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Movie Review: The Karate Kid (2010)

Some good things, but mostly bad. I hate to say that about a Will Smith (co-producer) movie. But that’s the way it is.There was homage paid to the original Karate Kid. As a bit of parody, when (Mr. Han) Jackie Chan attempted to catch a fly with his chopsticks, he became frustrated with the . . . . Continue Reading »

Noetic Noah and the Fluffy Hermeneutic

This started as a reply about hermeneutic in the context of the flood on my personal blog. Do we take the flood literally or not. My interlocutor was exasperated exclaiming that to not take the text literally implies words have no meaning. This is exactly backwords. Here is my response to him.Yes, . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [6]

The last time we mentioned that if Joseph had never been sold into slavery, he would have never been in a position to become what he became.And the wily atheist — the one who admits, btw, that even he might be willing to suffer for the sake of something, like being part of the 60 million who . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [5]

BTW, I’m telling you this story because this is one of the stories God tells us in His book about what kind of universe he’s running here — and the atheist needs at least to listen to the story even if he’s not willing to buy the whole thing from start to finish. Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [4]

So we’re at the place where we can say a couple-four things from the existential side of the problem of evil:[1] from the perspective that pain exists, and we perceive it, we as human beings (you could say “people”) have an urge to do something about it when we see it.[2] that urge . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [3]

Last time I proffered the idea that pain is a problem for the atheist because he has to figure out what to do about said pain - and some of you took that at face value, but I think some of you are rightfully scratching your heads.“Frank - big thinkin’ and everything,” you ought to . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [2]

Last time I left you off with something like this — The problem is what to do about pain. See: the common argument here — which John Loftus plainly used to dismiss God — is that all pain ought to be stopped whenever possible. A universe with suffering in it precludes the Christian . . . . Continue Reading »

Bailing out the Problem of Evil [1]

The problem is what to do about pain. See: the common argument here — which Loftus plainly uses to dismiss God — is that all pain ought to be stopped whenever possible. A universe with suffering in it precludes the Christian God (he says), so the onus is now on John or anyone else who sees pain to stop pain.
Continue Reading »

More in Heaven and Earth

 Robert Frost: The Poet as Philosopher   by peter j. stanlis isi, 350 pages, $28 Poor Robert Frost. Nearly half a century after his death, he is still suffering at the hands of both friends and enemies. Frost brought much of this problem on himself when he selected a troubled young . . . . Continue Reading »

Learning from Sartre

Jean-Paul Sartre is not, to put it mildly, very high on the reading list of those seeking to grow in Christian piety. Indeed, most would express mild shock at the suggestion that his writings could ever make such a list. His atheism would unsettle the tremulous soul, his contradictions would both . . . . Continue Reading »

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