Apologetics

The True Light of Mankind

Christ the True Light of the World and all Mankindby Chris Banescu –
As the Christmas season fades into the distance and the New Year is upon us, we tend to feel the passage of time most acutely. With the conclusion of the bright and joyous celebrations that commemorate and bear witness to the birth of the Messiah, we often experience a sense of loss, of sadness. We never seem to have enough time to fully immerse ourselves in the feast and absorb the joy and peace that our souls yearn to rediscover and embrace. It all goes by much too quickly. We find ourselves heading back toward the daily routines of our lives, feeling weary, tired, and spent. The light inside us that burned so brightly a few days ago is flickering.

In response, writes Fr. Alexander Schmemann, “come words from an infinite loftiness and an infinite profundity” from the Gospel of Saint John the Apostle and Evangelist. Jesus Christ “was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name… And of His fullness we have all received, and grace for grace” (John 1:9-12, 16). [Read more…]

Man’s Hunger and Thirst for God

Man's Hunger and Thirst for God and Christ by Chris Banescu –
There is a reality of the human condition that holds true throughout the history of mankind. Human beings are born with an inner desire for something timeless that nothing in this material world and life experiences can ever truly satisfy. We are all created with a hunger and thirst for God.

All creatures hunger for that for which they were created. A hummingbird hungers for nectar, a lion for meat, a sheep for grass, a dolphin for fish. Man also hungers for food, but he has an even stronger craving for something much greater and more meaningful. “Greater than the hunger for food in man is the hunger for God which manifests itself basically in the hunger for security, for love, peace, joy, meaning, and life,” explains Fr. Anthony Coniaris.

This is why Christ reaffirms that “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4-4). God is indeed the living water that Jesus spoke of to the Samaritan woman near Jacob’s well, the living water that whoever drinks “will never thirst again”, the water that will become in man “a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life” (John 4-14).

Real Want for Heaven
Man’s inner longing for meaning and happiness is often expressed in a “real want for Heaven” that is present in our souls but which we may not recognize or understand. [Read more…]

To Be, or Not To Be… Created

DNA To Be, or Not To Be Created by Chris Banescu

Christians believe that human beings were created by God in the image and likeness of their Creator. They proclaim that the entire universe, all matter, and all life were designed and brought into existence by an infinitely higher intelligence who exists outside of time and space. Materialists and atheists, on the other hand, assert that man is the result of a long mindless and chaotic process that randomly stumbled into producing matter, biological organisms, and eventually humans. Who is right?

Mathematics and reason offer us a way to test the materialist assumptions and shed some light into the insurmountable problem faced by atheists. A simple algebraic formula, that even high-school students can master, can help us quantify the probability of random actions giving rise to even the most basic order. To get a better idea of the odds involved, we will calculate the mathematical probability that the simple phrase “To be, or not to be: that is the question:“, from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, can occur by chance. [Read more…]

A Voice Crying in the Wilderness

The Voice Blog - Bearing Witness to the Truthby Chris Banescu –

Each of us has a calling, a vocation, in life. Some discover their passion in their childhood or teen years and know from early on what they were meant to do. Some find their calling after reaching adulthood and encountering the real world. Some stumble unto their life’s work when faced with life-changing events, personal struggles, or tragedies. Some uncover their life’s passion in their old age, usually after retirement, when a growing awareness of their own mortality imbues them with a renewed sense of urgency and purpose. Tragically, many never find their life’s calling, either due to hardships, fear, or plain laziness; despite knowing what they should do, neither bothering to dedicate the time or energy required to follow their dreams, nor making the sacrifices necessary to fulfill their vocations.

By God’s immeasurable grace I am one of those blessed souls who has discovered his calling in life. I believe my vocation is to be a Voice Crying in the Wilderness, a messenger who strives to open men’s hearts and minds to timeless truths and principles, to help them discover what’s truly important in this life and in eternity; a messenger of the One who created everything in this universe, the laws that govern all matter and morality, the individual atoms and cells that make up my body and the soul that gives it life, and the very reason that allows me to think and write these words. [Read more…]

Of Mice and Men, Science Mimics Creation

BlueGene L supercomputerby Chris Banescu –

As scientific research and advancements, supported by increasingly more powerful computer technologies, delve into the vast complexities of biological organisms, the handiwork and genius of their Creator become more obvious and irrefutable. Recent experiments by researchers using a computer generated “cortical simulator” designed to duplicate a miniscule fraction of the functions of a mouse brain illustrate the immense structural sophistication and the enormous intricacies inherent in all living creatures.

In February 2007 scientists from IBM’s Almaden Research Lab and the University of Nevada used the BlueGene/L supercomputer, equipped with 4,096 processors each using 256MB of memory (for a total of 1 Terabyte (TB) of memory), to run a simulation that attempted to mimic one second’s worth of the processes of half a mouse brain. The “massively parallel cortical simulator” recreated the equivalent of 8,000,000 neurons with 6,300 synapses each, inside the 1 TB main memory of the system. Despite such massive computing power, the vast complexity of the simulation required that the experiment run for a full ten seconds in order to simulate just one second of real time mouse brain activity. [Read more…]

Mere Christianity, Essential Precepts of the Christian Faith

Mere Christianity, Essential Precepts of the Christian FaithBook Review by Chris Banescu

C.S. Lewis is one of the most influential Christian writers of the 20th century and probably the most down-to-earth theologian that Western civilization has produced. His eloquent and reasoned defense of the core beliefs and truths of the Christian faith are truly awe-inspiring and timeless.

Lewis is an expert at making complex theological issues accessible and understandable by everyone, believers and non-believers alike. The profound and life-changing effects his writings have had on many generations bear witness to the clarity of thought, grace, and wisdom this author has bestowed upon his audience.

A master at appealing to logic and presenting issues in a whole new light, Lewis is not afraid to boldly and bluntly proclaim the obvious. An agnostic in his younger years, Lewis understood the objections of non-believers and dealt with their arguments head on.

Jesus Christ is God, Not Just a Moral Teacher
Perhaps one of his most well-known observations, recorded in the pages of Mere Christianity, concerns the “foolish” ideas people hold regarding Christ: “I’m ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don’t accept His claim to be God.” [Read more…]

Rat Research Hints at God’s Creation

Rats are capable of discerning the rhythms of the human languageby Chris Banescu –

Earlier this year, researchers in Spain made a remarkable scientific discovery. Rats are capable of discerning the rhythms of the human language and can tell the difference between different languages. According to the Reuters story, the “study suggests that animals, especially mammals, evolved some of the skills underlying the use and development of language long before language itself ever evolved.”

There’s only a slight catch with the researchers’ evolutionary explanation. It does not make any sense. Rather than support evolution, these findings actually reinforce the Creation model of the world. The research seems to indicate yet another weakness of the evolutionary model and adds more weight to a growing body of scientific evidence that disproves many aspects of evolution.

Neuroscientists at the University of Barcelona used Dutch and Japanese in conducting their studies on 64 male rats. They chose Dutch and Japanese because these languages are “very different from one another in use of words, rhythm and structure.” According to the story the rats “were trained to respond to either Dutch or Japanese using food as a reward.” The findings were indeed remarkable. [Read more…]