RC Talk - The Official Blogs of Ratio Christi Chapters

Folks, do your college kids know that when it comes to faith, reason is on their side? ~Chuck Colson

In this BreakPoint commentary, Taking on the Spaghetti Monster, Chuck Colson talks about atheism, reason, Christianity, and Ratio Christi.

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I observe that you are very religious in all respects. For while I was passing through and examining the objects of your worship, I also found an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD'  ~Acts 17:22,23

Faced with a decision of how to respond to the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers in Athens he could have chosen to ignore them or berate them. After all, they had just been calling him an "idle babbler" and a proclaimer of strange deities (17:18). Furthermore, Paul had already learned that he might not be well received by those to whom he proclaimed his message (17:5), His choice, however, was neither ignoring nor berating. Rather, he chose to engage with them. How? He found a point of intersection--"an altar with this inscription, 'TO AN UNKNOWN GOD." From that point of intersection he reasoned with those in the midst of the Areopagus, explaining the true nature of God, making clear how humanity relates to God, and establishing the proof for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

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Humanity has moved from a philosophical worldview that accepted the existence of absolute truth to a world of relative truths contingent on society. From Plato’s ancient paradigm of absolute truths transcending space and time to the post-modern paradigm of twentieth century philosophers, such as Ludwig Wittgenstein, that truth is contingent on society.

This paradigm shift was primarily motivated by a desire to render philosophy more scientific. The shift was further propelled by philosophical dilemmas that arose in the quest to make philosophy more scientific and less metaphysical. For example, what Kant called the scandal of philosophy--the problem of proving the existence of the external world. Wittgenstein’s contention in Philosophical Investigations that truth was relative and contingent on community indoctrination dealt with the skeptical problems like the existence of the external world while at the same time explaining the world in strictly materialist terms.

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Urgent Prayer Request...

JD Holmes, a member on the Ratio Christi apologetics team at Georgia Tech, had a critical skiing accident in Colorado. He broke 20 ribs and a couple vertebrae, has a punctured lung, and has other injuries. He can barely breathe. He is in serious condition in a trauma center in Denver. Please pray for God's healing and for support for his family and friends.

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by Jamie Crook - Ratio Christi member and recent graduate from University of North Carolina Greensboro

Ratio Christi was usually the highlight of my week at UNCG. I’ve been interested in apologetics since early high school when I read The Case for Christ. I was already aware that something was very wrong in much of the culture, with most movies, TV shows, school curriculums, teachers, trolls on the internet, and even other students acting on the false assumption that science, history, and logic were all neatly lined up in direct contradiction to religion, particularly Christianity. I was satisfied to discover that, far from being diametrically opposed to Christianity, these fields, when correctly understood, supported them. This unlocked a whole new way of understanding God and the Bible, elevating them to a whole new level of admiration and wonder. I mean, really; try reading about the fine-tuning of the universe without feeling your breath taken away.

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by Melissa Travis (Hard-Core Christianity)

In November I had the privilege of speaking to the Texas A&M University Ratio Christi chapter. It was my first time addressing students on a university campus, and it was a fantastic experience.
There was a great turnout for the meeting, despite the fact that finals are quickly approaching. I presented on the proper relationship of science and Christianity, and used the theological and scientific case for a literal Adam as my model.

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Greg Koukl, in his latest Solid Ground newsletter, has written a masterful piece about the "Third Column." If you are an apologist, you need to read it--it's about you. Wrting about the re-emergence of apologetics over the last fifty years, he notes the pioneering First Column--those that "established a beachhead" after years of intellectual neglect in Christianity. Koukl then talks about the Second Column, the leaders taking up the charge of the First Column, and how many individuals and organizations have been making a steady impact for the last twenty years. Then Koukl says, 

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Bad Religion (a band), a Flying Spaghetti Monster (a student church), and the Reason Rally (a meeting).  Their intersection? Their rejection of and scorn for theism. Being billed as "The Largest Gathering of the Secular Movemement in World History" with speakers such as Richard Dawkins, PZ Meyers, The Amazing Randi, Lawrence Krauss, David Silverman, and many more well known secularists, this event on the National Mall on March 24th is sure to draw a crowd. Dr. Mike Keas, fellow at the Discovery Institute, writer for TrueU, and board member with Ratio Christi, recently published a series of articles on the rally and says,

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The Word was made flesh and dwelled among us (John 1:14)

From one of the great creeds of the Christian church, the Athanasian Creed (dated after A.D. 450), in part we read this:

Sed necessarium est ad aeternam salutem,
Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation;  

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Pedagogy, the art, science, and theory of teaching, has something important to teach both the church and the scientific community. Casey Luskin, writer for Evolution News and Views quotes education theorist Jonathan Osborne regarding

the importance of using debate, argument, and critique when teaching science. According to Osborne, there are " a number of classroom-based studies, all of which show improvements in conceptual learning when students engage in argumentation."

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