Apologetics to the Glory of God

Author: C. L. Bolt

  • No Place To Stand

    People have repeatedly called my attention to three posts by Mitch LeBlanc at www.urbanphilosophy.net wherein he makes a “case against presuppositionalism”. There are reasons I have put off writing anything about them other than not having a great deal of time. The arguments contained in the posts are in fact not what they claim to be (arguments against presuppositionalism), but are arguments against the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God. The arguments presented do not originate with Mitch at all, a fact he readily admits, but are arguments familiar to many presuppositionalists that have been rehashed. Some of the …

  • Answering An Objection To Christian “Worldview”

    There have been concerns about using Christian “worldview” in a loose fashion, or using it at all. Using the term might downplay the importance or significance of the Gospel, or imply that some people are not Christians when they really are. The danger is in taking Y to be the only position on X that is consistent with the “Christian worldview” where it is dubitable that any position on X is either consistent or inconsistent with the Christian worldview because, as one example, Scripture does not address X.

    Yet it is not too difficult to see that the person raising …

  • Pragmatic Point: The Failure of the Cartesian Method of Doubt

    In his Meditations on First Philosophy, Rene Descartes utilizes a method of doubt in order to determine whether or not there is any such thing as certainty. The American philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce later critiques Descartes not necessarily on the basis of what many other philosophers find fault with in Descartes, but rather on the very method of doubt itself. While there appears to be plenty of room for debate about whether or not Peirce is fair to Descartes with respect to parts of Descartes’ method of doubt, Peirce is justified in the main point of his critique which …

  • Free Seminary Course: History of Philosophy

    “God’s worldview is the only one that matters.” – Ron Nash

    If you have never visited or used www.biblicaltraining.org then I highly recommend you go and take a look now.

    The specific reason for this post is to recommend the class called History of Philosophy and Christian Thought taught by Dr. Ron Nash. While I am not in complete agreement with everything Dr. Nash taught, he was a superb teacher. I listened to this seminary level course on my iPod the summer after I graduated and can still remember most of it with great clarity; no doubt due to the …

  • An Example of a Red Herring

    In the last post at Choosing Hats an example of the fallacy of Begging the Question was presented along with commentary that it is often helpful to have included in an apologetic arsenal a basic understanding of fallacies. Another popularly used fallacy is called a “Red Herring”. It may be summed up in simple terms as diverting attention away from the subject in question. The use of a Red Herring is a deliberate attempt to change the course of a discussion. This is often done when the individual who is guilty of the fallacy is having some difficulty with …

  • An Example of Begging the Question

    It is often helpful to have included in an apologetic arsenal a basic understanding of fallacies. One popularly used fallacy is called “Begging the Question”. It may be summed up in simple terms as merely assuming the same thing one is attempting to prove. Do not misunderstand, there is nothing wrong with an assumption or attempting to prove an assumption, but there is something wrong with setting forth a mere assumption as though it constitutes an argument; as though the assumption of the very thing someone is attempting to prove is itself the proof! An interesting illustration of this …

  • Happy TA-Day…I Mean T-Day…Happy Thanksgiving From Choosing Hats!

    Click here for an excellent post from Dr. Albert Mohler, President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky about Thanksgiving and worldviews!…

  • Jeff Downs and Presuppositional Apologetics Resources

    Recall my post on the Groothuis review of Collision. Jeff Downs also mentioned the review in a post over at Alpha and Omega Ministries that is worth a read. Ever aware of presuppositional resources especially as provided by Westminster Theological Seminary he also provided links to some videos that I have not seen before, one of which I have reposted here.

    …

  • Tu Quoque Argument Advanced as a Primer for the Presuppositionalist Response to Evidentialist Critiques of Method

    Arguments which cut both ways are not always self-refuting, but are significantly weakened by their hypocritical nature. The activities of traditional non-presuppositionalist apologists almost always fall prey to the same objections the proponents of the traditional method advance in their critiques of presuppositionalism.

    Just today I heard a professional apologist and philosopher argue that the Transcendental Argument for God, an argument utilized within the presuppositional method of apologetics, may more or less be dismissed because an unbeliever might quite easily claim that logic is something other than what the presuppositionalist needs to portray logic as in order to make his …

  • The Emptiness Of Internet Atheism

    Every now and then I get bored and run a search for something atheistic to read. As much as I would like to lay hold of a good book on atheism I find that there is little from adherents to the position that would be worth my time.

    Jeffrey Jay Lowder of www.infidels.org advertises for a book by J.L. Schellenberg called Divine Hiddenness and Human Reason. Apparently the book presents an argument for nonbelief in God from nonbelief in God. The idea is presented that theistic evidence is so weak that people might reasonably not believe in God. Lowder …