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We're back with a (somewhat) new episode for you guys. This one is actually going to be a series of 3 episodes for you from the Cerebral Faith podcast with Evan Minton. This was a conversation that he and Tim had on the Freethinking Argument. I know we've already covered this topic on the podcast, but this conversation brought up several new objections that Tim and I didn't have the chance to interact with. So enjoy! Relevant Links: http://cerebralfaith.blogspot.com/ Check

Question: Dear Tim, How do you lovingly tell your unsaved friends about their sin (especially their sinful sexual behavior)? Is it better just to spread Christ’s love, and hope they come to desire it as well? What if our friends don’t believe in God? - From a concerned teenager Tim's Response: This is basically a “Truth & Love” question. Christians are commanded to have both. Now truth and love (contrary to popular opinion) are not mutually exclusive concepts, so it is not

We had so much fun talking about violence these past couple weeks, we decided to do an episode talking about Christianity and guns. But, we needed some backup to do this episode, so we invited on Tim Hsiao, who is a philosophy professor at Grantham University who has written academically on this topic. It was an incredibly fun conversation that we know you'll enjoy. Relevant links: Tim Hsiao's website:   http://timhsiao.org/ Tim's Gun Articles: https://www.academia.edu/...

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

Should Christians watch violent movies? Tim and I tackle this controversial topic in a really fun conversation. No matter where you fall on this subject, I hope you enjoy what we had to say, while also hearing us talk about some pretty awesome movies. Relevant Links: https://freethinkingministries.com/love-thy-neighbor-pack-thy-heat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iKBEJp92CA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR28SnDSKeM3jEaVpsoKaPZ4rZtfhRwghadEQDF0VnTT9LVnZZT1gs-0jYs https://fre

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

“Consult the Bible, and you will discover that the creator of the universe clearly expects us to keep slaves.”  1  This provocative statement by atheist Sam Harris is meant to cast shade on the God of the Bible. After all, if civilized humanity overwhelmingly condemns slavery, why should we worship a God who thinks it’s acceptable? The question of slavery and the Bible is a bit more complicated than Sam Harris makes it out to be. Unfortunately, Harris and others aren’t inter

The New York Times recently published an article entitled “How Abortion Rights Will Die a Death by 1,000 Cuts: Brett Kavanaugh's confirmation to the Supreme Court would mean the demise of not just abortion rights but also a century of progressive reforms.” Author Mayeri’s strongly worded article argues that the Conservative Political Party is pushing for restrictive laws, limiting the individual liberties of our country’s citizens. And as Americans, protected by the boundarie

While as an undergrad at Salt Lake Community College in 1991, I gave a presentation in front of my humanities 101 class arguing Jesus Christ is the messiah, citing evidence for his resurrection. My professor literally cut me off during my presentation and told me it was over, that I couldn’t proceed. He later informed me that I was no longer welcome in the course because of proselytizing. Here’s the backstory. My professor had been teaching on myth for about six weeks, list

Should Christians watch violent movies? Tim and I tackle this controversial topic in a really fun conversation. No matter where you fall on this subject, I hope you enjoy what we had to say, while also hearing us talk about some pretty awesome movies. Relevant Links: https://freethinkingministries.com/love-thy-neighbor-pack-thy-heat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2iKBEJp92CA&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR28SnDSKeM3jEaVpsoKaPZ4rZtfhRwghadEQDF0VnTT9LVnZZT1gs-0jYs https://fre

So Batman is an atheist. Or at least that’s what the headlines said in August 2018. I finally read the issue in question, Batman #53, which is part of the story arc “Cold Days” ( slight spoilers ahead ). In the story, Bruce Wayne, Batman’s alter ego, is serving on a jury. He sees a fellow juror wearing a cross and recalls his Christian upbringing, how he used to believe in God. But when his parents were murdered when he was a child, his whole world came crashing down, his fa

As Tim Stratton has aptly noted in Avengers: Endgame, Middle Knowledge, & the Destruction of the Problem of Evil and in the FreeThinking Podcast episodes 63 - 65, Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame are rich in philosophical content. In this article, I briefly examine the normative ethics of these films. The villain of the story, Thanos , is a consequentialist. Consequentialism is the position that the only (or at least the most important) factor which

We had so much fun talking about Avengers Endgame last week, that we'd thought we'd take a couple of episodes to dive in a little deeper. It turns out, there's a lot of theological, philosophical, and apologetic related stuff to talk about in this movie. Also, we're pretty sure Biola University wrote most of this movie. Obvious disclaimer, there are lots of spoilers in this conversation, so go see the movie if you don't want it ruined for you. If you don't care, then by all

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

We had so much fun talking about Avengers Endgame last week, that we'd thought we'd take a couple of episodes to dive in a little deeper. It turns out, there's a lot of theological, philosophical, and apologetic related stuff to talk about in this movie. Obvious disclaimer, there are lots of spoilers in this conversation, so go see the movie if you don't want it ruined for you. If you don't care, then by all means have at it. Relevant Links: https://www.polygon.com/2019/4/

"A righteous person who yields to the wicked is like a muddied spring or a polluted well." — Proverbs 25: 26 While there are a few points I agree with in the recent article 10 Reasons Reading the Bible Makes Me More Progressive  by Benjamin L. Corey, I respectfully think that Mr. Corey has made some big mistakes in his reasoning, and he basically “strains out gnats and swallows camels” here. If our differences were petty and had little significant real-world consequences, it

This week, we're going to be talking about one of Tim's papers that he presented at ETS. We'll look at Tim's argument as to why Molinism gives us as Christians the ability to better utilize the Fine-Tuning argument, and why other views do not. We also discuss a little Avengers (no spoilers, don't worry). Enjoy! Relevant links: https://freethinkingministries.com/the-apologetic-significance-of-molinism-ets-edit/ https://freethinkingministries.com/avengers-endgame-middle-know

As you can tell, we at FreeThinking Ministries are huge superhero fans. Aside from being fun, superhero stories offer great learning opportunities about moral and even theological issues. Case in point, Stratton’s latest article on about the problem of evil. (If you haven’t read it yet, you should go do that before reading any further. And if you haven’t watched the movie, go do that first!) In and , we see a great example of middle knowledge at work, and how it can be used

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

Last week I reviewed So the Next Generation Will Know by Sean McDowell and J. Warner Wallace . Now I have an interview with Sean giving some additional insight about the book. Enjoy! What were your motivations for writing So the Next Generation Will Know ? My three kids: Scottie, Shauna, and Shane. I wrote this book largely to research and think deeply about how to pass on my faith to my own kids. My hope is that it will both encourage and offer some practical steps for o