“The Bible contains the most profound philosophy, the most perfect morality, and most refined policy, that ever was conceived upon the earth.” – John Adams

Read more: Morality, Part Three

Yesterday we looked at atheist dictators and the sheer amount of bloodshed caused by their ruthlessness. As I pointed out them, not all atheists resort to such methods and many are very kind people, but there is something inside a person who is so bent on denying the possibility of a supreme being. In America such atrocities haven’t erupted from the 0.7% of atheists, but they haven’t been friendly neighbors of Christians either.

Read more: The Problem of Evil - Atheism in America

In this next-to-the-last episode of CNN’s special we are treated to a brief history of the finding and dissemination of the true cross. Their stated goal for this episode is in the form of dramatic narration: “Now for the first time modern science sets out to answer the question, is the true cross a hoax that mocks the crucifixion or the relic of relics?” They may have taken on too much.

Read more: CNN's "Finding Jesus" Episode 5

Once again I have nothing but praise for the work of the CNN crew on their series “Finding Jesus”. In the third episode they discuss the person of Judas and 20th century find of the Gospel of Judas. They begin according to their pattern of dramatically telling the story from the Biblical accounts starting with his call to follow Jesus and ending with his suicide before plunging into the origins and story of the ancient text bearing his name. Amazingly, they do justice to both in just 42 minutes.

Read more: Gospel of Judas

In college I remember one class discussion about abortion. I asserted by conviction that abortion was immoral, which was quickly challenged by a classmate. “You don’t know that.” He angrily stared me down. “Just wait until you get your girlfriend pregnant then you’ll see it’s not so black and white.” The class went silent, a lot of people were staring at their desks. “I appreciate this is an emotional issue for you,” I began. “But I can tell you two things. One, I’ll never be in that position because I have convictions about my behavior with women. But assuming I were in that position, we develop convictions about such things first, so that should the time arise we can make the right decision.”

Read more: Morality, Part Two

Atheists often accuse religion in general and Christianity in particular of mass murder. In regard to Christianity they usually cite the Crusades and the Spanish Inquisition where 200,000 and (at most) 150,000 people were slain respectively. Author Gregory Koukl stated the following:

Read more: The Problem of Evil - Atheism's Bloody History

“Investigators now think that Lubitz, 27, deliberately flew an Airbus A320 with 150 people on board into a remote corner of the French Alps on Tuesday, provoking a search for answers that is increasingly centering on his health, and his mental health in particular.” —Denver Post, Sunday March 29, 2015

The problem of evil these days is no one wants to call it evil...

Read more: The Problem of Evil

There’s a news story going around this week about a lie told in the social media of the late 1800’s, that is newspapers and magazines. Most of these publications are no longer in existence and were published overseas so it’s difficult to trace and even know if the reporting is accurate, but according to the story the media hyped something called “bicycle face” to keep women from riding bikes. It’s hard to believe, but supposedly men didn’t like the new-found freedom women discovered from biking around town, so they invented a medical condition that amounts to what mothers tell preschoolers – “You keep making that face and its going to get stuck that way.”

Read more: Bicycle Face

Last Sunday night a friend of mine and I were talking politics and he mentioned (in relationship to Romney) that “Mormons are more moral than Christians; they have more rules to follow.” We laughed but it’s true that many equate religious rules with morality. If that were true Muslims would be extremely moral people, but as we’ve learned recently Islam excuses lies and murder. So if rules aren’t equivalent to morality, then what is morality?

Read more: Morality, Part One

In this next-to-the-last episode of CNN’s special we are treated to a brief history of the finding and dissemination of the true cross. Their stated goal for this episode is in the form of dramatic narration: “Now for the first time modern science sets out to answer the question, is the true cross a hoax that mocks the crucifixion or the relic of relics?” They may have taken on too much.

Read more: CNN's Finding Jesus - Mary Magdalene

For the first time I have to level some criticism at the series “Finding Jesus” airing Sunday nights on CNN. Episode four, “The Secret Brother of Jesus” is a confusing mash of history and conjecturer rolled into a single presentation of the life of James that doesn’t leave room for other, possibly more accurate, understandings of the man’s life. And far too much importance is given to Catholic tradition and pseudepigraphal works. For instance, the program references the three texts below as if they were credible resources, which they clearly are not.

Read more: CNN's "Finding Jesus" Episode 4

Continuing to examine CNN’s attempt to report on early Christianity through their series Finding Jesus, we find ourselves looking at episode two, John the Baptist. I’d like to say oat the start that I certainly mean no disrespect to the prophet by using only a head shot for the articles title slide. While I’m sure John did not know how or when he would die, I believe he suspected it would be pretty horrible. After all, God’s prophet’s rarely dies of natural causes. But I digress, let us discuss CNN’s special.

Read more: CNNs Finding Jesus, Episode 2