Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: presup

  • Jesus and the Paralytic (Part 1)

    Passage

    And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.  And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay. And when Jesus saw their faith, he said to the …

  • Initial Comments on the Reiter Article

    Adam Omelianchuk has done everyone a great service by summarizing David Reiter’s recent article on the Transcendental Argument for God (TAG) which recently appeared in Philosophia Christi. I left a comment there with my initial response to the article. (I was working from memory and do not have a copy of the article in front of me even now so I cannot get very specific.)

    __________________

    I have read the article in question and it appears to me as though a traditional argument form is being assumed in the case of TAG in order to argue that it is …

  • William Lane Craig’s Inconsistent Objections to Presuppositional Argument

    I recently wrote that two of the most popular objections to TAG are in fact inconsistent with one another. The objections are that TAG is circular and that TAG is unstated. These two assertions are far too readily accepted as some kind of meaningful objections. Moreover, they are inconsistent with one another.

    Today curiosity got the best of me and I began to wonder if anyone in Five Views On Apologetics might have made the error of trying to use not one or the other of the objections in question, but both of them at the same time. …

  • Two Initial Objections to TAG

    Two of the most common objections to the Transcendental Argument for God from both inside and outside of Christianity appear to be inconsistent with each other.

    Consider:

    1. TAG is circular.

    2. TAG is unstated.

    Perhaps the two can be reconciled, but I believe it would take more than the typical surface level treatment of TAG to do so. One notable exception might be when a bare assertion is offered as the proof itself. However it would be odd to describe a mere assertion as “circular”.…

  • “Cruel Logic”

    …

  • Practical Atheism

    But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.
    James 1:22 (ESV)

    Take the rest of the day to reflect on this verse including its apologetic import. You probably really need to.…

  • Expert Apologist

    Negatively…

    The expert in apologetics is not necessarily the one with the best philosophical arguments. The expert in apologetics does not necessarily know all of the relevant facts. The expert in apologetics does not necessarily always have an intellectually satisfying answer on hand. The expert in apologetics is not constantly trying to defend his or her own name. The expert in apologetics is not constantly after opportunities to make his or her name known. The expert in apologetics does not withhold knowledge from others. The expert in apologetics does not use language no one can understand. The expert in apologetics …

  • “Hat Tricks – Episode 1” Is Fixed!

    If you downloaded the new Hat Tricks podcast earlier today then you may have gotten a bad copy. Corrections have been made to the audio and the podcast is still available at the original place here. Sorry for the inconvenience!…

  • Wrongly, Plantinga

    According to John Calvin, “As soon as ever we depart from Christ, there is nothing, be it ever so gross or insignificant in itself, respecting which we are not necessarily deceived.” Perhaps Calvin means only what we have already noted: one who doesn’t know God fails to know the most important truth about anything else. He may mean to go even further, however: perhaps he means to say that those who don’t know God suffer much wider ranging cognitive deprivation and, in fact, don’t really have any knowledge at all. (This view is at any rate attributed (rightly or wrongly) …

  • The things you find while not looking for them…

    “NB that choosing hats errantly supposes that by rational Bahnsen means deductive. But anyone with even a modicum of familiarity with Bahnsen and Van Til would know that both of them considered induction rational.” – Mark

    Someone taking shots at me and my understanding of Bahnsen from afar as it were recently made the claim quoted above. I responded to his entire argument here.

    Tonight as I was scanning Bahnsen for something completely unrelated I happened across the context of the passage from Bahnsen that was the focus of the discussion Mark was responding to.

    But we realize even

    …