Steven Colborne's Blog, page 82

Pascal’s Wager Discussed

Christianity might seem strange to some, particularly to those who haven’t had a revelation of the reality of God. But when we come to understand the Christian worldview, and how it relates to every human being, we are all forced to consider seriously the idea of salvation and whether ignoring what the Bible says about life after death is really an option.

Such was the conclusion that 17th century French theologian Blaise Pascal arrived at, and which motivated him to compose what subsequently became known as Pascal’s Wager.

Pascal’s argument can be summarised as follows:

If you believe in God and God does exist, you will be rewarded with eternal life in heaven: thus an infinite gain.
If you do not believe in God and God does exist, you will be condemned to remain in hell forever: thus an infinite loss.
If you believe in God and God does not exist, you will not be rewarded: thus an insignificant loss.
If you do not believe in God and God does not exist, you will not be rewarded, but you have lived your own life: thus an insignificant gain.

The conclusion that can be drawn from the above statements is that when the odds are weighed, it is most rational to believe in God, and to live accordingly.

Problems with the Wager

There are several problems with the Wager that immediately come to mind. Firstly, the problem of different religions believing in different gods. Choosing to obey the Muslim god would lead to a completely different life than if one chose to obey the Christian god. Even if we agree with Pascal’s argument, we are still faced with the question: Which god do I follow?

Alongside this problem there is also the fact that faith isn’t a momentary decision, but rather a lifelong commitment. I would argue that even if one reaches the conclusion that the rational position is to believe in the Christian God, it’s very difficult (perhaps impossible) to live a committed religious life, unless one’s faith is genuine and springs from knowledge of God’s existence rather than a mere intellectual decision.

The Possibility of Going to Hell

There’s no doubt in my mind that the existence of hell is a logical possibility. I have experienced moments of horrible suffering in my life, and it’s obvious to me that if God can make me suffer terribly in one moment, He could do so for eternity, if that were his will.

But would God really be so cruel? As I ponder my life experience, and the lives of others, I see that although people do suffer, and sometimes terribly, that suffering is always under control, and ultimately limited. It seems to me that God eventually liberates people from suffering, either by healing them, restoring their peace, or ending their lives. Of course, I have no idea what people experience in the afterlife, but I have a hope (and it is only a hope) that God ultimately shows mercy to all sentient beings.

Divine Judgment and Free Will

The whole area of divine judgment is one I have considered deeply, and my personal view is that if God is in control of our lives, as I believe He is, then judgment is a peculiar concept. If there is a day of judgment, God will be judging His creatures for actions that have unfolded in accordance with his sovereign will, which seems strange. There is not space here to examine this problem in depth, but I have done so in my essay An Almighty Predicament, which looks at key arguments for and against Christianity, and which you can download for free on my Essays page.

Conclusion

While I feel the force of the argument presented in Pascal’s Wager, I cannot be wholly dedicated to Christianity while there are certain areas of Christian doctrine that don’t make logical sense to me. To suppress these areas is in my experience incredibly difficult, as whenever I am immersed in Christian living the doubts and problems I have with Christian doctrine come to the surface of my mind and make it virtually impossible to be wholly dedicated to the faith.

It’s not a matter of backsliding, and I want to make that clear. It’s not about falling into sin, or wanting to choose an easy life. I would rather lead a difficult life and avoid hell, of course. But I have a (God-given?) concern and passion for truth, and I find that however much I fear God, and fear hell, I am not able to come to terms with the inconsistencies in Christian doctrine that cause me to draw back from the faith.

Are you convinced by Pascal’s Wager? Feel free to leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Blog Promotion the Old-Fashioned Way

Like most bloggers I am motivated by a desire to make an impact. I don’t just mean to reach an ever-increasing audience, but to inspire people in a particular niche with my writing and with my music. I also love meeting like-minded people; those who are interested in spirituality and all the big questions of theology.

There are many ways for creative people to reach an audience these days, and WordPress is a wonderful platform for building a community and engaging with people. Bloggers can also promote their posts on Facebook and Twitter, pay for some Google ads, write eBooks, operate a mailing list, and use various other promotional tools that have only emerged in recent years.

