Christian and Faith Based Resources
Here is an assortment of Christian and faith based resources which are freely available on the world wide web:
Bible Gateway-multiple searchable versions of the Bible
Relevant Magazine-online magazine for teens and young adults (20s to 30s)
Troubled With-a Christian aid to understand issues like alcoholism, eating disorders, abuse, gambling, and other emotional issues like adoption, blended families, and retirement.
Christianity Today-online magazine for Christians of all ages (Christianity Today also has niche publications for various age and gender groups)
Wineskins Magazine-online Christian magazine published by the Zoe Group
Veritas Forums-public discussions about controversial Christian issues including politics
Video Teaching-video-based lessons and sermons for learning about faith, life, and Christianity.
Pluggedin Online-online Christian publication about culture, movies, and the mass media.
Lee Strobel-although I’ve heard some minor criticisms of his apolegetics, I think Lee Strobel seems to have indepth research and to know his stuff. (The Case for Christ is a classic)
Equip-Christian apologetics resources
CARM-Christian apologetics resources
4Truth-a Christian faith and apologetics resources from the baptist organization the North American Missions Board
Biologos.org-Christian apolegetics resources from writers, researchers, and experts. Science and faith in dialogue. Note: more pro-evolution than most Christian apologetics websites.
Top Christian Magazines Online-Various Christian and faith based online magazines. I’d argue they’re the best, but some might disagree. (compiled and published on Compassion in Politics)
Council for Christian Colleges and Universities- Association of Christian Universities (**might** be helpful for Christian academics and Christians wanting to pursue education at a faith based institution)
Christian Apolegetics Resources
Josh McDowell
Don Miller (untraditional & narrative)
Evangelical Philosophy Society
The Spiritual Brain: A Neuroscientist’s Case for the Existence of a Soul
Recommended Resources (JP Moreland)
Biola’s Certificate Program in Apolegetics
Speak Up & Engage:
Please leave your suggestion for Christian and Bible based resources in the comments section. Thanks for visiting!
The American Scientific Afiliation has a tremendous base of resources on the science of the Bible:
http://www.asa3.org/ASA/resources/index.html
Conversant Life has some interesting perspectives–its often less specific (or rather more random) than most of the resources I’ve pointed to above:
http://www.conversantlife.com/blogs/
Interesting debate on professional vs. lay preaching and leadership in the church:
http://donmilleris.com/2011/04/05/unlike-todays-church-leaders-none-of-the-early-disciples-were-professional-educators/
Here are some more Conservative leaning resources [I make them available in the interest of the marketplace of ideas]:
http://www.wallbuilders.com/links.asp
I’m not sure I like the wallbuilders metaphor–but I can see there being a role of BOTH bridges and walls in the Christian church. Is the act of defending, building, or defining exclusively about “wall building”? And certainly even as we build walls….we need to be breaking down other walls. Jesus was certainly doing both as I read the New Testament.
Sojourners is probably the largest org that represents more left leaning Christian ideas [although it might be unfair to say they are exclusively left leaning]:
http://www.sojo.net/
Here is their summary of beliefs on political and cultural issues:
http://www.sojo.net/index.cfm?action=about_us.issues_faq
Somewhat unrelated, but important is the Honest Theist channel on YouTube, which has some theology & apologetics video:
http://www.youtube.com/TheHonestTheist
Orphans/Social Justice Resources:
http://onemillionarrows.com/Resources/
Billy Grahams’ Touch One Life Resourses is an interesting example:
http://www.billygraham.org/specialsections/touchonelife/touch-one-life.asp
Here is an interesting resource which answers some core questions about apolegetics:
http://www.godissues.org/god-issues-tough-questions/
Here is something that I just ran across which is also interesting in this area (which seems to bridge the reason/faith debate):
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presuppositional_apologetics
Further, here is the beginning of a panel discussion at a Christian book conference:
You can watch the other videos in the you tube series.
Here is another resource, which focuses on New Testament reliability:
http://carm.org/manuscript-evidence
Dr. Ray Clouser has a rather interesting critique of materialist reductionism. His articles are available here:
http://www.allofliferedeemed.co.uk/clouser.htm
You can watch him here (i suggest starting at 10:40–where he outlines 2 to 3 key arguments. the easiest to understand is the thought experiment, which comes later):
http://vimeo.com/10404497
Author of Tacit Knowledge
http://www.missouriwestern.edu/orgs/polanyi/
I’m not sure what his ultimate conclusions are or his faith-background. But he makes an argument for knowledge beyond the physical.
