Advocates of the presuppositional approach to Christian Apologetics have long hailed the debate between Greg Bahnsen (the late Christian theologian and apologist, noted for his achievements in presuppositional apologetics and development of theonomy--a view of the Law for Christians, pictured left) and Gordon Stein (the late secularist noted for his links to Free Inquiry among … [Read more...]
Book Review: Has Christianity Failed You?
One of the major obstacles that I come against in defending the Christian worldview is simply a misunderstanding of the worldview. So many times people tell me that they reject Christianity based on one thing or another that Christianity teaches. In the vast majority of the cases people are rejecting something that is not Christian but they believe is Christian. In Has … [Read more...]
The Value of Existential Apologetics
As part of my exploration of new approaches to apologetics, I’ve been reading through Clifford Williams’ book Existential Reasons for Belief in God. So far, the hardest thing about understanding Williams’ thesis has been getting my head around the difference between an evidential argument for faith that uses needs as evidence of God and the existential argument for faith which … [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...]
Did the concept of monotheism socially evolve?
This post gives a glimpse of “Eternity in Their Hearts” by Don Richardson, who is recognized for his anthropological and linguistic work among the Sawi people of Irian Jaya. Edward B. Tyler’s theory that monotheism evolved has been refuted for a long time. The theory goes like this: Belief in the soul emerged from pondering dreams, etc.; spiritism/animism emerged when they … [Read more...]
Book Review: More Than A Theory
I am really excited to bring you this review. Dr. Hugh Ross and the Reasons to Believe (RTB) scholar team are the means that Christ used to keep this modernist thinker from completely giving up on the Christian faith about seven years ago. You can read about this more on my page Nature vs. Scripture. Reasons to Believe provides a scientific and Biblical model of the creation … [Read more...]
"A New Kind of Christian" Critique – Final
Part 1 - Part 2 Although the Bible is not a philosophy book, it does presuppose some ideas about truth which fit foundationalism better than postmodern epistemology. Passage after passage are clear that truth is what corresponds to reality, rather than making truth relative to a linguistic community. Here is a minor sampling: … [Read more...]
Renaissance 2.0
A Review of Saving Leonardo: A Call to Resist the Secular Assault on Mind, Morals, and Meaning, by Nancy Pearcey Nancy Pearcey knows the captivating power of secular ideas because she used to hold them herself. As a teenager, she rejected the religion of her childhood and embraced a host of “ism’s” from moral relativism to scientific determinism to New Age spiritualism. But … [Read more...]
"A New Kind of Christian" Critique – Part 2
Part 1 McLaren continues with his criticism. The modern view of Christianity is not the absolute, ultimate truth; it is rather a “view from a point”. As modern Christians, what we thought of as objective certainty is really reliant on our subjective preference for our personal viewpoint.[i] Instead of our faith being compared to a building (an allusion to foundationalist … [Read more...]
Book Review: Jesus and Muhammad
When I initially stumbled across Jesus and Muhammad by Mark A. Gabriel I was both curious and skeptical. I was curious to see how Gabriel would handle discussing these two men who represent the world’s largest religions; and I was skeptical, wondering if he would portray them accurately and with fairness. As I read, my curiosity was more than satisfied and my skepticism was … [Read more...]