The Reasonableness of Christianity Blog

Hello all! Asher here - I want to preface this post with a note that here, as well as in all of my posts, I will be including a TL;DR (too long; didn’t read) summary at the beginning of my ramblings. If you’re like me, some days you’re just not cut out for squinting your eyes at a bunch of philos ophical and theological blabbering, and sometimes the Sparknotes version is all you can handle. That being said, I hope that this series on the problem of evil will be interesting and thought provoking; it’s something that any person of faith has stake in, and should be aware of. TL;DR   - I've found it harder to believe in God since I've considered the problem of evil, and I'm starting a series on posts detailing my journey to work that out. The problem of evil states that an all knowing, all powerful, all loving God cannot exist in a world like ours where evil abounds, or at least it's highly unlikely that God would exist in such a world, let alone create it. Many philosopher...

In the United States and much of the Western world, we live in a Golden Age unequalled by any other society in any other time or place. It is not perfect, but we have enjoyed stable institutions, rule of law, human rights and egalitarian ideals, freedom of religion and conscience, economic freedom and opportunity, education, science, technological power and comforts, the arts, and overall prosperity including a thriving middle class - all of this at a level unimaginable in any society other than our post-Enlightenment West. As with all golden ages, ours is temporary. We can already see the cracks in the foundation, but lets enjoy this period that God gave us and not take it for granted. Remember that this time is unique and miraculous and that we are privileged to be a part of it. It did not have to be this way. In my view, our Golden Age is a result of the alignment of Christian values with Enlightenment rationality. Others, like John Mark Reynolds, have referred to "Athens and J...

I have no personal connection to Yale or Donald Kagan, but I enjoyed listening to some of his lectures on Ancient Greece that are free online, as I previously noted in my first blog post, and I approvingly cited his take on Niall Ferguson’s book Civilization: The West and the Rest , here .  He was a stout defender of the West in academia, and I’m sure he will be missed. He passed away  Aug 6, the age of 89.  Hat tip Tyler Cowen .