Ian Paul’s post, “What does it mean to ‘love God with your mind’?” is really very good and deserves a careful and thoughtful read. Here’s a quote from one of my favorite books in this space: The believer is a critical adventurer, taking rationally responsible risks. If he or sheRead More
What is the role of faith and reason in belief formation? Is there a difference between a preference, an opinion, and a belief? Is faith opposed to reason or does faith complement and work together with reason? First, faith is not fideism (a blind leap into the unknown; uncritical acceptanceRead More
This is worth every nanosecond of your next 17 minutes and 34 seconds. See also my posts Evolution or Faith: Blocks that Cause Stumbling andRead More
Apologetics Beyond Reason ventures into nontraditional territory when it comes to classic apologetics. I’m familiar with Sire’s other work, have benefitted greatly from it, so this title grabbed my attention. Coming from the analytic tradition, I was intrigued how one might get “beyond reason” without also utilizing reason when defending theRead More
Introduction What is the relationship between faith and reason? Does faith require that we have reasons to believe or is faith merely a blind leap in the dark? Is faith a product of rational inquiry where our minds investigate first before we commit to a belief? Or do we commitRead More
I just discovered that Gary Habermas’ book Dealing with Doubt is available free in its entirety at his website here. This is a keen analysis with sage advice on dealing with and healing from doubt. Here’s a blurb from the chapter on emotional doubt: To illustrate the affect of one’sRead More
The final post in this series speaks to the myth that we can remain neutral in our beliefs. The Myth of Neutrality Can we really be neutral about our beliefs and not commit? The short answer is “No.” To sit on the fence is still to take a position, namely,Read More
Part 3, in this series addresses doubt. What about Doubt? Is commitment to a belief compatible with criticism of that belief? Put differently, is there any value in doubting my beliefs? How much doubt can I have in my beliefs and still hold them to be true? Consider the following:Read More
Part 2 in this series discusses the objectivity and subjectivity of our beliefs. The Nature of Truth Claims Some claims are subjective, private, and personal. Other claims are objective, public, and factual. If I claim that the capital of Georgia is Atlanta, and someone responds “That’s true,” then what othersRead More
Having just attended the Smart Faith conference last weekend, I heard the same motif in almost every plenary and breakout session: Faith is not blind. Faith is rational. With all due respect to the Christian mystics and fideists, I could not agree more. So, in the spirit if that agreement,Read More
INTRODUCTION James W. Sire wrote a book titled Chris Chrisman Goes to College (IVP, 1993). In it he showed how the fictitious character, Chris Chrisman, grows up in an evangelical home with evangelical parents going to evangelical private school and attending evangelical church. When Chris goes off to secular collegeRead More