All Posts

https://youtu.be/uP86IQ-clcE

Durante la última semana, Free Thinking Ministries ha observado de cerca a varias clases de compatibilismo. La clase que hoy veremos es una que se encuentra tanto en los círculos Protestantes como Católicos y es a lo que me referiré como Compatibilismo Tomista. Antes de elaborar en esta perspectiva, pienso que es importante primero eliminar de muestro camino algunas presuposiciones. Hay muchas interpretaciones de Tomás de Aquino en el exterior. Algunos filósofos y teólogos

¡¡¡ALERTA DE SPOILER!!! ¡Me encanta la saga Star Wars! He sido un fanático de Star Wars desde que era un niño pequeño cuando la primera película (Episodio IV) se estrenó en 1977. No ha cambiado mucho en lo que respecta a esto en los últimos cuarenta años – ¡Todavía sigo comprando figuras de acción de Star Wars hasta el día de hoy! En mi opinión, la película reciente Rogue One: Una Historia de Star Wars es una de las mejores películas de toda la saga. Vi la película tres ve

Question Hi Tim, I have recently stumbled across your FreeThinking Ministries website and am loving it. I found your site as I was searching for a way to respond to an atheist family member who has a variety of objections to God but I think the primary objection centers around: "If God is omniscient and omnibenevolent why would he create some people that he knows are going to reject him and end up in Hell?" Is there a blog on your site that addresses this or do you have an

Are the New Testament Gospels historically reliable? Before we can answer this question, it will be necessary for us to define what we mean by the term “historically reliable.” Many events in ancient literature cannot be verified due to a lack of data. Moreover, the metanarrative in the Gospels is beyond the reach of historians. The metanarrative is that God’s uniquely divine Son has come into the world to save us and has since returned to heaven where he shares a throne wit

Finally, we've reached the conclusion of the Kalam cosmological argument. This is Tim's favorite part, as there is so much we can learn about God merely from the conclusion that the universe has a cause. Tim walks you through all of the characteristics of the cause of the universe, which is like discovering God! The Kalam is such a simple and powerful argument for God's existence. It may seem rather insignificant at first, but after one understands what exactly the cause of

Bradley Bowen has recently argued that it is highly improbable that God raised Jesus from the dead (See Why I Reject the Resurrection - Part 3: Improbability of the Resurrection ). According to Bowen, the improbability of the resurrection is one of the reasons why he rejects the resurrection. Let denote the hypothesis that . Now, why does Bowen think is improbable? Well, because when we multiply the probabilities of the following propositions, which are (allegedly) assumed

Dos de mis primeros recuerdos en la vida todavía tienen gran importancia para este día. Primero, en la primavera de 1977, mi vida se transformó cuando oré y le pedí a Jesús que fuera el Señor de mi vida. Segundo, unas pocas semanas después, vi Star Wars en el cine. Justo al mismo tiempo, el pequeño "Timmy", que tenía casi cuatro años, estaba maravillado tanto de Jesucristo como de Luke Skywalker. Mis padres eran geniales (¡y todavía lo son!) Siempre sentí que podía confiar

Algunas de las grandes características de la filosofía incluyen su énfasis en la claridad de los conceptos, la delineación cuidadosa de las premisas y el rigor lógico. Desafortunadamente, estas cualidades que sirven para asegurar la alta calidad de la discusión en el nivel académico a menudo se pierden en el nivel popular. El resultado desafortunado de esta pérdida es que la calidad de la discusión en el nivel popular se reduce innecesariamente. Un ejemplo común de esto que

¿Por qué eres cristiano? Como pastor de jóvenes de iglesia de tiempo completo y profesor adjunto de medio tiempo en una universidad cristiana, me gusta hacer esta pregunta a todos mis alumnos. De hecho, hago esta pregunta con bastante frecuencia a muchos feligreses activos en estos días. La respuesta que normalmente recibo en respuesta a mi simple pregunta no es más que una mirada en blanco. Después de un pequeño engatusamiento, a veces recibo respuestas como "porque mis padr

