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"Helping the Next Generation Think Christianly About All of life"
Labels: Darwinian Evolution, Faith, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Science
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
10:04 AM
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
2:37 PM
Most young adults today don't pray, don't worship and don't read the Bible, a major survey by a Christian research firm shows.
If the trends continue, "the Millennial generation will see churches closing as quickly as GM dealerships," says Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources. In the group's survey of 1,200 18- to 29-year-olds, 72% say they're "really more spiritual than religious."
Among the 65% who call themselves Christian, "many are either mushy Christians or Christians in name only," Rainer says. "Most are just indifferent. The more precisely you try to measure their Christianity, the fewer you find committed to the faith."
Key findings in the phone survey, conducted in August and released today:
•65% rarely or never pray with others, and 38% almost never pray by themselves either.
•65% rarely or never attend worship services.
•67% don't read the Bible or sacred texts.
Many are unsure Jesus is the only path to heaven: Half say yes, half no.
"We have dumbed down what it means to be part of the church so much that it means almost nothing, even to people who already say they are part of the church," Rainer says.
The findings, which document a steady drift away from church life, dovetail with a LifeWay survey of teenagers in 2007 who drop out of church and a study in February by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, which compared the beliefs of Millennials with those of earlier generations of young people. (MORE)
Labels: Christian Pastors and Leaders, Christianity, Church, Cultural Observations, Religion, Youth Pastors
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
12:03 AM
"Almost every weekend, there is a tradition called raging at Vanderbilt University.
It's a recurring, drunken activity that isn't the proudest moment for student Frannie Boyle. After consuming large quantities of alcohol before a party, her night would sometimes end in making out with a stranger or acquaintance.
Casual hook ups fueled by alcohol may be the norm across college campuses, but Boyle, now a 21-year-old junior at the school, chose to stop. Her reasons to quit hooking up echo the emotional devastation of many college students, particularly girls whose hearts are broken by the hook-up scene.
"I saw it [hooking up] as a way to be recognized and get satisfaction," said Boyle, shaking her blond ponytail. "I felt so empty then."
The hook-up culture on campuses may seem more pervasive than ever, especially as media outlets, books and documentaries rush to dissect the subject, but some college women and men are saying no.
Some, like Boyle, experimented with hooking up and quit. Though she is Catholic, she says her reason for disengaging herself from the hook-up culture had more to do with the unhappiness she experienced afterward. Others influenced by religion have abstained from casual physical activity from the moment they set foot on campus.
The idea of rejecting hook-ups may not be as strange as it sounds in a generation surrounded by sex. Pop star Lady Gaga recently announced she was celibate and encouraged others to follow. In Kelly Clarkson's song "I Don't Hook Up," she addresses the dominant hook-up culture: "I do not hook up, up I go slow, so if you want me I don't come cheap."
The term "hook up" is ambiguous, usually defined as a no-commitment, physical encounter with a stranger or acquaintance. Hooking up can range from just a make-out session all the way to sex. Other lingo for the no-commitment sexual encounters are "booty calls" or "friends with benefits."
Various academic studies have cited at least 75 percent of women have engaged in hooking up on campus, and the number is usually higher for men. The activity is most likely precipitated by alcohol, studies show. Boyle's decision to quit hooking up leaves her in the minority." (read the rest of this article at CNN)
Labels: Bible, Christianity, Parents, Sexuality, Students, Truth, Youth Pastors
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
2:21 PM
Labels: Bible, Christianity, Wisdom
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
6:33 PM
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
8:00 AM
In a far-reaching judgment that could have major implications for the biotech industry, a federal judge in Manhattan has struck down patents related to two human genes linked to hereditary breast and ovarian cancers, BRCA1 and BRCA2.
Myriad Genetics held the patents, and women who want to find out if they have a high genetic risk for these cancers have to get a test sold by Myriad, which costs more than $3,000. Plaintiffs in the case had said Myriad’s monopoly on the test, conferred by the gene patents, kept prices high and prevented women from getting a confirmatory test from another laboratory [The New York Times]. In his decision, United States District Court Judge Robert W. Sweet found that the company’s patents were invalid because the genes are “found in nature,” and products of nature can’t be patented. In essence, he agreed with the plaintiffs’ argument that the genetic code contained in each human being’s cells shouldn’t be private property.
Tuesday’s decision, if upheld, could have wide repercussions for the multi-billion dollar biotech industry, which is built on more than 40,000 gene patents. Already, about 20 percent of the human genes have been patented. The decision, however, is not binding on other federal courts and other judges may or may not abide by it. But it does the set the stage for years of litigation over other gene patents. Myriad Genetics (more)
Labels: bioethics, human rights, Science, technology
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
7:00 AM
I started reading What Darwin Got Wrong (2010) assuming it was written by two creationists or proponents of intelligent design. To my pleasant surprise, I could not have been more wrong myself! The authors, Jerry Fodor and Massimo Piatelli-Palmarini, explicitly describe themselves as “outright, card-carrying, signed-up, dyed-in-the-wool, no-holds-barred atheists” (xiii).The authors make it clear from the outset that they are not trying to undermine naturalism or even give a boost to creationism or ID. In fact, they probably fear that people like myself will pick up a copy and use it as a critique of naturalism. The main thesis of their book is that “natural selection is irredeemably flawed” (p. 1). They are careful to distinguish between common descent and natural selection, clarifying that they have no problem with the former. But they do consider the neo-Darwinian mechanism of natural selection acting on random mutation as “radically untenable” (p. 44). Natural selection may play a minor role in the development of life, they say, but not possibly the major role assigned to it by evolution supporters. Why?
