JAG**

Hello again AM3, See if this helps: William Lane Craig, quoting Henry Dodwell, says this: "Dodwell argues that matters of religious faith lie outside the determination of reason. God could not possibly have intended that reason should be the faculty to lead us to faith, for faith cannot hang indefinitely in suspense while reason cautiously weighs and reweighs arguments. The Scriptures teach, on the contrary, that the way to God is by means of the heart, not by means of the intellect. Faith is the gift of the Holy Spirit." __William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, page 35 _____ Then Craig says a few pages later, "I think that Dodwell . . . [is] correct that, fundamentally, the way we know Christianity is true is by the self-authenticating witness of God's Holy Spirit. Now what do I mean by that? I mean that the experience of the Holy Spirit is veridical [truthful] and unmistakable . . . for him who has it; that such a person does not need supplementary arguments or evidence in order to know with confidence that he is in fact experiencing the Spirit of God . . ."__William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, page 43 ________ So clearly William Lane Craig, one of America's most popular and influential Christian Apologist, agrees with Henry Dodwell. _____ Then earlier on page 39, Craig says that he agrees with Plantinga that belief in God is "both rational and warranted wholly apart from an evidental foundations for belief." Says William Lane Craig: "Alvin Plantinga has launched a sustained attack on theological rationalism. Plantinga maintains that belief in God and in the central doctrines of Christianity is both rational and warranted wholly apart from any evidential foundations for belief."__William Lane Craig, Reasonable Faith, page 39

Hello AM3 Christianity is a faith, it is not an intellectual argument. Its not one of the sciences either. Christianity is not based upon rational argument. It is based upon the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that regenerates and transforms the human heart and mind. Biblical Christianity lies outside your capacity to intellectually investigate it --- the world of the metaphysical cannot be investigated with the Scientific Method or with the Rationalism of intellectualized philosophical arguments. This is why the Lord Jesus said, "Have faith in God"__Mark 11:22 And why the Lord Jesus said we are to receive the Kingdom of Heaven like a little child would receive it.

I don't see any disagreements between us. My objection was to killing animals "Just for the sake of killing animals" without just cause. I enjoy eating a T-bone steak and I have never ate one that was still alive *smile* which means somebody killed the cow for me. The wife and I eat a lot of chickens too, but we have never ate one that was still alive.

Great comment. I appreciate it, bopeep.

That's a very pertinent point to make. We need to show kindness to the unborn babies too and not have them killed. I am for life, not for killing. There is enough death and killing and hurt in the world as it is, without humans deliberately causing more death and hurt to be inflicted upon humans and animals. We ought to make killing as rare as is humanly possible. Sometimes, for example, wars cannot be avoided because some men (and nations) refuse to listen to reason. Sad world. Btw, wars have only provided temporary solutions to human problems (eg. WW II got rid of Hitler) but wars have never been the solution to the problems that have plagued human beings for thousands of years. Only the gospel of the Lord Jesus can be the permanent solution to human problems. Btw Hitler was soon replaced by other tyrants that became mass murderers. Then add that ongoing mess in the Middle East, a mess that seems to never end, and appears to be militarily insoluble. Time will tell about that, but don't bet to heavily that there is a military solution, that will actually be implemented, to the mess in the Middle East. Lets stop killing the unborn. Lets pray that human beings will choose life and love, not death and killing.

Thanks Morning Glory. And thanks for the welcome too.

I was raised in a time and in an area of the country where many men considered it manly to kill animals just for the sake of killing them. They called doing that "sport." And they taught the young boys, as they grew up, to do the same thing. They explained that killing animals was merely we humans "exercising our dominion" as they put it. The results was a lot of unnecessary killing of animals (and birds) just for the sake of killing them. "Road kills" counted too. Many back then would speed up in order to "score a point" on all critters crossing the road and even score points on stray dogs and cats too. I now see all that as wrongdoing and outright sin. Its a blessings how the Lord changes the heart and makes us wiser and better as we read His word and get to know Him better. I found myself braking the other day so I would not hit a young squirrel that had just dashed in front of my truck. I am glad I did that. I will never again cause any animal death or pain just for the sake of killing the animal. I read in the newspaper where they closed that disgraceful Ringling Brothers Elephant Show. Good. It was very painful for the elephants. I have read how they "trained" the elephants to do all their tricks and performances and the "training" involved intense pain for the elephants while they were forced to go through their routines. No, I am not against hunting animals for food. I am against killing them only "for sport" and against killing them "just for the sake of killing them." No, I am not a pacifist. I believe some wars are justified, for example WW II. But I believe killing and mangling up human bodies in wars ought to be the very last resort after all other solutions have been totally exhausted. "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called sons of God", said the Lord Jesus. That means exactly what it says. On another subject: "A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal." Proverbs 12:10