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Philosophy of Religion

What’s Wrong with Apologetics?

I’ve been an apologetics enthusiast ever since I watched William Lane Craig as a sophomore in high school. Like many, I grew up a little Craig-disciple echoing the oft repeated arguments I heard. I loved watching the debates, the conferences, the panels. (In fact, I wrote my high school senior thesis on the moral argument for God’s existence.) That love persisted throughout college as I chose to major in philosophy. At one point I wrote a post titled “4 Reasons Not to Dismiss Apologetics,” and the very first entries I wrote for this blog (six years ago now!) are titled, “Why I Believe in God” where I rehash a few of the standard theistic arguments. After graduate school, I even taught Apologetics at a Christian college. And through my current work, I still desire to engage in the task of defending and explaining the truth of the Christian faith. All of this to say, I have a deep appreciation for apologetics. But something has gone wrong in modern day apologetics, and I think it has something to do with the absence of a sapiential approach… Read More »What’s Wrong with Apologetics?

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Richard Swinburne and the Society of Christian Philosophers

Something strange happened last week within the Society of Christian Philosophers. If you don’t know, the Society of Christian Philosophers is simply a formally organized group of philosophical scholars who identify as Christians. It is (as far as I know) the broadest and largest academic organized group of Christian philosophers. Like other academic groups, they come together throughout the year to present lectures, discuss ideas, and keep up with the latest news in Christian philosophical discussions. The group was founded in 1978 and some of its past presidents have included esteemed thinkers like Alvin Plantinga, Nicholas Wolterstorff, and Eleonore Stump. The current president of the SCP is Michael Rea who also teaches philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. Read More »Richard Swinburne and the Society of Christian Philosophers

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Why I Am A Dualist

Contemporary defenders of dualism include great thinkers like Richard Swinburne, Alvin Plantinga, and J.P. Moreland. And yet it seems increasingly popular these days among some Christian scholars to deny the existence of an immaterial soul. “The idea of an immaterial, everlasting soul, is a not a Jewish idea. It is a Platonic idea,” some will say. I was shocked when I first came across this idea in college, and I found myself starting to believe that perhaps there really isn’t such a thing called a soul. However, more recently I’ve come to think that surely that can’t be the case. And I want to offer some reasons for why I think so.   But before I do that, let me be clear that I think the physically body is very important, and I think many Christians do have a tendency to overemphasize and prioritize the soul or the spiritual above the physical as though the two were competing with each other and I don’t think that’s quite right. Christians absolutely should recognize the importance of physical reality. After all, we believe in the physical, bodily resurrection… Read More »Why I Am A Dualist

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Why I Believe in God – Part 3

I wanted to share some of the philosophical arguments for the existence of God that compel me the most. Click to view Part 1 and Part 2.

The Transcendental Argument. This argument primarily comes out of the work of Cornelius Van Til and other presuppositional apologists, and I find it to be incredibly powerful. I think it goes much deeper than a lot of the other arguments for God’s existence.
Read More »Why I Believe in God – Part 3

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Why I Believe In God – Part 1

I think it’s valuable to have good reasons for believing that God exists, and some of those reasons include philosophical arguments. Though I don’t think it’s necessary for Christians to know all the philosophical arguments for God’s existence, I do think that it proves incredibly beneficial and assuring for the Christian person’s faith; and I think most Christians particularly in North America and Europe really don’t have an excuse for not knowing the arguments. That being said, I want to explain the arguments for belief in God which  compel me the most:

Read More »Why I Believe In God – Part 1

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