Did God Create Evil?

The careful reader of sacred Scripture cannot help but notice some passages that seem to conflict with one another. One of these apparent conflicts can be found in comparing Genesis 1, in which everything that God creates is called “good,” with the prophet Isaiah’s claim on God’s behalf: “I form the light, and create darkness:…

Responding to The Problem of Evil

The Problem of Evil is an ancient difficulty that arises from the question of how an all-powerful, all-good God could exist given the amount of evil in the world. While atheism has no good response to evil, and theism has some very good ones – Christianity alone can account for both evil and suffering in…

Morality and the Vision of God

We all know we’re supposed to be good people, but what does it mean to be good? How does the Church reach conclusions on disputed ethical issues like abortion, euthanasia, or marital issues? In this short video, I go over the Church’s natural law method of determining morality – and why it is necessary to…

Protestants and Polygamy

A “New Sexual Frontier”? Christianity Today recently posted a report on the shifting views of polyamory  (polyamory is the generic term for multiple-partner sexual relationships / marriages, polygamy only refers to having multiple wives – polyandry for multiple husbands).  After explaining a situation in which a “Christian couple” was encouraged by a “Christian counselor” to…

Brightburn: Ring of Geyges Redux?

The 2019 film Brightburn poses an interesting question: What would happen if an alien being crash landed in rural Iowa as a baby, was adopted by human parents, and eventually discovered he had superhuman powers? Now this premise should not sound original to nearly anyone in Western civilization for the last 80 years or so…

Should Christian Businesses Support Unchristian Behavior?

The following post is adapted from a paper titled “Christian Businesspeople, Gay Weddings, and the Ethics of Co-Operation in Wrongdoing“. It was presented at the 2015 National Evangelical Philosophical Society meeting near the time of the Masterpiece Cakeshop Ltd. v. Colorado Civil Rights Commission supreme court case  (part of an ongoing attack against Colorado baker…

Can Man Become God?

Introduction One thing that saints like Athanasius, Augustine, and Aquinas all have in common is that they asserted that man can become God. Wait, what??? This teaching is also reflected in the Catechism of the Catholic Church: “The Son of God became man so that we might become God.” (CCC 460) Hold on – What?!?!?!…