Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: TAG

  • skopein uses "TAG"

    Sometimes presuppositionalists are mocked for holding what they do concerning their own view being right and others being wrong. We can expect this in a largely postmodern context. After coming in on a discussion where some atheists were speaking negatively about TAG because of its affirmation of exclusivity and problems with non-Christian positions, I tried to put the point back to the atheist. A few other topics came up during the discussion. This is not the greatest of conversations but maybe someone will find something useful.

    skopein: it’s the Transcendental Argument for God.

    skopein: here is a good summary of …

  • Dr. Oliphint And The Clark/Van Til Controversy. But Wait, There's More!

    Reformed Forum had Dr. Oliphint on to speak on the Clark/Van Til controversy which I found helpful as an introduction to the issues at hand. This seems like a good discussion to start out your perusal of this controversy if you are so inclined. However the more interesting part of this discussion for me were the following locations:

    • Minute 37 God and Logic – What is the relation? What about paradox?
    • Minute 43 Transcendental Arguments and the Impossibility of the Contrary (as a methodological approach) used in non-Christian Theism.

    In the time after minute 43 the answer Dr. Oliphint gives …

  • The Phantom Menace

    One of the complaints against the use of the Transcendental Argument for God involves a denial of the claim that there are fundamentally only two worldviews. The Christian claim is that all non-Christian worldviews have at root the principle of autonomy. Autonomy is not only rebellion towards the Christian God but an active suppression of the personal knowledge of Him and a turning away to worship the creature instead of the Creator. It is a rejection of the authority of the Creator over all of reality. Van Til illustrated this using Eve and her reasoning at the time of the …

  • "Getting to God" – Thomistic Misconceptions of Van Tilian Presuppositionalism (Updated)

    David Gadbois from Green Baggins wrote the following in a comment on Fides, Ratio, et Mysterium:

    I’m definitely in the camp that doesn’t believe that Christianity is transcendentally necessary. I think the VanTilian presuppositionalists overreached in trying to make Christianity, as a package deal, into a transcendental necessity. The various transcendental arguments that have been offered really only get you as far as God’s existence, a personal and just God, not [sic] doubt, but really nothing beyond what is revealed in general revelation. God’s acts of redemption in time and space, as recorded in special revelation, were

  • A Stop On the Way

    Last week a few of us from CH spent some time visiting The Confessional Outhouse, a blog run by one who calls himself RubeRad. Rube asked for input on his assertion that “Christianity is falsifiable”, after appealing to I Cor. 15:14. Some great discussion ensued, and during the course of that discussion a number of tangents were launched, one of which started with the following statement by a contributor named “Michael Mann”:

    In terms of any logical transcendental argument, they could get no further then generic theism i.e, a powerful Creator and Designer is a necessary presupposition of intelligibility

  • Not that again…?

    Paul Manata wrote a post on whether or not TAG is a deductive argument here which Brian Knapp responded to here and then Paul wrote more here and here and here.

    While I do not plan on jumping into the discussion, the readers may be benefitted by the somewhat lengthy discussion of this topic that I did engage in here and here and here and here and here and here.

    My views now are not necessarily what they were then, but there are some points here that should be read in an effort to understand the texts from …

  • Bahnsen, Van Til, TAG and Deduction

    The past few days have seen a flurry of activity over at Aporetic Christianity on a variety of topics. The most recent has been a discussion as to whether TAG is deductive or not. Up until now I have replied to PM (Paul Manata) through comments, but I feel the need to stretch out a bit here, and so I will reply via a post rather than in comments. I hope PM doesn’t mind the change of venue.

    After reading and responding to PM’s latest post there are two issues that I would like to lay out clearly here.  First, …

  • Apologetic Mirror Objection

    David Byron recently commented on this post which concerns TAG and Islam. Rather than letting a rather lengthy comment linger on an old post I have decided to post it here in full. Part of being a good apologist is being aware of common objections to one’s methodology and arguments. This leads to further study and a stronger apologetic. It also equips the apologist to be able to at the very least recognize a particular objection in the context of an apologetic encounter. Byron writes out a helpful description of what has elsewhere been labeled the Apologetic Mirror Problem (AMP). …

  • Is the Qur'an the Word of God? – Debate Transcript

    Debate Thesis: Is the Qur’an the Word of God?

    Introductions

    [12:07] [BK] ok, the floor is yours, Algo
    [12:07] [PL] Very Good.
    [12:07] [PL] Welcome Gentlemen.
    [12:08] [PL] Let us now begin our formal debate with an intro/bio.
    [12:08] [PL] Introducing MusLm :
    [12:08] [PL] Name: Yasser Ali
    [12:08] [PL] Nick: MusLm
    [12:08] [PL] Age: 34
    [12:09] [PL] Country: Pakistan
    [12:09] [PL] Education: Post-Graduate of Information Technology (Australia)
    [12:09] [PL] Occupation / Designation: Da’ee (Da’ee is a Muslim who invites people towards God / Islam)
    [12:09] [PL] Faith: Muslim based on Quran (100%) and Hadith (Authentic)
    [12:09] [PL] I have …

  • A Hypothetical Apologetic?

    In taking Scripture as an absolute presupposition and standard for thought, the Christian apologist ought to maintain that there are no possibilities outside of what God is and decrees to be. It is never possible for God to be other than the type of being He is portrayed to be in His self-revelation. Because he does not presuppose the certain truth of the Bible at the very start of his apologetic (de facto and in principium) Clark (a self-professed Calvinist) is willing to reduce the whole system of Christian truth revealed by God therein to a possible accident