Parchment & Pen Blog

As many of you know, Billy Graham and Charles Templeton were evangelists who rose to fame in the 40s (Graham, of course, is still an evangelist). Early in their careers they were friends – close friends. Many have said Templeton was the one that everyone thought was going to overturn the world with the Gospel. However, [...]

1. Cosmological Argument: Also called the argument from universal causation or the argument from contingency, the cosmological argument is probably the most well-known and well-loved among theistic apologists. The basic argument is that all effects have an efficient cause. The universe, and all that is in it, due to its contingent (dependent) nature, is an [...]

(by Paul Copan) Thom Stark has offered a lengthy response to my book Is God a Moral Monster?  His online book is entitled:  Is God a Moral Compromiser? When a book is laden with sarcasm, distortions, and ad hominem attacks, genuine dialogue and cordial exchange—the stuff of genuine scholarship—become difficult, if not preempted. My good [...]

(by Paul Copan) We’ve been engaging the thinking of Richard Dawkins, and more recently we’ve touched on the counterintuitive nature of (Dawkins’) naturalism.  I’ll be looking at the topic of naturalism’s counterintuitive claims regarding morality, but first the historical question of naturalism’s alleged link to human rights. Dawkins, Human Rights, and Historical Connections When Dawkins [...]

Someone has once rightly said that this is the most basic philosophical question that there is: “Why is there something rather than nothing?” As far as I can tell, there are only six options: 1. The universe is eternal and everything has always existed. Everything has existed for eternity. As far back as  one can go [...]

by Paul Copan Last week, Richard Dawkins spoke here in Ft. Lauderdale at Nova Southeastern University on “The Fact of Evolution.” The following week, I spoke on “The Fact of God”—also delivered at Nova Southeastern. It was a direct response to Dawkins’s naturalistic worldview as well as a number of the comments he made at [...]

Paul Copan and Richard Dawkins [ 2:13 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Indubitable: adj - Beyond the possibility of a doubt; unquestionable I don’t believe the Christian faith is indubitable, but I do believe that it is true. I tell this story when talking about the bankruptcy of requiring indubitability before you believe something (Yes, I’ve told this before): I play this game with my kids that drives them crazy. Sitting in the [...]

As of 2005, according to a Cambridge study, 88 percent of the world’s population believes in God. This is down from around 90 percent in 2000. Ninety-five percent of Americans still believe in God. Whether these polls are off a slight bit or not, most people would agree that somewhere around 9/10 people have always believed in [...]

“You don’t truly understand something until you can exlain it is a simple way where everyone can understand it.” Let me attempt to do so here: If something exists, then so does God. Now more complex: Romans 1:18-20 is one of the great, theologically rich passages in all of Scripture. It tells us that evidence [...]

If you have not already seen, you may be interested to know that Stephen Hawking, the brilliant British theoretical physicist and cosmologist who has never been a friend to Christianity, has made an announcement: the universe came into being from nothing. There is no God. Of course we have all be sitting on pins and [...]

I would assume that most people would say that the purpose of evolution is survival. Every adaptation, mutation, and change happens ultimately so that the species can survive. This is how I have always been taught. Of course, survival is relative. Can we say that a house fly survived when its life span is less [...]

“I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” —Stephen F Roberts This is a quote that is found often on the lips of atheists these days. It can be summed [...]