The book, titled The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism describes the kinds of questions newcomers—mostly highly-educated twenty-somethings—fire at Keller:

• Why would a good God allow suffering?
• Hasn’t science disproved Christianity?
• Why would a loving God send people to hell?
• And isn’t it arrogant for Christians to claim that their faith is the only route to God?”

If you’re interested in finding out more click here to read the aticle from Break Point by Chuck Colson.

Renowned British journalist Malcolm Muggeridge once said that all news is nothing more than new people experiencing old things. Things may appear new, but that hardly means they really are new. So, is there really anything new about the “New Atheists”? Surprisingly, none of the New Atheists have uncovered any fresh scientific, philosophical, or historical truths that undermine Christianity. It’s all old news. In fact, most of their arguments are recycled from older atheists such as Friedrich Nietzsche, Karl Marx, and Sigmund Freud.

Ironically, one of the reasons the New Atheists have lashed out so aggressively is because atheism is losing the rational higher ground. In the 1960s it may have seemed acceptable to argue that religious faith is blind. The cover of a 1966 Time magazine story captured the prevailing attitude of the time: “Is God Dead?” Yet, as philosopher William Lane Craig has observed in a cover story for Christianity Today, news of God’s death was premature. In fact, says Craig, “atheism, though perhaps still the dominant viewpoint at the American university, is a philosophy in retreat.” This trend was powerfully portrayed by the recent conversion of Antony Flew, one of the most influential atheists over the past five decades. In his book Why There Is A God, Flew cites the burgeoning scientific evidence for a divine intelligence as the prime reason for his change of mind.

Click here to read more.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen! This is the southbound train to San Jose, and this is the Davis stop. We have a packed train today, so please find a seat as soon as possible.

Yes—it sure was crowded indeed, and with three bags and not enough hands, as well as three boys whom I had to keep an eye on, it was a nightmare trying to find seats last Friday on the Amtrak train.

Finally, we found seats at the end of the train and I found myself facing a pleasant looking lady with a binder, backpack, and Greek salad sprawled out about her.

“I’m sorry, but may I sit here?”

“Oh of course!”

And she hastened to make room for me in the seat beside her. After a few seconds, a conversation quickly snow balled and introductions were soon made. I learned that she was a UC Davis student who was traveling home to visit her younger sister for her birthday, and I explained that I was traveling to the Bay Area for my youth group and that my dad was a pastor. Fifteen minutes after leaving Davis, I realized that we were still talking at about 100 miles an hour, and we discovered that we were both extreme extroverts. One topic led to another, until I felt led to ask her:

“May I ask what religion your family practices?”

“Oh, my family is Greek Orthodox, but we’re not very devout even though my whole family has been baptized.”

Our conversation continued to unravel, and we began expounding on the topic of religion, and I found that she had many questions regarding Christianity and life. She began by asking,

“What do you think of the creation of the world? Do you believe in evolution? Or the Big Bang theory? Or a mixture of both?”

“Well, there are two different types of evolution argued by scientists—macro-evolution and micro-evolution. I do not believe in macro-evolution, which is the evolution of entire species forming from another species, like humans from monkeys. However, I believe in micro-evolution, which is the change of characteristics within a given species. I do believe that God the Creator created everything. I do not believe that everything came into existence on accident.”

“Now upon what basis do you believe that?”

“Well, let’s say everything did come from a single amino acid, as many evolutionists claim. Where did that single amino acid come from? It had to have come from somewhere! Furthermore, the factors of which life can exist, for example, the placement of our solar system within the spirals of our galaxy, or the placement of our planet Earth within just our solar system, is so perfectly set for sustaining life that there is no way it could have come about by chance. There are so many different factors that even if one was slightly changed, life could not exist. The number is so great that it is 1 followed by so many zeroes it could cover entire sets of encyclopedias!”

“Yes, that is true…”

“I honestly think that it takes greater faith to believe that life is all an accident and is meaningless than to have faith in a God who created everything and is orchestrating everything behind the scenes.”

“Now that is an interesting statement! Wow….” And here I could just see the clog works of her mind churning and she seemed to be lost in thought. After a few moments, she turned to me again and said,

“So you think that everything is done for a reason? You think God has everything planned? Because then why did God create bad?!? And isn’t God just controlling us like puppets, then?”

“No, God did not create bad.”

“He did—he created Satan, didn’t he?”

“Yes he did, but he did not create bad. He created Satan, but Satan chose to do bad. God creates good things that turn bad. God created us humans to do good, but he also gave us free will and the choice to make out own decisions, which was his ultimate proclamation of love. He didn’t strap us to chairs and tell us what to do. So no, he is not controlling us. Hence the reason why evil continues to exist in the world.”

