Domenic Marbaniang

The cosmological argument takes off from the common-sense idea that every effect must have a cause. From a rational point of view, the idea of something being created or effected out of nothing is absurd. Therefore, in many religious cosmologies, God is seen as either the material cause or the formal cause or the final cause of the world. In many cosmogonies, the universe is looked at as created out of something (and not nothing), many times the body of God (the eternal One). The idea of creation out of nothing does not originate in reason, though it may seem sensible to the imagination. Immanuel Kant had raised an important issue with the cosmological argument that looked to God as the source of the chain of cause-effect phenomena (or the world). He said, "If the supreme being should itself stand in this chain of conditions, it would be a member of the series, and like the lower members which it precedes, would call for further enquiry as to the still higher ground from which...

Jesus told the Jews to believe in Him, if not because of His words, then because of His works. The book of Acts records signs and wonders that accompanied preaching. The Bible talks also about lying signs by the devil in the last days. Obviously, as human experience proves (in all anthropological cultures), miracles play an important role in the area of faith and worldview formation. Despite the Enlightenment euphoria challenging the possibility of miracles, chiefly David Hume's criticism of them, reports of miracles have only increased. Of course, there is the need to investigate the reports. A notable deed of miracle cannot not be ignored, whether people believe the message or not. The Bible does show the supremacy of the divine deed in cases like Moses' confrontation with the Egyptian magicians, Elijah's confrontation with Baal priests, and Philip's preaching in Samaria where Simon the Magus was baptized. One important aspect of the Christian Life is prayer. ...

Augustine in the eighth book of On Trinity begins to talk of love as involving three substances: the lover, the loved, and love. Modern apologists like Ravi Zacharias have argued that the statement God is Love could only be true if God is essentially and eternally a Triune being: the Father eternally loves the Son through the Holy Spirit. Thus, it was not that God was all alone (a monad) before the creation and had nothing to love, but being the Triune inter-personal God, He ever existed as Love. Of course, Augustine also talks about the possibility of loving oneself and sees three things involved in this as well: "when the mind knows itself and loves itself, there remains a trinity: mind, love, knowledge; and this trinity is not confounded together by any commingling". However, in this mono-love, there is only one person, though one may divide the experience into the lover, the loved, and love. Loving oneself is not inter-personal, and therefore possesses no love act of s...

One popular version of the moral argument for the existence of God has been that the reality or rational necessity of the moral law proves the existence of a moral lawgiver. However, we must admit that there are religious philosophies, especially in Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism that do not find a leap from moral law to moral lawgiver necessary at all. In fact, in these, the moral law exists independently to any concept of deity. So, how justified is the argument from law to lawgiver? I believe that the concept of a moral law and God are inseparable. Perhaps, the name God is better than the term Lawgiver, because the moral law doesn't exist because of an arbitrary command of God (as in divine command theories). Certainly, the moral law doesn't exist apart from God as if He only discovered or knew the principle and gave interpretations to humans in the form of rules and norms. The moral law is not just a set of commandments. It is the law of relationship between persons. Pers...

Sometime back, a pastor and leader in a reputed apologetic ministry commented that temptation to him occurred in the form of same-sex attraction, emphasizing that Christians must not regard temptation as sin but fight against temptation. He then went on to state that the fallenness of humanity is common to all and that while depravity may be manifest as opposite sex attraction in some, it appears as same-sex attraction in him and others. His comments went viral on social media. However, I disagree with his latter theological comment. Let me clarify the reasons: 1. Opposite sex attraction is considered natural in the scriptures and in common human history as well. Perversions exist with regard to this in the form of incest, adultery, sadism, and the like. However, this is not the case with same-sex attraction. It is by nature unnatural and cannot be put in the same terms as opposite-sex attraction. The statement made by the apologist hints at an understanding of same-sex attraction a...

