The Doubting Christian

If there is one modern secular belief that causes doubt to arise in the Christian, it is evolution.  Outside of the major religions in the United States, Darwinian Evolution is viewed as fact.  All current life forms have come about through natural selection acting upon random genetic variation. Some Christians have recoiled at this theory and claimed that there is no scientific credence to evolution.  They would like to paint Darwin and those that followed as evil liars and sinners, purposefully misleading the masses in spite of the evidence.  However, this is hardly the case.  The reason evolution causes so much doubt within the Church is that it has substantial evidentiary support. The fossil record is there for all to see.  While all sides admit that there are “missing links” in the fossil record, it at least shows that there have been many species on earth that have been extinct for a long time.  Concurring geologic evidence seems to show that life began very simply and, ov

Evil is the one problem with which we are all well acquainted.  There is no need to prove that evil exists and that people perceive it every day.  Yet, the Christian professes to believe that God is all good and all powerful.  This leads to a problem... a problem that has led countless believers to doubt their faith, and some to abandon their faith altogether.  If God is all powerful, then he should have the power to thwart evil.  If he is good, then he should want to thwart evil.  However, since evil continues to exist, it seems that either the Christian position is simply wrong.   To make matters worse for the believers, the secular skeptic seems to have a good answer at this point.  There simply isn’t a God.  There is no supernatural.  All we have is the natural.  The universe came about by quantum fluctuations resulting in the Big Bang.  On this speck of a planet, life arose and evolved through natural selection acting upon random genetic variations.  In the absence of a goo

What a person says and does is almost entirely dictated by their beliefs.  What we wear is dictated in part by what we believe about the weather and social norms.   What we eat is influenced by what we believe about nutrition and taste.  How we act morally and how we prioritize our lives is largely motivated by what we believe about which worldview is true.  It is easy to see, then, that our beliefs lie at the very core of who we are. Furthermore, our beliefs have at least three distinct properties.   All of our beliefs have some sort of content.  That is, our beliefs are based on things we take to be true.  Moreover, our beliefs have some measure of centrality.  For instance, I believe the blue whale is the largest living thing, but that is not central to my entire belief-system.  Lastly, beliefs also have strength.  My belief in my own existence is much stronger than my belief that there is water on Mars.  Of these three properties, it is the strength of our beliefs that is

I have long been fascinated with Christian apologetics.  For those that are not aware, Christian apologetics is the practice of defending the truthfulness of the claims of Christianity.  For many Christians, this is merely icing on a cake that has no need of it.  Theirs is a faith of belief regardless of evidence or argument.  For some non-believers, apologetics is a chasing after the wind.  One cannot possibly argue for the truth of something that simply is not true.  Then, there are those who honestly doubt.  They may ultimately believe or they may not, but they have questions and they have doubts. Ultimately, apologetics exist because doubts exist.  For the most part, the art of apologetics has been applied to the doubts of the non-believer.  This is a noble task.  After all, if Christianity is true, then everyone’s eternal destiny is dependent on how they respond to the claims and acts of Jesus of Nazareth.  All believers are called to make Christ known and to make discipl