Category: Philosophy

The Christian Mind: Authority

Published on by dpatrickcollins6 Comments

A relative of mine on Facebook a while back was taken up by the news of Caitlin Jenner (formerly Bruce Jenner) having undergone surgery to become a female. The topic in the news at that time was whether it was appropriate to still call Caitlin “Bruce.” My relative felt strongly about the topic and posted the following:

Come on, people! It is 2016! If anyone of my Facebook friends insists on calling Caitlin Jenner ‘Bruce,’ tell me right now so I can unfriend you.

This, in many ways, represents what we might call the New Morality in America: Passionate, vocal, somewhat angry, more than just a bit self-righteous, and completely self-assured of its moral superiority. Honestly, I thought that was the Church’s job. Continue reading “The Christian Mind: Authority” →

The Christian Mind: Right

Published on by dpatrickcollins3 Comments

In our last post we explored whether it is wrong for moral values to be imposed upon society. This is an important question because in our day, there is this idea that no one’s values should be imposed upon anyone, much less society. To do so is to commit the modern-day mortal sin.

But the idea that moral values should not be imposed upon others — especially that we should be protected from others imposing their moral values upon us — is itself a moral value. This demonstrates what I called in our last post Newton’s Third Law of Belief: For every objection to the imposition of belief, there is an equal and opposite viewpoint imposing its own belief. Continue reading “The Christian Mind: Right” →

The Christian Mind: Values

Published on by dpatrickcollins6 Comments

An individual on a recent blog I follow had this to say about religious faith:

“[It leads] often to harmful advice and rules for women, gay people and society in general. Hence the need to assist [believers] to see the errors in their thinking, at every level.”

This in many ways characterizes a common perception of religious faith today: It is a social evil only doing harm and we would all be better off if it were eradicated. It reminded me of what neuroscientist and New York Times bestselling author Sam Harris had to say in his book The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. Continue reading “The Christian Mind: Values” →

The Christian Mind: Irrational

Published on by dpatrickcollins18 Comments

If anything has led to the loss of religious faith in the modern world, it is the idea that “science” has proven that God does not exist. Much of the disdain in our society toward religious faith I spoke about in our last post can be traced back to this idea.

Which may not be obvious. But to the extent society believes that God is an irrational concept, those who believe in God will be seen not only as violators of human freedom but also violators of compassion and justice. Continue reading “The Christian Mind: Irrational” →

The Christian Mind: A Question

Published on by dpatrickcollins9 Comments

All the time I was writing the series on The Christian Soul, methodically mapping the human soul and the way it is designed to interact with God, I could not help but ask myself a question: “Does any of this matter?” Continue reading “The Christian Mind: A Question” →