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Why did you write the song? As a doctoral student who’s also a musician, I need a creative outlet that gets my hands back on a guitar to create something.  When I get a chance to steal away from my studies, I still like to play guitar and work on music. I attended a songwriter’s retreat in Dallas where I got a packet with a number of Scriptures, poems, ancient prayers, and other materials to look over. A piece called “The Prayer of St. Yared” caught my eye because of lines li

No more coronavirus talk for us this week. Tim and I are sick of it and ready to reminisce about better times. One of those times was a couple weeks ago, when Tim went on a trip to Utah with MAVEN in order to speak with students on a number of university campuses. Obviously Utah is home to many Mormons, so this gave Tim some insight into how to effectively engage those who are part of the LDS. If you're interested in booking a trip with MAVEN, go here. Check out this episode

Note from Tim Stratton: I first met Ross Hickling when we arrived for summer residency at Biola University. This US Marshall and I were both enrolled in the MACA program and were assigned as roommates. We also both went on to attain doctoral degrees from North-West University. This article was originally published on the Ratio Christi website ( ratiochristi.org ). Tracking Down a Fugitive I was confident that if we were patient enough, we would snag our fugitive in a mobi

Are you under a stay-at-home order? Consider thinking about the problem of evil (PoE). Here is a brief exercise. Suppose someone says the following to you: “God would never permit COVID-19. So, since there is COVID-19, there is no God.” How would you respond? Notice that this is an example of the PoE. But there are many versions of the PoE. So, your first step is to determine whether your interlocutor is expressing the emotional PoE or the intellectual PoE. If the former, t

No more coronavirus talk for us this week. Tim and I are sick of it and ready to reminisce about better times. One of those times was a couple weeks ago, when Tim went on a trip to Utah with MAVEN in order to speak with students on a number of university campuses. Obviously Utah is home to many Mormons, so this gave Tim some insight into how to effectively engage those who are part of the LDS. If you're interested in booking a trip with MAVEN, go here. Check out this episode

Question: Dear Tim, Why does one have to ‘freely’ infer ? Do computers require free will to make accurate calculations? Evidently not – they seem to get by just fine! Imagine giving two computers sentience. They argue between them over a particular course of action and which option is the best. What’s wrong with describing what they have as ‘knowledge’? - Andy Tim's Response: Thanks for your question, Andy. Please allow me to break it down in a step-by-step manner. You said:

First of all, apologies for the late episode. We ran into some issues with the recording but we managed to find some backups. In this episode, Tim and I talk to Dr. Dan Eichenberger, a man who has actually treated patients with coronavirus. We discuss what the disease is along with the country's reaction to it. If you didn't know anything about coronavirus (like me), you'll learn a lot in this episode. We also talk about how, as a doctor, one can show Christ through their wo

Most people agree that we should love one another. But what does it mean to love others? Love can’t mean what our culture says it means.  It can’t be untethered from a transcendent moral standard (i.e. God’s word and natural law) and left to be defined subjectively by our feelings, to be molded and fashioned into whatever shape current societal trends bend it. The average person in the US today is a Popular Secularist and has accepted the Popular Secularist definition of lo

Suppose you awoke tomorrow and the coronavirus pandemic had come to an end and all suffering had ceased. Not only are you no longer experiencing any suffering of any kind, but neither is anyone else. All suffering resulting from moral or natural evil — including COVID-19 – was nothing but a memory. Is there any reason to think that it would stay that way? To answer this question, take a short quiz: Question #1: Would you take this “suffering-free world” for granted? Would yo

What a week, huh? It feels like every morning we wake up and there's news saying that we should gather with fewer people. How are we supposed to reconcile this scary situation with a God who says he loves us? Tim and I wrestle with that question in this episode. We also spend some time talking about why Christians have the most reason for hope among anyone. We talk about what we as Christians can be doing, both through prayer and through action to live out our faith during a

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  MAVEN , an organization founded by Brett Kunkle focused on helping the next generation “know truth, pursue goodness, and create beauty” (to learn more about MAVEN,  click here ). FreeThinking Ministries is also devoted to bringing rational discussions about Christianity to college campuses. In my opinion, no one is doing that better than

We've got a great interview for you these next couple of weeks. Tim was recently on the Steve Schramm show to talk about free will and other related topics. It's a fun and wide-ranging conversation that we know you'll enjoy. Check out this episode!

The problem of evil is one of the most common arguments used by non-believers, atheists, agnostics, and seekers when trying to develop an intellectual argument against God. Trying to reconcile the cognitive dissonance of acknowledging evil while accepting the reality of an all-powerful (Omnipotent), all-knowing (Omniscient), and always present (Omnipresent) supreme being is seemingly untenable. Alvin Plantinga is considered by many one of the most influential Christian philos

Question Dear Dr. Stratton, You've noted that there are some questions that have kept you up at night for long periods of time. The question that has caused me to lose a tremendous amount of sleep is regarding Peter's freedom to deny or not to deny Jesus three times after Jesus told him that he would deny him three times. So, did Peter possess the libertarian freedom not to reject Jesus three times before the rooster crowed? - Randy Tim's Response This is a great question,

We've got a great interview for you these next couple of weeks. Tim was recently on the Steve Schramm show to talk about free will and other related topics. It's a fun and wide-ranging conversation that we know you'll enjoy. Check out this episode!

Death is the destiny of everyone; the living should take this to heart. (Ecclesiastes 7:2, NIV) Over the last few weeks, I have made some interesting sociocultural observations. For example, a local grocery store has limited the number of sanitizing wipes available for its customers and has offered to disinfect shopping carts for shoppers entering the building. A local soccer club has sent me an email message with instructions on how to deal with the coronavirus. The county

We've got a great interview for you these next couple of weeks. Tim was recently on the Steve Schramm show to talk about free will and other related topics. It's a fun and wide-ranging conversation that we know you'll enjoy. Check out this episode!

On October 25 th , 2019, Richard Carrier, published a blog titled, Mark’s Use of Paul’s Epistles . Carrier’s main argument is that Mark used Paul and that Matthew and Luke used Mark.  Specifically, Mark transvalued what Paul had written into his own stories.  This is problematic for Carrier, because he believes “Paul clearly taught that all his information came from visions, not conveyors of a tradition (‘tradents’).”   Or stated another way, Paul’s teachings about Jesus ca

I wanted to take some time and share with you something that I have been working on this year: Markan research. In the spring semester of 2019, I was taking a course at Houston Baptist University under Dr Michael Licona.  During the course, Dr Licona had offered the opportunity to supervise a master’s thesis on the topics of the Gospel of Mark’s dating, authorship, and connection with Peter.  From what I understand, Dr Licona became interested in those topics because a Faceb

For such a bright guy, Richard Dawkins—famed evolutionary biologist and outspoken atheist—sure makes a lot of controversial statements on Twitter . He's recently done it again, causing a firestorm because of a series of tweets on eugenics : In case you never learned about eugenics in school, here’s dictionary.com’s definition : “the study of or belief in the possibility of improving the qualities of the human species or a human population, especially by such means as discou