Apologetics

In 2016, Jeffery Jay Lowder debated Frank Turek on the topic (see https://youtu.be/ENZYEPpR2Jc ). In early 2017, I wrote two articles in which I assess Lowder’s opening statement (see here and here ). It was brought to my attention that Lowder recently made some comments to my assessment (see the comment section here ). I do not usually respond to comments on blogs because (1) it takes too much of my time and (2) I think that my responses will not change many minds. Nevert

So, it’s been way too long since I dropped my last article here at FTM; “Ethnic Epistemology Part 1”. My bad for leaving y’all hanging. When I initially outlined the points I wanted to cover in my Ethnic Epistemology series, I’d intended to keep it pretty simple. My goal was to address a few common objections to Christianity that have been gaining traction amongst African Americans and provide a few user-friendly rebuttals to them. With that being said, I think putting some d

2018 is drawing to a close, and so we present to you the top 10 most read articles of the year: 10. Whoever Reads John 3:16 Can Know that “Whoever” Is Really There - Guest blogger Brian Abasciano defends the "whoever" of John 3:16 from recent attacks by Calvinist thinkers. 9. Excusing Sinners, Blaming God, Compatibilism, & the Consequence Argument - Tim Stratton responds to "French atheist turned Calvinist" Guillaume Bignon's book, Excusing Sinners and Blaming God . 8

Abstract: In this paper, I critique Professor Asma’s article What Religion Gives Us (That Science Can’t) . I raise a three-fold objection to his claim that religion is irrational, followed by three related points of assessment. In short, I argue that his claim that religion is irrational is unwarranted. Introduction In What Religion Gives Us (That Science Can’t) , Professor Asma argues that, although irrational, religion is a needed and time-tested means for managing emoti

Bobby Conway is a pastor, a PhD philosopher, and the founder/host of an online ministry known as The One-Minute Apologist. His short, clear, and concise YouTube videos have been a great resource over the past several years as they always provide quick and credible answers to many of the "big questions" that have kept me awake at night. At the OneMinuteApologist.com , Conway posts videos that often include interviews with leading scholars in fields pertaining to apologetics.

Once people discover that you’re a Christian thinker, they often start coming to you with all of the objections they hear: “The Bible is hopelessly corrupt.” “Jesus never existed.” “Science disproves God.” Your friends will offer you the objections and ask, “How would you respond to this?” And here is what I always say: “I wouldn’t.” I never respond to objections. But wait, aren’t I an apologist? Isn’t it my responsibility to provide an answer to people’s objections? No

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