I love to use all of these tools, but I recently had an unexpected urge to take on a new promotional challenge. I love doing exercise (walking in particular), listening to music or debates on YouTube, getting fresh air, and of course, promoting my blog and books. Imagine if there were a way to combine all of these activities!

Cue my promotional business cards…

[image error]On the left is the front, and the right, the back.

I initially ordered a print run of 500 of these, and this week I spent some time walking around my neighbourhood posting them through people’s letter boxes. I have now run out, so I placed an order with VistaPrint for 1000 more. Only a few million more to go and I’ll have the whole of London covered!

I think in today’s climate a multi-pronged approach to promotion is always best, as people access content in so many different ways. But why not incorporate some traditional methods into your promotional mix? As well as posting these through letter boxes they are also handy for giving out in social situations, or book fairs, or other events.

I know that with my passion for theology if I received something like this in the post I would definitely investigate. I realise it’s not rocket science, but if it brings a few new visitors to my blog it will have been worthwhile. And if it doesn’t, I’ve benefitted from the exercise and YouTube debates, so I’m happy regardless!

What are your thoughts on using business cards as a promotional tool? Feel free to share your views in the comments below.

Blog Spotlight (Jan 2018)

Thank you to everyone who has submitted their blog to my Promote Your Blog page recently. This is my monthly post highlighting three of my favourite blogs from the entries. Please don’t worry if you haven’t been featured in a Blog Spotlight yet, there’s every chance that I will include your blog in a future post.

Here are the three blogs I’d like to shine the spotlight on this month…

1) Fractured and Reformed

My name is Nate and my blog is called “Fractured and Reformed”. The blog aims to provide a Protestant Christian, Reformed and Pro-Life perspective on issues in theology and ethics. I am, as the blog subtitle suggests, especially interested in bioethical issues such as abortion, assisted suicide and eugenics, and offering a clear, logically consistent and compassionate pro-life response. All of this is meant to serve and glorify the God who made us in His image, defines what is good, and offers the truest joy and redemption.

http://fracturedandreformed.wordpress.com

2) Belong to the King

Hi! My name is Charity Yates and I started my blog about a month ago. I just want to write about Biblical truths and encourage others with my posts. Here is my site:

http://www.belongtotheking.wordpress.com

God bless you all!

3) Curry N Code

I started blogging to overcome a compendium of different issues ranging from addiction to depression. In my experience this blog has helped me more than all of the counselling I have had in my life. I like to think that I am more aligned to the straight and narrow path. There was a time in my life when I could never imagine being a good Christian. Now I would like to relate my experiences and offer a helping hand to people who are following the same footsteps as mine. GOD is great, all the way. I hope that I can spread his message of good will all of my life.

My blog is at:

http://www.curryncode.wordpress.com

May the grace of GOD remain with you.

If you would like to submit your blog for possible inclusion in a future Blog Spotlight, please visit my Promote Your Blog page, read the rules, and then post your entry.

I hope you all have a wonderful week! Spring is on its way!

Peace and blessings,

Steven

The Aseity of God

My greatest fascination in this life is with the area of theology known as ‘divine ontology’ – in other words, the nature of God’s being. I actually feel quite excited whenever I direct my attention towards this subject area and ponder the immensity of the universe and what this indicates in relation to its Creator.

Perhaps the one attribute of God that delights me the most is His aseity. Without being too gushing about it, the truth is I find it difficult to capture in words the extent to which I’m enthralled by this. It is a truly wonderful and awe-inspiring concept to behold.

The word aseity has Latin roots, with a meaning ‘from’, se meaning ‘self’, and ity meaning ‘ness’. So aseity means ‘from-self-ness’. To expand upon this we might say that the word means ‘self-existing’, and when applied to God, it means He is uncaused or uncreated.

This is very relevant to the philosophical problem of why there is something rather than nothing. Many scientists posit that existence started with a ‘big bang’, but this theory will always beg the question of what came before. It is illogical to argue that something can emerge out of nothing. The solution to this problem is God’s aseity – there has never been a time when God didn’t exist, as His very nature is being.

Pondering God’s aseity has led me to understand that God is not different from existence. If this is true, then everything that exists is a part of God. I’m not arguing for pantheism (which equates God with nature) for I believe the physical world could cease to exist and God, because of His aseity, would remain perfectly whole. Creation is instead contained ‘within God’ and this makes sense because if God is boundless then nothing can exist outside of Him.