They note that evolution is believed to have driven the development of (more)
Labels: Darwinian Evolution, Faith, Intelligent Design, Naturalism, Philosophy, Science
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
10:31 AM
Labels: Apologetics, Christianity, Jonathan Morrow's Writings, Parents, Students, Thinking Christianly, Welcome to College, Youth Pastors
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
12:14 AM
“Famed Interview with the Vampire author Anne Rice confesses there is no rest and no peace without God, in a new video in which she talks about her return to the Christian faith.
Labels: Christianity, doubt, Evangelism, Faith, Jesus Christ, Pop Culture
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
10:41 PM
“The biblical picture is that human beings, as image bearers of God, are placed as stewards over the created order. We bear a responsibility for how we treat and use it. We are part of the creation as well as its crowning achievement. God intends for us to use and transform the natural world around us for good purposes. Proper use is not misuse. But as fallen creatures, we can mess things up.”—Jay Wesley Richards
Labels: Bible, Christianity, Creation, Environmental Ethics, Ethics, Global Warming
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
6:00 AM
Labels: Current Events, Darwinian Evolution, Faith, Intelligent Design, Law, Science
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
1:27 AM
Labels: Discipleship, Spiritual Formation, Thinking Christianly
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
1:02 AM
Labels: Apologetics, Bible, Christianity, historical jesus
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
11:17 AM
Labels: Apologetics, Christianity, Existence of God, Truth
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
12:28 PM
“Various forms of same-sex sexual activity have been recorded in more than 450 different species of animals by now, from flamingos to bison to beetles to guppies to warthogs,” reported Jon Mooallem. Well, that’s a rather surprising statistic on many levels. It seems that researchers have been attempting to document these activities and to explain them. Thus far, there has been only a smattering of documentation and significant controversy over how to explain it.
Mooallem explains:
Within most species, homosexual sex has been documented only sporadically, and there appear to be few cases of individual animals who engage in it exclusively. For more than a century, this kind of observation was usually tacked onto scientific papers as a curiosity, if it was reported at all, and not pursued as a legitimate research subject. Biologists tried to explain away what they’d seen, or dismissed it as theoretically meaningless - an isolated glitch in an otherwise elegant Darwinian universe where every facet of an animal’s behavior is geared toward reproducing.
The magazine’s cover story begins in Hawaii, where observers are documenting the behavior of albatrosses. One researcher, Lindsay C. Young, noted the existence of some single-sex pairs of the birds, some of whom have “been together” for several years or more. Are these lesbian...." (more from article)
Here are a few thoughts on appealing to nature to normalize human behavior:
1) Yes some animals do seem to act in this way on occasion. What follows from this? Animals also engage in acts akin to rape and devouring their own young. Do we really want to look to animals for normative ethics? On what basis do we move from "is" to "ought"?
2) Are we (humans) nothing more than animals? Are we simply dancing to our DNA? If so, this is very demeaning to us as humans. It assumes we have no control over our actions.
Labels: Gay Marriage, Homosexuality, Philosophy, Science
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
3:56 PM
Labels: Bible, Christian Pastors and Leaders, Parents, Students, Welcome to College, Youth Pastors
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
2:20 PM
“Christianity is not a code for living or a philosophy of religion; rather it is rooted in real events of History. To some people this is scandalous because it means that the truth of Christianity is inexplicably bound up with the truth of certain historical facts, such that if those facts should be disproved, so would Christianity. But at the same time, this makes Christianity unique because, unlike most other world religions, we now have a means of verifying its truth by historical evidence.”—William Lane Craig
“…if Christ has not been raised, your faith is worthless; you are still in your sins…If we have hoped in Christ in this life only, we are of all men most to be pitied.”—1 Cor. 15:17-18
Labels: Christianity, historical jesus, Resurrection
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
4:30 PM
Labels: Darwinian Evolution, Intelligent Design, Naturalism, Philosophy, Science
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
11:30 AM
Labels: Apologetics, Christianity, Existence of God, Jesus Christ, Resurrection
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
3:18 PM
Labels: Apologetics, Existence of God, historical jesus, Resurrection
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
5:11 PM
Labels: Gospel, Jesus Christ
posted by Jonathan Morrow at
5:26 PM
Jonathan Morrow is the founder of Think Christianly (www.thinkChristianly.org). He is the author of Welcome to College: A Christ-follower's Guide for the Journey, Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture, and Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists (with Sean McDowell), and contributed the chapter "Introducing Spiritual Formation" to Foundations of Spiritual Formation: A Community Approach to Becoming Like Christ. Jonathan also contributed several articles to the Apologetics Study Bible for Students. He graduated with an M.Div. and an M.A. in philosophy of religion and ethics from Talbot School of Theology and is currently the equipping pastor at Fellowship Bible Church. His books have been featured on shows like Family Life Today, Stand to Reason, Breakpoint, Frank Pastore, The Janet Mefferd Show, and Apologetics 315. **This is a personal blog. The opinions expressed here represent my own and not necessarily those of my employer.**
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