2013 Year in Review: Apologetics 315

Another year has flown by. And with the end of the year upon us, here is Apologetics 315's annual year-in-review post. Again there were over one million page views, over half a million visits, and over a quarter of a million unique visitors. Thanks for being one of them!

This year I interviewed 25 guests for the Apologetics 315 Interviews Podcast. Transcription of the interviews continues, with a team of transcribers that have been working diligently. An index of the transcripts can be found here.

This year we featured a number of debates, which can be excellent resources.
These included:
• William Lane Craig vs. Lawrence Krauss
• Norman Geisler vs. Paul Kurtz
• William Lane Craig vs. R.I.G. Hughes
• Brett Kunkle vs. Richard Greene
• Frank Turek vs. David Silverman
• Peter S. Williams vs. Christopher Norris
• Sean McDowell vs. James Corbett
• William Lane Craig vs. Alex Rosenberg

The Most-Visited Pages of 2012 were:

1. The Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio page
2. 16 Best Apologetics Podcasts
3. An Apologetics Reading Plan for Beginners
4. Recommended Apologetics Book Directory
5. Basic Logic Primer
6. William Lane Craig vs. Alex Rosenberg
7. How to Get Apologetics in Your Church
8. C.S. Lewis on Reasoning to Atheism
9. Christian Apologetics Blog Directory
10. Faith Has Its Reasons by Ken Boa

Now that list included a lot of posts that have been around for a few years. So here is the list of Top Ten New Posts for 2013:

1. William Lane Craig vs. Alex Rosenberg
2. The Gospel According to Bart Ehrman
3. 8 Issues That Do Not Make Or Break Christianity
4. Ravi Zacharias Interview Transcript
5. Free Logic Primer eBook Download
6. Book Review: The God Argument by AC Grayling
7. Top 10 Myths About the Resurrection
8. Ravi Zacharias on the Problem of Evil
9. 10 Basic Facts About the NT Canon
10. Why Telling Your Story is Not the Best Way to Share the Gospel

This year Apologetics 315 reviewed 46 apologetics books. I want to say a big thank you to the review team for their hard work in reading and reviewing so many great titles. Thanks goes out to J.W. Wartick, Jay L. Wyle, Mary Lou, Latter Day Inkling, Chad Gross, Dave Jenkins, Mark Eckel, Graham Veale, Luke Nix, Holly Ordway, David Rodriguez, Chris Putnam, Brenton Cook, Eugene A. Curry, G. Kyle Essary, Chad Gibbons, Bill McCall, David Field, Justin Mooney, and Mike A. Robinson.

We continue to feature apologetics oriented quotes each Sunday, sparking some great discussions. Along with the weekly quotes, Tuesdays continue to feature terminology helpful for those delving into the realm of apologetics.

There is more and more happening in the area of apologetics. Because of this, Friday's Apologetics Bonus Links offers readings a weekly rundown of all the best links from around the web. Included each week are great Kindle book deals as well.

In case you didn't realize it, all the Bonus Links are all drip-fed through the Ap315 Twitter Feed throughout the week. It's a good thing to follow, because I feature free or discounted books available on Kindle.

If you don't prefer the chatter of Twitter, you can get daily updates on the Facebook Page. If you're not yet a follower on Facebook, please follow. This helps others find apologetics resources who might not be aware of Apologetics 315. This year the Facebook group has grown to over 8,000.

The Apologetics 315 YouTube Channel still provides another means of checking out apologist interviews. Check it out and share with others.

This year Apologetics 315 has been pleased to promote the work of Tactical Faith, an organization that gets apologetics out there in a grass-roots kind of way. They call it Grassroots apologetics. If you want to support apologetics events, this is an organization to help.

I would like to thank my blogging friends that continue to be an encouragement to me: Chad Gross of Truthbomb Apologetics and Wintery Knight from Winteryknight.com.