“Then what do you think is the purpose of life? Why did God even create us if we’re not going to even do what he intended? What is the purpose of going through all the suffering of this world? Why do we have to?”

“Well, let’s say we were all perfect creatures, and we were all just with God in heaven for all eternity, without ever experiencing life here on earth. We didn’t do anything wrong, and we all lived in harmony and glory. God would not have the chance to show us how great his love is for us—we would have no opportunity to come to him, to have a relationship with him, because we wouldn’t need him at all. I believe the purpose of life is to come closer to him through a relationship.”

“Then if God really does love us, why does he allow suffering?” She shared with me how one of her younger sisters had gone through a serious disease several years back which had almost caused her to lose her sister, and the question of her sister’s suffering had troubled her for so long.

“Well, through suffering, we are able to come closer to God. If everything was going fine and dandy, how would we grow closer to him? It is through suffering and pain, we are able to grow and get closer to him. Just as in relationships, hard times evoke the strongest points in relationships in which both grow, so does suffering bring us closer to God. Now, God does not wish pain and suffering upon us. But, he allows it to happen, because he wants what is best for us.”

“Yeah, that is true…” And she explained to me how she realized even within her own family and within her own sister’s life, there had been so much growth and strength which grew from that hard time. She grew silent for a time, and after a few moments turned to me once again and said,

“So then if God knew all this…all this evil was going to happen in the world, then why didn’t he just send Jesus into the world before? Why did he wait so long?”

“Well, God is a merciful God, and in the Old Testament you can see how many times he tried over and over again to bring his people back through prophets like Jonah did for Ninevah. God knew all along that Jesus was going to have to come and save us from our sins, but he still wanted to give us a chance. But, in his perfect timing and will, his plan unfolded.”

“So you think there is a reason for everything? You really think there has been a plan all along? Because I have a really hard time believing that all things—all aspects of life past and present relate together.”

“Yes, I do. I think we all have an omnipotent, omniscient, and loving God who has a master plan in which we all fit.”

“Yeah, I guess….like I think this talk with you was planned. See, I just barely missed the earlier train…by one minute. If I had made it onto that train, I wouldn’t be here right now talking to you…” she chuckled, “Maybe he wanted me to talk to you today…”

Wow! Hearing her say that blew my own mind away! The fact was I had almost gone on the next later train to the Bay Area, and if I had, I would not be sitting there in Car 1 of the southbound train talking to this precious soul. And it hit me so afresh that, wow, God really does have a reason for everything!

By that time, we had reached her final destination, and as she prepared to leave, I gave her a resource which I myself found very helpful—a lecture by Rob Bell called “Everything Is Spiritual” which I hoped would help her understand the supremacy and sovereignty of God in our world and how much he desires that in our lives. As she left the train, I silently prayed for this precious creation of God to open her heart and engage in a personal relationship with the Creator God of the universe who loved her so much!

As I sat back and breathed deeply after such a long conversation (well over an hour!), I was so thankful for the kind of training I have received through Interhigh and other worldview and apologetics training!! I also could not helping thinking what a great God we serve—a God who can use even the young to further His Kingdom and who is a faithful God in control of all things.

Soli Deo gloria!

“We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5

This is the SKIT from RISE 2: Evidence for the Resurrection held by InterHigh Fellowship. It goes through some of the common “theories” that were used to try to explain away the resurrection and the empty tomb in the past. Many of these theories (swoon theory, hallucinations, stolen body) are no longer debated among scholars as they have no evidence to support them.

The SKIT was done by youth students from the 6th graders who did the shadow puppets to the older kids who did everything from acting to prop moving! They did a wonderful job.

What was your Favorite Part of the Skit!

• Please leave nice comments to support their great effort!
• Also please let us know what part of the skit you liked the best!

Did you enjoy that skit? Let us know below in the comments! Then go watch the skit from RISE 2009!

William Lane Craig’s talk @ RISE: Evidence for the Resurrection

William Lane Craig’s came to RISE to speak to our InterHigh youth students about the numerous evidence for the resurrection. Dr. Craig laid out several points from the oddity of women finding the tomb, to highlighting the culture of the times, to the numerous independent sources of the facts, to how even the immediate opponents of this new ‘Christian’ movement did not deny the empty tomb. There is truly a wealth of historical and simple logical reasons why it is reasonable to believe that the tomb was empty and the resurrection is the best, most plausible explanation of what truly happened on that day.

Wondering what does the Resurrection of Christ mean for our lives?
Be sure to come to our next InterHigh Monthly: The Resurrection. NOW WHAT?

