Proclaiming the Gospel, Engaging the World: Celebrating One Hundred Years of Melbourne School of Theology, 2021
It has been observed that evangelicalism in the twenty-first century has largely followed the pat... more It has been observed that evangelicalism in the twenty-first century has largely followed the pattern of the culture within which it exists, and it is a culture that excludes that which may be considered offensive to a person’s sensibilities. As such, evangelicalism has largely censured the offensive aspects of Christianity. As Kierkegaard argued, however, offence is essential to biblical Christianity, and to remove what is essential to Christianity it is to abolish Christianity. In order to reintroduce biblical Christianity into soft-pedal evangelicalism, then, it is necessary to recover the following: (1) the doctrine of the ‘infinite qualitative difference’ between God and humanity; (2) the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins; and (3) the call to a discipleship that is characterised by Christian suffering.
In one of the chief works produced by the New Atheists, Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion set ou... more In one of the chief works produced by the New Atheists, Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion set out to reduce the existence of God to an “almost certain” impossibility. While his words are firm and belittling, however, Dawkins fails to cause any legitimate damage to the theistic worldview. This article identifies three reasons why the New Atheist sledgehammer has widely missed its target. First, Dawkins demonstrates a deficient understanding of the God he seeks to extinguish. Second, he is unable to account for certain concepts that he appeals to in his arguments (logical absolutes, the uniformity of nature, and moral absolutes). Third, he repeatedly violates the commitments of his naturalistic materialism, resorting to metaphysical speculation on multiple occasions.
Proclaiming the Gospel, Engaging the World: Celebrating One Hundred Years of Melbourne School of Theology, 2021
It has been observed that evangelicalism in the twenty-first century has largely followed the pat... more It has been observed that evangelicalism in the twenty-first century has largely followed the pattern of the culture within which it exists, and it is a culture that excludes that which may be considered offensive to a person’s sensibilities. As such, evangelicalism has largely censured the offensive aspects of Christianity. As Kierkegaard argued, however, offence is essential to biblical Christianity, and to remove what is essential to Christianity it is to abolish Christianity. In order to reintroduce biblical Christianity into soft-pedal evangelicalism, then, it is necessary to recover the following: (1) the doctrine of the ‘infinite qualitative difference’ between God and humanity; (2) the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins; and (3) the call to a discipleship that is characterised by Christian suffering.
In one of the chief works produced by the New Atheists, Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion set ou... more In one of the chief works produced by the New Atheists, Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion set out to reduce the existence of God to an “almost certain” impossibility. While his words are firm and belittling, however, Dawkins fails to cause any legitimate damage to the theistic worldview. This article identifies three reasons why the New Atheist sledgehammer has widely missed its target. First, Dawkins demonstrates a deficient understanding of the God he seeks to extinguish. Second, he is unable to account for certain concepts that he appeals to in his arguments (logical absolutes, the uniformity of nature, and moral absolutes). Third, he repeatedly violates the commitments of his naturalistic materialism, resorting to metaphysical speculation on multiple occasions.
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Papers by Ernie Laskaris