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.
The Ark of the Covenant Revealed?
CrossExaminedYesterday I got a call from my friend Bob Cornuke who is a Christian Indiana Jones. He had big news. Three years ago, Bob led me along with an expeditionary team into Iran to look for remnants of Noah’s Ark. In addition to Noah’s Ark, Bob has been looking for other major biblical archaeological finds […]
Why Do Christians Worship God? Part IV
CrossExamined(Author’s note: This is the fourth and last installment in a series discussing why Christians worship God. On this blog, the first installment may be found here, the second here, and the third here. On the author’s blog, the first installment can be found here, the second, here, and the third, here.) Intimate Worship: Our […]
Why Do Christians Worship God? Part III
CrossExamined(Author’s note: This is the third installment in a series discussing why Christians worship God. The first installment can be found here, and the second, here.) Battle Worship: Our Cooperation With God As Liberator There’s a fascinating scene in The Two Towers, the movie based on the second book of JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the […]
Memorial Day Tribute: Michael Monsoor, U.S. Navy SEAL
CrossExaminedThe following citation describes the heroic efforts of Petty Officer Monsoor who sacrificed himself to save his fellow Navy SEALs. Summary of Action Petty Officer Second Class (SEAL) Michael A. Monsoor For actions on Sept. 29, 2006 “Petty Officer Michael A. Monsoor, United States Navy, distinguished himself through conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk […]
What Is A Human Being? A Key to the Abortion Debate
Culture CrossExamined, Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsI posted the following as a comment on the thread called Politically Correct Torture, and Dr. Turek asked me to post it separately as an article. So, here goes. I also posted this as an article on my own blog, which you can reach here. In the various debates about abortion, most everybody agrees that […]
Why Do Christians Worship God? Part II
CrossExamined(Author’s note: This is the second installment in a series discussing why Christians worship God. The first installment can be found here.) Instructional Worship: Our Response to God as Parent Children, when they’re born, naturally love their parents and look to them for provision, but that gets challenged. As children grow, they begin to test […]
Danny Gans
CrossExaminedHere’s a break from our typical blog entry. Danny Gans, who died on May 1, had God-given talent– talent he worked hard to perfect. Click here: Danny Gans on Larry King. This is fun to watch. For more on Danny Gans click here.
Politically Correct Torture
Culture CrossExamined, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics(This column appeared on Townhall.com on May 6.) Is waterboarding torture? If it is, we’ve been torturing our service members for years. As a United States Naval Aviator, I attended SERE school in the California desert in 1985. SERE (which stands for Survival Evasion Resistance and Escape) prepares combatants for the possibility that they might […]
Why Do Christians Worship God? Part I
CrossExaminedIn the world of Christian apologetics, the question “Why do Christians worship God,” comes up usually as a challenge from scornful atheists who view God as a narcissistic megalomaniac who demands attention to feed his weak ego. Of course, their idea is anthropomorphic (it assigns human characteristics to God) and therefore invalid. However, discounting the […]
The Passion Reconsidered
CrossExaminedThis column is posted this Easter at http://townhall.com/columnists/FrankTurek Nearly 45 years ago, medical doctor C. Truman Davis felt he had grown too callous to the agony Christ suffered at Calvary. His callousness disappeared after he researched the crucifixion and wrote an account of Christ’s Passion from a medical perspective. I’ve adapted his account slightly here […]
Worship, God, and Egomania
Theology and Christian Apologetics“God must be an egomaniac to command all humanity to worship Him and then send anyone to hell who doesn’t worship him enough, right?” Perhaps you haven’t heard the issue raised quite like that, but this objection is common and forceful. Surely God doesn’t need us to worship him, yet he demands it and punishes […]
Who Do You Say I Am? A Look at Jesus/Part Two
CrossExaminedContinued: Given these issues, it is important to examine the issue of Jesus and blasphemy in ancient Judaism.”Blasphemy in ancient Judaism was regarded as ‘stretching out one’s hand against “God” by impugning God’s honor and holiness (Sipre Deut 221 on Deut 21:22). God was blasphemed when, among other things, one ascribed divine powers to oneself […]
Who Do You Say I Am? A Look at Jesus/Part One
CrossExaminedWho Do You Say I Am? A Look at Jesus/Part One-Eric Chabot Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He was asking His disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist; and others, Elijah; but still others, Jeremiah, or one of […]
Why Worship God if He Actually Exists?
CrossExaminedWe are all creatures that are made to worship something. If we don’t worship and venerate God, we tend to worship and venerate our favorite sports team, girl, celebrity, car, career, and/or bank account. Believing the object of your worship exists is a great first step but has very little to do with the actual […]
CrossExamined Radio on the Web
Radio ShowWe are now doing live call-in radio every Saturday morning at 11 a.m. ET. You can listen live on the web at www.afr.net or on one of 126 stations across the country. The show is also podcasted here. The show on March 7 was with Dr. Mike Licona, co-author of one of the best books […]
Sleeping With Your GirlFriend
2. Does God Exist?This column by Frank Turek appeared on www.Townhall.com Today: My friend David has a knack for cutting through the smokescreens people throw up when they’re trying to avoid making commitments, be they commitments to God or to other people. Last week, with one comment, he blew away all the smoke that a young agnostic was […]
Cruel Logic: There’s No Morality in DNA
Legislating Morality, Culture & PoliticsThis short film– which is a bit intense– is from Writer/Director Brian Godawa. I think it illustrates as best as one can in six-minutes that objective morality finds no grounding in DNA or society. As always, I appreciate your comments. Please keep in mind as you comment that the issue is NOT epistemology (i.e. how […]
Religion Spoils Everything, Jesus Revives the Spoiled
Theology and Christian ApologeticsAs I drove back to Colorado Springs from Denver today, the fog was so thick I could barely see the car ahead of me, much less the usual splendor of the Rocky Mountains to the west. I was listening to Tim Keller, pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in Manhattan, who made some interesting points about […]
Big Bang Evidence for God
2. Does God Exist?When I debated atheist Christopher Hitchens, one of the eight arguments I offered for God’s existence was the creation of this supremely fine-tuned universe out of nothing. I spoke of the five main lines of scientific evidence—denoted by the acronym SURGE—that point to the definite beginning of the space-time continuum. They are: The Second Law […]
What is Evil?
CrossExaminedWe’ve been having a very spirited debate between atheists and Christians on this blog on another thread that has arrived at a fundamental question. What is evil? Specifically, what is evil ontologically? In order to get the discussion going, I’ll offer an insight from Augustine. He said that evil was not a thing in itself, […]
Atheist Urges Evangelism
CrossExaminedAtheist Penn Jillette of the comedy team Penn & Teller believes in evangelism more than do many Christians. A Christian approached him after one of his Las Vegas shows, and Penn appreciated the man’s effort. In this short YouTube video, Penn says that he “knows” there is no God, but that it’s hateful to NOT […]