The Christian Atheist

No Compromise is an experimental new feature on The Christian Atheist. If you are a regular listener, you know my voice, AND you know our story, or as much of it as we’ve told on the Christian Atheist. My wife Jenny was the “looking-glass” through which I returned to Christ. I tell the story in episodes 2-8, “The Machinery of the Looking-Glass.” I am so excited today to introduce to you my Jenny,...

We here at the Christian Atheist stand for Truth above all. The historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade is read here WITHOUT COMMENTARY. This installment is the Dissenting opinion of Justices Breyer, Kagan (author) and Sotomayor. If we are to meaningfully engage one another on this issue, we must do so by first INFORMING ourselves on the RULING itself. Please send friends and opponents HE...

No Compromise is an experimental new feature on The Christian Atheist. If you are a regular listener, you know my voice, AND you know our story, or as much of it as we’ve told on the Christian Atheist. My wife Jenny was the “looking-glass” through which I returned to Christ. I tell the story in episodes 2-8, “The Machinery of the Looking-Glass.” I am so excited today to introduce to you my Jenny,...

We here at the Christian Atheist stand for Truth above all. The historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade is read here WITHOUT COMMENTARY. This installment is the final part of the decision. Please stay tuned! We plan to also read the Dissent. If we are to meaningfully engage one another on this issue, we must do so by first INFORMING ourselves on the RULING itself. Please send friends and...

We here at the Christian Atheist stand for Truth above all. The historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade is read here WITHOUT COMMENTARY. This installment is the second of three parts of the decision. Please stay tuned! If we are to meaningfully engage one another on this issue, we must do so by first INFORMING ourselves on the RULING itself. Please send friends and opponents HERE to groun...

We here at the Christian Atheist stand for Truth above all. The historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade is read here WITHOUT COMMENTARY. If we are to meaningfully engage one another on this issue, we must do so by first INFORMING ourselves on the RULING itself. This installment is the first half of the decision as drafted by Justice Alito. We will publish the final half in our next post....

We here at the Christian Atheist stand for Truth above all. The historic Dobbs decision overturning Roe vs. Wade is read here WITHOUT COMMENTARY. This installment is the "Syllabus" or summary of the Ruling that preceded it. We will publish the ruling itself in succeeding editions. Please stay tuned! If we are to meaningfully engage one another on this issue, we must do so by first INFORMING oursel...

Important: episodes 58 and 59 are one continuous presentation. I separated them into two episodes because they are extremely dense and difficult. They are, however, very important in the ongoing development of our argument. Please consider them a single episode conveniently divided into bite-sized portions. What is faith? From where does it originate? What does it mean to have evidence for what yo...

Important: episodes 58 and 59 are one continuous presentation. I separated them into two episodes because they are extremely dense and difficult. They are, however, very important in the ongoing development of our argument. Please consider them a single episode conveniently divided into bite-sized portions. What is faith? From where does it originate? What does it mean to have evidence for what yo...

What is faith? From where does it originate? What does it mean to have evidence for what you believe? Is faith the foundation for knowledge, or knowledge the foundation for faith? Most atheists and theists have never thought systematically about these questions, but they are foundational for any rational conclusions we may draw about God's existence or non-existence. We begin our discussion by unr...

Our final episode addressing the question, Are we living in George Orwell's 1984? You can listen to the whole novel on our Simple Gifts Podcast. The preceding two episodes and this one were drafted as a unit. They should be digested together, as they form a single narrative. This week we continue our analysis of doublethink. As Jenny and I walk our neighborhood each week, we see sign after sign pr...

We continue to address the question, Are we living in George Orwell's 1984? You can listen to the whole novel on our Simple Gifts Podcast. The preceding episode and the following one were drafted as a unit with this one. They should be digested together, as they form a single narrative. This week we continue our analysis of doublethink. As Jenny and I walk our neighborhood each week, we see sign a...

