example questioned whether or not motion was real. Logic was refined to a high degree in the middle ages but was used for abstruse philosophical and theological matters rather than for practical knowledge.
Theologian Wolfhart Pannenberg made some good points in a short article on miracles; see excerpt below: In the modern history of the dispute between scientists or philosophers calling upon the authority of science on the one hand and Christian theologians on the other, the concept of miracle has become one of the more intricate problems,
Authentic eyewitness testimony carries more weight than physical evidence concerning events in the past – particularly the distant past. Artifacts of the past are always open to interpretations that contradict one another whereas the ambiguities in testimony are minor in comparison. If the testimony is recorded, then the transmission of the recording needs authentication, preferably
If all entities were completely identical, they could not be distinguished from each other so there would be only one entity. If all things were completely unique, they could not be identified so there would be no knowledge. Since neither of these extremes is the case, we conclude that entities contain sufficient similarity to be
The main problem with evolution is not that it has the wrong history but that for evolution history is everything. That’s everything including the laws of nature, philosophy, religion, God, literally everything. The one law of evolution is that everything evolves. There is no being, only becoming; there is nothing fixed, only change. But surely they
In broad terms there are two kinds of history: diachronic and synchronic history. The history of a people or nation over generations and centuries is told by diachronic history. The history of a time or period across peoples or nations is told by synchronic history (also called synchronistic history). The diachronic history of Western Civilization
Motivating Example According to the Gospels, there was an inscription above Christ on the cross which said (in English translation): Matthew (27.37): “This is Jesus, the King of the Jews. ” (ABD) Mark (15.27): “The King of the Jews.” (D) Luke (23.38): “This is the King of the Jews.” (AD) John (19.19): “Jesus of Nazareth,