The implications of this perspective for traditional theism, where God is seen as separate from His creation, are obvious. If there are no limits to the extent of God’s being, then it logically follows that there can be no freedom from God (free will). Instead, we must see the entirety of creation as an expression of God’s being, and under His control. But that’s another discussion for another time.

What I love about the concept of aseity is that despite being a logical explanation of one of God’s fundamental attributes, it is still deeply mysterious. I invite you to meditate on this concept in all its richness, and should you feel the urge, leave a comment below explaining what the idea means to you.

Listen to my New Single

Today sees the release of Alien Love, the fourth single to be recorded as part of my ten song project. This song takes an imaginative look at some of the issues surrounding our investigations into outer space, from a theological perspective.

Here are the lyrics:

I want to speak about the Universe and all there is

And how our One Creator God formed a cosmos out of nothing

It’s a wondrous thing to talk about what’s His

And how His spirit is eternal and the force sustaining everything

There are some who say it started with a big bang

And there are others who say the world was made in six days

Either way it is a miracle that life exists

And the complexity / diversity demands an explanation

Are we really all alone, or is there life out there?

Do alien beings have morality, rules that they share?

And should we go in peace to the depths of space

Or bring our weapons of war, you know, just in case?

The Bible doesn’t speak about alien life

But there are seven-headed monsters in the book of Revelation

So perhaps an open mind is what our search requires

And maybe science and religion are both valid and wise.

Below is a video for the song. I had a lot of fun recording this and I hope you enjoy listening to it!

A Brief Look at Textual Criticism

I’m currently doing some research into the issues surrounding the reliability of the Bible. What I mean by this is I’m exploring whether or not it matters that there are different Bible versions with different translations of certain words, phrases, and passages.

I came across an article that I was really tempted to ‘reblog’, but I have an aversion to reblogging because I think it looks really untidy and I suspect most people just skip over articles that have been reblogged for this reason. So instead I decided to write this short post with a link to the piece:

Textual Criticism and Inerrancy by The Clear-Thinking Christian

I feel the article explains in a very lucid and concise way the issues that are at hand when it comes to textual criticism, and the author’s summary serves as a very good introduction to the subject if you don’t want to spend hours (days/weeks!) getting into the depth of the issues.

God bless you all and I’ll be back with my next post on Wednesday, as I release the fourth single from my T.E.N. Project.

Do we all Deserve Hell?

It is a common saying among Christians that every human being is a sinner deserving of punishment in hell. The Christian worldview depicts human beings as wretched, sinful, lost, and in need of salvation. In this short article I want to examine this idea and whether it makes sense in light of the existence of a sovereign God.

I have often been puzzled by the Christian concept of original sin. The idea that a single rebellious action by one man, Adam, could lead to guilt for the whole human race for thousands of years seems somewhat bizarre. I can only imagine that the story of the fall of man must be metaphor – a warning from God that each human being must guard against pride. Either that or the fall is an idea created by theologians outside of Scripture, which has become popular simply because it is a way of justifying the Christian idea that every human being needs salvation.

I have a very high view of the sovereignty of God. I believe God is sovereign over all events. That is to say, we do not have free will. If you believe in free will you are necessarily limiting the sovereignty of God, which I am unwilling to do, because when I contemplate the nature of God I deduce that He is omnipresent and has no boundaries – there is no place where God ends and freedom begins. God is the creator, sustainer, and animator of all that exists.

It is not possible to be a Christian and believe what I have stated in the above paragraph. The whole Christian worldview hinges on the idea that we are guilty of punishment, and in order to be guilty, we must be free. Christians believe God is going to judge us for all the decisions we have freely made. Without free will, the idea of divine judgment makes no sense; nor does the Christian worldview in general.

It all comes down to our conception of the nature of God. What are His attributes? Is God separate from His creation, or is creation contained within God? Is God all-powerful or is His power limited? Is God everywhere, or is there a place where God’s being ends and something else begins? Is God spirit, or matter, or spirit and matter?

