Ideology

Ideas
Mark Eckel

Who Owns You?

Are you a YouTube commercial, advertising your beliefs? Give me a minute to explain. Sports teams and race car drivers wear the names of advertisers on their uniforms. And I wonder what kind of advertisements are seen on us? How have we been influenced by groups, organizations, institutions, or communities? How do our views of

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Ideas
Mark Eckel

A Story of Commitment

What would you do? How far would you go? Give me a minute to explain. The word “commitment” reminds me of a scene in Lois Lowry’s Number the Stars: “To protect her Jewish friend, a Christian girl tears from her neck a gold chain bearing a Star of David and clenches it in her fist

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Ideas
Mark Eckel

Three Questions for Wise Decisions

Decision making can be difficult. Give me a minute to suggest three questions that could help. How to respond and when to act are hard to know for certain. Here are three questions to ask yourself (1) CAN I? What is your time and place in the world. What vocational gifts have you been given?

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Ideas
Mark Eckel

Success

What does it mean to be a success? Give Me a Minute to explain. Do millions of followers on social media make one successful? What of the business people, actors, entrepreneurs, or athletes who seem to have it all? Can we judge celebrities by the front covers of Vogue or Forbes? We often think of

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Ideas
Mark Eckel

Friday Email Sample

Email Title: Ice, Fire, Can’t, Prep, 1, 2, Tesla, Consent, Structure, GenBio, Nay, Good (10 January 2025) Being without electricity is unexpected in 21st Century America. When you’re stuck at home without heat or hot water (not to mention coffee!). This is no small thing in the modern world. This happened to me in a

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Ideas
Mark Eckel

On the Way in this New Year

In this new year, how should we make our way? Give Me a Minute to suggest an answer. A young colleague asked for some guidance toward his future in higher education. He grappled with what to include in his resume. I sent him something I have been including with my resume for twenty years called

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Categories

Recent Posts

Two Worldview Options

You only have two choices. Give me a minute to explain. Everyone believes something. That belief will drive their lives. Many will be glad to explain what they believe. What they often miss, however, is the foundation from which those beliefs arise. Two basic assumptions exist. Either you believe matter is eternal or God is

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Assumptions – Worldview

This page is for IACE faculty, the project being announced by the promotional video to the series: The Christian Professors Project  The following link is the 3000 word curricular piece that accompanies the video by the same name below: Assumptions – Worldviews The following IACE videos are now available: Assumptions – Worldviews Coherence – Integration

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Blaming God for Evil

Why do you think evil is God’s fault? Give me a minute to ask questions in response. When unbelieving students confronted me with questions concerning the problem of evil in my days at public university, I asked them if humans bore any responsibility for evil. I said, “Have you considered your own belief in a God-less origin

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Math and Apologetics

Math is one of the great markers of apologetics. Give me a minute to explain. It was the mathematicians who stayed after to talk in my biblical integration teaching at Liberty University. The math department was especially interested in my quote from Herbert E. Huntley, The Divine Proportion: A Study in Mathematical Beauty In the

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Dice Roll or Divine Plan

There are only two choices. Give me a minute to explain. “Humanly speaking,” “not necessarily,” and “it does not automatically follow” are phrases we use to admit our best plans, policies, and practices are ultimately outside our control. Our individual, limited viewpoint – we are all fallen, fallible, finite – leaves us with only two

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Fahrenheit 451, Libraries & Free Speech

This speech was delivered during the 2025 Research Week Awards Ceremony (30 April 2025). Many thanks for the kind invitation from Jeremy McGinness, Associate Dean, Research, Instruction, and Collections. Further thanks is owed to Dr. John Eller whose three-volume biography of Ray Bradbury I mined for background information. In addition, I thank The Ray Bradbury

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