Author: Drew Costen

While truly questioning one’s theological presuppositions is rare among Christians, the real hallmark of a heretic is that he or she is willing to reject the ideas that conflict with reality, regardless of how “orthodox” said beliefs may happen to be and how much trouble he or she might get into for following the evidence… Continue reading Questioning your presuppositions

On the third day of creation, God made a mistake so extreme that the world still hasn’t fully recovered. I know, it’s hard to believe, but after two days of creating a whole universe you’d have trouble maintaining perfection too. The physics involved in creating gravity alone would be enough to drive a mere mortal… Continue reading God’s terrible mistake

If the Mosaic law was created to get people to sin more rather than less, as Romans chapter 5 tells us it was, then it seems to me that the people who want the 10 Commandments posted in or around court houses and schools are actually encouraging sin rather than discouraging it. Which isn’t the end… Continue reading Why we should keep the law out of the courtroom

While it’s obvious to most of us that religious fundamentalism and extremism is clearly harmful, many of us tend to overlook the fact that moderate religion will destroy your soul just as easily (be it a moderate form of the Muslim religion, a moderate form of the Christian religion, as well as basically any other… Continue reading Moderate religion is still religion

If you’ve read many of my posts, you know by now that one of the most consistent traits of Christians is that they’re not very consistent in their theological thinking. This is possibly no more obvious than in their views on the subject of abortion. Most evangelicals I know of, for instance, are extremely anti-abortion,… Continue reading The evangelical abortion inconsistency

Those who know me well know that I don’t believe in “free will,” or at least that I think it’s the biggest misnomer there is, philosophically and theologically speaking. Every person alive is a victim of their genetics and past experiences. In other words, every choice we make is predetermined by a combination of our… Continue reading We are all innocent

Someone I know recently said that if Universalism is true then we don’t need Jesus and, since I’ve heard this statement too many times from too many traditionalists, I felt a need to give a short response to it here. As a Universalist, I like to respond to assertions like this one with a parable… Continue reading Do Universalists need Jesus?

I was recently reminded of a great old (possibly apocryphal) story about the 19th-century Universalist, Hosea Ballou: Ballou was riding the circuit in the New Hampshire hills with a Baptist minister one day, arguing theology as they traveled. At one point, the Baptist looked over and said, “Brother Ballou, if I were a Universalist and… Continue reading If you were a Universalist