Did god make us to worship him. More clicks is that what god wants ? I don't worship anyone or thing.

Guy’s a dill.

If one wants to see what living in a gray zone means, and never really commit or say things clearly as a christian, just listen to N.T. Wright, he's part of the scholars who, instead of presenting Jesus' teachings in a way that is simple but clear, clear in a way that puts you before a real choice, the kind that compels you to change your mind and behavior, dilutes the radicalness of Jesus' teachings, to a point where being christian is "preferable", but no necessarily the only way to salvation because only God sees the heart. I have come to see how N.T. Wright is so careful as to make sure his words won't offend or exclude the listener, that he forgot how to present the Gospel. Very sad. I would even go as far as saying that he's become uncomfortable with the NT radical nature.

Ben was discourteous and talked in circles like he was afraid. He assumes that being atheist is equivalent to living a hopeless existences. This is not necessarily true for others.

I find it wildly disingenuous at the roughly 1:07:00 mark when JW says "God is RESTRAINING their evil" when he knows his own theology professes God is directly *causing* the very same evil he is now restraining.

It's interesting that in a Christian discussion of free will that Christians will, in all probability, come from a Christian Country. In Riyadh they won't be discussing this. So how free are we really?

The most recent intentional Theocracy was South Africa - the one with Apartheid! It was based on Dutch Reform theology, and it failed! I look for the day when there will be a Theocracy, that of Jesus Christ. Until then I will fight for and support Western Liberal Socialist Democracy as exemplified by most of Europe, one in which the rights of all people are protected, religion is not imposed, and religion (or non religion) is protected. Freedom of speech and freedom of expression. And so I will not support any state attempt to impose the Bible - as interpreted by a select group of Bibliocrats - on the people.

Justin should shut his mouth and listen to his elder. His arrogance is infuriating.

Ben Shapiro... DESTROYS... . Jokes aside. Fun conversation as always. Strengthened my faith. Enjoy Alex's good and honest efforts instead of being a rude and disgusted attacker.

To address Alex’s point about certain ‘immoral’ things being allowed by God, one might be tempted to give the scriptural example of Sodom where God acceded to Abraham’s request to spare the city for the sake of ten good people. A strictly moral God would have punished the remaining immoral people and saved the ten good ones, right? But He ultimately destroys the city because not even ten could be found. Forgiveness for human weakness is a part of God’s nature otherwise the only thing left would be complete dissolution of the world. In this sense, a religious society is necessary because it accommodates human weakness under the hope that we might be able to improve one day. A truly secular society cannot tolerate what it considers immoral. A look at communist countries tells us all we need to know on that front. Can a truly secular person condone an act of immorality? What basis do they have for doing so if they don’t believe that God ultimately judges, not humans?

Is this a reupload?

Christianity is better becuase it calls to love. As a fundamental requirement. Not love as we know it, but Corinthians 13 love. There's no possible atheistic argument to be made which will have a better effect on society as a whole than this.

Sex is about bodies. It just is, a bodily state. We can wish things were other than they are, but they aren't.

"The beauty of religion is that there are a bunch of things I can't explain", meanwhile he uses the fact that science can't explain everything as a genuine argument...

The Bible says that the Throne of God is right above Polaris sitting on top of the 2nd molten crystal Firmament. The aurora is the emerald rainbow surrounding his throne. If you have Scientific world view you will never believe it, but that's what the Bible says. What NT Wright doesn't understand is that there is already a dome house (tabernacle) in heaven, multiple people in the Bible speak about it and even Enoch speaks about it in detail. The things Moses made were reflections of the things in heaven, the Ark for example...there is one in heave, his throne, and one on earth. It says that God the Father made darkness his dwelling place, because his house is surrounded by the dark waters above. Every single vision in the bible talks about the same location. We that grew up indoctrinated with the scientific world view have a hard time understanding and believing it but the people during the old times didn't have a scientific world view. They believed what God told them. God is going to remake the world, and our afterlife will be here on Earth. We are not going anywhere after we die. God will destroy the firmament and heaven and earth will unify in one space.

It’s incredible how much ego influences the mental gymnastics that people go through trying to reconcile a concept like free will.

Fooled into thinking I had privacy

Very unsatisfying answer on free will and suffering by the professor....might as well say GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS ...which is what he kinda says.

Tom is a very wise man.

That depends(On which religion exactly.). But nobody knows which religion is best, and which is worst. That`s why religion is a mess. But at least religion, dosen`t break people`s minds just for fun.

I know who, I want to be in control. Because at least, he wouldn`t break people`s minds just for fun.

57:20 He knew exactly what he was doing 😄

Alex should have asked Ben to prove that Judaism is best for society

I still don't get people who see good and evil as some "rules made by some outer mind" when history shows so clearly that what is considered good and bad has changed many times over the course of time. And also is so different just depending on age, culture etc even on a personal level. Which this debade puts spotlight on. Also I dont get how people who believe in god / free will think that aethists dont think people can change. Of course you can yourself affect how you change, but in the end its a neurological physical process.

