Tag: TAG
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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. …
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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”.…
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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) …
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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
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Islam: A few brief considerations
…“Islam claims that the Gospels are inspired by Allah. The Gospels teach that Jesus is God. The Koran says he is not. Therefore, the contradiction is that Jesus is and is not God. Is the Muslim really going to accept both these claims about Jesus:
(J1) Jesus is very God of very God.
(J2) Jesus is not very God of very God.Or:
(J1A) Jesus was crucified and died for the sins of man.
(J2A) Jesus was not crucified and did not die for the sins of man.Or, inconsistencies between their own apologetic practices and what their own holy
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A Response To Mark
“It is no wonder that the critic has a problem making up his mind about hats and the RazorsKiss does not appear to be razor sharp.”
– Mark
“They [Mr. Di Giacomo’s posts] are thorough, clear, correct and easily understood. At least if one is willing to wipe the tears away and quit whining.
Cheers”– Mark
“If Then” Statements and Modus Tollens
Someone named Mark, commenting on Mr. Di Giacomo’s most recent blog post found here writes, “TAG is a very simple if / then. It doesn’t require much of an argument to show that, just the short demonstration …
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Concerning The Rumors
Recently I have been asked a number of times by a handful of people about whether or not I have “given up on” the Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God (TAG). Some readers may have heard rumors about my position on TAG and possibly even some rumors concerning me leaving Choosing Hats. I feel as though I need to go ahead and address the hearsay.
It has been my position from the beginning that while presuppositionalism relies heavily upon TAG, TAG need not be the only argument a presuppositionalist employs in his or her apologetic endeavor. There are other …
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Nitpicking With Nocterro
Recently I posted the audio recording of a debate I had roughly three years ago. A visitor to the site named Nocterro commented in response, “You appear to have used Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism without citing Plantinga.” By this I take him to mean that I do not just “appear” to have used Plantinga’s EAAN without citing Plantinga but that I actually did use Plantinga’s EAAN. In response to this observation I simply responded with a joke:
What? Plantinga thought of an argument like that too?! You know what they say about great minds. 😉
Explaining my jest is …
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Debate: “Does God Exist?” (2007)
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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 …