Also interesting….investigating….abductive logic/abductive reasoning.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abductive_reasoning
I’m not sure if the originator Charles Sanders Pierce makes any theological arguments based on it–however. It certainly plays an interesting role in theological argument. (as does art, metaphor, & story)
The first 10 minutes of this speech for the Veritas Forum are quite good (an argument for faith and a criticism of traditional enlightenment and hence materialism):
http://www.vimeo.com/29269367
The science of love, compassion, happiness, empathy & meaning & purpose in life:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/resources/
http://www.fetzer.org/research
These folks are coming from a more secular perspective. Some of the work at The Greater Good at Berkeley is Buddhist in orientation.
The work of Stephen G Post also looks interesting:
http://www.stephengpost.com/hiddengifts/author.shtml
http://stephengpost.com/hiddengifts/
In More God, Less Crime renowned criminologist Byron R. Johnson proves that religion can be a powerful antidote to crime. The book describes how faith communities, congregations, and faith-based organizations are essential in forming partnerships necessary to provide the human and spiritual capital to effectively address crime, offender rehabilitation, and the substantial aftercare problems facing former prisoners. There is scattered research literature on religion and crime but until now, there has never been one publication that systematically and rigorously analyzes what we know from this largely overlooked body of research in a lay-friendly format. The data shows that when compared to current strategies, faith-based approaches to crime prevention bring added value in targeting those factors known to cause crime: poverty, lack of education, and unemployment. In an age of limited fiscal resources, Americans can’t afford a criminal justice system that turns its nose up at volunteer efforts that could not only work better than the abysmal status quo, but also save billions of dollars at the same time. This book provides readers with practical insights and recommendations for a faith-based response that could do just that.
Here is an interview of the author: http://www.clicker.com/tv/foxnewscom-live/more-god-less-crime-1997738/
Here are some of the organizations & models that the book highlights (one of which was the Amachi method of partnership with Big Brothers & Big Sisters) : http://moregodlesscrime.com/links/
Its based on the work of 273 studies in the peer reviewed literature. 90% favor an inverse relationship between crime/delinquency & religion. Only 2 studies found a harmful outcome.
I would be remiss if I left this list of peer reviewed criticisms of Darwinism out:
http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2011/03/14/bibliographies-of-peer-reviewed-critiques-of-darwin-and-evolution/
Here are some articles by Meyer:
http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=submitSearchQuery&query=Stephen%20C.%20Meyer&orderBy=date&orderDir=DESC&searchBy=author&searchType=all&includeBlogPosts=true
This is an argument for fine tuning in genetics. To my knowledge–it doesn’t make the application to faith…but this is incredibly interesting.
Codon populations in single-stranded whole human genome DNA Are fractal and fine-tuned by the Golden Ratio 1.618
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20658335
You can read about the Golden ratio in terms of sunflower seeds as well.
Patterns in Nature by Peter S. Stevens suggests still other patterns (you can get it for $22 on Amazon, but otherwise looks hard to find).
This video makes a similar argument based on fibonaccis sequence (its just under 4 minutes long–the last 2 minutes are particularly critical).
This blog at Townhall provides a short summary:
http://procrustes.blogtownhall.com/2010/09/20/fibonacci_life.thtml
I haven’t read through this article, but provides an interesting take on origins & design:
http://procrustes.blogtownhall.com/2010/09/17/comets_and_the_origin_of_life_part_1.thtml
You can follow the blog here:
http://procrustes.blogtownhall.com/
Here is a related article on the demarcation problem–the issue of where science begins (its basically a critique of materialism):
http://www.discovery.org/a/3524
Here are some Christian organizations in the social justice space:
http://www.worldwideopen.org/en/organizations
Baylor based links:
http://www.religjournal.com/
http://www.isreligion.org/
http://www.rodneystark.com/
Redeemer videos–no specific videos here–but Tim Keller says some interesting & useful stuff:
http://vimeo.com/redeemernyc/videos
Here is some work by the Templeton Foundation in collaboration with universities:
http://www.templetonresearchlectures.com/winners/index.asp
Also there are various Christian philosophy organizations and associations (TBA)
http://www.josh.org/site/c.ddKDIMNtEqG/b.4172665/k.4AD0/Evidence_for_the_Resurrection.htm
Here are some more audio resources on Christian apolegetics:
http://www.bethinking.org/audio/
Calvin College’s work funded by the Templeton Foundation (interesting overlap between the academy & Christianity/theology). I haven’t fully investigated these–but very interesting:
http://ministrytheorem.calvinseminary.edu/resources/
Perspectives on Science & Christian Faith (I’m not sure if this includes “both” sides or not…but certainly an important resource:
http://www.asa3.org/html_pages/PSCF.html
A theology/apolegetics/science conference with free video (roughly 20+):
http://vibrantdance.org/
A Christian apolegetics blog which features key thought leaders and debates:
http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/
This is actually the bulk of the apolegetics focus here of Wintery Knight (the rest is more politically oriented):
http://winteryknight.wordpress.com/tag/apologetics/
It would also be smart to include literary apolegetics (google it)
I’m still quite convinced by Hugh Ross’ account of the origin of life/evolution.
