The "Lightening Storm"

I listened to a recent NPR story on Dr. David Eagleman, author of "Incognito: The Secret Lives of the Brain" (Pantheon, 2011). In addition to discussing the way in which the brain makes contracts with itself, Dr. Eagleman also expounds on how the brain handles time as well as the hypothesis that God is nothing more than a creation of our brains as they try to make sense of the world. Eagleman calls himself a "possibilian," meaning one who believes every possible hypothesis ought to be given equal weight in undergoing scientific examination, no matter how far-fetched it sounds. Oddly enough, the hypothesis that God exists does not appear to qualify. I invite you to read the transcript here, especially this section on God and the brain, a little more than halfway down the webpage.

This is not at all my first encounter with this question. A classmate of mine in graduate school currently studies Islam, Neuroscience, and the Philosophy of Mind, positing this same hypothesis as it relates to the religion of Islam. In some sense, when we talk of Christianity, we are discussing beliefs and the origin of those beliefs.

What do you think? Are beliefs merely the result of neural firings in the brain? How can we be sure either way? Are we able to reconcile neuroscience with 'truth' - with what we know to be true and beliefs that seem to be more than just a "lightening storm" (to use Eagleman's description of neural firings)? What do you think of Dr. Eagleman's hypothesis?

Hawking and Heaven

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/may/17/stephen-hawking-heaven

Craig Blomberg on the Resurrection

It was exciting to have great crowds of folks for all of our Questions Groups this month. Thanks to everyone who were able to check it out. Hope you enjoy the video of Dr. Blomberg's talk on the Resurrection of Jesus. In this talk he explains all the possible options of what really happened on that first Easter morning. Would love to hear any feedback you may have from this video...

Professor Craig Blomberg this Wednesday at the Question Group

We are excited to have Dr. Craig Blomberg as our special guest speaker this Wednesday @ 7:30. He will be presenting on the history and meaning of Jesus' resurrection. Craig is one of the world's leading experts on the historical Jesus having published numerous books/articles on the topic and was also one of the lead translators for the NIV. This should be a great forum and definitely will be worth your time if you check it out. Hope to see you at Dazbog Coffee (12th and Clayton in Congress Park) this Wednesday @ 7:30pm!

The Fate of Humanity by Dr. J. I. Packer

Dave mentioned in his sermon 4/17 "When Jesus Meets Religion" Dr J.I. Packer's book "Knowing God". This books introduces the basic beliefs of the Christian Faith.

This Question Group series has been concerned with themes of God's Justice, Judgment and the Afterlife.The following lecture provided by Dr. Packer may be a useful primer to the discussion that will take place this Wednesday with Dr. Craig Blomberg. Dr. Blomberg will be presenting on the importance, necessity, and meaning of the Historical resurrection of Jesus.

The Fate of Humanity by Dr. J. I. Packer

Lecture begins at 3 min 50 sec

Right Click on link above and select "Download Linked File" or "Save Target As" or "Save Link"

Find out more information about Dr. J. I. Packer | www.jipackeronline.com

May 21st, 2011 Judgment Day?

This last session a few people at The Question Group inquired to particular billboards recently spotted around town. The sign reads, "Judgment Day is coming May 21, 2011." It includes a Bible verse along with radio broadcast and contact information.

The man responsible for these displays and prediction is Harold Camping, president of Family Radio (Family Stations Inc.). If you are interested in learning more about his view of "Judgment Day", the Bible and other matters. Please visit the following link provided by Reformed Baptist Pastor, Theologian and Apologist Dr. James White.

Dr. James R. White - Alpha & Omega Ministries | Harold Camping - Family Radio Resource List

Dr. James R. White operates and acts as Director of Alpha & Omega Ministries an apologetic ministry organization based out of Phoenix, AZ. Dr. White has authored or contributed to more than 20 books and has engaged in more than 100 formal, moderated debates.

Dr. White is capable and qualified to handle the issues raised by Mr. Camping.

Question Group Tonight! "Jesus' Vision of the Afterlife"

Tonight at 7:30 we will ask questions about how Jesus envisioned the afterlife. We will see that he was mostly concerned not with life-after-death, but life after life-after-death. Come tonight to learn more (and ask questions) about Jesus' teaching on the after life and the relationship between our lives today and the "Kingdom of God" he came to establish....

What is the biblical vision of judgement: Week One Recap

Thanks to everyone who made the first night of our new question group series a great experience. We had a terrific crowd and, as always, some great questions where asked. In the video below, the question was asked of our guest speaker, Hunter Beaumont, about the relationship between our actions and God's response to those actions.

Question Group Tonight! "What is the biblical vision of Judgement?"

April 6 - "What is the Biblical Vision of Judgement?" This session will be led by special guest presenter - Hunter Beaumont. Hunter is pastor at Fellowship Denver, holds a Master's degree in Historical Theology and is very well versed on the issues at stake with this topic and how the church has dealt with it over the past 2000 years. Hope to see you guys tonight!

What role does 'hell' play in the biblical vision of the afterlife?

