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July, 2007:

An Atheist’s Perspective

by Michael Krahn.

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Michael, on his blog Atheist Perspective, has taken theists (me in particular) to task for focusing too much on Dawkins’ tone rather than on the detrimental effects of Christianity. Point taken – I have been talking a lot about that, haven’t I? I shall focus less on it in the future.

In the meantime, the post is called “Moderate Christians – Take some responsibility, stop blaming Dawkins” and it’s worth the time to read.

Michael has become a good e-friend, which is a wonderful by-product of writing this series on Dawkins and atheism.

Triumph In Waiting: The Rise of Digital Journalism

by Michael Krahn.

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One week ago I sent a letter to the editor of the National Post that wasn’t published. 48 hours later I posted the same letter as an article at Digital Journal. I now have readers, new intellectual sparring partners, and money in the bank…

Read the rest at Digital Journal

Seen and Heard (July 28, 2007)

by Michael Krahn.

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I found a new Podcast called A Christian and an Atheist (Feed,

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Highlights from The Hour

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– always interesting, whether in person or on the page. Here he talks about his book about Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations

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– Lefsetz is a music industry insider who has absolutely no filter on his ideas. He has a great blog at http://www.lefsetz.com/

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– Crackpot or evangelist? You decide.

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- I wouldn’t normally put this up – I’m not a big Foo fan – but Grohl talks about Dylan

Sermons and lectures:

The Resurgence – Tim Keller –

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The Resurgence – Tim Keller –

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The Resurgence – D.A. Carson –

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Mars Hill Bible Church – Ed Dobson – What Does it Mean to be Forgiving?

Writing for Digital Journal

by Michael Krahn.

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This week I was accepted as a writer at Digital Journal. This online journal pays writers according to how much interest their stories generate, and this week – I got paid!Please follow these links and vote up my articles if you like them:
The Dawkins Defeat

iPhone Hysteria!

John Naisbitt: MindSet – “The future is embedded in the present”

Album Reviews: Luke Brindley / The Brindley Brothers

From the Digital Journal “Top Finds” article:
“Name the DigitalJournal.com greenhorn who, in one day, wrote about Richard Dawkins, futurism, Apple’s iPhone and two rock bands. He’s a Citizen Journalist who’s already impacting the site on his first week and is deserving of the TopFinds New DJ User of the Week Award. Congrats to Michael Krahn for bringing to Digital Journal impressive writing talent and a keen eye for what’s making news. Even when Michael covered an well-trodden topic like atheist Richard Dawkins, the story didn’t feel repetitive because he added new insight, writing, ‘[Dawkin's book] is more of a ‘rah-rah we’re in the club’ document than one that attempts a winsome defense or appeal to a life without religion.’ By the way, nice vocabulary, Michael. “

The Dawkins Defeat

by Michael Krahn.

3 comments

My latest is up at Digital Journal.

I’m going to try this out for a while. I’ll post articles there first and then put them here once they’ve run their course. Please vote it up!

Free music from Andrew Osenga

by Michael Krahn.

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Andrew Osenga just put up a new album for free on his site. My family and I have been listening to this album for the last week and loving it. Give it a listen and drop something in his tip jar if you like it.

Francis Collins on Faith and Reason

by Michael Krahn.

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Francis Collins (Wikipedia entry):

“Faith is not the opposite of reason. Faith rests squarely upon reason, but with the added component of revelation. So such discussions between scientists and believers happen quite readily. But neither scientists nor believers always embody the principles precisely. Scientists can have their judgment clouded by their professional aspirations. And the pure truth of faith, which you can think of as this clear spiritual water, is poured into rusty vessels called human beings, and so sometimes the benevolent principles of faith can get distorted as positions are hardened.”

Taken from a Time magazine piece in which Collins and Dawkins have a conversation. Worthy reading – I recommend it.

Seen and Heard (July 15, 2007)

by Michael Krahn.

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An email debate between theologian Douglas Wilson and atheist Christopher Hitchens.

Michael Spencer (The Internet Monk) makes a passionate defense of Thomas Merton. I certainly couldn’t have said it better myself. Spencer also recently put up a very personal post about himself and Merton.

