Tag: common objections
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Evil as an Illusion
To the average Westerner, the religious texts and teachings of the East often read like drug induced nonsense. At the same time, Eastern religions contain some insight in virtue of their very different approach to familiar topics.
Take, for example, the problem of evil. As far as most atheists are concerned, this is the best weapon available against theism, and especially Christian theism. Of course, the problem of evil fails as an objection to the Christian faith due to the unbeliever’s inability to fashion an argument against the premise that ‘God has a morally sufficient reason for the evil He …
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Canon and Roman Catholicism
RC: I’m still waiting for James White to explain which Canon of Scripture I’m allowed to use when if I take up sola scriptura.
Chris: Canon is a function of Scripture. Those things which I have written are in the canon of my works. Similarly those things which God has breathed out constitute the canon of Scripture.
RC: Chris… what I meant… am I permitted to use the Scripture comprised of 73 books, or the one comprised of only 66 books? Of course both versions are God breathed, inherent, and authoritative.
Obviously this is all hypothetical as I do not… …
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It’s Circular Because It’s Consistent
I just wrote a piece arguing that presuppositionalism is not circular. For the sake of clarity, I will now argue that it is.
“Virtuous Circularity”
There is, of course, a sense in which presuppositionalism is circular. But upon hearing the term “circular” most opponents of the Christian faith, and even many of those who are counted among its friends, immediately start off into lengthy diatribes describing their disgust with Christians and methodologies that rely upon logically fallacious argumentation.
The Logic of Logic
Now the charge of logically fallacious argumentation, it seems to me, rests in some way upon logic. …
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It’s Circular Because It’s Circular
The charge that presuppositionalism is “circular” must be one of the dumbest objections I have ever heard.
No really. Think about it for just a moment.
You hear the accusation again and again that presuppositional apologetics are “circular.” The implication is that the charge of circularity in view here constitutes an objection against presuppositional apologetics. A fatal objection, even. So a logical point is being made. A fallacy is in view.
Presuppositional Apologetics Can’t Be Circular
But it should be noted right away that “presuppositional apologetics” can never be circular. Neither the label “presuppositional apologetics” nor the discipline the label …
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“The Problem of Non-God Objects”
Justin Scheiber recently gave a presentation which may be found here – http://freethoughtblogs.com/reasonabledoubts/2012/08/29/rd-extra-the-problem-of-non-god-objects on a philosophical problem he believes he has developed with respect to God and creation. Let me begin by stating that I did not listen to his presentation in its entirety, though I did jot down the argument itself and the objections he attempted to answer. The argument Justin presented may be stated as follows:
…(1) There is a possible world ‘P’ that is God existing alone and nothing else existing for eternity.
(2) God is a perfect being.
(3) Therefore, ‘P’ is the ‘Best Possible World.’
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Passion in Apologetics
In a previous post I asked the question, “What does success in apologetics look like?” We read through the Apostle Paul’s encounter with the Athenians at the Areopagus, took note of the content of his message and the way he presented it, as well as his hearers’ responses, and, keeping in mind that the Apostle sets the example for us as apologists, we concluded that success in apologetics does not depend upon people’s response to our message. Success, therefore, is determined by the content of the message itself and the extent to which we reason in line with Biblical truths …
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Lutherans, and Muslims, and TAG! Oh My!
On yesterday’s Dividing Line (September 11, 2012) a caller (37 minute mark) asks Dr. White some questions about “apologetic frameworks.” You may find the program here – http://www.aomin.org/aoblog/index.php?itemid=5229. As usual I recommend listening to the program in its entirety, but I want to mention two links related to the aforementioned discussion.
The first link is to a post where I tried to squeeze Martin Luther into a presuppositionalist framework. I don’t actually think he fits into that category, but it was worth a shot. You may find the post here – https://choosinghats.org/2010/10/happy-reformation-day-from-choosing-hats-2.
The second is the article I …
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The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (8 of 10)
(Links in this post are temporarily down.)
Today I met with another presuppositionalist for lunch. The Internet is where I first heard about him and wrote to him and eventually I was able to meet him in person. There have been at least a dozen other presuppositionalists I have met in like manner. I feared for my life in only about half of those meetings. The Internet has made it possible to have presuppositional discussions with people I would otherwise have never known exist.
“The Internet” is an obvious answer to the question of what major factors have …
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Bill Nye and his Pie in the Sky
In a video entitled “Bill Nye: Creationism Is Not Appropriate For Children” released on YouTube by bigthink on August 23, 2012, Bill Nye, known most popularly for his hosting of a children’s science-themed TV show (“Bill Nye the Science Guy”), shares his thoughts on Evolution and, specifically, deniers of evolutionary science. It doesn’t seem to be scripted, and it lasts only 2 minutes and 32 seconds. The video has gained immense popularity in the few days since it was released (“Bill Nye” was #1 in Yahoo!’s search terms when I watched it, almost a week later), and it has been …