Dominic Bnonn Tennant

No one expects the Five Things Meme.

The sad story of a Catholic layman named Juan; a dedicated believer and amateur theologian, who gradually comes to realize that, as one of the laity, he is no more able to understand his religion than the peasants of the middle ages.

The question of whether intelligent design is a scientific or philosophical inference is a contentious and oft-debated one. Using a recent discussion on Ken Perrott’s blog as a kick-off point, I offer a brief commentary on this issue, giving reasons for why it is arbitrary to dismiss ID as unscientific.

A critical response to the accusation that teaching children beliefs which contradict secular science is a form of child abuse. This post is a reply to Ken Perrott’s article ‘”Biblically correct” child abuse?’

As part of my efforts toward establishing a set of comprehensive apologetics resources for lay Christians in New Zealand, centered around the Thinking Matters ministry, I’m working on a second edition to my hastily-released book The Wisdom of God. My particular focus is on making it more accessible by (i) improving the writing style and (ii) weeding out redundancy and wordiness while introducing more down-to-earth illustrations, examples, and definitions. One of the changes I’m considering, on which I’d like some feedback, is renaming the subtitle of the book from “a systematic introduction to biblical apologetics” (which frankly, while terse and accurate is rather unappetizing) to “an introduction to proving the Christian worldview”. My question is: is this a better subtitle? If not, what would you, the lay reader, suggest? Is the word “worldview” generally understood nowadays, or does it need explaining? And, more generally, what other suggestions can you offer regarding making the book a more readable, useful resource for lay Christians?

My friend David Ponter recently made an observation to me which reflects a gradual change in my own thinking since I started blogging. He noted that when we interact with others online, we are generally quick to deal decisively and harshly with them if they disagree with us. (I say “we” because I myself am by no means exempt from this practice, as anyone who has followed my blog will know.) I think we do this largely because (i) online interaction mitigates social niceties which would temper our tone in a face to face discussion; and (ii) this encourages people to be bold and draws out those personalities who thrive on anonymous conflict. Inasmuch as this is true, it’s hardly a situation confined to Christian bloggers; it is a general observation about discourse on the internet. However, (iii) simply put, there are many online who set themselves up in a position of some authority, from which they judge, rebuke, and mock those with whom they disagree. This practice they believe is right, and defend it from Scripture, which does indeed contain examples of exactly these sorts of things. Elijah mocked the prophets of Baal; the Lord Jesus rebuked the Scribes and Pharisees; Paul had a harsh word for any number of people. But there are some specifically Christian observations which David made about this which I think it important to elaborate upon and share.

It was a Friday when Sarah was diagnosed with pre-eclampsia. Although it is a common condition, it is also a very serious one—in the third world mothers die from it regularly, and although it is manageable given good medical facilities, there is still a degree of danger. For this reason, labor is generally induced very [...]