I continue to head up Reasonable Faith Belfast, now in its fourth year. We had some great meetings during 2013, with various Skype guests, great discussion, and a growing number of defenders of the faith.

Apologetics 315 promoted numerous apologetics conferences in the US and in the UK. I was happy to be able to attend the C.S. Lewis Memorial Service in November at Westminster Abbey and meet up with some blogging friends and see about 7 people I had interviewed all in one day.

This year Apologetics 315 has received support from its 501(c)(3) tax-deductible status. This has been a tremendous help, and thank you to those who have donated or become supporters. Find out how you can support here, as it's not too late to make end-of-year donations.

Please pray for 2014 to be another good year. God bless, and thanks for reading!

—Brian Auten

Terminology Tuesday: Resurrection/Assumption/Revivification

Resurrection is the raising up of a dead man in the space-time universe to glory and immortality. Assumption is the taking of someone bodily out of this world into heaven. Revivification is the return of a dead man to the mortal life. 2 Kings 2:1-12 describes the assumption of Elijah into heaven. John 11:1-44 describes the revivification of Lazarus by Jesus. Note the differences between the two events and Jesus' resurrection.1

1. William Lane Craig, On Guard: Defending Your Faith with Reason and Precision (Colorado Springs, CO: David C. Cook,  2010), p. 256.

Free: Essential Apologetics PowerPoint Series

In partnership with The PowerPoint Apologist, Apologetics 315 is offering a series of 12 Free PowerPoint presentations, released monthly. These cover 12 essential topics in apologetics. These are free to download, modify, and use for your own apologetics presentations. (However, please retain the final two slides featuring the PowerPoint Apologist and Apologetics 315 resources.)

The twelfth in the series explores Christianity for each person:
"Why Christianity?—In My World"
Download it here. Slideshare here.
Enjoy.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (12/20 - 12/27)

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.

KINDLE DEALS:
• The Case for Faith by Lee Strobel - 2.99
• The Case for Christ by Lee Strobel - 2.99
• The Case for Christmas by Lee Strobel - 1.99
• Tactics by Greg Koukl - 2.99
• The Big Book of Bible Answers by Ron Rhodes - 3.03
• Biblical Inerrancy: The Historical Evidence by Norman Geisler - 2.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• C.S. Lewis on Miracles
• Horus Ruins Christmas
• The Bible Is Offensive
• Jesus of Testimony the Movie
• Risen Jesus - Mike Licona's New Website
• Why Switchfoot won’t sing Christian songs
• Did Jesus really teach that it is wrong to judge others?
• How can I be sure God exists? William Lane Craig on Fox News
• Watch Stephen Meyer and Eric Metaxas at the Union League Club

Apologetics 315 is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. Would you support us monthly?

• Shopping via Amazon? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315.
Canada here. UK here.

• Would you like to help with interview transcription? If so, contact Ap315 here.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.

Merry Christmas from Apologetics 315!

Apologetics 315 will be taking a break the rest of this week from regular posting, and will resume blogging on Friday, December 27th with Bonus Links. In the meantime, enjoy this video.

Enjoy a Happy Christmas with family and friends.

Terminology Tuesday: Reductionism

Reductionism: An attempt to explain some domain or field by showing that it can be derived from or redescribed in the language of some more basic domain or field. A physicalist, for example, may attempt a reductionistic account of the mind by showing that such entities as thoughts and perception can be reduced to physiological states of the brain. In science a successful reduction requires one to show how the laws of one domain can be derived from the laws of some more fundamental domain. Reductionism often is linked to an attitude that seeks to view the explained or "reduced" field or objects as unreal.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 100.

