The End of Reason: A Response to the New Atheists ~ Ravi Zacharias (Serious Saturday)

September 29, 2012 – Ravi Zacharias speaks on the New Atheists (Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Christopoher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett) and their inability to use reason and logic. Instead, they use ridicule and mocking as a tactic against religion.

The Four Gardens ~ An Easter Message from Ravi

In this classic message, Ravi Zacharias shares thoughts from the perspective of Easter as he delves into four gardens: the text, the context, the contest, and the conquest.

Ravi inspires with truths surrounding creation, the word, the cross, and the resurrection in presentations excerpted from the Jesus Among Other Gods group study. This presentation is a beautiful and thought-provoking reminder of all that Easter celebrates.

Preaching the Gospel To Ourselves~Knowing Our Place Allows for Greater Understanding of What God Accomplished On Our Behalf

One pastor that put a twist on preaching the Gospel to ourselves rather than pointing to others as a cause of chaos is Supt. H. Burnett of Dunamis Word. This pastor and I may not see eye-to-eye on the non-essentials. But on the essentials, he preaches the Gospel message as it should be: we are sinners in need of a savior… and we need daily regeneration by the continued workings of the Holy Spirit. His pointing a segment of his readers to the fact that they shouldn’t be concerned about secret or conspiratorial marks on the Dollar Bill or New World Order type shenanigans, but rather, these marks of rebellion and sinfulness are in and on each one of us ~ IS BRILLIANT. In other words… preach the Gospel to ourselves, start there. A great insight!

Ravi Zacharias Interviewed by Fox’s Lauren Greene about His Book~Has Christianity Failed You?

Here is an interview with Ravi Zacharias by Lauren Green from FOX News. Here we see a battle between what the Emergents view is why people leave the church, and what I see (have seen and have it confirmed in yet one more way) as the main reason – people are not having their intellectual argument.


Transcendent Beauty Only Skin Deep? Secrets of Our DNA

In this presentation Ravi Zacharias takes his time explaining a talk he was present at where Dr. Francis S. Collins (WIKI) compares a cross section of DNA to a stained-glass Rose window from Yorkminster Cathedral. The design is apparent and Collins mentions it a huge boost to his faith.

At The Veritas Forum at Caltech, Francis Collins shares two images representing the scientific worldview and the spiritual worldview. He asks whether there is a way to merge science & faith, and suggests that his experience is that these two perspectives are not in conflict. (The full presentation can be seen HERE):

RAVI WRITES:

“The picture (of the DNA) did more that take away one’s breath; it was awesome in the profoundest sense of the term – not just beautiful but overwhelming. And it almost mirrored the pattern of the Rose windowThe intricacy of the DNA’s design, which pointed to the Transcendant One, astonished those who are themselves the design and who have been created semitranscendant by design. We see ourselves only partially, but through our Creator’s eyes, we see our transcendance. In looking at our own DNA, the subject and the object come together.”

 

Dinesh D’Souza Debates John Loftus (Apologetics 315)

Of course I would be remiss not to mention gratitude of the almost encyclopedic cataloging of debates over at Apologetics 315.

This debate is a great example of diarrhea (D’Souza’s words) from the skeptic, i.e., typical rejections of Christianity. But in all Loftus’s points (basically Christianity commits acts of evil or “evil” is commanded by God), he is missing the grand-point of how you say one act is immoral and the other is evil. This point is made by Ravi Zacharias during a Q&A by a student at Harvard, how do you decide what is evil and what is not?

Atheism cannot answer this, theism (especially the Judeo-Christian ethic) can. So Loftus is borrowing from the Christian worldview to disprove it. In other words, how does the atheist respond to rape in historical evolutionary thought? It is currently taboo, but what about our evolutionary history? What about our evolutionary future? In theism, rape is always morally wrong, at all times in history and at all places in the cosmos. Do you get it? John Loftus is calling God immoral or Christians immoral… is he saying there is a “Divine Law” that supersedes human thought so when he states such a position we intuitively know and are supposed to understand what he just said? IF this is the case, then he is proving the Judeo-Christian God, not disproving “Ego Eimi.

Here is the debate between Dinesh D’Souza and John Loftus on the topic: Does the Christian God Exist? Debate video can be found here. D’Souza offers his follow-up thoughts on the Sound Rezn radio show here (mp3). Check out Dinesh’s newest book here. (original debate source here)

Full MP3 Audio here. (2 hours)

Enjoy this debate, it snuck in under my radar.