Deeper Waters

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been talking a lot about becoming a thinking Christian lately and I’d like to touch on the aspect of memorization tonight. If you’re going to be equipped to deal with what you see out in the world, you will need to know what to say and when.

When you read a book, you want to take in as much information as you can. When you meet the skeptic on the street, you can’t say “Let me look this up” or “Let me get out my notes.” You need to know what to say then and there. How can you get your memory in that kind of shape?

To begin with, rely less on technology. Make sure you have some phone numbers in your memory. Most numbers put out that are meant to be memorized follow the seven plus or minus two rule. In other words, the number will consist of five to nine digits. Your phone number minus area code has seven. Your zip code has five. Your zip code more precise has nine. Your social security number has nine.

It is easy to use the contacts list on your cell phone, but make sure you’re not totally dependent on that for every number. If you always let technology remember everything for you, then your own memory will suffer for it. The memory is like any other muscle. The more you use it, the stronger it will become. The less you use it, the more it will waste away.

Start off small if you’re working on this as well. Don’t be trying to memorize a highly extensive list. I recommend starting with a list of three items and then moving up from there. There are several games you can get such as games on a phone that can help you with this. Think of the old Simon games with four colors and having to push the colors in order.

Music can also be an excellent aid to memorization. If you listen to a song, you can usually remember it easily because there’s a tune that sticks in your head. Most of us know the words to song easily, which really shows we can memorize things. When I meet someone who says they can’t remember something, I often like to see how many songs they know, what they can tell me about their favorite sports team, favorite jokes they have, or lines they love from a favorite movie or TV show.

The reason that works that way is that you can remember it if you connect it with something important. Try to establish connections in your mind with what you’re wanting to remember and see if it helps. Repetition will also be helpful. When you hear something you want to remember, repeat it.

Memorization is important to a Christian and was to the Jews as well. In fact, the ancient rabbis said that someone could not comment on a verse of Scripture unless it was memorized. It was not uncommon to meet a Jew who had the entire Old Testament memorized in biblical times, hence Jesus probably made more allusions to it than we recognize because we don’t remember it like they did. We can even place great stock in oral tradition in the ancient Middle East due to their great memories. This still goes on in the Middle East in fact. Muslims memorize the Qur’an.

Knowing the facts entails remembering them. Work on memorization today and remember to work on it tomorrow.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’re looking lately at what it means to be a thinking Christian. I’ve spoken on many aspects of this so far and tonight, I’d like to turn and look at the idea of leisure time and how that is to be spent.

To begin with, Christians should have leisure time. Speaking as a married man, I know my wife would be very disappointed if I spent all my time with books. While I do have a booklight for night time reading in case she wants to sleep early and I’m not ready to nod off just yet, I only do that when she’s asleep. Now I can do that throughout the day from time to time such as if she’s playing a game system or on her laptop, but when it comes time for a date, be it a movie or going out to eat, then it’s time for a date and the books go away.

Of course, we also know that it will be a problem if all we have is leisure time, and the rise of technology has helped us in giving us more leisure time, but the problem is that we are not spending it well. We can spend all our time in the pursuit of many other pleasures without spending that time learning the great ideas or enriching our minds, particularly through reading.

If one wants to be a thinking Christian, one will need to spend some time enriching their mind through activities like this. I do have television shows that I like, namely Smallville, but one should not watch too much television. Otherwise, the images on the screen quickly do one’s thinking for them and becomes their imagination.

I recommend that the reader always have a book with them. Waiting in line at the bank or the check-out aisle? Pull out a book and start reading. At a long red light and you know it will be awhile? Get in a paragraph or two. (You could also while driving try audiobooks or podcasts or check out from your local library works like “The Portable Professor” and “Modern Scholar.”)

When it comes time to read, read hard and try to think about what you’ve read. Digest it. This could involve improving your memory, which will be another blog post. Your mind and memory are like any other muscle in your body. If you use them, they will grow stronger. If you do not use them, they will grow weaker.

