Apologetics

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Ricky Gervais is an English comedian, actor, writer, producer, director, singer, and musician. He is also an outspoken atheist who regularly ridicules Christians. Recently a friend of mine (who happens to be a scientist and a Christian) shared that Gervais had posted a challenge on his Facebook wall. It read as follows: "I don't believe in any gods because I have no evidence of any. This is not being closed minded. Evidence would change my mind. Go for it." I surveyed many of

This is the second article in my series where I address passages of the Bible where God seems to do some immoral things. In the introductory article , I discussed what it means for an action to be immoral, that it goes against some moral code. However, I argued that God is the best explanation of an objective moral code, so to call something really wrong is actually to provide evidence for God’s existence. But still, this does not resolve some of the more troubling passages

Este es el comienzo de una serie titulada "Molinismo para Tontos" (y también para personas inteligentes). El Dr. David Oldham es un pastor que ha sido calvinista durante décadas. Dave en realidad influenció mis creencias calvinistas, que eventualmente llegué a rechazar años después. Después de los últimos meses de debates amistosos con un café, ¡Dave Oldham es ahora un molinista activo! Mira el fantástico ensayo de Oldham sobre cómo la oración cambia las cosas desde una persp

¿Qué es la verdad? La gente ha estado haciendo esta pregunta durante siglos. De hecho, Pilato le hizo a Jesús esta misma pregunta hace más de dos mil años (Juan 18:38). La respuesta a esta pregunta intrigante es muy simple: las declaraciones que son verdaderas corresponden a la realidad. Esto plantea otra pregunta: ¿qué es la realidad? La respuesta a esta pregunta tampoco es complicada: la realidad es como son las cosas. Estoy comprometido con la verdad. De hecho, he dicho q

SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT!  SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT! SPOILER ALERT!!! A long time ago . . . . Ever since I was a four-year-old, my hero has been Luke Skywalker! I would pretend I had the power of the force and I would always have a lightsaber on my belt (usually my dad’s flashlight). Moreover, my Luke Skywalker action figures were always the ones to wear out first (or, as I would say, get “flopsy”). For decades I dreamt about all of Luke's adventures after  Return o

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I’ve always been intrigued by conspiracy theories. New World Order, Illuminati, stuff like that. Christianity has its own share of conspiracy theories, like the existence of “lost” gospels suppressed by the Church. However, we all must wonder why the Bible contains the books that it does. What if there really are texts purposely omitted from the canon that would have produced a radically different Christianity? Far from being mere conspiracy theory, this is an important claim

Question: Tim, you suggest that the determinist would probably think, or be committed to thinking, that either God or nature evaluates our beliefs (one of these is "the 'thing' evaluating and judging" our beliefs). But at the same time, you allow that on determinism we have mental states, presumably including these evaluative mental states (about our beliefs) that God or nature forces on us. This puzzles me, because I take it that to evaluate a belief *just is* to have an eva

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I was at a Christmas party a few years ago and someone walked up to me and began talking to me about my views on God. At one point in the conversation he asked the age-old question, “Can God make a rock so heavy that he himself can’t lift it?” Among other things, I mentioned that omnipotence does not mean that God can do what is logically impossible. Then the conversation abruptly ended as he said, “You can’t use logic to talk about God. God is not bound by the logic of Man!”

“ I can see the fingerprints of God When I look at you I can see the fingerprints of God And I know its true You’re a masterpiece That all creation quietly applauds And you’re covered with the fingerprints of God ” ~from Fingerprints of God , by Stephen Curtis Chapman     The common scientific view of the “hardware of life” (that is, the physical components of living systems) is, as Biologist Richard Dawkins puts it, “the study of complicated things that give the appearan

The discussion concerning Libertarian Free Will vs Divine Causal Determinism continues as it has for quite some time. Many people I come across in discussions tend to have an idea of where they already lean on the issue, even if related questions still linger. What of those who do not know much on the issue or have come to no definite conclusion? Personally I think the debate is far from uncertain but if one is uncertain on the question of Free Will/Determinism and feels that

With the holiday season looming, most Christian fare on the book market is going to be focused around the topic of Christmas. While this is all well and good, the Apologetics fan on your gift list is going to be looking for meatier topics. If you want to meet the spiritual and intellectual needs of the bibliophile on your gift list, consider one of the following books to set under the tree. Tactics, by Greg Koukl The Bible insists that believers share the Gospel with others

Atheists often appeal to evolution in an attempt to explain the primate complexity we observe today without a need for an Intelligent Designer -- God! Indeed, many say the reason they affirm atheism is because they believe evolution is true. Since their hypothesis does not include God as a designer, atheists feel justified in affirming that God does not exist and that Christianity is false. With that said, however, if evolution is true, it does nothing to prove that God does

Por Tim Stratton | Traducido por Allan Sánchez Uno de mis argumentos favoritos para la existencia de Dios se llama el Argumento Cosmológico Kalam (ACK). Consiste en dos premisas que llevan a una conclusión lógicamente deductiva. El silogismo es el siguiente: 1- Todo lo que comienza a existir tiene una causa. 2- El universo comenzó a existir. 3- Por lo tanto, el universo tiene una causa. Premisa Uno Comencemos analizando la primera premisa: "Todo lo que comienza a existir

Question Dear Dr. Erasmus, Tim Stratton shared your post, Objections to the Existence of the Soul , to the UK Apologetics and Evangelism Facebook group, of which I am a member. In that group, there is a very knowledgeable Christian who does not seem to believe in the existence of a soul yet says he is not a strict materialist or physicalist. I'm sending you a discussion he had with Lenny Esposito in which Lenny posted about atheism's weakness regarding the lack of a soul and

“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” - Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion Christians maintain that God is all-good, all-loving, and the ultimate standard of morality.

In a recent blog post , Professor Keith Parsons offers three reasons for why (he thinks) the soul does not exist. (You might recall that Parsons debated William Lane Craig in 1998). Since Parsons' objections to substance dualism (for simplicity, I will hereafter refer to substance dualism simply as 'dualism') seem rather common among lay atheists, his objections are worth evaluating. Let us, then, evaluate Parsons' blog post. The Burden of Proof Before offering his three o

Summary: In the movie Calvinist the interviewees (ostensibly) argue in favor of the doctrine of total depravity and that it precludes libertarian free will (hereafter LFW). In this essay I demonstrate that the interviewees beg the question in favor of total depravity and for the idea that it is at odds with LFW. Introduction The movie Calvinist includes a section which is dedicated to articulating and defending 5-point Calvinism. This article is the first of a five part s