By: Stuart|31 December, 2008|Categories: Philosophy of Religion
An outline of the Kalam Cosmological Argument as it is defended by Dr. William Lane Craig, which is one of the most power and convincing proofs for the existence of God.
Read more »By: Bnonn|31 December, 2008|Categories: Metaphysics|Tags: argument from meaning
A simple, five-step argument reasoning from the existence of meaning to the existence of God.
Read more »By: Stuart|30 December, 2008|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: Leibniz . Natural Theology . Sufficient Reason
“The first question which should rightly be asked is this: why is there something rather than nothing?” Based on the principle of Sufficient Reason G.W.F. Leibniz formulated the following cosmological argument for God’s existence.
Read more »By: Stuart|30 December, 2008|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: Composition . Contingent beings . Existential Causality . Natural Theology . Thomas Aquinas
A brief outline of the Thomistic Cosmological Argument from Existential Causality, two possible refutations are considered, and a brief look at what we could deduce about God if the argument is successful.
Read more »By: Stuart|28 December, 2008|Categories: Philosophy of Science|Tags: design . god-of-the-gaps . intelligent design . Teleology
The god-of-the-gaps argument is used most often as an objection to the arguments of natural theology advanced by philosophers and theologians who explain the gaps in scientific knowledge as specific acts of God. It is a variant of the argument from ignorance which is a logical informal fallacy. But there are some consideration which blunt the force of the objection.
Read more »By: Bnonn|27 December, 2008|Categories: Metaphysics|Tags: argument from reason . eliminative materialism . philosophy of mind
Philosopher Bill Vallicella has started a new series on eliminative materialism. The introduction, ‘Defining Eliminative Materialism’, is worth reading if you’ve been following the debate here on Talk regarding whether abstracta are possible in a non-theistic worldview, and would like to better familiarize yourself with the topic.
Read more »By: Rob|20 December, 2008|Categories: Thinking Matters|Tags: Add new tag . Apologetics . apologetics methodology
Apologist Dr. Phil Fernandes presents a series of lectures on Apologetics Methodologies, Past and Present. Original web page here. To make things easier, you can download these lectures directly to iTunes as a podcast.
Read more »By: Stuart|18 December, 2008|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Philosophy of Science|Tags: An Inconvenient Truth . Carbon Dioxide . climate change . Communism . Global Warming . Hoax . Humanism . Leighton Smith . scientism . Uniformitarianism
If the Global Warming cultural phenomenon is not sustained by science, the question is what is sustaining it? Why has it gathered so much momentum? Some suggestions are made. As a case study of the interaction between science and religion, it is very interesting. Some further resources are given.
Read more »By: Rob|17 December, 2008|Categories: Thinking Matters|Tags: atheism . expelled dvd . god delusion . richard dawkins . suicide
This episode of ID the Future (MP3 here) tells the story of Jesse Kilgore, a college student whose loss of faith and subsequent suicide has been linked to his biology class and Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. After his professor challenged him to read the anti-theistic book and rule out the possibility of God’s existence in light of the evidence for evolution, Jesse experienced a crisis of faith. Now his father is arguing for academic freedom for intelligent design and critiques of Darwin’s theory.
Read more »By: Bnonn|14 December, 2008|Categories: Ethics . Metaphysics|Tags: Ethical Systems . Ethical Theories . Metaethical Foundations . Values
An argument undercutting non-theistic attempts to defend their value systems, by demonstrating that value itself is incoherent in a universe without God.
Read more »William Lane Craig nicely refutes humanism in this short “Atheist Bus Campaign” MP3 podcast.
Read more »By: Rob|11 December, 2008|Categories: Philosophy|Tags: atheism . Philosophy
William Lane Craig
As vanguards of a new philosophical paradigm, theistic philosophers have freely issued various critiques of atheism. In so short a space as this entry it is impossible to do little more than sketch some of them and to provide direction for further reading. These critiques could be grouped under two basic heads: (1) There are no cogent arguments on behalf of atheism, and (2) There are cogent arguments on behalf of theism.
We have heard thru the gossip network that Geologist Bob White is coming to NZ in March.
Read more »From the article: “An international study shows New Zealand year 5 pupils are doing worse in maths and science than children in more than half the other 36 countries surveyed.”
Why is this happening? I think there are probably numerous reasons, none of which provide sufficient reason alone. I will post a list of my reasons tonight.
Read more »By: Stuart|06 December, 2008|Categories: Book Reviews . Practical Engagement|Tags: Harry Potter
Almost everyone I talk to in Christian circles either shakes their head disapprovingly at the idea of reading Harry Potter, or mentions their concern about the questionable content. “What about the witchcraft?” “Isn’t it a doorway to the occult?” I have five major criticisms of this idea and footnote some great resources.
Read more »By: Stuart|05 December, 2008|Categories: Book Reviews|Tags: Christian Worldview . Creation . Fall . Harry Potter . Redemption . Rowling
The furor over J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series in Christian circles is now a cause for shame-faced admissions of mistake. One is reminded of a similar stir caused by the release of C.S. Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series, seen then to be an advertisement for the occult and guilty of leading children astray. While many were crying foul, others were convinced that Rowling was writing from within the Christian worldview. With Rowling revealing herself a Christian after the release of the seventh book, perhaps it is time to cede her the award for the greatest Christian fiction novel ever written.
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