Apologetics

Question: Dear Tim, I will try to be as concise and brief as possible. I am a Christian and my question is concerning free will, determinism, Molinism and of course, with respect to your Argument of Freethinking against Naturalism. The Freethinking Argument Against Naturalism  is formulated as follows:   1- If naturalism is true, the immaterial human soul does not exist. 2- If the soul does not exist, libertarian free will does not exist. 3- If libertarian free will doe

The Marvel Movie franchise is arguably the most epic enterprise in movie history. The series has a number of stand-out characters, however, two stand out more than the others. In fact, their differences stand in such firm relief so as to culminate in a film where they were driven toe-to-toe whilst still harboring a slight underlying sense of respect for one to another. These characters are, of course, Iron Man and Captain America. When an actor takes the stage, the first qu

Abstract:  The outgrowth of the truthmaker theory is due in part to the realist conception of truth that has been endorsed more prominently in recent years. Supplementing this realism is the notion of truthmaking—that truth depends upon the world. As a ‘cheater-catching’ business, the truthmaking enterprise has been celebrated to exclude ontologically groundless metaphysical systems. Some of these ‘purported’ ontologically groundless propositions that truthmaker theory should

Apologetics is not, as it might sound, apologizing for one’s faith. Rather, the word apologetics comes from the Greek word apologia , which means a defense of one’s opinions or beliefs. If theology is the study of what one believes about God, then apologetics is the study of why one believes what they believe about God. If this is what we mean by apologetics, then all Christians are apologists! We all have some reason why we are Christians. The important questions are: wha

I regret that this response must be written. The atheist blogger Aron Ra and I recently participated in an event together. We were at a church, answering questions on the topic of creationism and Darwinism in front of about 300 high school students. Despite the fact that we differ greatly on the topic at hand—I, a creationist, and he, a Darwinist—we had a fairly cordial discussion, if it can be called a discussion. You can watch the video by clicking here . However, about a w

“I’m thinking about starting an apologetics blog, but what can I say that hasn’t already been said?” I asked myself this many times before I started blogging, and I’ve heard it from plenty of others as well. Also, “Do we really need another blog? Would anyone actually read it?” etc. Well, obviously I do blog, and so I had to answer those questions for myself before I started. So let me offer 4 reasons why I blog, which may encourage you to start blogging too. 1) Unique Audien

The primary goal of FreeThinking Ministries is to equip the church to engage the culture. In my opinion, no one is doing that better than Brett Kunkle. Kunkle became well-known in the apologetics community through his time at Greg Koukl's organization, Stand To Reason . Recently, however, Kunkle has branched out and started MAVEN , an organization focused on helping the next generation know truth, pursue goodness, and create beauty. What exactly is a "maven?" Wikipedia defi

“deus absconditus” (the hidden God) – Thomas Aquinas Having stumbled across the doctrine of Hell, Atheist Smith frets over the seemingly harsh punishments promised to the unbelievers within Christianity. Deep within, he wants to submit to the “fairy-tale” that billions of people believe in the world. Yet, he just can’t wrap his head around one issue: “Why doesn’t God just appear before me now and make me believe?” He had attempted to pray before—begging for Jesus to appear b

Recall the most beautiful landscape you have ever witnessed. Think about how you felt a need to take an extra moment (or several) to stare at the scene as to sear it into your memory -- almost as if it were the right thing to do. Does it not seem wrong to ignore such magnificence? In a recent Reasonable Faith podcast , William Lane Craig was asked if it is possible to argue for the existence of God based on objective beauty in such a way that would be similar to one of my f

One of the most popular and intriguing arguments in favour of God's existence is the Kalām Cosmological Argument (KCA). For the past several years, the KCA has fascinated me, so much so that I wrote my doctoral dissertation on it, spent my post-doctoral research on it, and wrote an academic book on it. The book is titled The Kalām Cosmological Argument: A Reassessment , and in it I do two things. First, I offer a fresh look at the historical background of the KCA by explori

