Philosophy

J. P. Moreland is one of the most prominent Christian thinkers of our time and I’ve been greatly impacted by his works, such as and . In his latest popular-level work, (Crossway, 2018) , Moreland addresses one of the most dangerous ideologies facing our culture and church. But the true danger of scientism is not that is necessarily being argued for, it is simply to be true. So Moreland’s task in this book is not just to refute scientism but to first expose it and how it h

Perhaps the most common objection to Molinism is the so called Grounding Objection . Molinism, you may recall, asserts that God's knowledge of the counterfactuals of creaturely freedom (CCFs) is explanatory prior to God's creative decree. A CCF is a counterfactual that has the form: 'If person P were in circumstances C , P would freely execute action A .' (Note that refraining from executing some action A is itself an action). Hence, according to Molinism, before God chos

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

I. Preliminaries Once again, I’d like to begin by stating further concessions I can give to clear the periphery of the debate. First, within this dialogue, my arguments shall operate under the presumption of A-theory of time. Second, I concede that if Andrew can successfully argue that correlation is a form causation, that then (MT 2 ) would still be incompatible with Molinism. Besides conceding, I would also like to point out several points of contentions, that if I were to

1. Preliminary Remarks In their forthcoming exchange, Andrew and John will focus their attention on a narrowly framed articulation of the “Grounding Objection” to the Molinist account of Middle Knowledge. The two are conscious that, unless they are cautious to avoid doing so, they risk either clouding the discussion with peripheral matters, or talking past one-another. It is with a view to mitigating these risks that they have agreed to issue a joint statement that clarifies

1. Preliminaries In avoiding unintended off-tracking, it is necessary for me to state the points I concede in Andrew’s essay. First, I concede that there may be some ways in construing (DT) that should not bother Molinists (Andrew’s formulation of <(dt)> does not necessarily entail his conclusion as I will argue later). Second, I concede that in the Frankfurtian example he gives, William is not morally culpable for the voting of Hillary if the chip activates. Although, I wil

By Andrew Harland-Smith 1. Preliminary Remarks This exchange between John and myself concerns a narrowly framed articulation of the grounding objection. Mine is not an argument founded on any universal theory of truth; not truthmaker maximalism, not atomic truthmaker, not even truth-supervenes on being. Rather, mine is a much narrower claim. It is only that a small but significant subset of truths, the Counterfactuals of Creaturely Freedom (‘ CCFs ’), require truthmakers.

1. A Re-Cap of My Argument It will be recalled, that in my first essay, I developed an argument from what I called “The Dependence Thesis” (‘ DT ’) which held: (DT). For any person S and CCF C, if C is true, S has made it true that C As I noted in part 3 of my first essay, if (‘ DT ’) is true, the Counterfactuals of Creaturely Freedom (‘ CCFs ’) do not wont for truthmakers. That is, they are true; and what’s more their truth is grounded in the causal powers of the relev

Critical theory is an ideology that is rapidly growing in influence: in the social justice movement, in academia, and in the culture at large. If you’ve ever been told that men cannot make statements about the morality of abortion, or that you should never challenge someone’s ‘lived experience,’ or that you are suffering from ‘internalized oppression,’ then you’ve encountered ideas that are rooted in critical theory.  In this brief essay, I’ll outline the basic tenets of crit

James White responded to my article Molinism and Creaturely Essences: A Response to James White (Part 1)  over Twitter. Here is the link where you can read White's response to my essay:  https://twitter.com/freethinkmin/status/960528913524019201 . Just in case White's Twitter comment is compromised, I shall reproduce White's statement below. He states: "Classic example of missing the point due to being too smart for your own britches. Regular folks fully understand that the

Summary: In  The Dividing Line  episode  Behold the Secular Woman & WLC on Molinism (Once Again)  James White argues that Molinism lacks the explanatory resources to sufficiently answer what determines the truth value of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom (hereafter, CCFs). In this essay I highlight an ambiguity in White's use of the word 'determine'. I then address his objection, refuting it under a variety of interpretations. I also address potential counterresponses Whi

“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

Summary: In  The Dividing Line  episode  Behold the Secular Woman & WLC on Molinism (Once Again)  James White argues that if Molinists are anti-realists about abstract objects, then they cannot consistently affirm that middle knowledge demarcates the range of feasible worlds available for God to create. This is because, according to White, counterfactuals of creaturely freedom (hereafter, CCFs) must first exist in order for them to be able to demarcate the range of those feas

Abstract: The grounding objection (GO) looms large as the principal objection against Molinism. Among the two main types of GOs lie the truthmaker-style GO that seeks to repudiate the Molinist claim of the truths of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom (CCF) by virtue of the lack of metaphysical groundings of those CCFs. As will be demonstrated in this paper, the grounding principles brought up can be answered satisfactorily by the Molinists. Introduction Suppose someone wer

One of the beautiful aspects of Molinism is its commitment to maintaining the sovereignty of God in the actions of free agents. But this idea, like many ideas worth having, is not without its fair share of criticism. Since Molinism is an attempt to explain the coexistence of the sovereignty of God and the freedom of the will, these objections will often focus on why Molinism does not accomplish preserving one or the other. Some say that by having free creatures at all, the so

In house "fights" behind the doors of the church are nothing new. Since Paul and Barnabas split over differences some two thousand years ago, Christians have disagreed on many theological issues. These passionate disagreements continue today. Although these heated disputes are not usually physically violent, these debates often occur with the same ferocity of a mixed martial arts<1> title fight. Despite these "in house debates," something typically keeps Christians who disa

Galen Strawson, a philosopher at the University of Texas at Austin, believes that free will is not only false -- but impossible! In a recent interview on Closer to Truth , Strawson provides an argument which he believes demonstrates the truth of determinism. That is to say, this particular philosopher contends that libertarian freedom (namely, the "ability to do otherwise") is only an illusion. He goes on to say that even if he were to grant an immaterial soul -- which would

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,

Dr. Kirk MacGregor (McPherson College) is one of the leading voices regarding Molinism in the world today and was recently invited into the “lion’s den” to take on three Calvinists during a live radio program called  Iron Sharpens Iron . The Calvinists included the host of the show, Chris Arnzen, along with the cohost (my personal friend), Anthony Uvenio from  New York Apologetics , and their special guest and expert all things Calvinism, Dr. Tony Costa from Toronto Baptist S