Tag: Presuppositional Apologetics
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The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (2 of 10)
Douglas Wilson contends that there are, “…two tenets (of modern feminism): 1. men are jerks, and 2. women should strive by all means to become like them.” So who is this Doug Wilson? He is the witty guy who made the similar claim that, “There are two tenets of atheism: One, there is no God. Two, I hate him.” Wilson holds undergraduate degrees in Classical Studies and Philosophy and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Idaho. He serves in Idaho as the pastor of Christ Church and is a professor at New Saint Andrews College (which he …
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The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (1 of 10)
Years ago (oh how time flies!) I read a series of posts by Mark Dever called, “Where’d All These Calvinists Come From?” You may read the series here. Dever provides observations pertaining to the apparent recent growth of Calvinist(ic) theology amongst younger generations as famously pointed out by Collin Hansen here. Some believe these claims erroneous. Others consider them truthful, good news. Others true, but harmful. Whatever your opinion on the matter, I suspect that the “New Calvinism” just has to be an improvement upon “Ancient Pelagianism.” And who wouldn’t agree that it is better to be “Young, …
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Theistic Arguments and the Necessity of God
There are many different types of necessity.
Logical Necessity and the Ontological Argument
A logically necessary entity exists in every possible world. (A “possible world” is just a logically possible state of affairs.) That is, there is no logically possible state of affairs in which a logically necessary entity does not exist.
The ontological argument seeks to demonstrate, among other things, that God is a logically necessary entity. Since God is the greatest possible being, there is no logically possible state of affairs in which God does not exist. It is greater for God to exist in every possible …
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The Arrogance of the “Impossibility of the Contrary”
A lot of people have problems with the “impossibility of the contrary” claim often made as part and parcel of the covenantal or presuppositional apologetic method. A lot of people. And they have problems with it for very different reasons. I will address only two of them here.
The first is exclusivity. To say that anything contrary to some given position is impossible is to make a very bold claim to exclusivity. I am not going to enter into the various senses in which the covenantal apologist might be using the term “impossibility” here. But it will suffice to …
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Paul Baird On His Informal Discussion With Me
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Rhology Responds to Reasonable Doubts (part 2)
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The Unbeliever’s Problem
A former classmate who serves as a professor at the college level sometimes has students who come to his office expressing doubt about the existence of God. Before engaging them in any sort of intellectual conversation, he wisely asks such students, “What sin are you currently struggling with?”
The problem of unbelief is first spiritual, then moral, and only then intellectual. While a Reformed anthropology should take the human as a whole, analytic abstractions require an emphasis upon the spiritual aspect of doubt. The unbridled irrationality of spiritual waywardness ruins the moral uprightness and intellectual acuity of the individual. All …
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“If the existence of God is so obvious, then why do we debate it?”
Atheists sometimes make the rhetorical point that if the existence of God were so obvious as many Christians hold it to be, then we would not have to hold debates about His existence. We don’t go around having debates about the existence of particular people, or certain types of animals, or various aspects of the world that are immediately present to our sensory experience, so why do we have them about something or someone who is supposed to so obviously exist? Is God just incapable of revealing Himself clearly enough that we might believe in Him the way we believe …