One of the ideas that has been ingrained in us is the idea that faith happens in the absence of knowledge. Alvin Plantinga quotes Mark Twain "faith is believing what you know ain't true". We talk of a 'leap of faith' and easily accept that faith is the opposite of reason.



And what has been the result? A contempt from the intellectual and scientific community towards those who have faith in God. If I understood that faith walks hand in hand with ignorance and was divorced from reason,… Continue

Really, there are very few systems of thought out there... but lots of variations on them. And it seems we cannot move past the question of origin in forming the basis of how we look at life. The prevailing intellectual thought in our day is that there is no God and that our origin is a chance happening - we might call this naturalism. It involves explanations like evolution to explain our origin but the basic premise is that all can be explained by science or empirical evidence.



So… Continue

I invite you to explore a little with me - it's not directly related to worship but I've found that theology and philosophy and worship seem to be vitally connected.



If anyone thinks people of faith aren't thinking people, they ought to try reading someone like Alvin Plantinga. I enjoy the challenge of trying to understand his philosophical arguments.



One thing is for sure: Understanding the different philosophies are important because they are what shapes whole… Continue