However, when it comes time to play, Christians should not be opposed. Aquinas himself said in Question 138 of the second part of the second part of the Summa that

In play two things may be considered. On the first place there is the pleasure, and thus inordinate fondness of play is opposed to eutrapelia. Secondly, we may consider the relaxation or rest which is opposed to toil. Accordingly just as it belongs to effeminacy to be unable to endure toilsome things, so too it belongs thereto to desire play or any other relaxation inordinately.

Play is meant to restore us so we can do the work that we ought to do. Thus, I recommend that when it comes time to play, play hard. Don’t think about all the work that has to be done. There is no sin in enjoying yourself. When you get back to work however, work hard. Remember 1 Corinthians 10:31. Whatever you do, do it to the glory of God, including the usage of your leisure time.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! I’ve lately been wanting to impress on you the importance of being a thinking Christian. Toinght, I’m going to tell of another important step that will help you with learning how to think.

A few months ago, I did a debate on the topic of abortion. I thought it was an enjoyable debate and the audience thought I made the most convincing case I believe. However, there was a little problem with all of this. I was arguing on the side of being pro-abortion.

Now readers know that I’m not pro-abortion. What was going on then? It was a project for a friend and while there was a real pro-abortion person supposed to speak, he couldn’t make it and at the last minute, I was asked if I could be devil’s advocate and argue for abortion which I did. (Rest assured also my entire audience knew I was pro-life.)

Why I bring this up is that the reason I was able to argue pro-abortion enough to make an audience think I’d made a case is because it is important to know the arguments of your opponents. When you go to present an opinion on a certain issue, you need to know not only what you believe, but you also need to know what it is that your opponent believes as well and I would argue, you need to know it better than they know it.

What is enjoyable about this is that you can be debating your opponent and have them make an argument finally that they think is the killer argument and then you can say “Well it’s about time! I thought you’d never get to that argument! Here’s why it fails!”

This is also a lesson that the new atheists need to learn. Richard Dawkins, Victor Stenger, and others have been quite clear that they don’t think they need to understand Christian theology. One of the worst mistakes you could make with someone however is to claim to obliterate their worldview when the strongest minds in that worldview can tell you lack sufficient knowledge of that view.

If Stenger and Dawkins think that Christianity is nonsense, that’s their right to do so. However, they need to know what it is that Christianity actually teaches. For instance, when Bill Maher in Religulous talks to some truckers at a trucker’s chapel, he brings up a list of Christian doctrines although two of them are doctrines that are held by Roman Catholics. Maher is too unfamiliar with what Christians believe to realize what any Protestant in the audience who knows his faith would recognize immediately.

Thus, I recommend that you read the literature of the other side. Have fun doing it as well. It’s a great encouragement to know you’ve read the books that your opponent has read and have read your own as well. To argue against the new atheists, you need to be fluent not only in Christianity but atheism as well. That will again require study.

Know your opponent and how he thinks, and you’ll learn more about how you are to think as well.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been looking at the idea of being a thinking Christian. What does it mean? These are tips that I gave to some Middle and High Schoolers and I want to pass on to you readers.

Today, I’m going to suggest that you argue. Now I realize that for many Christians, argue is a dirty word. We are often told that you can’t argue anyone into the kingdom. Where if entering the kingdom is a personal decision, you can’t even love them in. You are a tool the Holy Spirit can use and maybe a means of doing that will be a good argument.

Arguing doesn’t mean to necessarily be combative either. There is a time and a place for that. Right now, I am just saying to go out into the marketplace of ideas and put your ideas out there. I do that on TheologyWeb.com often. In the past when I was a member on AOL, I did that on there. The great thing about this is that you can get to interact with people who really do believe what they believe that is contradictory to you.

Some of you might think I’m only talking about religion, but I’m not. The same can be said of politics or sports or history or most any other field where two people can disagree on something. Of course, religion is a favorite topic of mine to discuss and it is one worthy to discuss.

Here’s something to keep in mind when you start to do this. For awhile when you go out there, you are going to get your tail kicked. You will think you know your side well and then someone’s going to come along and hand you yours. I remember when I started apologetics I had the delusion that people just didn’t know this existed and when the truth is told, there will be mass repentance.

That delusion doesn’t last long.

There are all kinds of reasons why someone doesn’t believe something. Some of them could be factual. A lot of them are emotional and volitional. That’s not just Christians. That’s non-Christians as well. That’s part of being human. The trouble is, for most of us, and mostly guys, we don’t want to admit it’s emotional or volitional.