Also, Stephen Meyer’s deep philosophical argument is quite convincing. I think his reference to the work in information design via engineers at Microsoft (nature uses the same folder in a folder design that engineers do)–the engineering of the cell demonstrates elements of design as well.
Stephen Meyer recommended this article/talk:
Is There Scientific Evidence for the Existence of God? How the Recent Discoveries Support a Designed Universe
http://www.leaderu.com/real/ri9403/evidence.html
Dr. Walter L. Bradley (Texas A & M and now at Baylor)
Other interesting notes:
Meyer also points out how the “God of the gaps” indict isn’t fair…because thats true of all scientific theories.
Robert Shapiro (Bob) is an atheist….but critiques the scientific understanding of “origin of life” (pre-biotic chemistry community) and how that lead to the creation of RNA & its replication. He says these experiments actually ***prove*** the design thesis. http://biology.as.nyu.edu/object/robertshapiro
Thomas Kuhn calls into question the idea of “objective scientist” perhaps (I’m still thinking about this one).
Here is an idea thats under-developed (or at least under-developed as far as the mainstream of society is concerned)–faith & psychology. David Myers is a prof at Hope College & author:
http://www.davidmyers.org/Brix?pageID=13
Fantastic resources. They probably tend toward more toward theistic evolution.
I think every Christian should at least consider such a position. Its more an indict of materialism and scientism from what I can tell.
http://www.testoffaith.com/resources
I’m quite impressed by these Test of Faith resources.
Many of the videos are on their YouTube Channel:
http://www.youtube.com/user/thetestoffaith/videos
Christians in Science Resources
http://www.cis.org.uk/resources/
Faraday Institute for God and Religion–I’m not sure if the aim of this org. is Christian or perhaps more multi-cultural:
http://www.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/faraday/Multimedia.php
Dr. Michael Denton:
On emergence:
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-02-22T16_35_42-08_00
On body plans:
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-02-21T15_47_39-08_00
Other interesting stuff–emergence in nature:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emergence#Emergent_structures_in_nature
Emergence in biology:
http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Emergence_%28biology%29
A number of the books in this library speak to the issue of emergence–they are not, however Christian in orientation or philosophy:
http://isce-library.net/
Apolegetics book list divided by subject:
http://www.apologetics315.com/2009/11/recommended-apologetics-book-directory.html
David Berlinski & Michael Denton: Primary Objections to Neo-Darwinism
http://intelligentdesign.podomatic.com/entry/2012-03-07T16_01_05-08_00
Veritas Forum: Can Genesis be Compatible with Evolution?
http://vimeo.com/36846157
Jeffrey P. Schloss, Tremper Longman, S. Joshua Swamidass
University of California, Santa Barbara 2012
You can check out Schloss’ work here:
http://www.jeffschloss.com/
Dr. Henry F. Schaefer, III: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_F._Schaefer,_III
There are a number of links at the bottom of the wikipedia entry.
This article doesn’t take a big stance, but may give you an idea of why I’ve included him:
http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14531
This list is worth adding to this thread–Nobel prize winners who agree with (and in some cases overlap with intelligent design):
http://compassioninpolitics.wordpress.com/2011/09/22/nobel-prize-winners-who-believe-in-intelligent-design/
This is a little off topic, but here is a potentially great option for low cost church websites (about $200 a year, which compared to a $2000 to $3000 build is quite nice….especially since you’ll probably want to update it down the road). Not sure what they charge for any customizations you might want:
http://www.faithclipart.com/category/church-websites.html#pricing
List of most influential scientists:
http://www.ozpolitic.com/evolution/christian-foundation-science.html
I Started a Church:
https://www.istartedachurch.com/
Interesting insights potentially…..read with care (ie Francis Chan & others) :
http://www.vergenetwork.org/category/resources/videos/
Yet more mathematical patterns from science:
http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v484/n7392/pdf/nature10856.pdf
Work (aka research) on compassion at Stanford:
http://ccare.stanford.edu/publications/articles‘
Compassion & Care research at Berkeley:
http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/
I believe both have work on spirituality…..although much may assume Buddhism, versus Christianity, but they seem to be an answer to skeptic-type philosophers and the new-atheist line in philosophy as well.