A Reasonable Response: Apologetics Learning ‘With’ and ‘Beyond’ William Lane Craig by Joe Gorra

Various images and ideas often dominate people's perceptions about Biola University's research professor of philosophy, William Lane Craig. Perhaps he is mostly know as debater, or Bill as lecturer, or Bill as philosophy and theology scholar, or Bill as apologist, etc. After ten years of directly serving Bill's research needs in any of the above areas, here’s what I have come to realize: to understand what animates Bill Craig in his work is to understand the role that asking questions and answering them has in all of his scholarly and public engagements. And not just asking and answering from any and all standpoints, but with the Christian tradition before his mind; as someone who is seeking to faithfully represent and steward that tradition through his life and witness in the world.

James Beilby on Apologetic Success

"Apologetic success, however, is neither strictly a matter of the quality of one's arguments nor the apparent response of your interlocutor...apologetic success is best understood as faithfulness to Jesus Christ. In our apologetic endeavors, we are called to be faithful to Christ in at least three senses. First, what we say should accurately represent who Jesus is, what he taught and, specifically, the good news he brought to the world. Second, the way we do our apologetics should augment our arguments, not detract from them. We must defend Christ in a way that fits with Christ's message. Finally, we must be faithful to God's purposes in specific situations. In some cases, apologetics appropriately and naturally leads to an offer for a person to commit her life to Christ, but in the vast majority of cases, our apologetic endeavors are a small step in a person's long and winding journey that one hopes will culminate in relationship with Jesus Christ."

—James Beilby

1. Beilby, James K. Thinking About Christian Apologetics. Pages 22-23. [HT: TruthBomb]

Book Review: Hume's Abject Failure by John Earman

In Hume’s Abject Failure, John Earman (henceforth JE) levels several complaints against Hume’s argument against miracles, of which I will focus on only one: Hume’s treatment of inductive reasoning.[i] JE takes some pains to stress that his critique derives from what he sees as objective flaws in Hume’s argument and not from an antipathy to Hume’s conclusions.[ii] JE poses a couple of criteria for an adequate epistemology—criteria which, he feels, Hume’s account of induction cannot meet.[iii]

JE argues that the most reasonable reading of Hume’s argument against miracles is as follows. Say we have seen a long succession of some event A occurring. Further stipulate that in all known instances of A, it turns out that A was also B. On JE’s reading of Hume, this makes the statement ‘All As are Bs’ a presumptive law of nature.[iv] This yields the conclusion that we should assign the likelihood that the next A will also be a B to 1. In other words, we should possess absolute certainty that the next occurrence will not be a violation of our presumed law of nature. Put into Bayesian terms[v], this can be expressed as follows:[vi]

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (12/13 - 12/20)

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.

KINDLE DEALS:
• Black Friday Kindle Deals
• The Goldilocks Enigma by Paul Davies - 2.99
• Reasons for Belief: Easy-to-Understand Answers to 10 Essential Questions by Norman Geisler - 2.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• The Windmills of the Mormon Mind
• Around the Web#11: Suffering and Evil
• Defend the Faith Conference - Jan 2014
• Summer Seminar 2014 - Rivendell Institute
• J.P. Moreland on the Resurrection of Jesus
• The Argument from Maths in Seven Quick Points
• Agnostic Thomas Nagel on Why There is Anything
• Video: Christ in a World of Religions by Craig Hazen
• A Christmas gift for atheists -- five reasons why God exists
• A Brief Sample of Archaeology Corroborating the Claims of the New Testament
• Article: 65 Apologetics Questions Every Christian Parent Needs to Learn to Answer

Apologetics 315 is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. Would you support us monthly?

• Shopping via Amazon? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315.
Canada here. UK here.

• Would you like to help with interview transcription? If so, contact Ap315 here.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.

Terminology Tuesday: Realism

Realism: The belief that there are real entities that exist independently of human knowers. There are many types of realism, depending on the scope of the theory and the contrasting antirealist position. [...] Realism (and its rival antirealism) can also be restricted to particular regions. Thus one can be a realist (or antirealist) about unobservable scientific entities such as quarks or abstract logical entities such as sets and numbers.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 99.