Thus, when you get your tail kicked, don’t worry about it. You need it. It will force you to go back to your studies and review why you believe what you believe and learn how to address the arguments better. In fact, it could be in some cases, such as secondary issues on Christianity, you’re just wrong and a good argument helps reveal that.

Arguing will also help in that you will become familiar with the ideas that way. When you have to use an argument regularly, you come to know that argument. If you have to read it in a book every few months, you won’t know it as well. Arguing forces you to know the facts and know them quickly.

To be a good thinker, you need to know how to think and a great way to do that is arguing. Whatever your subject, learn it, and then find someone who disagrees.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Tonight, we’re going to be continuing our look on becoming a thinking Christian. I had a very wise friend contact me recently and it was a blessing to hear from them and tell me how much they enjoyed that as a teacher. I wish to continue now with another point that was made when I spoke on this topic.

That is to talk about what has been called the abomination that causes misinformation and that is Wikipedia.

Now if you’re looking up something non-controversial like the plot of a movie or video game, Wiki is fine. When my wife and I went through all of Smallville together, I’d often times look up characters on Wiki and see if anything was known about them that I could check out later. I have no problem with Wiki for that kind of thing.

When it comes to controversial matters however, Wiki is a terrible source to go to and sadly, it is often the first source we go to. Just do a web search for some topic and you’ll get Wiki brought up. In fact, I just went to Google and typed in “Jesus” and what came up first but Wikipedia?

There have been noted errors with Wikipedia in the past. For instance, did you know that Israel once had a death ray to kill non-Jews? Did you know that the comedian Sinbad was dead for several months? Did you know that Tony Blair as a teenager had posters of Hitler hung up on his wall? All of these were on Wikipedia.

The danger with Wikipedia is that it is so capable of being edited. You have no idea who is writing that entry on Wikipedia. Let’s suppose it is the entry on Jesus. It could be by N.T. Wright in which case you would get some excellent information. It could be by a kid at your local high school in which the information might not be so stellar. (Of course, I do know some high school students learning this stuff, but let’s face it, most aren’t) You could never know however. You are merely to trust it because it is on the internet.

There is a reason college professors no longer accept Wikipedia. It is because it is so unreliable, and yet it is what students are relying on. When you’re needing to do research for a class, by all means do some real research. There are excellent web sites you can find online. Take advantage of them. The best method still however is to go to your local library and/or bookstore and get books. When it comes time for me to write a research paper, I jump straight to Amazon and start looking for books. (You can find some amazing deals at times there too!)

Doing serious research will require that you use more than Wiki. That will require time and effort and maybe even money at times. The question to ask yourself however is how much real knowledge is worth to you? Do you really want to learn something or do you just want to get quick information for a paper and not have it make a lasting impression on you?

Note also that if you do debates online, don’t ever cite Wikipedia. As soon as I see someone cite that source, I know that they’re a lazy researcher. This even includes the blogger who made a post about God arguing for atheism and had the link on the word “God” go to Wikipedia.

No one can be an expert in every field, but with time and investment, you can become an expert in some fields. If you really want to be an expert, remember you will get out of your research what you put into it, and that won’t be much if you use a source like Wikipedia.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Tonight, I’d like to write about a topic I got to think about some as I had to speak on it today to some Middle and High Schoolers at a Christian academy and that is the topic of becoming a thinking Christian. This will hopefully also become a regular series.

The first point I’d like to make for tonight is on books. We need to be people who read books. Saturday, I was sitting outside a local library and a little girl comes in ahead of her Mom saying “I just love books!” I’m beaming at that point. It was so relieving to hear of youth in this generation that like to read.

I refer to this generation specifically after reading Mark Bauerlein’s book “The Dumbest Generation.” Bauerlein says that the young generation should be the smartest that we have as they have more access to information than any other generation has ever had, and yet they’re the dumbest. (A full review of the book can be found hopefully one day on the Tekton Ticker.)

