Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: philosophy of religion

  • Application and Practicality

    There seems to be, at least in my experience, a common objection to Covenantal apologetics that goes something like this. Emphasizing all of these arcane and/or obscure concepts, focusing on theology proper; it just doesn’t address the real world practically. There is no application to be made – it’s all theoretical. There are a few variants, and I’ll bring up a couple. First, the objection is made that we are being “obscure” – Bahnsen, as you may know, addresses this in “Always Ready,” along with an admonishment against “obscurantist arrogance.” Here’s an excerpt.

    “In the last study we heard three

    …

  • Watching for Worldviews

    The Gospel Coalition is running a slightly interesting series called “Reading for worldviews” that I had hoped would prove very insightful. It has, however, been a little bit of a disappointment. The writers seem to reach for more complexity instead of grabbing the book by the horns. The exercise is a good one and one that we as thinking Christians should do as we strive to take every thought captive to Christ and His Lordship. An exercise I have tried to do for years now is watch for worldviews where I will try to keep an eye out for statements …

  • “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.’

    …

  • 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 …

  • Bill Nye on U.S. Denial of Evolution

    Bill Nye made some comments concerning evolution that have since gone viral.

    There are a lot of questionable claims in Nye’s comments. He believes that the “denial of evolution” is a “world view” that not only will “harm young people” but “hamper scientific progress.”

    The first problem is that Nye never defines for us what he means by “evolution.” He does note that, “Evolution is the fundamental idea in all of life science, in all of biology,” but again, he does not define what this idea is. He also lists a string of entities he apparently thinks evolution includes, …

  • The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (6 of 10)

    One of the largest contributing factors to the recent rise of covenantal apologetics is, oddly enough, the response of its anti-Christian critics.

    Just in the last year or two, podcast after atheistic podcast has trumpeted everything from mere disdain for to the utter defeat of presuppositional apologetics. Podcasts that come to mind are Fundamentally Flawed, Skepticule Record, and Reasonable Doubts. There are others. Militant atheists are also mouthy atheists. On the one hand, they want to dismissively scoff at covenantal apologetics, making up some of the worst puns on “presuppositionalism” you have ever heard. On the other …

  • The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (5 of 10)

    “Theology matters and theology determines apologetic methodology.” – Dr. James R. White

    The entire program of presuppositional apologetics can be summed up in the “need for consistency” challenge constantly set forth by Dr. James R. White of Alpha and Omega Ministries. If one ever wonders where the present day Greg Bahnsen of apologetics is one need look no further than Dr. White. Such a statement might ruffle some feathers, but having followed Dr. White’s ministry for a few years now I believe the statement is substantiated by the ministry delivered to Dr. White by the grace of God.

    From C.L. …

  • The “Self-Attestation” of Scripture (Part 2)

    In Part 1 the so-called “self-attestation” of Scripture was examined. The conclusion? The claim that Scripture is self-attesting is not nearly as controversial as people initially make it out to be. The claim taken on its own says little more than that Scripture makes some claims concerning itself. Examples are 2 Timothy 3.16 and John 17.17.

    So far, so good. But there is much more to be said.

    It is significant that Scripture makes claims concerning itself. Such claims are usually about the truthfulness and authority of Scripture. In short, the text of Scripture claims that it is the Word …

  • But They’re All The Same

    It is often alleged by many atheists that all religions are the same, and all religions are false, and since Christianity is a religion, therefore Christianity must also be false. They will answer our defense of Christianity by saying we’re merely engaging in special pleading. This issue is similar to that in a previous post of mine wherein I quoted Stephen Robert’s statement regarding the alleged equivalence of all “gods.” If it is true that both the quantity and quality of evidence attesting to the truth of all particular religions or gods are the same – that is, if each …

  • Nature and Scripture on Reformed Forum

    http://reformedforum.org/podcasts/ctc240/?utm_source=Reformed+Forum+General&utm_campaign=61f945368c-2012_08_Newsletter&utm_medium=email…