Apologist Interview: Tony Brown

Today's interview is with Tony Brown, Pastor of Sunbridge Road Mission. As a former Jehovah’s Witness, Tony conducts seminars/workshops in churches and is an outreach advisor and blog contributor for UK Partnerships for Christ, a ministry reaching out to Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormons. He talks about his journey in and out of the JWs, the beliefs of JWs, the Watchtower Society, advice for Christians speaking with cult members, and more.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (37 min)

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

Book Review: Agents Under Fire by Angus Menuge

This reviewer has long been interested in the discussions about the existence of agents. Since the teleological argument depends on the existence of design being a legitimate concept, and that being dependent upon the existence of agents, Angus Menuge's book Agents Under Fire: Materialism and the Rationality of Science was quite appealing. This reviewer balked at the price on Amazon, but it was given as a gift, and this reviewer was ecstatic delve into it immediately. The book is 215 pages divided into eight densely packed chapters. This review is designed to be a chapter-by-chapter summary to prepare the reader to tackle this challenging text.

Preface
Dr. Menuge begins the preface of the book by stating that his purpose behind writing Agents Under Fire is to defend the existence of agency (a non-natural entity capable of reasoning and purposing). He explains that this is a pivotal question in debates about intelligent design, for if there is no agency then there is no agents to design anything (to compare the "designs" in nature to)- design even is an illegitimate concept and should be completely discarded.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (12/06 - 12/13)

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.

KINDLE DEALS:
• Black Friday Kindle Deals
• The Goldilocks Enigma by Paul Davies - 2.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• Apologetics
• An army of tent makers
• 12 Facts in Defence of Christmas
• Jesus Argued Reductio Ad Absurdum
• The Conflicting Genealogies of Jesus
• If God Exists And Is All-Powerful, Then Why Evil?
• The Case for the Reliability of the Old Testament
• The Case for the Eyewitness Status of the Gospel Authors
• If God, Why Evil? Live-Streaming Event Tue. Dec. 10 w/ Frank Turek
• Article: C.S. Lewis and the Argument from Reason by Jay W. Richards
• How Ancient Eyewitness Testimony Became the New Testament Gospel Record

Apologetics 315 is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. Would you support us monthly?

• Shopping via Amazon? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315.
Canada here. UK here.

• Would you like to help with interview transcription? If so, contact Ap315 here.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.

Terminology Tuesday: Consequentialism

Consequentialism: An ethical theory that sees the ethical goodness or wrongness of an act as determined by the nonmoral consequences of the act, such as the amount of pleasure or pain the act produces. A good example is utilitarianism, which claims that the morally right act is the one that produces the best consequences for all who will be affected. Consequentialist theories are contrasted with deontological theories, which hold that rightness and wrongness are not completely determined by consequences.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 27-28.

John Stott on the Role of Knowledge in the Christian Life

“Knowledge is indispensable to Christian life and service. If we do not use the mind that God has given us, we condemn ourselves to spiritual superficiality and cut ourselves off from many of the riches of God's grace.”

—John Stott
Your Mind Matters – The Place of the Mind in the Christian Life

Book Review: The Philosophy of History: Naturalism and Religion by James Stroud

With a title like The Philosophy of History: Naturalism and Religion, it is not surprising to find that the theses James Stroud defends in this book pertain to historiography and the impact of historical method on the assessment of religious claims. But what is surprising about a book with this title and focus is its similarity to the myriad introductory works of apologetics available today, which present an accessible treatment of common apologetic issues, ranging from the origins of the universe and the grounding of morality to the historical Jesus.

