Face the Question — Think Deeply. Live Fully.

Can a Wealthy Person Truly Be a Follower of Jesus’ Teachings?

This is a guest question by Dr. Knight.
In several places in the New Testament, wealth is correlated with idolatry. The Book of Revelation is one example. The Gospel of Luke is another example, and you may remember how Jesus compares a rich young man to a camel and makes this sobering comment: “It is easier [...]

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How to Avoid “Political Manipulation in the Name of Religion”?

What if Karl Marx is right? What if religious faith really does gravitate naturally toward the covers of political zeal, sneaks up under them and turns into an iron hand in a velvet glove? Much like a man can be a loving husband on the weekends but beats his wife on weekdays. What if, more [...]

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Would You Risk Being a Wishful Believer?

You deserve a lot of sympathy if you ever looked at yourself through Freud’s lens of suspicion. First, he says your poor ego - i.e. the real you - is barely there and definitely needs rescuing. Next he says that, if you hope for a divine rescue, you are a victim of humanity’s oldest, strongest [...]

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What’s Left If You Repent of Your Faith?

You have to love the hermeneutics of suspicion, because it makes the life of faith quite dangerous. It throws the most provocative idea right in the face of believing persons: Repent of your faith! Yes. Repent of your faith. That should make you feel like you’re standing naked. But naked before what? An empty universe?
The [...]

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Was Passion Ever a Convincing Argument?

I mean, was passion ever a convincing argument for the way we should think and believe? John Caputo says yes, but I wonder if you think he is right. Come along for a little thinking and give me your honest response.
Philosophy and theology have always been companions in the quest for the answers to life’s [...]

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Can You Be Happy When You Are Young?

Today I was looking at my photos from Paris where I lived twenty years ago. I was very young then. As I was going through these photos, I realized I would appreciate Paris much more today than I did back then. Does that mean age makes us better able to appreciate life?
Could it even mean [...]

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Does Pleasure Make You Happy?

Many philosophers think happiness is a “background condition,” and pleasure is only like sparkles against that background. Pleasure is a fleeting “foreground experience,” whereas happiness is what you really want. But, surely, you cannot be happy without pleasure, can you?
Schopenhauer agrees. He thinks pleasure is necessary in order to be happy, and he thinks [...]

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What Are You Doing with Your Self?

Some people have a strong sense of self. Or call it ego, individuality, or personal identity. What I mean is the sense of being someone with wants, desires, aspirations, and the ability to claim a place in the world. We use it to go after what we think will give life meaning. But maybe [...]

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Does God Fear Human Beings?

In response to the earlier question about God’s punishment of Adam and Eve, an astute reader asked this counter-question: “Was the reason why God kicked them out just fear?” What an interesting perspective this adds to the Biblical story about the fall. It deserves a separate reflection.
If we want to speculate about God’s motivation behind [...]

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Who Puts Food in Your Mouth?

When food scientists found out fat is bad for us, the food industry started producing a whole new product: low-fat foods. Such a thing never existed prior to that time. Since then, we have become addicted to low-fat junk food and gained, on average, 18 pounds. In this interview Michael Pollan talks about that as [...]

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