Books not being read is a major cause of the problem. This doesn’t just mean knowledge books such as philosophy, theology, and science. This also means fiction, as many of us can be blessed by reading works of fiction. I don’t just mean the Chronicles of Narnia either or Lord of the Rings, although these are fine works to read. I mean fiction that can introduce you to new ways of thinking be it mystery, fantasy, horror, or some other genre.

Read books that will challenge you. Don’t just read the writers that you agree with. Read the writers that you disagree with. If you’re like me and you like to debate online, it will be of great benefit to you to not only know your arguments well, but also the arguments of your opponents. You should know them so well that if need be, you could argue for them.

When reading material that is meant for academic purposes, read books by good authors. What are the credentials of the person writing the book? Don’t be fooled just because it says “PH.D.” on the cover. The person could have a PH.D. in a field completely unrelated to the topic that they are writing on.

If you shop online for books, such as at Amazon, check the other books that come up when you are picking the one you want to read. Who wrote them? What are they about? Feel free to check some reviews and see what other people are saying about the book.

Also, check such things as the date the book was written and the publisher. It could be the book is outdated. (Note: This does not apply to foundational writings like Plato, Aquinas, Tacitus, Newton, etc.) Check the publisher. Is it a reputable one? Don’t just look for the author’s worldview. Many times, I don’t even check it.

Become a friend of books and you are on the path to becoming a thinking Christian.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! A couple of months ago, Stephen Hawking and others appeared on an episode of Larry King and tonight, we will interact with the first part of just what Hawking said. A link to a video of it can be found here while a transcript can be found here .

Now as one who can count as disabled, I do have a great respect for Hawking overcoming so much of what he has in spite of ALS. However, that does not mean that his ideas cannot be touched. In fact, I think he makes the mistake of many scientists where he assumes a scientism that cannot be proven by science itself yet seeks to say all truth is provable by science.

I will also grant that for the sake of argument that some of what Hawking here is saying could be shortened responses since he is in a chair and has limited movement and thus wants to make his answers as succinct as possible.

To begin with, Hawking does think that the scientific account is complete. Of course, this could depend on the scientific account of what? Do we have a complete account for instance of how life came into existence? Do we have an account so complete in any field that that means we stop looking? For all the talk about ID being a science stopper, it would seem that if Hawking is correct, this is just as much a science stopper.

He then adds that theology is unnecessary, but does this follow? Let us suppose that we had answered every scientific question that could be. Does that mean theology is unnecessary? That would mean that all knowledge of God is scientific knowledge. Now properly understood, science refers to a body of knowledge. In that case, theology is a science, but it’s extremely doubtful that Hawking means it in this way.

The only way this is unnecessary is that the case is true that there is no God, but Hawking has not established that. He could have a case for the existence of something, which I doubt, but what of the existing of something? Does he have a case? He never directly answers “Why is there something rather than nothing at all?”

However, even if someone doesn’t believe God exists, it is still important to them to study theology. Why? Several people in this world, myself included of course, do believe that God does exist and if you’re going to critique their views rightly, you need to study those views. The new atheists would do well to learn this.

As for his theory, Hawking does treat it as if it explains everything, but he has not explained how it does. Now he could explain that more in his book, but the audience is left to wonder. What is it that gravity works on? Where did the law of gravity come from? How can nothing act in any way to produce something?

Hawking also says people are reacting because science is answering questions that used to be the province of religion. I would very much like to know what these questions are. It is as if Hawking is arguing against a god-of-the-gaps mentality, but could it be that the atheistic world has created this mentality as well? After all, the early Christians saw no threat to doing science and saw it as explaining HOW God was working in the world.

Finally, Hawking says his great hero is Galileo, who believed in the power of observation. The reality is, so did every other scientist. What else did they base their findings on? Naturally, they had their presuppositions, but they also observed the world around them. We have seen earlier other concerns with Galileo. He was right, but he did not have sufficient evidence.

Tomorrow, we will look more at how the discussion plays out with the other panelists.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth! Lately, we’ve been looking at the relationship between science and religion and how Christians should see it. Today, we’re going to be continuing that look by discussing the doctrine of the multiverse.

Now a lot of us out there are probably skeptical of the idea of a multiverse. As per usual here however, I would recommend that when debating someone, be more than ready to grant them the multiverse. Why should it be that such a belief would be seen as a threat to the existence of God? Does the existence of more than one universe make the source of those universes more unlikely?

