science Archives

An Atheist’s Evolution

July 29, 2018October 5, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

I believe that religious deconversion is a process. Throughout this process, the person evolves. Some evolve more than others, and some endure the changes in more ways than one. For me, deconversion went like this: Christian → agnostic → atheist. My evolution underwent several transformational stages. In between Christian and agnostic, there was the initial period of doubt followed by a period of apathy. In between agnostic and atheist, there was curiosity and intrigue about general arguments regarding the existence of God. This intrigue made me very passionate about atheism itself. I have been engrossed in the interplay between religious and secular, reading about both to get the most precise answers I could. Read more →

Reading My Professor’s Apologetics Book: Part 3

July 22, 2018October 5, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

This summer, I’ve spent some time going through an apologetics book called E-mails to a Young Seeker: Exchanges in Mere Christianity. The author is a professor at Grove City College, from which I recently graduated and where I encountered this book during an assignment in an English class. Throughout campus, Dr. Hogsette, or “Prof Dave”, as he calls himself in the book, was praised as a gifted author and apologist, but with every page of this book I find myself disagreeing more and more. (Check out my full introduction and Part 1, too!) Read more →

The Lutheran Church on Creationism

April 15, 2018February 19, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

A few months ago, I found myself perusing the most recent issue of the Lutheran Magazine The Lutheran Witness. I stumbled upon an impressive article called “Concerning the Six-Day Creation” by Matthew C. Harrison, the president of the entire denomination, and I was dumbfounded.

Book Review: The Case for a Creator by Lee Strobel

February 25, 2018October 5, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

The book starts off with Lee Strobel promising the reader that he will be as skeptical and unbiased as humanly possible. He tries to warm us up so that we will believe that he’s playing the part of the skeptic for us and so that we accept every conclusion that he and his friends reach.

Undercover Atheist Takes Christian College Apologetics Class: Lesson 3

October 29, 2017October 5, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

Hello and welcome to this week’s installment of The World’s Worst and Most Useless Class! If you’ve been following along in my Apologetics 101 series (here and here), then you’ll know that I signed up for this class to learn a thing or two about Christian apologetics and arguments for God that I could expect a Christian to use against me. You’ll also know that I’ve learned neither of these things. Actually, I’ve learned nothing. Read more →

Book Review: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins

October 15, 2017October 13, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

Before I get into any criticism, I want to explain why this book is so important to me. I first heard of Richard Dawkins in a class with a teacher who absolutely loathed him. He gave me the impression that no one takes Dawkins seriously and he believes in “scientism” I hated that teacher, and I knew that I shouldn’t trust what he said about atheists, but I still had a slightly skewed perception of Dawkins before I really learned how highly regarded he typically is among atheists like me.

34 Things Atheists Are Tired of Hearing

September 17, 2017October 24, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

It seems that there are a lot of arguments brought against us atheists that people think we haven’t heard before. After my apologetics teacher said a number of these in class over the past week, including the watchmaker analogy, I realized that there are a lot of things that atheists have to hear all the time. Most of them haven’t been said to me, but I see them thrown around all the time. Thank you to my fiancé and to some of my Twitter followers for helping me think of ideas! In no particular order, here are 34 things that atheists are tired of hearing: Read more →

The Creation Research Society’s Dishonest Booklets

August 27, 2017January 1, 2022Rebekah Kohlhepp

Two weeks ago I found these two booklets from the Creation Research Society called Questions for Evolutionists and Questions for Creationists in my church’s mini apologetics library. (Click here and here to follow along in the booklets or read them on your own. This PDF has been shared with the permission of the Creation Research Society.) Read more →

Book Review: The Language of God by Francis Collins

July 30, 2017October 5, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

I found The Language of God last May when I was turning in rental textbooks to the school bookstore after finals. The subtitle, A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief caught my attention and I bought it impulsively. I noticed that it was required for a section of the Science and Religion class I had taken the previous semester, except with a different instructor. This week, I finally finished it!

The Great Bill Nye vs. Ken Ham Debate

February 19, 2017October 5, 2021Rebekah Kohlhepp

About a year ago, when atheism was new to me, I tried watching the debate between science communicator Bill Nye and young-earth creationist Ken Ham about whether or not creation is a viable model of origins. After no more than thirty minutes in, I was totally lost and had no idea what they were talking about. This week, however, I gave it another go. This time, I made it all the way through, and I was able to better understand the topics, although there were many claims made by Ken Ham that I found extremely underwhelming, extraordinary, and not convincing in the least. Whenever Ham would say something completely unfounded and outlandish, Nye would do his best to stay polite, referring to these as “extraordinary claims.” I’d like to point out some of these crazy statements that Ham made and give my thoughts on them. Read more →