Isn’t all religion anti-intellectual?

Quite some time ago, a NY Times columnist, Ross Douthat wrote a book called “Bad Religion”. He went on the show of militant atheist Bill Maher and I found their conversation really enlightening.

In particular, at one point Maher asks “Isn’t all religion anti-intellectual?” and Douthat gave what I thought was a really great answer.

My favourite part though was when Douthat talks a little bit about how our understanding of the human person radically alters our perception of abuses of religion.

I’d invite you to check out the video and see how Douthat calmly responds to Mayers questions with clear, logical responses.

The Moral Argument

Before I took a break for Advent I posted a quotation from Ravi Zacharias which related to what is known as “The Moral Argument” for the existence of God. I had intended to do a longer post on this subject at some point in the future because I think it’s one of the more interesting arguments in favour of theism.

While on Facebook these last few weeks, I was talking with an atheist and, try as I might, I couldn’t get him to even understand the argument itself.

Was I saying that atheists couldn’t tell the difference between right and wrong? No.

Was I saying that atheists were incapable of doing good deeds? No.

In the end I found the following video from Reasonable Faith. Although it didn’t appear to help in that particular conversation, I think it’s one of the most accessible explanations of this argument for the existence of God:

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