Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: evolution

  • Dogmatism, Philosophy, and Evolution

    Yesterday I received a copy of the Southern Seminary Magazine for Winter 2011 in the mail. You may obtain a copy by clicking here. The cover of the magazine is black and has Ex Nihilo printed in bold capital letters across the bottom. No doubt in light of recent controversy involving especially President R. Albert Mohler Jr. and the BioLogos Foundation the issue focuses upon the subject of origins.

    A few points made by philosopher Mark Coppenger in his article, “Evolution and Creation in Higher Education” on pages 36-38 are worth repeating in an effort to reconsider the dogmatic …

  • "The Argument From Consciousness"

    Peter Kreeft and Ronald K. Tacelli make the following argument:

    1. We experience the universe as intelligible. This intelligibility means that the universe is graspable by intelligence.
    2. Either this intelligible universe and the finite minds so well suited to grasp it are the products of intelligence, or both intelligibility and intelligence are the products of blind chance.
    3. Not blind chance.
    4. Therefore this intelligible universe and the finite minds so well suited to grasp it are the products of intelligence. (66)

    The argument (which they call “The Argument from Consciousness”) is predicated upon their design argument presented prior to this one in …

  • Thoughts of H.W.B. Joseph

    In 1931 a late nineteenth and early twentieth century philosopher at Oxford by the name of H.W.B. Joseph published a book called Some Problems in Ethics. The following is quoted from the aforementioned work:

    If thought is laryngeal motion, how should any one think more truly than the wind blows? All movements of bodies are equally necessary, but they cannot be discriminated as true and false. It seems as nonsensical to call a movement true as a flavor purple or a sound avaricious. But what is obvious when thought is said to be a certain bodily movement seems equally

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  • Church History and Apologetics Classes

    Recently, I had the opportunity of teaching two classes for my local church, on the subjects of Church History and Apologetics.

    Chris asked me to post them, so here they are!

    Note: I wasn’t professionally recorded – I did it myself – so the quality is only so-so.

    Church History: I used a primarily biographical method in teaching a quick overview of the history of the Church – and it’s isn’t nearly as comprehensive as many classes might be. It’s only 12 sessions, so I obviously had to go fairly quickly. This was taught as an introduction to the …

  • Science Is Not That Simple (Part 2)

    (For the first part of Science Is Not That Simple click here.)

    Chalmers argues against the common idea that facts precede and are separate from theory. Chalmers starts his argument out against this common idea by explaining the ambiguity of the term “fact”.

    It can refer to a statement that expresses the fact and it can also refer to the state of affairs referred to by such a statement.  For example, it is a fact that there are mountains and craters on the moon.  Here the fact can be taken as referring to the mountains or craters themselves.  Alternatively,

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  • The Asparagus And The Ape – Part 2

    One of the wonderful things about presuppositionalism is that one need look no farther than the very basic teachings of the Bible in order to get one’s answers about philosophical issues which worry and weary the unbeliever. One such problem before the unbeliever is how the essential assumption of human dignity is accounted for in a non-Christian worldview. Our society is ruminated with the implications of human dignity, and yet we saw in Part 1 of the treatment of this subject that there are fatal flaws in attempting to consistently adhere to both a non-Christian view of the world and …

  • The Asparagus And The Ape – Part 1

    “It was nothing to brag about, just a sort of squishy blob…”

    The mysterious squishy blob described above is a character in the book Ishmael by Daniel Quinn. The blob lives “half a billion years ago”. Ishmael, a story telling gorilla, relates the details of the blob’s environment.

    Nothing at all stirred on the land, except the wind and the dust. Not a single
    blade of grass waved in the wind, not a single cricket chirped, not a
    single bird soared in the sky…Even the seas were eerily still and silent, for
    the vertebrates too were tens of millions of

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