"One man looks at a dying bird and thinks there's nothing but unanswered pain. That death's got the final word, it's laughing at him. Another man sees that same bird, feels the glory, feels something smiling through it." (From the opening monologue in The Thin Red Line) "For the early Christians th
06.13.2011| The Fish Tank | Nick Nowalk
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To start, we'd like to apologize for taking a while to get to the third installment of this series. As you can imagine, the last weeks of the semester are very stressful and busy, particularly for those geniuses who are writing theses like C. Marshall. C. Marshall: I take no issue with one way
12.7.2010| The Fish Tank | Jordan Monge
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In Marilynne Robinson's unforgettable novel Gilead, the congregationalist (and unapologetically Calvinist/Barthian!) pastor John Ames pens this provocative reflection to his young son about trying to "defend the faith." It is meant to be read--like all of his letters--when the young lad has gr
05.24.2010| The Fish Tank | Nick Nowalk
No CommentsRecently, I have been reflecting on the concept of magic - on the face of it, a profoundly un-Christian and un-philosophical subject, but one which I have found to be very instructive. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="392" caption="G.K. Chesterton"][/caption] My thoughts were prom
05.21.2010| The Fish Tank | J. Joseph Porter
3 CommentsVia exapologist, a paper by philosopher Erik J. Wielenberg which is essentially a response to various theistic criticisms of atheistic moral realism (or, more precisely, "non-natural non-theistic moral realism.") His view is that there are ethical brute facts, which are metaphysically necessary
01.7.2010| The Fish Tank | J. Joseph Porter
17 CommentsChristianity differs from non-religious philosophies not only in what it says about God, but also in what it says about mankind. According to (most) Christians, men have souls, free will, and other things that cannot be explained by science alone. Most atheists, on the other hand, would say that eve
11.13.2009| The Fish Tank | J. Joseph Porter
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People have all sorts of objections to Christianity and to the Bible, ranging from the very reasonable to the not-so-reasonable. Some are philosophical, some scientific; others are historical or moral. All, however, are modern. [caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Sometimes,
11.6.2009| The Fish Tank | J. Joseph Porter
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