In this writing we will be quoting from the Qur’an and Sahih-Bukhari, the most trusted collection of Muhammad’s (pbuh) doings and sayings (known as hadith ) in existence today. These are primary source materials from the very earliest moments in Islamic history. However, we recognize that the original, and authoritative, Qur’an and hadith , were written in Arabic. Thus, we have taken the liberty to call this work an interpretation of the earliest (Arabic) sources, just as M

I am going to assume that if you are reading this article you have already seen  Avengers: Infinity War. If not, I urge you to stop reading, as there will be  numerous spoilers along the way. I am also going to assume that after seeing the movie, you left the theater and either felt that you needed a strong drink, or to take a long, meditative, walk on the beach while asking yourself repeatedly, “ what in the world just happened? ”. I know that’s how I felt. Having a basic,

Hi! I’m Tia and I thought I would do a mini-series of blogs of what it’s like to be the wife of a Christian Apologist. But, why be so impersonal?! I would like to specifically tell you what it's like being the wife of “The FreeThinking Theist” — aka, the "Libertarian Freedom Fighter" —  Tim Stratton! “Tim? Tim Stratton?! You’re Tim Stratton’s wife!?!” If I’ve heard it once I’ve heard it a million times. Before Tim was known as an apologist he was locally famous for being th

Summary: In  The Dividing Line  episode  Behold the Secular Woman & WLC on Molinism (Once Again)  James White argues that Molinism is false because it prohibits God from creating creaturely essences. Here, I offer several interpretations of White's argument and demonstrate that regardless of which interpretation White prefers his argument can be shown to have an unargued premise. Video Source:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4cSeSzi0jE Addressing White's Preliminary Remark

El actor británico, Stephen Fry, ha narrado recientemente un breve video animado en el que defiende la visión atea del humanismo. En mi experiencia, el humanismo parece significar cosas diferentes para diferentes personas. Según una búsqueda rápida en Google, el humanismo se define típicamente como: "Una perspectiva o sistema de pensamiento que otorga una importancia primordial a los asuntos humanos en lugar de los asuntos divinos o sobrenaturales. Las creencias humanistas e

There is an untenable grammatical argument contending that John 3:16 supports limited atonement that has recently received some attention. James White has made the argument for some time. But his use of it in response to  Arminian philosopher Rich Davis’ argument against limited atonement from John 3:16 1  has now surprisingly received some approval from two respectable Calvinist philosophers (Guillaume Bignon and James A. Gibson), who approvingly reference White and his argu

Nada me fascina más que investigar evidencia de la existencia de Dios. He pasado los últimos ocho años de mi vida dedicando varias horas todos los días a examinar estos datos y temas relacionados . Uno de estos temas relacionados es el del libre albedrío. Aunque esto ha sido tema de debate durante siglos, entre cristianos y no cristianos, tengo la convicción de que no solo los humanos poseen libre albedrío, sino que esta libertad es en realidad una prueba más de la existencia

What might come as a surprise to many today is that Christ followers have a rich history of grappling with big questions. One question in particular has consumed the minds of Christians for centuries: "If God is in control over all things, how are humans really free and responsible for anything, and if humans are really free and responsible for some things, then how is God in control of all things?" Over the past 500 years it seems that those within the walls of the church h

Summary: In the March 11, 2014 episode of The Dividing Line , James White offers an analysis of the discussion between Dr. William Lane Craig and Professor Paul Helm on the topic “Molinism vs. Calvinism,” which originally aired January 4, 2014. I conclude that White doesn’t actually offer an analysis so much as uses an incredulous tone and makes largely irrelevant comments from a position of ignorance. Source: http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/2014/03/11/caners-apology-the-pope-an

Pregunta Estimado Tim, Realmente he disfrutado leyendo tus artículos sobre el Molinismo. Creo que el Molinismo es una gran filosofía teológica, pero parece no ser más que una filosofía. No veo cómo el Molinismo podría llamarse una visión bíblica en absoluto; ¿dónde están las Escrituras que apoyan el Molinismo? Simplemente no veo ninguna. Porque el Calvinismo parece poseer la esquina en el mercado con respecto a los datos bíblicos, simplemente no puedo abandonar mi tradición