An interview on the Colbert Report provides a valuable example of apologetics misapplied. Some of the responses to Bart Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus are briefly canvassed and discussed.
The first issue of the Thinking Matters Journal will be published at the end of June. The theme for our inaugural edition is “Introducing Apologetics”. We’ll focus on what apologetics is, what it involves, and why it’s important. We’ll also briefly cover the various apologetic approaches, and expand on these in the next issue.
An interview on the Colbert Report provides a valuable example of apologetics misapplied. Some of the responses to Bart Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus are briefly canvassed and discussed.
Dale Campbell recently posted three questions about science on his blog:
1. How should it be defined?
2. Is it inherently naturalistic and if so, why?
3. What is the relationship between philosophy and science?
Bnonn considers these questions from the perspective of someone who takes the Bible as his ultimate source of knowledge and authority.
Bnonn briefly explains the delay in publishing the first issue of the Thinking Matters journal, and provides a teaser of the planned articles.
Paul Copan’s new book When God Goes to Starbucks has been been announced; with a release date set for August 1. Copan is a philosophy professor at Palm Beach Atlantic University and also the President of the Evangelical Philosophical Society. He’s a penetrating writer (many of his published articles are available at his site) and the book looks to be an accessible and thoughtful response to the common intellectual snares put forward against the Christian worldview.
On Wednesday, June 18, Dr William Lane Craig spoke at the inaugural meeting of the Tauranga Thinking Matters group. Bnonn reports on the event, and the impression it made.
Susan Wunderink, at Christianity Today, interviews popular evangelical author and speaker, Tim Keller (from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in NYC), about his ministry and the challenges involved in presenting Christianity (HT: Justin Taylor). It’s brief, but worth a read.
The Auckland debate between Christian philosopher, William Lane Craig, and atheist historian, Bill Cooke is now up on YouTube (HT: MandM). Commentary has also been available from some of those that attended the debate: Ian Wishart, Dale Campbell, and organiser Matthew Flannagan have offered their reflections on the proceedings (I particularly recommend Matt’s excellent summary). The consensus of their thoughts (and even of those without theistic sympathies) accords with the reaction of most that I talked to on the night: Craig clearly emerged as the better. He offered and defended a more rigorous case for his negation of the moot - that belief in God is not a delusion but a reasonable conclusion from the evidence.
The argument for God’s existence from design in the universe has a biography of vertiginous highs and lows. Its roots travel as far back as Socrates and the ruminations of ancient thinkers such as Cicero, who wrote in De Natura Deorum; ‘What could be more clear or obvious when we look up to the sky and contemplate the heavens, than that there is some divinity of superior intelligence?’ Since its early forms in ancient philosophy, the argument held particular favour through the middle ages and the modern world before it fell victim to the metaphysical blade of David Hume and the evolutionary theory in the twentieth century. In more recent times, with deeper scientific insight into the elegance and reliability of the laws of nature and the finely tuned physical constants necessary for life, the argument has been recovered and even responsible for swaying some of its most ardent critics.
The perils of proximity always make it difficult to assess contemporary trends in society. However it seems difficult not to argue that, at least for the West, our age is increasingly a secular age. There has been a shift within most areas of society, such that religion has largely become irrelevant and marginalized. This transformation has not always been homogeneous. In fact, since the late 1960s, the field of philosophy has resisted this sweeping trend and exhibited a remarkable growth and influence of Christian philosophy. William Lane Craig, research professor at Talbot school of Theology, has been one of the intellectual luminaries apart of this minor resurgence.
As of 10.30 pm on Saturday, June 14 (New Zealand Daylight Savings Time of course), Thinking Matters is officially up and running. Although there are still tweaks to be made with the look of the site, all the major coding and design is done, and all the most troublesome kinks have been ironed out. All that remains now is to flesh out some of the navigation pages, and start posting. With any luck we’ll have a few blog articles coming in shortly, and by month’s end you can expect to see issue 1 of volume 1 of the Thinking Matters Journal [...]