Diakrisis

A necessary lie

Michael Riley — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 17:33:15 +0000

As one interested in apologetics, I regularly keep tabs on any number of atheist blogs. One of the most interesting belongs to Hemant Mehta (writer of I Sold My Soul on eBay). In one of his most recent posts, he takes Nicholas Kristof to task; Kristof had argued that atheists need to respect the ability of religion to advance social good. Mehta replied:

No one ever argued religion wasn’t powerful…. But the “New Atheists” are right that religion is harmful and irrational. More importantly, religious beliefs are untrue. There’s no credible evidence Jesus rose from the dead, people go to heaven and hell, that your prayers get answered, or that God talks to you.

Religion may give you hope, but that hope rests on you accepting a lie. I, and many other atheists, don’t want to live that way.

Here’s the rich irony of Mehta’s position: I suspect that (to whatever degree he’s consistent with his own beliefs) he would insist that life has no meaning other than that which we create for it. In other words, for the atheist, all the hope and meaning that anyone has in this life “rests on you accepting a lie”; Mehta cannot exempt himself from his own criticism.

Filed under: Apologetics

Another CD recommendation

Michael Riley — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 13:12:10 +0000

For the Sunday afternoon services at Calvary Baptist Church, we have been doing a survey of the Psalms. So far, we’ve spent two weeks considering examples of psalms of praise, and another two weeks the psalms of lament. We begin psalms of thanksgiving this week.

Our custom has been to conclude these services by singing the psalm that we’ve studied. For the psalms of lament, we used the tunes for the psalms from the Genevan Psalter.

For an introduction to these tunes, I’d recommend this recording. If any of the church folks are reading this post, you’ll hear that track 5 is the tune that we sang this past Sunday.

Filed under: Music

Recommendation: eClassical.com

Michael Riley — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 01:50:29 +0000

I’m always interested in finding good deals on good music. I’ve recently come upon the site eClassical.com (as I was looking for New York Polyphony’s newest disc, endBeginning, which I recommend to you). Of particular interest is their daily deal page, in which they offer one disc a day at half price. Today’s disc is a collection of Baroque guitar selections, which is quite good (and comes with a gloriously awkward cover as a bonus).

Filed under: Music

My candidating sermon

Michael Riley — Fri, 02 Mar 2012 17:03:44 +0000

In January, when I candidated for the pastorate of Calvary Baptist Church, I preached on the qualifications for the elder in 1 Peter 5. The sermon is available for listening here.

Filed under: Preaching, Worship

Now adjunct at Northland

Michael Riley — Mon, 20 Feb 2012 15:55:49 +0000

Just a quick announcement: I will be teaching an online hermeneutics course for Northland International University’s Graduate School this summer. Here’s a link to my faculty profile.

Filed under: Personal

Ministry and family balance

Michael Riley — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 19:29:32 +0000

I was recently asked my thoughts on balancing the demands of ministry and of family. Part of my answer was the following, about which I am seeking feedback from my loyal reader(s):

I believe that often (not always) pastors experience significant tension between ministry and family for two reasons: 1) a refusal to restrict the work of the church to only those things that the church is authorized to do in Scripture, and 2) a desire to expand their own personal ministry reach beyond their local church.

Thoughts? Comments? Snide remarks?

Filed under: Pastoral

Apologetics and Tim Tebow

Michael Riley — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:16:20 +0000

Just an observation: if “and Tim Tebow just keeps winning football games” functions as a crux of your defense of Christianity, you’re doing it wrong.

Filed under: Apologetics, Society

Way off topic: bad fantasy basketball league

Michael Riley — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:06:00 +0000

You are warned: this post will be of interest to very few readers. I’m looking for the overlap between three groups: people who like the NBA, people who like fantasy sports, and people who have a slightly odd sense of humor.

If this describes you, please continue reading.

I have started an NBA fantasy league in which the scoring is inverted: instead of getting points for having the best players on your team, your goal is to play those players who provide the least production during their time on the court.

In this league, your players get points for starting games and for every minute they’re on the court. They get points for taking shots (but lose points if they make the shots). The get points for turning the ball over, but lose them for assists and rebounds. They also get points for fouls, including flagrants and technicals.

The result of this is that the top ten players in this league in the NBA last season were

Travis Outlaw
Stephen Jackson
Jason Richardson
Dorell Wright
Wesley Matthews
Trevor Ariza
Metta World Peace (!)
Gilbert Arenas
Marco Belinelli
Wesley Johnson

If this whole concept sounds amusing to you, add a comment below and I’ll send you an invitation to the league. We’re drafting on Monday night, and trust me: you want to be able to draft live for this one. The autodraft will just kill your team.

Filed under: Personal

In the Nick of Time

Michael Riley — Fri, 04 Nov 2011 19:32:11 +0000

Dr. Kevin Bauder is traveling on behalf of Central Seminary this week, and so he granted me the privilege of writing an essay for this week’s In the Nick of Time.

Filed under: Fundamentalism

Five books about the mess we’re in

Michael Riley — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 14:18:35 +0000

For anyone who cares to understand how we’ve gotten ourselves in our present ecclesiastical mess, I’d suggest that he read the following five works:

America’s God, Mark Noll
Revival and Revivalism, Iain Murray
The Democritization of American Christianity, Nathan Hatch
Christianity’s Dangerous Idea, Alister McGrath
Promise Unfulfilled, Rolland McCune

Filed under: Fundamentalism, Pastoral, Society