Stroud has two central theses in The Philosophy of History, one of which gets more attention than the other. His primary thesis is the claim that naturalism should not be assumed a priori in historical and scientific studies; an “open” methodology which allows for both natural and supernatural explanations should be employed instead of the currently popular “closed” methodology wherein only naturalistic explanations are tolerated. Stroud also defends a secondary thesis, which claims that there is a greater overlap or unity between science and history than is often recognized. In particular, he argues that certain “past singularities” (one-time historical events) such as the origin of the universe, of life, and of humanity, are, though often classified as matters of ‘origins science’, equally at home under the umbrella of history. Stroud repeatedly makes statements like “Origins science is really ‘history’ (or history as a weak science[1]…)”[2] and “…the historian is more capable of addressing questions of origin science with philosophy as an aid than the operation scientist.”[3] “Moreover,” he says, “weaker sciences such as anthropology and sociology as well as linguistics all fall under the much larger umbrella of ‘history.’”[4] This second thesis receives the most attention in the fourth chapter, “What about History?” Though interesting, this point apparently lacks methodological import, for as Stroud ventures into historical and scientific issues later in the book, they are treated in pretty much exactly the same way that they have typically been treated in recent discussion, even to the point of employing unaltered or mostly unaltered versions of arguments used by William Lane Craig, J. P. Moreland, Stephen C. Meyer, Gary Habermas, and others.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (11/29 - 12/06)

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.

KINDLE DEALS:
• Black Friday Kindle Deals
• Atheism Remix by Al Mohler - 2.99
• The Goldilocks Enigma by Paul Davies - 2.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• Awe
• Douglas Wilson on Atheism
• Defend the Faith Conference: January 2014
• "If God Cannot Change, Why Should We Pray?"
• The Fine Tuning Argument in 12 Quick Points
• How Teaching Answers Fails Christian Students
• The Scriptural Case for Apologetics: 7 Quick Points
• Reflective Thinking: The Noble Art of Rhetorical Persuasion, Part 1
• How Can an Introvert Engage Others in Discussions About God? (Video)
• Did the divinity of Jesus emerge slowly after many years of embellishments?
• Bible Secrets Revealed?: A Response to the New History Channel Series (Part 3)
• Establishing the Reliability of the Old Testament: A Trustworthy Process of Transmission

Apologetics 315 is a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit. Would you support us monthly?

• Shopping via Amazon? If you use this link, a bit of your purchase goes to fund Apologetics 315. Thanks for those of you using the link, as it helps Ap315.
Canada here. UK here.

• Would you like to help with interview transcription? If so, contact Ap315 here.

Get these sorts of links and more by following on Twitter.
For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.

Peter J. Williams Interview Transcript

The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Peter J. Williams. Original audio here. Transcript index here. If you enjoy transcripts, please consider supporting, which makes this possible.

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BA: Hello. This is Brian Auten of Apologetics 315. Today's interview is with Peter J. Williams, the warden of Tyndale House Cambridge. He was educated at Cambridge University, where he received his M.A., M.Phil, and PhD in the study of ancient languages related to the Bible. Peter is an excellent communicator and competent to speak to a variety of Biblical issues, including the text of the Old and New Testament, moral objections to the Old Testament, and the reliability of the Gospels.

The purpose of this interview is to discuss the reliability of the Gospels, look briefly at Old Testament morality, and get Peter's advice on the subject of apologetics.

Thanks for joining me for this interview, Peter.

PW: It's a pleasure.

Terminology Tuesday: Order of Being/Order of Knowing

Order of Being/Order of Knowing: Medieval distinction between the ontological order and the epistemological order. For example, Thomas Aquinas believed that God is the ground of existence for all other beings. Hence, in the order of being (ontology), God is primary. However, humans come to know finite objects through their senses first and must infer the existence of God from God's effects. Thus, in the order of knowing (epistemology), finite objects precede God.1

1. C.Stephen Evans, Pocket Dictionary of Apologetics & Philosophy of Religion (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2002), p. 86.

Chuck Colson on Grassroots Apologetics

"If our culture is to be transformed, it will happen from the bottom up—from ordinary believers practicing apologetics over the backyard fence or around the barbecue grill."

—Chuck Colson