What we understand and believe about God determines whether or not we can make sense of the Christian worldview and the idea that we are guilty sinners who deserve punishment in hell. I realise that for everyone who believes in God, this presents a predicament. I have tried to explore this predicament in depth in my essay entitled An Almighty Predicament, which is available as a free PDF download here.

I humbly invite you to read my essay, and reflect upon the presentation I make concerning the nature of God and the Christian worldview. I am open to questions, comments, and suggestions. You are welcome to leave a comment below, though if you have a lot to say it’s probably better to email me.

God bless you, and I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy New Year 2018!

It’s difficult to overstate the value and enjoyment I have experienced from being part of the global WordPress blogging community in 2017. I have made lots of new friends, improved my writing skills, given my blog a complete overhaul, written more posts than ever before, and seen my follower count grow healthily. I thank God for these blessings and would also like to thank you SO much for making 2017 an awesome year.

Here are a few highlights.

My most-viewed post of 2017

What is the Holy Spirit?

My most-liked post of 2017

Christian Love

My most popular book review of 2017

‘Happier’ by Tal Ben-Shahar

My favourite post of 2017

A New Dimension

A big change for me this year was that I started making music again. I launched the T.E.N. Project with the goal of writing and recording 10 songs over 10 months. So far I’m on course having released three songs since the project began in October (I’m currently working on song four).

In 2017 I continued to write about my beliefs, and for the first time wrote a comprehensive essay outlining the struggle I have with Christianity. It took me several weeks to write, and it has led to many in-depth discussions about the nature of God and key Christian doctrines that I struggle to accept and believe.

It was a generally peaceful year, although I blogged about the problems I’ve been having with my neighbour, and was immensely grateful for your prayer support and encouragement which meant so much to me and helped me through a difficult time. Things have improved a lot in respect to that situation, and I thank the Lord that things haven’t been so much worse.

I’m looking forward to the new year and have a few resolutions:

1) Write a new blog post at least once a week

2) Read for an hour each day

3) Complete my music project

4) Focus on building deeper friendships

5) Strive to be humble

6) Truly love my neighbour as myself

7) Fast every Sunday

8) Spend quality time in prayer every Sunday

9) Subscribe to a Science journal

10) Manage my finances well

Above all I realise I will only get through 2018 with the favour and blessing of God, so I will pray to Him each day and continue to seek His will and His guidance in every area of my life.

And finally, thank you to everyone who entered my Christmas competition! It’s time to announce the winners…

https://philosophersteve.files.wordpress.com/2017/12/christmas-2017-giveaway.mp4

Philosophical Arguments for the Existence of God

While I was studying Philosophy and Religion at the University of London, one of the modules I took focused on arguments for the existence of God. As interesting as they are, many of these arguments are quite long-winded and complicated.

I was recently pleased, then, to stumble upon an animated video series which looks at some of these arguments in simple, clear, and easily digestible form. If you’re interested in philosophy and/or theology, and in particular arguments for the existence of God, you might find these videos helpful.

The videos are produced by Reasonable Faith, which is the apologetics ministry of Dr William Lane Craig.

The Kalam Cosmological Argument

The Moral Argument

Leibniz’ Contingency Argument

The Fine-Tuning of the Universe

The Ontological Argument

Suffering and Evil: The Logical Problem

There’s a lot in these videos that I don’t agree with, but I think that they are helpful in that they present certain perspectives that are interesting and worth considering.

For my own arguments for the existence of God, check out my book The Philosophy of a Mad Man (to find out how you can win a free copy read this).

What do you believe is the most convincing argument for the existence of God? Let me know in the comments!

Christmas Giveaway!

Firstly, let me wish you all a very Merry Christmas and I hope you’re enjoying celebrating with family and friends, or on your own. Whether Christian or not, it’s impossible to ignore the significance of Jesus of Nazareth, who has shaped so much of our history over the last two thousand years.

And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17)

As a thank you for being a part of my life this year I’m going to give away three paperback copies of my book The Philosophy of a Mad Man. I would like to give you all a copy but I think the postage costs would be more than I can presently afford.

To find out all about the book, go here.

So I guess we need some kind of competition question. Let’s have a bit of festive fun. To enter, write a four line poem with a Christmas theme and post it in the comments. I will pick my three favourites and the writer of each will each win a copy of the book. I will post the book to you, wherever you are in the world