Free Republic

If you look up at the awesome Milky Way and smile about its billions and billions of stars, be grateful to Johnny Carson (1925 - 2005) for bringing the universe home through cathode ray technology, his vast talent and avid interest in astronomy. Carson brought two distinguished astronomers and popularizers to The Tonight Show television audience and wider public notice. Robert Jastrow's book, Red Giants and White Dwarfs: Man's Descent from the Stars, first published in 1967, describes scientific discoveries relating humans to the origin and evolution of the cosmos. The book grew from Jastrow's 1964 television lectures as part...

Years ago, when I began pastoring, I faced an unexpected problem. Each Sunday, after preaching to my small congregation, I would go home wondering if my sermons were true. What if Christianity was just a grand hoax? What if it was all a myth? These doubts drove me to study apologetics, from the Greek apologia, meaning defense. Paul used this word in 2 Timothy 4:16 and Philippians 1:7,16. Peter wrote, "Always be prepared to give an answer [emphasis added] to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have" (1 Pet. 3:15). I found apologetic...