There are lots of questions right now about what role, if any, hell/judgement plays in the big picture of Scripture. A famous pastor/writer Rob Bell has a new book out that proposes a controversial view of this topic which has been all over the news. Bell will be in Denver promoting his book in early April so we decided to have a Question Group forum to help clarify some of the issues at stake so that people can sort out for themselves what they believe about the afterlife.

April 6 - "What is the Biblical Vision of Judgement?" This session will be led by special guest presenter - Hunter Beaumont. Hunter is pastor at Fellowship Denver, holds a Master's degree in Historical Theology and is very well versed on the issues at stake with this topic and how the church has dealt with it over the past 2000 years.

April 13th - "Heaven on Earth? Unpacking Kingdom of God according to the Historical Jesus" This session will be led by, well, me. Back in the day, I was a research fellow at Cambridge U. in historical Jesus studies and hopefully can bring some insight on how Jesus viewed the afterlife in what he called "the Kingdom of God".

April 20th - "Understanding the historical background to Jesus' Resurrection" This session will be led by me again and I will place Jesus' resurrection in its historical context showing a number of unusual historical circumstances surrounding this surprising event.

April 27th - "Life after life-after-death: The Meaning of Jesus' Resurrection" This session will be led by special guest presenter - Professor Craig Blomberg. Prof Blomberg is Research Prof of New Testament at Denver Seminary and is one of the world's leading experts on the historical Jesus. We are very excited and honored to have him come and help us understand better the meaning of resurrection.

The Question Group will be held at Dazbog Coffee located on 12th and Clayton and will start at 7:30PM every Wednesday in April. Hope to see you there!

A Few More Questions

Hi Everyone,

Dave and I have noticed that sometime last fall, the excellent questions we were receiving simply stopped coming in for no apparent reason. As you know from the title, this blog is driven by your questions. We find our enjoyment in discovering together what interests you may have in God, Christianity, the Bible, and Jesus, and whether we can share in those interests through meaningful discussion.

Since the questions aren't coming in, I thought we might throw a few your way. We would like to ask you, the reader, to comment on our blog. How can we improve it and make it a useful space for inquiry and discussion? What can we do (or stop doing) to keep your interest alive in the discussion? And finally, what questions would you like to see discussed on the blog?

You can also find our emails listed in the sidebar, if you have questions or comments about the blog that you do not wish to see published here.

Thanks for reading.

Irrational Christians

Here’s an interesting question I came across a few weeks ago:

Do Christians have to adopt an irrational position in order to believe in Jesus? Isn’t it irrational to believe that God exists, that Jesus was God, that he was risen from the dead, etc.?

What do you think? In order to believe the claims of Christianity, does one have to set aside reason?

Any thoughts?

Prayer, Part II

Hi everyone.

In the previous post, Dave opened up a discussion on prayer in the Christian church and addressed the overall topic of what it looks like to be a Christian.

Dave also mentioned our revamp of the blog. We sat down together and looked over all the posts on the blog so far, grouping those questions which received the most comments under categories to explore in greater detail. Thus, as Dave wrote last week, we hope to "go a bit deeper into the central issues that people grapple with as they engage with the Christian gospel."

We wanted to kick off a new round of inquiry on the Question Group blog with a topic familiar to just about everyone. In addition to the questions about prayer and its importance in the Christian church, I want to ask a few more related to our individual experiences with the topic. Please feel free to address any of these with a comment; or if you have a new question you would like the group to discuss, you are welcome to pose it to the group via comment as well:

Whether you are a Christian or not, chances are you have had some experience with prayer. And yet, a fundamental assumption of prayer is that we can somehow and in some way communicate with God. How is this possible? How do we know our prayers are being heard? Does this question ever bother you (as it often does me) when you pray?

A more traditional question involving prayer is why pray at all? If God is all-knowing, then God already knows what we will pray for even before we pray. What, then, is the purpose of prayer? Is it only done to change our perspective, give us practice in faith/patience, etc.? On the other hand, is it possible to change God's mind at all with our prayers?

What is your personal experience with prayer? What problems and issues arise in your mind when you think about these experiences?

What is a Christian? Part One: What Christians do

Hey Gang. Hope you all have had a good beginning of year and are settled into a good rhythm. Clint and I have been working on revamping the blog so that it is a more helpful tool for folks who have questions about Christianity. In order to achieve this, our goal this year is that our discussions be more focused which will allow us to go a bit deeper into the central issues that people grabble with as they engage with the Christian gospel.

So, with that said, the first central issue we are going to concentrate on for the next several weeks is "What is a Christian?" There are a lot of ways to answer that but right now we will start with one of the basic things that Christians do: pray. Very early in his ministry Jesus taught his disciples how to pray and expected that prayer would a fundamental part of being his follower. We see that prayer was a critical part of the early church experience and that the writers of many of the New Testament books integrated personal prayers into their letters to churches. So the question is, why do you suppose this was such an important part of following Jesus? For someone who has questions about Christianity, what does it mean that prayer played(s) such a critical role in following Jesus?