Yesterday in church I gave an example to illustrate this. I pointed to a parking lot across the street from our church and said “Suppose you were told that there was a dead body in the parking lot across the street and saw that indeed there was.” Immediately, you will be wondering a number of questions and one of them will be “How did a dead body wind up there?”

Now suppose that there was a detective who came over and said “I saw some of you people come out and look across the street wondering what was going on. I want to assure you that you have nothing to wonder about. My officers inform me that there are five hundred more bodies behind this building. Therefore, there’s no need to wonder about this one.”

None of us would accept that. If we were wondering what the cause of one body was, we will be wondering even more what the cause of 500 bodies were. Thus, if we have one universe and we have a hard time explaining that one, it does not help to say “Well we can solve the explanation of this universe by saying there are X more universes.” That’s only increased the difficulty!

For each of these universes, we will have to ask what is the cause of that universe. If we have universes that are somehow producing other universes, it becomes more of a puzzle. What is it in a universe that gives it this power that it can in a way reproduce itself into another universe?

In fact, if these other universes were somehow able to be found and we could find out that they had life as well, that would not lessen our wonder. It would increase it. How could it be that there is a source of universes that not only produces universes but tends to produce life-sustaining universes? Why is it that the universes that are thriving supposedly are the ones where life is being sustained?

Of course, if modern ideas are correct, it could be we will never understand such questions. Many of us will live as if there is one universe, but let us not see the multiverse as a threat to theism. Instead, let’s push it back on to the non-theist and remember the reformulated argument given yesterday.

All things that have potential to change depend on something else for their existing.
The universe has potential to change.
The universe depends on something else for its existing.

That works not just with our universe, but any other universe.

Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. Yesterday, I gave a look at the Kalam cosmological argument in the horizontal sense and I said that I think it works, but I want us to rethink our usage of it. I believe science can support theistic ideas, but they cannot prove theistic ideas, and thus I want an argument that is not married to science but is still functional.

Hence, I suggested rephrasing the Kalam to a form more fitting to the vertical argument and came up with the following:

All things that have the potential to change depend on something else for their existing.
The universe has the potential to change.
Therefore, the universe depends on something else for its existing.

Now notice I say existing instead of existence. All derived being depends on something else for its being. Derived being is derived for that which receives being has potential to change and is not existence itself. It rather moves from one mode of existence to another mode of existence. This is true not just of material objects, but of immaterial ones as well, such as angels.

Why make such an argument? We believe scientifically today that the universe had a beginning. However, we also know that science can change at any moment depending on new data so let’s suppose for the sake of argument that new data shows up indicating an eternal universe. If not that, we can suppose this hypothesis of the multiverse is true and there are many universes. Again, an atheist can point to such a chain of universes and say “No need of a creator.”

My argument is still safe for it solely depends on something else being in existence and it doesn’t care about how long it was in existence. To imagine the difference, consider your existence. You are here because of the union of the male and female sex cells. You parents had something to do with your existence, even if you don’t know them or live with different “parents.” (I use parentheses to distinguish from biological parents. Adoptive parents are wonderful)

The same is true for each of their existences. However, your grandparents did not have any direct involvement with your coming into existence. (At least, I certainly hope they didn’t!) Both sets of your grandparents could have been dead and you would still be able to come into existence.

However, now picture a stick moving an object, and then that stick being moved by a hand. The object requires the stick to move but at the same time, the stick requires the hand to move. If the hand goes away, the stick and the object cease to move. There is dependence all the way to the end of the chain.

This is the difference with this argument. It is no longer the question of just bringing about existence but rather sustaining existence. If God’s nature is his existence, then we do not ask the question of Him. He does not receive existence for existence does not receive existence nor does He move from one mode of existence to another, because what mode of existence is there beyond existence?

The argument brings us back to the question of existence that science cannot answer. Science deals with a type of existence, but it does not deal with existence itself.

Now once again, I think Kalam works, but I want us to move past the science vs. religion nonsense and into the real debate area. Science is not the final arbiter of if God exists and it’s time we stopped treating it as such.