I marvel at the audacity with which some people presume to speak of God. In giving their evidence to unbelievers, usually their first chapter is to prove the existence of God from the works of nature. I would not be surprised about this project if they were addressing their arguments to believers, for those with … Continue reading Belief and unbelief, according to Blaise Pascal
Christianity
Does stupidity make you more responsible?
This is the antithesis of the question asked by the headline of my last post, and it is an even dumber question than the last one. Nevertheless, I have heard sincere Christians advance arguments that sound an awful lot like this question. “We’re just humble people, we know what we believe and don’t need to … Continue reading Does stupidity make you more responsible?
Do Intelligence and Irresponsibility go together?
I was reading several years before I started school, I always did well in school and through reading I began to accumulate a very eclectic storehouse of information. I began to develop confidence that I could figure things out on my own. It happened one day that a counsellor presented me with an aptitude test, … Continue reading Do Intelligence and Irresponsibility go together?
Public Schools: mediocrity is the goal
There was a time, about 120 years ago, when almost everyone in Canada could read and write well, could do the math calculations needed in their daily life and work, often without pencil and paper, knew a good bit about world history and understood how governments worked. It is not that way today. It is … Continue reading Public Schools: mediocrity is the goal
Anabaptism is not a warm fuzzy experience
Anabaptism is about having a relationship with Jesus: a relationship that has a beginning but no end. We cannot simply grow into this relationship, not knowing just how or when it began. We may have had warm, fuzzy feelings about Jesus when we were little children, but we lacked the maturity then to make a … Continue reading Anabaptism is not a warm fuzzy experience
Anabaptism is not a lifestyle
The bishop got up to preach one Sunday morning and proclaimed to us that when a person wore plain clothes, that was proof that he or she was born again. An unconverted person could not get himself to wear such clothes. By “plain clothes” he meant the form of clothes that was mandated in his … Continue reading Anabaptism is not a lifestyle
What has happened to tolerance?
George Orwell’s dystopian vision, expounded in his novel Nineteen Eighty-four, appears to be slowly and inexorably taking shape around us. The thought leaders of our society have constituted themselves into an unofficial Ministry of Truth, changing the meaning of words and inventing new words. The result — and make no mistake about it, this is … Continue reading What has happened to tolerance?
It is no secret
I confess that I avoid books that promise to reveal a “secret” about Christian life. I’m afraid of them — afraid of being deceived — because I don’t read anything in the Bible that speaks of a “secret” to Christian life that is only revealed to an inner circle with special enlightenment. In New Testament … Continue reading It is no secret
The saint of the neighbourhood
[This is an excerpt from When I Was Thirteen, copyright the estate of Christina Young Plumb. It is the diary of a thirteen year old girl in south-western Ontario at the end of the nineteenth century.] April 12, 1897 - This is Good Friday, so we had no school today, and Monday will be a … Continue reading The saint of the neighbourhood
Problematic behaviours in children and adolescents – Our family’s experience
I listened with bemused interest as my daughter described racing the Moose Jaw city bus to the end of the block. There was a bus stop in front of the second house on our block and she would wait there on the sidewalk with her trike until the bus left the stop and then pump … Continue reading Problematic behaviours in children and adolescents – Our family’s experience
