Philosophy

Suppose you awoke tomorrow in a state of affairs in which suffering had ceased. Not only are you no longer experiencing suffering of any kind, but you became aware that all suffering had come to an end. There was no more suffering resulting from moral or natural evil -- and even gratuitous animal suffering was nothing but a memory. Is there any reason to think that it would stay that way? In order to answer this question, take a short quiz: Question #1: Would you take this

Regarding my Ring of Truth blog: Andy said, //You've not shown that Christianity being true would make objectively wrong, bad or evil.// I did write the following (you must have missed it): "Is atheism any better? Not really. According to logically consistent atheism, since God does not exist, then humanity was not created on purpose or for a specific purpose — we are nothing but a “happy accident” — nothing more than dust in the wind. If this is true, then it follows th

What religion or worldview possesses the "Ring of Truth?" It is definitely not Islam or atheism! To be sure, this is not a deductive argument like the Kalam, Freethinking, or Ontological Arguments. I am simply encouraging readers to pay attention to their intuition. Although we cannot always trust our intuition, I contend that it is a great place to start when searching for truth. Moreover, when one's intuition is supported by a cumulative case of data, there is good reason

Scientists are valuable friends. As a philosophically inclined theologian I appreciate my colleagues who have immediate access to important scientific data in physics, chemistry, biology, and more. Mad scientists, on the other hand, I typically try to avoid! Be that as it may, these mad scientists, while scary, are often quite helpful when conducting important thought experiments. It is commonly asserted that something known as Frankfurt Experiments prove that the libertaria

C. Michael Patton, in a recent blog , claimed to do some "math" and concluded that there are five great mysteries in Christian theology. While I am fine with an occasional appeal to mystery regarding a few topics, Christians often punt to mystery far too quickly. If we "punt to mystery" too quickly, we can sometimes give the impression that Christianity is nonsensical. For example, imagine a football team only gaining a total of seven yards after the second down -- three ya

Spoiler Alert! Spoiler Alert!! Spoiler Alert!!! Seriously, if you have not yet seen the movie Avengers: Endgame , stop reading this and go to the movie theater and buy a ticket! Then come back and read this article. Consider yourself warned! One year ago, immediately after watching Avengers: Infinity War on opening night, I came home and started writing an article assessing one of the best movies I had ever seen (See Avengers: Infinity War & Possible Worlds ). I also mad

By Limanto, John A. and Stratton, Timothy A. Originally presented at the SW Evangelical Philosophical Society (March, 2019) Abstract: Given the works of philosophers such as Plantinga, Wierenga, Leftow, and Nagasawa, the perfect being (PBT) concept of theism has received renewed attention within the philosophical-theological literature. Despite this ambitious revival, Nagasawa admits that the argument against perfect being from evil is one that we cannot “pretend that

I have had the privilege and honor to have studied under many brilliant professors over the past several years. This includes learning from professors in an official capacity in the classroom at Biola University, or learning in an unofficial capacity from many more professors (locally and from around the world) who have befriended me and taken me under their proverbial wings. I am blessed to be surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1)! Recently, one of th

In the last article we covered the Genetic Fallacy in some detail so I would refer the reader back to that article for a more in depth explanation of it rather than spend time rehashing it here. For those who have been following along, you will recall that I mentioned th at as we encounter the Genetic Fallacy we can approach it either defensively or offensively when dealing with the notion of Christianity being the white man’s religion. In that article we primarily discus

“Would you be interested in debating Matt Dillahunty?” That was the question I received in July of 2018, from one of the organizers for the Texas Baptist Unapologetics Conference. “Hmm . . . I don’t know,” was all I could say. I’d seen the scathing videos from Matt’s show, The Atheist Experience , and was aware of his Hitchensesque rhetorical ability. “Well, it’s okay if you’re not interested. I’m sure Frank Turek or Mary Jo Sharp would be willing.” This passing opportunity

In my experience, not only do I find myself defending Molinism from the likes of Calvinists and Open Theists, but I am amazed to see the vigor in which atheists also oppose Molina’s doctrine of middle knowledge. After all, why should the atheist care what view a Christian holds of divine sovereignty and human responsibility? It comes down to the fact that while other views fail, Molinism  destroys  (as the Apostle Paul would say in 2 Corinthians 10:5) their favorite argument

In a forthcoming paper entitled Does the Purpose Theory of the Meaning of Life Entail an Irrational God , I defend the Purpose Theory (PT) of the meaning of human life. PT is the position that God’s telic creation of human beings is a necessary condition for human life to be objectively meaningful. My defense of PT suggests a new argument for Molinism. The argument is implicit throughout the paper, although it is somewhat more explicit in my response to the final objection t

Note: Originally, I wrote this as a sister article to a piece I put out on MLK last year entitled, “Dr. King: Freedom & Free Thinking” ; however, it ended up not being released at that time. So, I figured I would dust this article off and put it out there. Enjoy! When I was a kid my parents were very serious about us being grounded in God’s Word and knowledgeable of black history. I remember being around 11 years old and hearing my dad lecture me about how no matter what th

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

Why think that Mere Molinism is true? If this view corresponds to reality, then two other propositions must also be true: (i) Logically prior to God’s decision to create the world, God knew everything that  would  happen in any possible scenario He  could  create (entails God’s middle knowledge). (ii) As beings created in God's image, humans, like God, possess the categorical ability to choose between a range of options, each of which is consistent with their nature. If the

Question Dear Tim, I recently watched a short interview where you were asked for the "main indicator" of libertarian free will. You mentioned that you had several reasons to think humans possess this kind of freedom but you only elaborated on one of them. Can you please describe exactly what libertarian freedom is, provide more reasons to think we possess this kind of freedom, and also explain why you believe it is so important? Also, can you please keep it as simple as po

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

One of the primary objections raised against Molinism is based on a misunderstanding of what it entails. The typical objection is that Molinism somehow entails that God is “dependent upon” or “limited” by the libertarian freedom of man.<1> This is simply not a view that a Molinist must affirm, and thus a bad (irrational) reason to object to Molinism. This is the case because Molinists affirm that man’s existence -- if man has libertarian freedom or not -- is completely dep

It has become trendy in some circles to refer to people with certain political views as NPCs . In video game lingo, an NPC is a “nonplayable character,” a character that is not controlled by any player. They can be extremely simple or intricate and complex, but they are still mindless characters who solely follow their programming. Thus, to call someone an NPC means they have no mind of their own but are merely repeating slogans and talking points according to their social/cu

The Freethinking Argument Against Naturalism is a staple at FreeThinking Ministries and a great way to show naturalists that we have good reason to think there is more to reality than just the stuff scientists can test and discover. The original 8-step argument is also a good conversation starter about free will. Several versions of the Freethinking Argument have been offered dealing with the problems arising on any deterministic view -- naturalistic or divine determinism.