This should be good: a book about philosophy and the TV show 24.

My Friend Ken Sheppherd posed this great photo he took of the Vietnam Memorial.

Michael Spencer again on Acts 15 and the implications for church leadership.

The God Delusion V – Money, money, money

by Michael Krahn.

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Dawkins suggests we abandon the promotion of religion as grounds for charitable status. I can’t say I altogether disagree with him, but his reasoning I do disagree with.

“The benefits of this to society would be great,” he says, “Especially in the United States, where the sums of tax-free money sucked in by churches, and polishing the heels of already well-heeled televangelists, reaches levels that could fairly be describes as obscene.”

I wasn’t aware that by some secretly nefarious network of financial back doors and envelopes labeled with secret codes, my charitable giving ultimately ended up further heeling the likes of Oral Roberts and Benny Hinn. Surely I should have been responsible enough to ask the financial officer of my church to ensure my giving was used for things like helping the poor, hosting the community, and generally making people’s lives better. But wait, that is where my money goes.

I do get his point, but his brush is too broad. Like Dawkins, the excesses of some televangelists disgust me, but they are the equivalent of rock stars in the culture and as such are the exception to the rule. The rule is – in the music industry as well the religion industry (for lack of a better word) – for every rock star there are 1000 or more independents working for the love of it. I know because my dad was one who toiled in the trenches, sacrificing an auto industry job of 17 years to become a pastor, making less than his 20-year-old son who was two years into his career at a lower paying factory. I have plenty more stories of people who gave shunned the very thing Dawkins accuses them of pursuing.

So we’re back to making flashpoints into paints and using wide brushes on everyone within reach. But this money-lust is a common accusation and so it deserves further thought. I cannot speak except from personal experience, and in my experience most ministers are not getting rich – not even close, and accusations to the contrary only inspire further battles involving naming the names of who’s bad on the ‘other team’.

“The love of money is the root of all evil.” Not the money itself, but the love of it. In so many cases to mention money in the same breath as religion is considered tantamount to passing wind at a dinner party. You might be surprised to learn that making a living from the gospel is not against the instruction of the gospel itself. Milking it is, earning a living is not.

This is Part V in a series on Richard Dawkins’ book The God Delusion. For more posts on this topic go to my Richard Dawkins page.

iPhone Hysteria !!!

by Michael Krahn.

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I suppose it would be pertinent of me (for the sake of increasing blog traffic) to comment on the hype and resulting hysteria related to the release of the iPhone this week. The hype surrounding this phone was unprecedented and Apple may have already sold 500,000 units. That’s about $300,000,000 in gross revenue by my humble calculations.

The owners of two other blogs I regularly read are kind of disgusted with the situation. Shaun Groves is somewhat annoyed, Joe Martino is pretty furious. What are these guys so upset about? What makes this example so much more significant than, say, the billions of dollars we spend every year entertaining ourselves at the movies?

I think I understand in part. Our money could be better spent. I agree, but welcome to the land of hypocrisy where every one of us buys things we don’t need. We do it on different scales of course, but I think we all do it. Joe asks “How much is enough?” Well, how much IS enough? Ryan wrote a thoughtful post that addresses some of things that I’ve been thinking about.

Did I buy one? No.
Would I like to have one? Yes.
Do I have the money to buy one? Yes.
Why didn’t I buy one? I don’t need it.

Like everyone else I am free to buy or not buy an iPhone.

Is this phone any good? By many accounts it is better by far than any other phone on the market. Steve Jobs saw an opportunity; he saw what was needed, created something to fill the need, then marketed it to people who needed it. Dispute the difference between ‘need’ and ‘want’ if you like, but do you want to become the judge who defines everyone’s ‘wants’ and ‘needs’?

Where Apple pretty much created a new gadget category with the iPod, with the iPhone they are trying to correct all the things that people hate about their current phones. If you need someone to blame for the huge sales number, blame the companies who make all the other crappy phones.

But aren’t we all playing right into Steve Jobs‘ hands? You’re talking about the iPhone, and now I am too. That’s all good news to Steve.