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What Does Faith in Jesus Rest On?

Always have a ready defense for the hope within you, says 1 Peter 3:15. What is that defense?

Some Christians will tell you they believe God’s Word, and he is God, and that settles it. But this kind of argument is no defense. It isn’t even logical. It presupposes the very thing it sets out to defend.

Growing up in a variety of churches, I had the chance to hear diverse perspectives. What is faith? Why should we have faith? Some people told me it was wrong to ask too many questions or to have doubts. Others said questions and doubts were part of the process of taking an idea seriously. It’s not bad to doubt, if you work through that doubt and find the truth.

Top 10 Lessons in Thinking

Here are my favorite principles of logic and reasoning, collected from Leonard Peikoff’s Objectivism: the Philosophy of Ayn Rand.

While these do stand on their own, they become most useful if you study them individually and in depth. For that, I recommend Peikoff’s book.

How to Understand the Bible More Clearly

Sometimes I worry that there are as many versions of “Christianity” as there are Christians. On matters of our faith, and especially on modern disputes, how can we understand the Bible more clearly?

When you see so many interpretations, you begin to wonder if it’s possible to know what the Bible even teaches about a given issue—until you actually read the Bible, that is.

Finding the Good in Christian Sorrow

How do we deal with sorrow and sin in the world—and in our own hearts?

The key is knowing what else is in our hearts: the laws of God.

How to Surrender No Premise

When disputing or discussing, it’s common to grant an opponent’s premise for the sake of argument. But we don’t always need to, and it’s not always desirable.

Take this example:

One who supports “Planned Parenthood” and the harvesting of infant body parts argues as follows:

“I thought that according to Christianity all babies go to heaven anyway. So why do you care?”

See what the person is doing? He’s not advocating for his own position, but seeking merely to reduce the Christian view to absurdity.