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.
Why Indiana Jones is a Cool Archaeologist, but a Horrible Philosopher
1. Does Truth Exist?, 4. Is the NT True?, Israel, Theology and Christian ApologeticsIn the third installment of the Indiana Jones movie series, The Last Crusade, “Indy” goes to the chalkboard in his tweed jacket and writes down the word “FACT” and underlines it. Then he says to his eager listening students: “Archaeology is the search for fact not truth. If it’s truth you’re interested in, Dr. Tyree’s […]
Why Pornography Harms
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsOn this blog we have often talked about the same sex marriage controversy and how it poses a threat to both religious liberty and the family unit. However, the elephant in the room that is rarely publicly discussed in evangelical circles is pornography, an evil that arguably poses just as much threat (if not a […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
CrossExaminedThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 241. WISDOM “Although we develop our intellect, wisdom is understanding God’s perspective on his world. […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 231. GOD’S ECONOMY “In the world’s economy people are defined by what they have accomplished. […]
Fine-Tuning of Particles to Support Life
2. Does God Exist?“The fine structure constant could easily be larger, the photon massive, quarks heavier, or even worse, electrons, photons, or quarks might not [exist] .. Any one of these would be enough to eliminate our presence.[1]” Physicist Leonard Susskind This blog is yet another installment in a series on how the fine-tuning of the universe for […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 221. JUDGING RIGHTLY “Why is it that those who are the quickest to judge are […]
Fine-Tuning of the Force Strengths to Permit Life
2. Does God Exist?, Philosophy of Science“As we look out into the Universe and identify the many accidents of physics and astronomy that have worked together to our benefit, it almost seems as if the Universe must in some sense have known that we were coming.[1]” Physicist Freeman Dyson In my previous blog, I discussed how numerous changes to the laws […]
Many Changes to the Laws of Physics Would be Life-Prohibiting
2. Does God Exist?, Philosophy of Science, Theology and Christian ApologeticsIn my previous blog, I discussed how the initial conditions of our universe had to be extremely finely-tuned to support life of any kind anywhere in the universe. As part of my ongoing series on how fine-tuning provides evidence for the existence of God, I now turn to the laws of physics themselves. It turns […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year. I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 211. HIRING PROCESS Any executive who starts out believing that he or she is a […]
Fine-Tuning of Initial Conditions to Support Life
2. Does God Exist?This is the sixth blog in my series on fine-tuning. Here are the previous blogs if you missed them: Intro/Philosophical Background If You Don’t Want God, You Better Have a Multiverse! How Does Fine-Tuning Provide Evidence for God? Objections Mistaken Objections that Seek to Trivialize Fine-Tuning Important Objections in the Fine-Tuning Debate But We Can’t […]
The Wisdon Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 201. CONSTANT LEARNING “Know that when you are through learning, […]
Is Atheism a lack of belief in God?
Atheism, Theology and Christian ApologeticsIt’s been fashionable lately for atheists to claim that atheism is “a lack a belief in God.” So when a theist comes along and says that atheists can’t support their worldview, some atheists will say something like, “Oh, we really don’t have a worldview. We just lack a belief in God. Since we’re not making […]
But We Can’t Even Define Life
2. Does God Exist?, Philosophy of ScienceIn my previous blog I addressed some important issues in making the case that fine-tuning supports theism over atheism. Today I want to look at the objection against fine-tuning that says we can’t assess fine-tuning claims because we can’t even define ‘life’ – or put another way: “fine-tuning claims don’t properly account for other possible […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 191. MUSIC, LOVE & SEX “Plato taught us to “mark […]
Important Objections in the Fine-Tuning Debate
2. Does God Exist?In my previous blog I dealt with objections to fine-tuning based on misunderstandings of the nature of the argument or of probability theory. In this blog, however, I attempt to deal with important issues in the debate. If either objection succeeds it would undermine the design inference based upon the fine-tuning evidence. Could the Laws […]
Mistaken Objections that Seek to Trivialize Fine-Tuning
2. Does God Exist?This is my third blog in a series on fine-tuning as evidence for God. Here are the first and second blogs, which deal with the philosophical background. Before I share the evidence I want to refute or at least rebut a few objections seen at the popular level but rarely in scholarly circles – otherwise, […]
How Does Fine-tuning Provide Evidence for God?
2. Does God Exist?In my previous blog, I defined the following fine-tuning claim: “In the set of possible physical laws, parameters and initial conditions, the subset that permits rational conscious life is very small.” I pointed out how this fine-tuning claim is widely accepted within the physics community and that some skeptics even admit that it’s not unreasonable […]
If You Don’t Want God, You Better Have a Multiverse!
2. Does God Exist?Such is the advice from Bernard Carr in grappling with the fascinating discovery that the physics of the universe had to be fine-tuned if it were to support life. Carr views the only viable options as being either God or a multiverse (the theory that there are a vast number of other universes). Stanford physicist […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 181. “GENTLEMEN’S” CLUBS “The average “gentlemen’s club” is not actually […]
The Jewish Temple that may Prevent World War III
CrossExaminedIsrael is the most contested piece of real estate in the world. And the most contested piece of real estate within Israel is the temple mount in the old city of Jerusalem. Nearly every Jew believes that the Muslim Dome of the Rock, which dominates that thirty-six acre site, sits on the spot of all […]
The Wisdom Chronicle
Wisdom ChronicleThe Wisdom Chronicle is designed to bring nuggets of wisdom from the dozens of books I read every year in all genres. Each week, I endeavor to share the best of what I have gleaned. The determination of relevance lies with you. Blessings, Jim Whiddon 171. DATING “Who can I date?” question has two […]