Bill Pratt | June 17, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt A couple months ago I attended a debate between a Christian scholar and an atheist scholar at a local university. At the conclusion of the debate there was a Q and A session and one of the atheist students stood up and asked something like the following to the Christian scholar: [...]
Bill Pratt | June 13, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt For some secular, non-religious people, their hope is that religious people will some day be the minority, that mankind will finally grow out of this unfortunate phase of history. Religion may have helped our distant ancestors to explain where we came from, why we are here, why we have moral feelings, [...]
Bill Pratt | June 6, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt I am not a political science expert, so I can’t say for sure how strong the link between socialism and atheism is. I’m sure some of you can think of examples of people you know who are atheist and not socialist or socialist and not atheist. For Fyodor Dostoyevsky, writing in [...]
Bill Pratt | February 18, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts this morning, Unbelievable?, where the two guests were atheist physicist Roger Penrose and Christian theologian Alister McGrath. In a fascinating exchange, the host, Justin Brierley, asked Penrose if reality could be reduced to matter. I expected Penrose to say “yes” and was [...]
Bill Pratt | February 11, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Most atheists appeal to the process of Darwinian evolution as the source of our moral instincts, but this idea poses some intriguing questions. What if humankind had evolved in different circumstances, in different environments? One could imagine a different set of moral instincts having developed in humans. What about other animals? [...]
Bill Pratt | February 9, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt On atheism, there is no guarantee that evil will ever be punished or that good will ever be rewarded. Philosopher William Lane Craig quotes Richard Wurmbrand’s comments on the state torturers in Soviet prisons who understood this all too well: The cruelty of atheism is hard to believe when man has [...]
Bill Pratt | February 7, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Nowhere, as far as I can tell. Consider this scenario. A young man grows up and forms radical political beliefs. Upon reaching his 30′s, he seizes political power in his country. He remains in power throughout his entire life. During his reign, he routinely lies, cheats, steals, murders, and rapes. Since [...]
Bill Pratt | January 21, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt An interesting article published on CNN’s site the other day claims that many people are angry at God, even atheists and agnostics. The article, entitled, “Anger at God common, even among atheists,” raises a lot of interesting questions. Who gets angry at God and for what reasons? According to the article, [...]
Bill Pratt | January 17, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Many skeptics of Christianity proudly point out that they are “free thinkers.” This expression used to confuse me, as I consider myself a free thinker, but clearly I could not be one in the same way the skeptic means it. After talking to several skeptics, I discovered that “free thinker” is [...]
Bill Pratt | January 12, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the previous post, I explained atheist Dan Barker’s argument in a debate he had with Christian Matt Slick. If you don’t remember what I said, please go back and quickly remind yourself, as this post won’t make sense otherwise. Below I pick up where I left off. What I don’t [...]
