I first became aware of J. Warner Wallace via his guest hosting the Stand To Reason radio show. I welcomed the opportunity to review his new book, Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels, for the simple reason that I have not read many introductory apologetic books. For someone studying apologetics and involved in an apologetics … [Read more...]
The Promissory Metaphysics of Thomas Nagel: A Review of Mind and Cosmos
A review of Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel I didn’t expect to write this review. In fact, I didn’t know when I would get around to reading this book. When a book is reviewed by the likes of William Dembski and Alvin Plantinga, what could a poor schlub like myself have to offer? Possibly not … [Read more...]
Becoming an Ambassador, part 3
Third post in a series. Part one and part two. In this post I want to deal with the third leg of my metaphor for evangelism, knowledge. Again from Stand To Reason’s article on the ambassador model, at a minimum an ambassador “…must know the character, mind, and purposes of his king.” The scope and depth of subjects one could study is, candidly, staggering. Thus in this post I … [Read more...]
Becoming an Ambassador, part 2
In this post, I want to describe the second leg of the stool of evangelism, wisdom. As I indicated in the previous post, I learned these concepts from Stand To Reason’s model of a Christian ambassador. Regarding our knowledge Koukl suggests it “… must be deployed in a skillful way. There’s an element of wisdom, a tactical and artful diplomacy that makes his message … [Read more...]
Becoming an Ambassador, part 1
As a Christian apologist I am haunted by the desire to share what I have learned about the Christian worldview. As someone immersed[1] in this field I am also confronted with the observation of Solomon, What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun. Is there anything of which one can say, “Look! This is something new”? It … [Read more...]
Becoming a Community Apologist: The Significance and Cost of Being an Apologist
It would be fair to say that I have been interested in becoming an apologist since 1992. Yet it was not until the summer of 2009 that I decided to get serious about it. What I have to offer here is less than advice but hopefully more than merely telling my own story. In order to put my remarks in context let me offer a brief sketch of my background and where I am today. I have … [Read more...]
The Correct View of Creation? – part 2
In part one, I discussed four different elements of the debate surrounding views of creation. Depending on the question you will find two of the views under consideration (young earth, old earth, and framework) agreeing with each other. Also, again depending on the question, you will find different combinations of views that agree with each other. This observation occurred to … [Read more...]
The Correct View of Creation?
In a previous post, I addressed how the rhetoric and views of some young earth creationists pose a threat to the task of an apologist. Some young earth proponents contend that the message of the Bible itself is in jeopardy if their hermeneutic [1] is not followed. Such an exclusionary view makes it impossible to consider any other view of the creation narratives. To even … [Read more...]
Debate in Apologetics: Secondary Issues of Primary Importance
Since it began Christianity has been involved in debates. From Jesus’ encounter with the Sadducees to dealing with early heresies on down to the present day, Christians have encountered arguments against their worldview. Learning to deal with external arguments is a central task of the Christian apologist. There are however many doctrinal issues that are arguably internal … [Read more...]
On the Importance of Terminology: Species and Speciation
This post is focused on two terms used in discussions about the history and origins of life. The terms “species” and “speciation” are used extensively to demonstrate that modern evolutionary theory, neo-Darwinism (a.k.a. “molecules to men” via natural processes alone) is a fact. Similar to the previous post I would like to inoculate the lay reader from being bullied by the … [Read more...]