RELIGION COUNTRIES HISTORY SCRIPTURES BELIEFS FESTIVALS PRACTICES HINDUISM ॐ India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bali, Fiji, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, West Indies Name derived from River Sindhu Originally, Arya Dharma Vedic Age (2000-600 BC) Protests Age (600-200 BC) Epics & Puranas (200 BC-AD 1000) Bhakti Age (AD 1000-1750) Modern Age (AD 1750-) 6 Schools of Philosophy: Sankhya, Yoga, Nyaya, Vaisesika, Uttara Mimmsa, Purva Mimamsa Sects : Saivism, Saktism, Vaishnavism Modern Movements : Arya Samaj, Ramakrishna Mission, Brahmo Samaj, Guru Cults Sruti (Vedas); Smriti (Puranas, etc) Vedas (Rig, Sama, Yajur, Atharva) : Consists of Mantras, Brahmanas, Aranyakas, Upanishads Itihasas: Ramayana & Mahabharata Puranas Bhagavad Gita Agamas: Manuals of Worship 4 GOALS OF LIFE: Dharma, Artha, Kama, Moksha 4 STAGES OF LIFE: Brahmacharya, Grihasta, Vanaprasta, S...

Alexander Pruss's Blog: The blink of an eye response to the problem of evil I want to confess something: I do not find the problem of evil compelling. I think to myself: Here, during the blink of an eye, there are horrendous things happening. But there is infinitely long life afterwards if God exists. For all we know, the horrendous things are just a blip in these infinitely long lives. And it just doesn’t seem hard to think that over an infinite future that initial blip could be justified, redeemed, defeated, compensated for with moral adequacy, sublated, etc. It sounds insensitive to talk of the horrors that people live through as a blip. But a hundred years really  is  the blink of an eye in the face of eternity. Wouldn’t we expect a perfect being to make the initial blink of an eye perfect, too? Maybe. But even if so, we would only expect it to be perfect  as a beginning  to an infinite life that we know next to nothing about. And it is hard to see how we ...

Sodomites trying to attack Lot are striked blind by angels The contention of being "oriented" argues from a supposedly ontological basis. Just because a person claims to be so oriented, gives him/her justification to act in the way he/she claims to be oriented. The premise is: Whatever is natural (or the nature of one) is moral and justified. However, there is a problem with this premise. First of all, the objective nature of the claim has to be conclusively established -- the claims themselves being subjective and the nature of the investigation being empirical makes this quite unrealistic. Secondly, it is quite superfluous to assume that within members of the same species, opposed "natures" or "orientations" exist. Obviously, that defeats any attempt to definition. Originally, one understands what a man or a cat or an elephant is by nature. If any member of a particular species seems to be behaving differently or contrary to this nature, the beha...

The Jewish leaders and teachers, during the days of Jesus on earth, were looking to the coming of the Messiah. However, when Jesus the Messiah appeared, they crucified Him. They judged Him as being blasphemous and attributed His miracles to the devil. Jesus commented on their acts saying that He drove out demons by the Spirit of God, and that sin against the Holy Spirit cannot be forgiven. Mat 12:28. "But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, surely the kingdom of God has come upon you. Mat 12:30-31 "He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters abroad. Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy [against] the Spirit will not be forgiven men. I wonder if this is also not true of people who claim to know Christ but reject and oppose the works of the Holy Spirit. Would they really receive Jesus if He appeared today and did the miracles? Or would they reject Him for not fitting in to the do...

Quote Location: 10m 6secs You know, in preaching I like to have liberty in preaching- we call it. But, that has nothing to do with power. Many times when I have not had liberty in preaching, there has been the power of the Holy Spirit in service. So, God doesn't go according to my feelings as to what I have liberty enough; He goes according to the power of the Spirit of God in answer to prayers of many people who have prayed. But, it is a wonderful feeling for a preacher to have liberty. But, sometimes when the wind is blowing and things are going wrong, and it's raining, and... you are tired and you haven't prepared well... you don't have liberty. But, God can take even that and use it for His glory. There is a difference between liberty and power.

The National Council on Teacher Quality has pointed out six strategies that help in the promotion of learning among students. 1 They are as follows: Strategies To Help Take in Information 1. Pairing graphics with words. Hearing and Seeing are two important channels of receiving information. Teaching must pay attention to both. 2. Linking abstract concepts with concrete representations. Every abstract thought can be explained with a concrete example. Teachers must use illustration and examples generously to help shed light on the teaching material. Strategies To Help Connect Information 3. Posing probing questions. Asking students questions can help them think and process information. 4. Repeatedly alternating problems with their solutions provided and problems that students must solve. "Explanations accompanying solved problems help students comprehend underlying principles, taking them beyond the mechanics of problem solving." Alternating problems with solutions (Solve one ...

