MUST-LISTEN: William Lane Craig video and audio from Saddleback Church event

New audio lectures and video from William Lane Craig:

Can We Be Good Without God? (National Faculty Leadership Conf. 2008)
Audio

Why Does Anything at All Exist? (National Faculty Leadership Conf. 2008)
Audio

Healthy Relationships (National Faculty Leadership Conf. 2008)
Audio

Who Does Jesus Think He Was? (National Faculty Leadership Conf. 2008)
Audio

Why Does Anything at All Exist? (Wake Forest University)
Video

Response to Richard Dawkins book, The God Delusion (University of Florida)
Audio

One Question: The top 3 questions Univ. of Florida students are asking God (University of Florida)
Audio

Effective, outwardly-focused ministry to transform the culture.

UPDATE: Brian Auten e-mails to notify me of more audio from the apologetics conference at Saddleback.

For your information, the audio and video for the Saddleback Apologetics Weekend is available now. This includes Geisler, D’Souza, Craig, Bock, Koukl, and Moreland.

And here are the lectures:

• How Can I Know God Exists? – Dinesh D’Souza – MP3
• How Did the Universe Begin – William Lane Craig – MP3
• If God Exists, Why is there Evil? – Norman Geisler – MP3
• Has Science Made Belief in God Obsolete? – J.P. Moreland – MP3
• What Do the Gospels Really Say About Jesus? – Darrell Bock – MP3
• How Can I Defend My Faith Without Sounding Defensive? – Greg Koukl – MP3

I have to give kudos to Rick Warren for hosting this conference. I don’t like him at all, but this was a BIG DEAL.

I didn’t like the Norman Geisler one as much, but the others are all good.

UPDATE: Links to ALL THE VIDEO AND AUDIO HERE.

Should fundamentalists encourage pro-abortion, pro-public-school and anti-marriage policies?

Here’s a post from Newsbusters about a group of “patriarchal” Christians that opposed the nomination of Sarah Palin for the post of vice presidency based on their interpretation of the Bible.

Excerpt:

The Los Angeles Times seems to have taken a sudden new interest in biblical study. No, they haven’t become religious or anything close to that. Instead, they are microanalyzing the Bible for passages that they think they can use to slam Sarah Palin for running for vice-president. They are also searching the countryside to dig up the very few strongly religious Christians they can find who think Palin is wrong to run for public office.

Should fundamentalists directly or indirectly support the election of Barack Obama, which caused disastrous effects in society, (increasing abortion, enabling a stronger influence for public schools, and potentially legalizing same-sex marriage, for starters)?

Does Scripture actually justify any of these radically left-wing positions? Won’t these fundamentalist Christians be judged based on the fruits of their opposition to Sarah Palin? Don’t Christians have a responsibility to be educated about the consequences of their positions? Isn’t it important to interpret the Bible correctly?

See my previous post on the need to have an influence in the public square in the most effective ways possible.

Another point of view

A mother of 12 writes:

It is a continual source of amazement to me that some Evangelicals/Protestants raise such a ruckus about Catholics believing in the spiritual authority of the Pope, even while setting up little mini-Popes of their own – and that these leaders disobey God’s imperative to servant leadership in order to revel in their pedestal status.

Often these begin as well-intentioned people seeking righteousness, but then giving into the temptation of spiritual pride. Like the Pharisees Jesus condemned, they become white-washed sepulchers.

Our family’s experience in a legalistic church (mercifully brief 1989-1990) was filled with people bossing us around, telling us that they had a Word for us from God. How dared they presume that God would speak to a stranger rather than guiding us Himself?

And how dare the Vision Forum crowd presume to become the Pope to Sarah Palin?

The truth is that these well-meaning people have become isolated and insulated, building an alternative universe and then judging the outside world by their self-imposed standards rather than by the historical truth of a heavenly Father who throughout the Bible has chosen unlikely leaders and who has warned us about making our own.

Found here.

Reminder: Upcoming debate between William Lane Craig and Fracisco Ayala

William Lane Craig is debating the evolutionary biologist Francisco Ayala in the November 5th, 2009, at Indiana University.

Here’s the skinny:

…the faculty ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ, is organizing a debate in early November on the topic of “The Viability of Intelligent Design.”  It will be an evaluation, so to speak, regarding the criticisms against ID brought forth by the scientific community.  This is a cutting edge discussion.  The participants are evolutionary biologist, Dr. F.J. Ayala and Christian philosopher, Dr. William Lane Craig.

My thinking is that this is going to be a debate about philosophy of science. But wouldn’t it be amazing if Bill came out swinging on William Dembski’s explanatory filter, the origin of biological information, the Cambrian explosion, the fine-tuning and other evidential concerns? Wow!

Here’s a bit more about his opponent, Francisco Ayala:

His research focusses on population and evolutionary genetics, including the origin of species, genetic diversity of populations, the origin of malaria, the population structure of parasitic protozoa, and the molecular clock of evolution. He also writes about the interface between religion and science, and on philosophical issues concerning epistemology, ethics, and the philosophy of biology.

He’s written 650 papers and 12 books. I think this is going to be a tough debate for Bill!