Det. J. Warner Wallace Weighs in on New Orleans Terror Attack and the True Nature of Religion

For former cold-case murder detective J. Warner Wallace, the horrific New Year’s Day terror attack in New Orleans followed an age-old pattern of why people kill. He says of all the homicides he’s worked, there are only three reasons why people commit crimes: sex, money, power. There’s no fourth reason. And those three reasons fall into the larger bucket of Pride. Authorities say the suspect, 42-year-old Shamsud Din-Jabbar, had been radicalized into a distorted view of Islam, and was inspired by the terror group Isis, a power obsessed group. But Wallace, a former atheist who used his forensic skills to try to debunk Christianity and came away a believer in Jesus, has a much more nuanced view on the nature of religion. On this episode of Lighthouse Faith podcast, Wallace talks about his book, “The Truth In True Crime: What Investigating Death Teaches Us About The Meaning Of Life.” Wallace says most religions, except for Christianity, are performance based; perform these rituals and services and God -or the world- will bless you. Even an atheistic worldview does this. However, that form of religion or belief falls prey to the greatest of deadly sins, pride. The only antidote to pride is humility, and humility is nothing anyone can achieve by works. And studies show, says Wallace, that humility leads not to the taking of life, but to human flourishing and the giving of life.

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