CrossExamined Blog
Tackling today’s toughest questions, these posts explore topics on God, morality, science, and culture.
Whether you’re a skeptic or believer, each article challenges your worldview and sharpens your thinking. Engaging, thought-provoking, and unapologetic, this is a place to dig deeper and follow the truth wherever it leads.
“Christians Are Opposed To Science!” What Do You Mean By That?
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Evan Minton In any debate or argument, it’s very important that you understand the terminology that your opponent is using and that your opponent understands the terminology that you’re using. If you don’t define your terms, you’ll just end up talking past each other and you’ll end up attacking straw men. As the philosopher, […]
Is There Life Out There? (Interview with Jeff Zweerink)
CrossExaminedBetween novels, movies and television series, some of the most popular story lines involve extra-terrestrial beings living on exotic planets somewhere in the universe. The notion of alien life in the cosmos has captured our creative imagination and our scientific focus. If you’re like me, you’ve probably given the possibility of extra-terrestrial beings some serious […]
Dan Brown’s Origin: No God Required?
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Timothy Fox “Where do we come from?” and “Where are we going?” These are the two big questions Dan Brown explores in his latest novel, Origin (Doubleday, 2017). (Minor spoilers ahead.) This is the fifth book in the series starring Harvard professor, Robert Langdon, the most famous being The Da Vinci Code. While many of them have […]
What Christian Parents Should Learn from the Normalize Atheism Movement
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain I recently encountered a movement underway on social media called “Normalize Atheism.” According to the website of the same name, the movement started a couple of years ago, but it seems to have picked up more speed recently. The basic idea is that atheists post a picture of themselves on social media, […]
Four Ways to Come Alongside Your Kids to Strengthen Their Faith
Apologetics for ParentsIf you’re paying attention to what’s happening in America today, you’re probably aware of the challenges facing young Christians in their teens and twenties. It’s a simple fact: most young Christians will walk away from the Church during (or before) their college years. Like other Christian parents, I’m animated to work as hard as I […]
What Christianity Teaches About Service
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Al Serrato I attended an awards assembly recently with my teenage son. He had written an essay on the value of military service, so the speeches and theme this night had to do with the traditions of service. And though this assembly was conducted at a Christian school, none of the comments made addressed […]
How Can Apologists Best Use Twitter? 6 Ideas
Theology and Christian ApologeticsWhen my father first released Evidence that Demands a Verdict in 1972 there was very little popular apologetics materials available, and so it was an instant success. But now with the recently updated edition, and the growth in the apologetics industry over the past few decades, there is an abundance of material. The challenge today is not the […]
Are Young People Really Leaving Christianity?
Culture CrossExaminedMuch has been written about both the Biblical illiteracy of teenage believers and the flight of young people from the Church. Many have observed this trend, and I too have witnessed it anecdotally as a youth pastor (and shamefully, I contributed to the trend for some time before I changed course). Some writers and Christian […]
8 Predictions about the Future of Sex, Gender, and Marriage in America
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsRecently I was reading sociologist Mark Regnerus’s insightful new book Cheap Sex: The Transformation of Men, Marriage, and Monogamy. His premise is that the Pill and ubiquity of pornography have caused sex to be more widely available, which drives the cost of sex down and makes real commitment more “expensive” and difficult to navigate. Essentially, Regnerus examines sex in […]
Tornado Simulations, Neil deGrasse Tyson, and God’s Existence
2. Does God Exist?, Philosophy of Science, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Luke Nix Introduction For nearly all my life, I’ve had a fascination with the physical sciences. Meteorology and astronomy were two of them that always caught and kept my attention as a kid. In my teens was when I started to focus more on information technology, and in my twenties, I was drawn to […]
To COEXIST Is A Biblical Command
Theology and Christian ApologeticsAlong with my regular blog here at seanmcdowell.org, I am now featuring occasional guest posts from some students in the Biola M.A. in Christian Apologetics that I personally had the privilege of teaching. This post is from my friend Tim Stratton, who has an excellent and growing ministry of his own. I simply asked him to write anything […]
Why Did God Write A Book?
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Evan Minton Why did God write a book? By that, I mean why did God inspire authors to write documents which make up a compilation we call The Holy Bible? What were God’s purposes in doing that? Obviously, He had reasons of some sort. All authors write books for reasons. For example, when I […]
Why Shouldn’t We Trust the Non-Canonical Gospel Attributed to John?
4. Is the NT True?The Gospel of John is a reliable addition to the New Testament Canon, but this ancient document isn’t the only text attributed to this disciple of Jesus. Another slightly less ancient text called the The Apocryphon of John claims to have been written by the same man who wrote the gospel we accept as reliable. […]
Is Faith Emotional or Logical?
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Luke Nix So many people, both religious and non-religious, believe that faith is purely emotional, and in most contexts people imply the word “blind” before “faith”. While few others believe that faith is logical- that it is firmly grounded on something. Lately, I’ve been reading the book “Emotional Intelligence” by psychologist Daniel Goleman and […]
Why Did a “Good” God Create Hell?
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Al Serrato Many people today accuse God of unfairness. Since God can foresee the future, they ask, why didn’t He simply never create all those he knows to be destined to spend eternity in Hell? One skeptic I know put the question like this: God supposedly knows everything that will happen before you are ever […]
Responding To Free Will Critics
Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Evan Minton My article “5 Arguments For The Existence Of Free Will” became very popular. Tim Stratton liked it so much that he featured it as a guest post on his blog FreeThinkingMinistires.com, Martin Glynn specifically asked me to post it to The Society Of Evangelical Arminians’ website, and Jairo Izquierdo published it as a guest post […]
What is the Most Powerful Evidence for the Christian Faith?
Jesus Christ, Theology and Christian ApologeticsFor the past three years I have been helping my father update his classic book Evidence that Demands a Verdict. There is no doubt that the evidence for Christianity has grown substantially since the book first released in 1972. Since I have been working on this book people have been increasingly asking me, “What do you […]
When Teens Wish They Could “Unpost” (Interview with Jonathan McKee)
Apologetics for Parents, Culture CrossExaminedHave you ever regretted something you posted on social media? Don’t feel bad, 57% of Americans who use social media have posted something they regret afterward. And that’s just adults. Now jump into the brain of a 10-year-old. Yes, a 10-year-old. Nielsen research labels age 10 the “mobile adoption sweet spot” because the average age […]
Learning from Academics Who Left Mormonism
CrossExaminedMost of my readers know my personal connection to Mormonism; I have six half-brothers and sisters who were raised in the Mormon faith. When I first become interested in Christianity, I investigated the claims of the gospels simultaneous to my investigation of the Book of Mormon. While the gospels passed the test I typically apply […]
What Hypocrisy Teaches Us
Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, Theology and Christian ApologeticsBy Al Serrato Christians are all hypocrites! How often do apologists for the faith encounter that objection? Yes, there are hypocrites in the church, at least in the sense that none of us can actually and fully live up to what the Christian faith commands. But more significantly, hypocrisy isn’t about simply failing to live up […]
10 Things to Say When Your Child Says They Don’t Believe in God Anymore
Apologetics for ParentsBy Natasha Crain This weekend I had the wonderful opportunity to speak at the ReTHINK Student Apologetics Conference (there are more of these conferences coming—be sure to check out the link and learn about them!). I always enjoy talking to parents after speaking and this weekend was no exception. One thing I realized this time was that […]