As we worked through Chapter 9 of part 2 of George Orwell's 1984 it was clear that we had too much material to complete the discussion we began last week in a single episode. You can listen to the whole novel on our Simple Gifts Podcast, uninterrupted with my commentary. This episode and the two following were drafted as a unit, but had to be divided into manageable portions; these ideas should be...

As we post this edition of the Christian Atheist, I am puzzling over an episode I am entitling "The Evident, evidence, and Faith." It is presenting me some thorny intellectual problems, and I needed some additional time to work them out. I thought it might be useful to illustrate what I believe to be the opposing side to the positive faith-based vision that structures Western liberal society, the...

On March 24th, 2022, the Associates for Biblical Research announced the discovery of an ancient curse tablet (defixio) on Mount Ebal at the site of "Joshua's altar." This is a potentially WORLD-SHAKING discovery, but the dust has not yet settled, and the academic war is only just beginning. We must clearly understand what is at stake, and think seriously of what our faith depends on. We should als...

Dorothy Sayers' brief essay, "The Triumph of Easter." If you’d like to support us, donate through Paypal at Romanschapter5@comcast.net https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured  https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords  https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com  #thechristianatheist #drjohndwise #drjohnwise #johnwise #christian #atheist #christianity #atheism #jesus #jesuschrist #go...

We conclude our series on faith and the Critic with an unanswered challenge to Socratic reasoning and some final remarks about faith and certainty. If you’d like to support us, donate through Paypal at Romanschapter5@comcast.net https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured  https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords  https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com  #thechristianatheist #drjohn...

Is faith irrational? Can a logical distinction be made between belief and faith, such that belief is acceptance with evidence, whereas faith is acceptance without evidence? Atheists today seem to think they have a corner on understanding philosophical concepts that have been discussed for thousands of years. As so often happens in today's culture, we KNOW BETTER than all of human history, and most...

We continue to interact with the Critic over the nature of faith. Is faith in God different from believing in science? Are beliefs chosen, or are they imposed upon us? We see that these questions are linked to the metaphysical issue of free will. If you'd like to support us, donate through Paypal at Romanschapter5@comcast.net https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured  https://www.face...

We continue our series of "Responses to the Critic" this week with a conversation on the nature of faith. I argue that faith is the foundation upon which ALL of rational human existence is built, including science. As an atheist, recognizing this truth was essential in my return to theism. I fought the conclusion very hard, as does every atheist I discuss it with, but in the end the principle of "...

One of my favorite conversations with a Facebook atheist was over the historicity of Jesus. I was stunned when a critic responded to me that "Jesus and his disciples ... never existed." Even as an atheist it never occurred to me to deny that Jesus was an historical person. I questioned the mythology that I felt had grown about him, the supernatural stuff, but his historical existence seemed to me...

There is much to be learned from a dialogue with an intelligent critic. Join me as I try to adequately express my faith in God and address difficult questions. If you'd like to support us, donate through Paypal at Romanschapter5@comcast.net https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured  https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords  https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com  #thechristianath...

There is much to be learned from a dialogue with an intelligent critic. Join me as I try to adequately express my faith in God and address difficult questions. If you'd like to support us, donate through Paypal at Romanschapter5@comcast.net https://www.youtube.com/c/TheChristianAtheist/featured  https://www.facebook.com/JnJWiseWords  https://wisewordsforyouroccasion.wordpress.com  #thechristianath...

I was puzzled in my early school life by a question whose answer I discovered in graduate school. Why do intellectuals in the West default to blaming our culture for all the world's ills? In many ways it was this question that drove me to the study of philosophy, to abandoning my Christian faith. As I unraveled an answer in graduate school and academic life, I also found my way back to Christ, or...

Karl Marx sets himself in opposition to Hegel, but in doing so actually only more deeply instantiates all the poisonous seeds of Hegel's philosophy. In both Marxist and National Socialist incarnations, prescriptive Hegelianism as a ruling ideology was catastrophic in the 20th century. Yet instead of abandoning the ideology we continue to double-down on it in new and various forms, progressively ma...