In the course of having thousands of conversations about the ultimate issues of life, I’ve encountered many skeptics who, out of a deep respect for their religious friends, are reluctant to explain their objections to faith. These skeptics have noticed that, for their friends, the practice of religion is fundamental to filling their lives with meaning, purpose, joy, and service … [Read more...]
Science vs. God on the Stossel Show
On December 13, an episode of the Stossel show titled "Science vs. God" aired on the Fox Business Channel. John Stossel opens the show asking questions and making statements about the origin of the universe, the origin of life, evolution vs. intelligent design, and whether or not God is involved. Three segments of interest to Christian apologists would be the opening panel … [Read more...]
Are Miracles Rational?
Before we jump into this question, we need to define miracles. In some ways, childbirth, the sun rising, and various other events in nature are “miraculous” in one sense or another. However, for the sake of this discussion, we want to define miracles as “an interference with Nature by supernatural power” (C.S. Lewis, Miracles). Or, more specifically as “an event in the … [Read more...]
Plantinga Summarises the Evolutionary Argument Against Naturalism
Here’s how Alvin Plantinga summarises the evolutionary argument against naturalism (EAAN) in his book Where the Conflict Really Lies (p. 314):1 The basic idea of my argument could be put (a bit crudely) as follows. First, the probability of our cognitive faculties being reliable, given naturalism and evolution, is low. (To put it a bit inaccurately … [Read more...]
The Gratuitous Objection
People often have a presumption of naturalism when it comes to debates over God and Christianity. That is to say, in a discussion over whether or not God exists, it is often assumed naturalism is true unless or until God is shown to exist. This assumption is faulty, and this article will show why. First, one must understand exactly why the presumption of naturalism is held … [Read more...]
Convince Me There’s A God: Design
Having been an investigative journalist for many years I highly recommend returning to the beginning of an issue, crime, or whatever is your assignment before reporting about it. If not, you may miss the very thing that will turn your story in the direction of truth, which should be the objective of every journalist. In that spirit I returned to Charles Darwin’s On The … [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...]
Breaking down the moral argument
I harp on about the moral argument for theism, some think. That’s only because I think it’s an under-appreciated argument that has a lot more going for it than most of its critics believe. Here I want to lay out a simple version of the argument, explain why I think it works and how to defend it. A very simple version of the moral argument, probably the most common that I see, … [Read more...]
C.S. Lewis and the Myth of Creation (Part 1)
This is Part 1 of 3 Posts on C.S. Lewis' view of Creation, Genesis 1, and Evolutionary Theory. It is the contention of this writer that one of Lewis' most overlooked theological aspects was his view on how Genesis 1 operated on a theological and mythical level. This is an exploration of his views on the topic and will conclude that Lewis' own views actually denounced reading … [Read more...]
Darwin's Quantum Leap
Early in 2009, the International Year of Darwin got underway in Shrewsbury, England, the birthplace of Charles Darwin. As part of the celebration marking both Darwin’s 200th birthday and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, On the Origin of Species, a sculpture was unveiled in Shrewsbury’s Mardol Quay Gardens. Nearly forty feet high, sixty feet long, … [Read more...]