Chime in below in the Comments! What did you think?

• Did you really like one of the point?
• Did you learn something new?
• Were you encouraged? Why?

Check out his talk below!

Who is William Lane Craig? Why Should I be Excited?

How can I explain to you how awesome William Lane Craig is? He has been faithfully defending the faith for over 30 years! He uses awesome logical arguments winning debate after debate against the brightest Atheist scholars.

If you wanted to gather a team of the best defenders of the faith, William Lane Craig would be near the number one pick year after year. He is still debating the most popular Atheists of our day, and he is still presenting Christianity as a much more reasonable choice than anything else out there.

He first came to believe in Jesus and became a Christian when he was 16 as a junior in High School! Since then, he has dedicated his life to the study and defense of the faith. He has not one, but two PhD’s! One doctorate of Philosophy (Study of Knowledge), and another Doctorate of Theology (Study of God).

Faith based on Reason and Fact

Should we call him Dr. Dr. Craig? One Dr. for each Ph.D? I don’t think he cares about that, but he is very passionate about training up others and using his knowledge to let people know that Christianity is true and reasonable! It’s not about blind faith, and it’s not about feelings. It’s a faith that is built on unshakable facts, and he is coming to InterHigh to give a presentation on: Evidence for the Resurrection.

In short, William Lane Craig is the man! He’s out there using his gifts and his mind to defend the faith to show the world that Christianity is reasonable. So make sure you don’t miss out on your chance to hear from this amazing speaker on April 17th, 2010!

More Information on William Lane Craig

Here is some more information if your interested in learning more about Dr. Dr. Craig:

He is currently a professor at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California.

He has written or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument (Does that sound familiar? Remember K-MART?) Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus; as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology.

Check out this clip of William Lane Craig telling us what most scholars think about the resurrection:

Resources on William Lane Craig

For more information you can also check out Reasonable Faith – a great website with debates, articles, podcasts, blogs, all designed to answer those tough questions about faith in God and Christianity. If you haven’t check it out, if you go to the Q&A section he answers a lot of tough questions from Christians just like you!
Reasonable Faith Website

Here’s another place to check out some more articles, and debates from WLC
William Lane Craig Articles and Debates

Here is a link to one of his most recent debates with Christopher Hitchens (a famous Atheist & author of “God is not Great”)
Excerpts from Craig vs Hitchens

• If you could ask William Lane Craig one apologetics question, what would it be?

professionals from Harvard, MIT, Berkeley and other top research institutions stating their disagreement with Darwin’s theory to account for the complexity of life.

Also, click here to download an article written by Dr. Jonathan Wells, Ph.D, UC Berkeley. The article, titled “Survival of the Fakest,” reveals the hoaxes behind the famous “icons of evolution” that have been presented in Biology textbooks to prove evolution.

William Kang, InterHigh Fellowship

What’s interesting is that if you watch an early documentary which touted Ida as the missing link–our supposed ancestor–you would probably find the documentary fairly convincing. In the film, the scientist seem so convinced that Ida is the “one we’ve been waiting for.” (Watch the a clip of the documentary below).

What’s disappointing when you read the article is what Henderson reports about the scientist, Dr. Jorn Hurum, who discovered Darwinius Masillae: Dr. Jorn Hurum sold film and book rights to the discovery before his findings were subject to peer review. Do you think that maybe he himself thought that Ida was not the one?

This whole incident reminded me about Piltdown man, whom I was first introduced to in my high school biology class back in 1983. He was once hailed as the missing link, and back then my high school teacher made me believe so. I thought that Piltdown man, along with the other icons of evolution (e.g. Miller-Urey experiment, Haeckel’s embryos, etc.) proved that evolution was true and that creation had no part in science, in the world and in my life. I don’t recall that my high school teacher told me that Piltdown man was a hoax (though he should have known at the time, since it was evidence was disclosed in 1953). I clearly remember that he didn’t mention the hoax behind Haekel’s embryos (the drawings were forged, not real). Neither did he tell me about the problems found in the Miller-Urey experiment (a Bio-physics Ph.D from UC Berkeley told me a few years ago). I’m all for science, and I love it when science reveals the truth. What concerns me, though, is when scientist use their trade to support a claim that they know is not true. And what angers me is when they do it and mislead the public into believing something that’s not true.

Ironically, science, not creationism, has shown that Piltdown man and other icons of evolution were false. And now it has caught another evolutionary scientist searching for an explanation.

I can’t wait for the next InterHigh Monthly. We’re going to look at the universe and consider the teleological argument for the existence of God.

William Kang, InterHigh