“Two Christian students and two atheist students squared off Tuesday night in a 90-minute high school debate about the existence, role and relevance of God. Focusing on the philosophical implications of believing in Christianity vs. atheism, the students explained to an audience of about 125 why their beliefs made logical sense and attempted to poke holes in the other side’s arguments…..”
This past sunday I spoke to our teenagers and college students on how to have healthy dating relationships. Here are 3 ways you know if you (or if you are a parent your son / daughter) is ready to date:
1. When you have a picture in your mind of the “right kind of person” you will not settle less for (silhouette).
2. When you are more interested in / focused on BECOMING the right kind of person than FINDING the right person.
3. When you know what physical / moral / emotional boundaries you will not compromise on in order to get that other person to like you.
The Bottom Line: Being lonely with hope of a GOOD relationship is much better than being stuck in a BAD relationship filled with frustration and regrets…and worse still if you get married to them someday with NO WAY OUT.
“He who walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools suffers harm” – Proverbs 13:20
This is ESPECIALLY true when it comes to dating relationships. Click here to learn more about healthy relationships during the high school and college years
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Hello everyone! I had a blast on mornings with Brant (WAY-FM) talking about college life. Here is the audio.
WARNING – Shameless Plug Alert – Here is my book Welcome to College. This would make a GREAT graduation gift for seniors or students already in college. Youth Pastors could work through these chapters with groups and there are small group discussion questions in the back. Also, for parents to work through with their teenagers while in High School to prepare them for the opportunities and challenges of college life.
“This is the book I’ve been waiting for. . . It is the single best volume I have ever read for preparing students for how to follow Jesus and flourish as his disciple in college.”—J.P. Moreland, Distinguished Professor Philosophy, Talbot School of Theology, Biola University
“Jonathan Morrow has both the intellectual resources as well as the practical experience to provide an effective students’ survival guide to university life. I’m impressed with the wide array of issues he discusses, from intellectual challenges to financial problems to sexual snares to getting enough sleep! All this is done in easily digestible bits for the student on the run.”—William Lane Craig, theologian and author of Reasonable Faith
“Jonathan Morrow has written an extremely practical, insightful guide for navigating the challenges of college life. It is wide ranging and wise. I enthusiastically recommend it!”—Paul Copan, Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University and author of Is God a Moral Monster?“I love this book. Being in college myself, this book is phenomenal. Jonathan does a great job of having a little bit for everyone. Whether you need relationship advice, a little lesson in apologetics, to just basics like how to take care of your health. It really is great. To college students” This isn’t one of those cheesy books your grandparents buy you and the you use to fix that lop-sided dorm bed. This is the real deal!” – Josh (student)
Evolutionary biologist and atheist Jerry Coyne thinks so. “In the end, science is no more compatible with religion than with other superstitions, such as leprechauns.” He’s not done. In a USA today op ed piece he goes on to say:
“Religion in America is on the defensive. Atheist books such as The God Delusion and The End of Faith have, by exposing the dangers of faith and the lack of evidence for the God of Abraham, become best-sellers. Science nibbles at religion from the other end, relentlessly consuming divine explanations and replacing them with material ones. Evolution took a huge bite a while back, and recent work on the brain has shown no evidence for souls, spirits, or any part of our personality or behavior distinct from the lump of jelly in our head. We now know that the universe did not require a creator. Science is even studying the origin of morality. So religious claims retreat into the ever-shrinking gaps not yet filled by science. And, although to be an atheist in America is still to be an outcast, America’s fastest-growing brand of belief is non-belief.” (MORE)
And that’s just the opening paragraph. There’s plenty more….
You would be hard pressed to find an article that more clearly illustrates why Sean McDowell and I wrote – Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists. These issues and questions are not going away. And if you know a young person in high school or college, they are facing a steady diet of this kind of thinking these days. Are they ready? More often than not, they are not ready. (Just take a look at the excellent post by fellow point blogger Brett Kunkle and watch this video). More importantly…Are you ready?
This is why apologetics—training in defending the Christian faith—is not optional. It’s essential! Unfortunately students are often just told to be good and love Jesus and then churches send them off into the world to find their way. We must do better. We need to do at least 3 things with our students in high school:
Teach them what Christians believe. (understanding and content)
Teach them why Christianity is true. (evidence and reason)
Teach them why it matters. (implications and integration)
Again, this is not optional. We are commanded in Scripture to “set apart Christ as Lord” and to “always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect.” (1 Pet. 3:15)
“A 69-year-old Philadelphia doctor who performed abortions was charged by prosecutors on Wednesday with the murder of seven newborns who were killed with scissors and of a female patient who died of an overdose of anesthetics.
The Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said Dr. Kermit Gosnell, a family practitioner who had not been certified in obstetrics or gynecology, oversaw a medical practice that regularly performed late-term abortions.
On at least seven occasions, babies born alive during the sixth, seventh and eighth month of pregnancies were killed by having their spinal cords severed with a pair of scissors, District Attorney Seth Williams said in a statement.
A grand jury investigation found that although complaints about Dr. Gosnell and his Women Medical Society clinic in west Philadelphia had been made to a variety of government health and medical licensing officials for more than 20 years — including about the deaths of women during routine abortions — the doctor was never officially sanctioned.
Most of Dr. Gosnell’s patients were low-income immigrant and minority women” (more)