Today, we celebrate once again the fact of India becoming a sovereign nation, free from the rule of the British Monarchy. Colorful decors, hoisted flags, patriotic songs, happy children will flood schools, streets, and stadiums. We celebrate our political freedom today. But, we are not blind to the sight of oppressed and marginalized fellow citizens. We are not deaf to the cries of orphans and widows. The nation still bleeds and groans in agony from bruises of internal hurts. The external chains have fallen. But, there are wars within. Social evils, terrorism, naxalism, false gurus, evil rackets, kidnappings, rapes, murders, employee injustice, abuse, drunkenness, thefts, crowd fury, human trafficking, educational corruption, bureaucratic corruption, bribery, cheating, faking, lying, infidelity, forgery, drug abuse, unnatural acts fill the content of daily newspapers. They paint a sad, dismal picture of the nation. But, there are several groups and organizations that are fighting again...

There are various ways in which linguistic issues are being tackled by churches. For instance, there are those who wish to reach out to their own linguistic community and so traverse land and sea to reach their own community. Examples of such would be Hindi or Sindhi or Malayalee congregations making efforts to establish linguistic church communities in other nations. There are others who wish to only have their linguistic denomination in the foreign country they are living in. Sadly, not many of these may be willing to reach and draw in disciples from other linguistic communities. However, there are examples of churches that hold services in a particular vernacular or more common language, but are not known as a Hindi church or a Chinese church or an English church. These are more open to reach out everyone around and when they feel the need to have services in more languages, they do so while keeping intact the vision of the one flock. In Acts 2, we have a very vivid example of Go...

Snipshot from Wikipedia We observed this evening around 15-20 people crowded in a place to catch a Pokémon. Seems like Pokémon Go , invented by Japanese company Nintendo, was successful in bringing the game lovers to this location. The game has already been lauded by some for contributing towards combining virtual game framework with physical activity in real locations. The term used is "augmented reality"--one has to find the pokémon, invisible in the real world but visible in the virtual world of the game, in real locations. Some think a game that augments by inviting physical activity is much better than video games that are sedentary in nature. But, there have been incidents when game players were so focused on the phone while walking to catch a Pokémon that they weren't aware of speeding vehicles. The website provides some cautionary guidance: * When you’re out and about playing Pokémon GO, stay aware of your surroundings at all times—especially when traveling alone...

He said to Simon, "Launch out into the deep and let down your nets for a catch." But Simon answered and said to Him, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net." And when they had done this, they caught a great number of fish, and their net was breaking. (Luk 5:4-6) Simon Peter said to them, "I am going fishing." They said to him, "We are going with you also." They went out and immediately got into the boat, and that night they caught nothing. (Joh 21:3) Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit"; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away. Instead you ought to say, "If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that." But now you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting...

The challenges of a megachurch are not a few. But, the most disturbing challenge is the challenge of defining what true "shepherding" really is. One "church" in the south of India uses membership card swipes to track attendance of church members. If a card is not swiped, the member will get a call from the church office the next day to inquire if all things are fine. There are also various plans and prizes being offered all the time to attract financial involvement. On the member's birthday, gifts would be sent to them to express how personally valuable the member is. In a way, this group tries to make sure that the members are active, at least in attendance and financial contributions. Another pastor of a fast growing congregation confessed the dilemma that he experienced. He met a young man during the week who expressed how happy he was to finally find this church. The pastor wanted to hear more. The young man replied that he was trying to find a church in whi...

With the growth of denominational and non-denominational groups, the expressions "my church", "our church", "your church", and "their church" have also become part of many a church jargon. Of course, none of the users of such expressions intend to mean that the church "belongs" to them in the sense of "ownership" . Usually, users of these phrases only may mean to say "the local church group that I am going to or am part of". Or do they? Certainly, only Christ has used the expression "My church" and "My sheep" in the Bible. He said, And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. (Matthew 16:18) Jesus said to him, "Feed My sheep. (Joh 21:17) The apostles only used expressions such as "the church in Jerusalem" and "the church in your house" (Acts 11:22; Philem 1:2). When talking to the Ephesian elders...