A Dose of Philosophy

Mississippi, pronounced missipy, is where we have been at the past few days, visiting friends of Joeys from Belize. The three days prior to this I found my self up north, near Chicago, talking philosophy and theology with a very astute, self taught man, who is working on his degree in philosophy.

If your not aware, in an absolute sense, I think you will have a hard time proving Christianity, or the existence of Jehova. That there is a God is nearly beyond doubt, but that His name is Jehova and that he functions as the Bible describes is very much up in the air from a purely reasoned, philosophical point of view That does not make it non-rational, but it does make it based on faith. I would be happy to get into this with anyone. Just comment below or shoot me a line at my e-mail address listed at the right.

This gentlemen’s current dilemma is weather God can lie or not. Yes, he and I both know the Bible says he can not, but if he can lie, his saying He does not is of little help. For me, the lack of absolute knowledge about God, the potential for God to change, and the potential for God to lie, are all nearly a non-issues. I have been vaguely aware of these facts for a while. He helped these vague ideas become more concrete, while at the same time strengthening my ability to refute these erroneous claims.

I feel bad for him because the only people able or willing to discusses these serious questions at length are from a Unitarian church, which he is now attending, a fact which is most definitely a black eye on the Evangelical church in his area. The Word of God says we must be willing and able to give an answer for the hope that is in us. I don’t think that every Christian needs to make the study of philosophy or apologetics the center of their life, but a rudimentary understanding is essential, and the fact that the pastors he spoke with found him to be more of a nuisance than an asset is egregious.