Hello again,
It's been too long since I've posted and I've missed you! I hope you had a Merry Christmas. Below is a copy of an email note (with some minor editing) that I sent to the pastors at my church asking them to host Frank Turek from CrossExamined.org at our church.
I've been using his I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist curriculum in my high school homeschool this year and I am so excited about it that I want to share it with you. I thought that an easy way to share it with you is to share the note I sent to my pastors. Feel free to forward my note to your pastor(s) too!
* The original note had the name of our church.
Click here for
It's been too long since I've posted and I've missed you! I hope you had a Merry Christmas. Below is a copy of an email note (with some minor editing) that I sent to the pastors at my church asking them to host Frank Turek from CrossExamined.org at our church.
I've been using his I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist curriculum in my high school homeschool this year and I am so excited about it that I want to share it with you. I thought that an easy way to share it with you is to share the note I sent to my pastors. Feel free to forward my note to your pastor(s) too!
Hello Gentlemen,
Would you consider inviting Frank Turek, from CrossExamined.org, to come to our church (*)? Frank is a former Naval aviator, with a PHD in apologetics, who conducts seminars on college campuses, churches, and high schools to help young people understand why the Christian faith is true and reasonable and train them to defend that view.
I am using his curriculum, I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, in my homeschool with my high school boys this year and we are enamored with it. One day I said to my boys, "I can't believe I've never heard this before even though I've been a Christian since I was a child!"
We recently completed the first 6 of 12 chapters in the book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Those chapters use science, logic and philosophy, not the Bible, to help people see that it only makes sense that there is a Creator. It's fascinating. My boys, who are generally not jumping up and down with enthusiasm to do their school work, actually like this class and are learning from it....which, I think, is the equivalent of them jumping up and down with joy!
"Christian young people are leaving the church at an alarming rate, mainly because they are not equipped to examine the skepticism and atheism they encounter after leaving home, often coming from their college professors." (CrossExamined.org) I believe that having Frank speak to our church would greatly benefit the Kingdom.
"CrossExamined.org is a non-profit ministry started in 2006 that conducts dynamic I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist seminars on college campuses, churches, and high schools. Led by Frank Turek and other Christian apologists, CrossExamined.org exists to address the problem that 3-out-of-4 Christian youth leave the church while in college, many because they are intellectually skeptical." (CrossExamined.org)
When I asked Frank about coming to our church, he requested that a church pastor contact him to make arrangements. Here is the email address where you can contact him: seminars@crossexamined.org.
Below is a link with more information:
CrossExamined.org
If you would like to take a look at the curriculum, let me know and I would be glad to show you what I have which includes a DVD with 12 recorded sessions of Frank giving his seminar.
Thank you for all you do for our community.
Sincerely,
Sue S
* The original note had the name of our church.
Click here for
What do you think about what Frank says in the clip?
Well, I guess I know what's in our que to do in our spring semester! Can't wait to get my hands on it!
ReplyDeleteIt's very strange that you think it requires faith to be an atheist. Does it require a leap of faith to stop believing in Santa? Zeus, Thor, Ganesh, pixies, unicorns, etc?
ReplyDeleteMary
Here's an idea for you. Let's both remove a book from our arsenal of evidence for our arguments, then have the discussion using everything but that book. But, to give you an advantage, I won't just ignore one book (say, volume 97 of Nature), I'll ignore all 497 volumes of Nature, and you ignore the Bible.
ReplyDeleteOK, so what's your best evidence for your deity? Without using the bible, and I'll rebut, nt using anything published in Nature. Consider it an assignment in active apologetics for your children.
Mary
Hi Mary, Thanks for visiting. I'm putting a quote from the post above in case you didn't read it because you asked me not to use the Bible to defend evidence for a creator/deity.
Delete"We recently completed the first 6 of 12 chapters in the book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist. Those chapters use science, logic and philosophy, not the Bible, to help people see that it only makes sense that there is a Creator."
Now I'll put some of what is in those first 6 chapters of the book, I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist, that we are reading. Below is evidence for a creator using logic, science and philosophy...not the Bible.
It is true that the theistic (personal god who is the Creator) God exists. This is evidenced by:
I. Evidence for the Big Bang (Creation)
S- Second Law of Thermodynamics
U- Universe is Expanding
R- Radiation from the Big Bang
G- Great Galaxy Seeds
E- Einstein’s Theory of Relativity (It demands an absolute beginning for time, space and matter)
II. Cosmological Argument for the beginning of the Universe
1. Everything that had a beginning had a cause. Law of Causality.
2. The Universe had a beginning. Second Law of Thermodynamics (The universe is running out of useable energy.)
3. Therefore the Universe had a cause.
III. Kalam Cosmological Argument (Philosophical argument)
The universe had a beginning because time itself cannot be infinite. (Evidence of a designer.)
IV. Teleological Argument
1. Every design has a designer.
2. The universe has a highly complex design.
3. Therefore the universe has a designer.
V. The Anthropic Principle
The universe is highly tuned to support life. Any small variation in the number of factors
could alter the delicate balance and cause the end of life on our planet.
VI. Specified Complexity.
Letters in a message communicate a unique message. The order of the A, T, C, G determine the unique genetic makeup of the living entity= specified complexity. The message in the DNA of one-celled anoeba:
nucleus- more than all 30 volumes of Ency. Brit.
entire amoeba- 1,000 sets of the Ency.
If the message, "Mary loves Scott" requires an intelligent being why doesn't a message 1,000 encyclopedias long??
You may notice in #1 (SURGE)I didn't go into detail, but there is much detail in the book and I expect if you google each point under "SURGE" you will find a more detailed explanation of any points you aren't familiar with.
Sincerely,
Sue
So you're not up for it? Probably a good idea, all the apologetic arguments have been refuted many times over.
ReplyDeleteMary