What would you say if someone asked you, “Did Jesus say He was God?” In this post, I’ll give you a few talking points that you can use to give a thoughtful response to a question like this. But first, let me tell you a little story. One day, I was at this family reunion at my in-laws’ place when a relative decided to engage me in a religious conversation. Now you have to understand that I usually don’t go looking for these kinds of discussions at parties. What I was looking

Listen closely to this one, as it's very easy to get lost while defending the second premise of the Kalam. Fortunately for you, Tim takes you through exactly what you need to know for 95% of all of your interactions using this argument. This premise of the Kalam is a tough one for me to defend, as I am not very good with a lot of the science that is talked about in support of it. But what I love about this argument is that, we, as Christians, are arguing in the same way as t

An old adage claims that the two worst conversations to have with a person involve religion and politics. Since people hold deep emotional feelings pertaining to these two issues, the logic of the cliché claims that the two topics must be avoided. However, these two topics are arguably the most important topics that one could discuss. I will leave the issue of politics with the pundits. Nevertheless, political policy affects everyone in the nation to which it is given. On a l

The ability to do otherwise is often referred to as the principle of alternative possibilities (PAP). Although it is often argued that the ability to do otherwise is not necessary for libertarian free will (LFW) to obtain, most affirm that the PAP is sufficient for LFW. That is to say, if the PAP is true, then LFW is true. With that said, I am noticing more and more libertarians exclaiming that the PAP is not necessary for LFW. While this might be true of humanity in the phy

Many people today know of the free will defense to the problem of Moral Evil and that Molinism reconciles Gods sovereignty with Mans Free will. However not as many would be familiar with the Free Process Defense or Molinism’s reconciliation of Gods Sovereignty and Genuine Randomness in Nature. My goal today is to give a possible answer to the logical problem of Natural Evil in the free Process defense and demonstrate How Molinism can supercharge it against the probabilistic v

Yes, it's the Kalam cosmological argument this week! It's one of the simplest and most powerful arguments we as Christians can use. It also happens to be one of Tim's "Mount Rushmore" arguments, so it's definitely an important one to understand and have in your toolbelt. Tim gives a fairly comprehensive defense of the first premise in this episode. He takes you through most of the objections you might hear when running this argument, so you will be well prepared to defend yo

¡Dios es omnibenevolente! En pocas palabras, Dios es perfectamente bueno y amoroso. La Biblia no solo aclara esto (Salmo 100:5, Salmo 145:17, Juan 3:16), sino que los lógicos también han concluido deductivamente esto aparte de la Biblia a través del Argumento Moral y el Argumento Ontológico . Ahora, si Dios fuera simplemente omnipotente (todopoderoso) y omnisciente (todo lo sabe), pero no perfectamente bueno y todo amoroso, entonces tendríamos motivos para asustarnos. De he

“You see, but you do not observe.” - Sherlock Holmes, A Scandal in Bohemia It’s a good time to be a Sherlock Holmes fan. There have been many versions in the recent years, like the Disney movies starring Iron Man himself, Robert Downey, Jr., and the BBC show Sherlock , featuring the awesomely-named dreamboat, Benedict Cumberbatch. The common thread between every iteration of Sherlock is his incredible deductive skills. He can find clues and make connections that no one else

Cuando finalmente uno tiene una comprensión firme de los fundamentos filosóficos y teológicos del pensamiento calvinista, uno no puede soportar preguntarse si el calvinismo es verdadero porque seguramente ninguna criatura contra-causalmente libre elegiría libremente creer en un sistema que invoca la deducción lógica de que Dios es el autor del pecado. Por supuesto, muchos calvinistas no afirmarán esto, sin embargo – esta es la conclusión implícita. Por supuesto, hay muchas

In my lengthy essay entitled The Apologetic Significance of Molinism , I surveyed many arguments in the "cumulative case" that apologists possess in their repertoire supporting the truth of Christian theism. The focus of that project was to show how each of these arguments either presuppose a key ingredient of Molinism or are strengthened by this particular view of God's sovereignty. One of my favorite arguments for God's existence is known as the Kalam Cosmological Argument