LOVE IT

Q; why do we call Jesus a Palestinian Jew if Palestine was not created by Hadrian until AD132 ??? Thanks

Q; why do we call Jesus a Palestinian Jew if Palestine was not created by Hadrian until AD132 ??? Thanks

What an absolute clown this dude AC Grayling is.

Why do all British young women sound like Emma Watson?

History records Jesus and the New Testament is proven as one of antiquity’s authentic pieces of literature by far

A double minded man is unstable in all of his ways

The man in white sounds like a pagan

The entire premise of this question was flawed from the beginning. "Is religion good for society?" Which one? In some world views they live their their neighbors and in others they eat them. These things are not equivalent.

The United States does not have a constitutional separation of church and state. It has a constitutional protection from the state to practice religious freedoms

*Everything* is caught in the web of cause and effect, including what you think and do. If free will exists, only God has it. In fact, that might be what makes God God.

This channel is a joke, so many comments only become visible by changing how comments are sorted.

What is wrong about using our word of our culture about what we view something is. I think Hell is a good word to use to describe what we want to avoid. Go ahead and soften it up with other words we don’t understand and maybe I will think it is ok to go there.

From a 11/22/2014 Facebook post by Dr. Michael Brown One of my favorite Spurgeon quotes on Israel: "I think we do not attach sufficient importance to the restoration of the Jews. We do not think enough about it. But certainly, if there is anything promised in the Bible it is this. I imagine that you cannot read the Bible without seeing clearly that there is to be an actual restoration of the Children of Israel . . . For when the Jews are restored, the fullness of the Gentiles shall be gathered in; and as soon as they return, then Jesus will come upon Mount Zion with his ancients gloriously, and the halcyon days of the millennium shall then dawn; we shall then know every man to be a brother and a friend; Christ shall rule with universal sway." And then one from D. M. Lloyd-Jones: "It is remarkable that, although they (the Jews) were without their country for so many centuries, and nations did their utmost to destroy them completely, this nation has been preserved. The only real explanation of this is that God has not finished with them and that there is a day coming when this 'fullness of Israel' is going to be brought back to salvation, back into the Christian church, and so God's ultimate promise to Abraham is going to receive a wonderful fulfillment."

We might consider evil in context to the love God and love your neighbor commandments. Unlike the other regulations of law, love-if it's to be sincere at all-can't be simply commanded. So a Creator God would defeat enemies, heal disability, raise the dead and command nature-and did-with many genuinely loving him with "all their mind, soul and strength" as a result. What God could not do by the same authority is make us love our neighbor-at least not without undoing the integrity of his intended image and likeness. The command to "love your neighbor as yourself" would need to be handled in a totally different way.

One listens to Godly people, sincere, humble, faithful, doing their best to explain evil to us (as best they can, and they recognise that their answers are imperfect), and one is comforted, carried along with the narrative. Then next day an innocent child is tortured to death by some depraved human, and the comfort melts away like snow in sun. Blessed are you whose theodicy carries your faith safe to the other side of such events.

Harris v Peterson 2.0

Very few atheists that I know, are 100% resolute in their position that there is no possibility of something in the universe that might be classified as a "god." What they are steadfast in, however, is the very provable position that all the religions of the world are made up. Having an atheist debate some abstract idea of theism, is way too big of a hill for an atheist to climb. At the end of the day, no one really knows.

Thanks for posting.

There is no "problem of good" for atheists because the atheist does not believe that the universe is the product of a deity with a certain moral character. So, things we label as "good" can happen just as things that we "label" as evil can happen because the universe is mindless and indifferent. Even a theist that believes in a morally neutral creator doesn't have a problem of good or a problem of evil because there is no contradiction in that creator allowing some mixture of evil and good. There is only an issue when one posits that there is some omnipotent creator deity that is "all-good" or "all-evil" because we wouldn't expect to see instances of evil in the former case or instances of good in the latter case.

I notice that the bishop retreats to this position that God is just unknowable when forced to justify the problems of suffering or hiddeness, but he certainly seems to be confident in the truthfulness of less troublesome propositions about God, like that he is good and sufficinetly the prime mover. This comes off as intellectually insincere and just a case of cherry picking.

Fact: God does evil and uses suffering as part of his grand design for the common good. Rom 8:20. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it (God), in hope.

Not a snake, but a serpent. Your words use to be important to you, to be correct to the bible. Last year or 2 you keep misspeaking. This worries me because some are minor but a few were major mistakes. May want to see a doctor while it may be a easy fix rather than later having permanent damage. Please & God Bless.

Refer to the book “Determined”. There really is no free will.

Ben wins in the words per minute spoken.

What a load of tosh. At least Wright didn't resort this time to quoting the great Christian prophet CS Lewis. The very first question he should have been pitched before being tossed all those softballs is why should we assume we have Free Will in what appears to be a deterministic universe? As for America, Christians have been running the country for all of my life and they've been doing it badly. Yes, America is a wealthy nation but compared to the more secular western European nations the standard of living is substantially lower. Let's not forget that Christians and the Church just elected to office a serial sexual predator and convicted felon to arguably the most powerful office in the world. Your prayers were answered Wright.