Ten Presuppositions of Science

Here is a list of some of the presuppositions of science: (1) the existence of a theory-independent, external world; (2) the orderly nature of the external world; (3) the knowability of the external world; (4) the existence of truth; (5) the laws of logic; (6) the reliability of our cognitive and sensory faculties to serve as truth gatherers and as a source of justified true beliefs in our intellectual environment; (7) the adequacy of language to describe the world; (8) the existence of values used in science (e.g., "test theories fairly and report test results honestly"); (9) the uniformity of nature and induction; (10) the existence of numbers.1

1. William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), pp. 348.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (04/18 - 04/25)

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

KINDLE DEALS:
• Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection - 1.99
• The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus - 3.03
• Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? By WLC - FREE
• Darwin Strikes Back: Defending the Science of Intelligent Design - 2.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• Evidence for Easter
• The Reliability of the New Testament
• Cambridge Summer School of Apologetics 2014
• The Loud Absence: Where is God in Suffering?
• Videos from the Tactical Faith Resurrection Weekend 2014
• Mike Licona and Bart Ehrman debate the resurrection of Jesus
• What Is a Step by Step Argument Showing that Christianity is True?
• Greer Heard Forum: Robin Collins - "God and the Fine-Tuning of the Universe for Discovery"

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Interview Transcript: Clifford Williams

The following transcript is from an Apologetics 315 interview with Clifford 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 Apologetics315. Today’s interview is with Clifford Williams. Cliff teaches philosophy at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois. He is an author of numerous books, but the one we will discuss today is entitled, Existential Reasons for Belief in God: A Defense of Desires and Emotions for Faith. The purpose of this interview is to explore some of the themes in the book, and look at the role of existential arguments for belief. Thanks for joining me today, Cliff.

CW: You’re welcome, thanks for having me.

BA: Well, Cliff, before we get started, would you mind telling our listeners a bit more about and your background?

CW: I teach philosophy at Trinity College in Deerfield, Illinois, and have for the last twenty-nine years; and fourteen years before that, I taught in a college in Rochester, New York; and before that, I earned a PhD at Indiana University; and before that I went to Wheaton College, where I fell in love with philosophy and got to thinking about the ways in which philosophy and Christianity meld together.

Terminology Tuesday: Ethical Terms

Descriptive ethics is a factual study of moral attitudes, behaviors, rules and motives that are embodied in various individuals and cultures. As such, descriptive ethics is not really a branch of ethics, but a sociological, anthropological, historical or psychological view about ethics. Metaethics involves two main areas of investigation. First, metaethics focuses on the meaning and reference of crucial ethical terms, such as right and wrong, good and bad, ought and ought not, duty and so on. Normative ethics proper seeks to formulate and defend basic moral principles, rules, systems and virtues which serve as guides for what actions ought or out not to be taken, what motives ought or ought not to be embraced, and what kinds of personas we ought or ought not seek to be. Applied ethics is the area of study that centers its investigation on specific moral issues, such as abortion, euthanasia and capital punishment, and seeks to bring normative ethics to bear on them.1

1. William Lane Craig & J.P. Moreland, Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2003), pp. 396-397.

Interview: Jonathan Morrow (Impact 360 Institute)

Today's interview is with Jonathan Morrow. Jonathan is the founder of Think Christianly and is the author of Welcome to College: A Christ-follower's Guide for the Journey, Think Christianly: Looking at the Intersection of Faith and Culture, and Is God Just a Human Invention? And Seventeen Other Questions Raised by the New Atheists (with Sean McDowell). Jonathan is currently the Director of Creative Strategies at Impact 360 Institute. He talks about the need for training for students and young people and discusses the opportunities available through the Impact 360 Institute. Resources and speakers here. Immersion program for high school students here. Check out these videos of interest:

• John Stonestreet on Impact 360 Institute
• Immersion experience (High School)
• Gap Year Alumni

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (35 min)
Enjoy.

Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity

The doctrine of the Trinity is one of Christianity’s most central, distinctive, and profoundly mysterious claims, and so it is hardly surprising that it often comes under attack by critics on all sides. Christian apologists have long found themselves facing charges that the doctrine of the Trinity is not taught (either explicitly or implicitly) in Scripture and that, at any rate, it is incoherent. It is with respect to the latter charge that Philosophical and Theological Essays on the Trinity (hereafter PTET) will be of interest to apologists. This collection of essays, edited by Thomas McCall and Michael C. Rea, brings together some important recent work in philosophical theology on the doctrine of the Trinity. The primary concern for most of the contributors in this volume is the issue of coherence, and consequently the majority of them either defend or critique various attempts to model the Trinity in a logically consistent and orthodox way. The result is an impressive collection of papers on one of the most difficult theological questions, and an important contribution to analytic theology.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (04/04 - 04/11)

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

KINDLE DEALS:
• Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection - FREE
• The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus - 3.99
• Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? By William Lane Craig - FREE

WEEKLY LINKS:
• Notebook
• Is Richard Dawkins leading people to Jesus?
• Video: Does God Exist?- Frank Turek vs. Dennis Normark
• Sign up for the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics
• Best Kids Family Devotional I Have Found - .01 on Kindle!
• Christian Gap Year Program with College Credit - IMPACT 360
• 5 Areas Other Than Philosophy That are a Part of Apologetics
• Is God Real? The Argument for God’s Existence from the Appearance of Design in Biology

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

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Canada here. UK here.

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Terminology Tuesday: Ethical Naturalism

Ethical Naturalism: is a reductionist view that holds that ethical terms (goodness, worth  and right) can be defined by or reduced to natural, scientific properties that are biological, psychological, sociological or physical in nature. For example, according to ethical naturalism the term right in "X is right" means one of the following: "What is approved by most people"; "What most people desire"; "What is approved by an impartial, ideal observer"; "What maximizes desire or interest"; "What furthers human survival." The important point here is that these moral terms and moral properties are not irreducibly moral in nature. Moral properties (e.g., worth, goodness or rightness) turn out to be properties that are biological or psychological.

Sunday Quote: Martin Luther on the Gospel

"If the devil were wise enough and would stand by in silence and let the gospel be preached, he would suffer less harm. For when there is no battle for the gospel it rusts and it finds no cause and no occasion to show its vigor and power. Therefore, nothing better can befall the gospel than that the world should fight it with force and cunning."
- Martin Luther

Book Review: The Case For Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture by Scott Klusendorf

I have been quite excited to read Scott Klusendorf's The Case For Life: Equipping Christians to Engage the Culture (paperback, Kindle, Video Trailer, Interview, Life Training Institute). From my elementary school days, I have been exposed to pro-life Christians who have faced ridicule, fines, physical harm, and even jail time for their commitment to the unborn's right to life. It was not until my exposure to Christian apologetics that I became aware that the fight was more than each side just emoting at one another. In this book, Klusendorf provides the scientific case for the humanity of the unborn and the objective moral wrongness of killing them. He addresses many common and powerful challenges to the prolife position. The book is divided into four parts and is 243 pages in length. This review will provide a chapter-by-chapter summary then conclude with my comments.

Part 1- Pro-Life Christians Clarify The Debate
Chapter 1- What Is The Issue?
Klusendorf begins by clarifying that there is one issue that is up for debate- the one issue that will make or break the case for the pro-life position. He explains that every other issue in the discussion is a red herring if this one issue is not resolved first. The key question that anyone must ask before they decide to act on something is "What is it?" In the context of the pro-life/abortion debate the action is killing and "it" is the unborn. We must determine if the unborn are human or not before we decide if it is justifiable to kill it. Klusendorf points out that if the unborn are not human, then there is no more justification needed to remove it than is necessary to remove a tooth (and any efforts to lower the number of abortions is really worthless); however, if the unborn is human, then no justification is sufficient to deliberately kill it.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (04/04 - 04/11)

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

KINDLE DEALS:
• Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection - 1.99
• How to Read the Bible for All Its Worth - 3.99
• Did Jesus Rise From The Dead? By William Lane Craig - 0.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• Breaching
• The Five Minute Pro-Lifer
• Did Jesus Prove He was God?
• John Lennox event in Canada
• Stephen T. Davis on Apologetics
• What an Apologist’s Job is NOT
• Jesus Documentary Worth Watching
• Are There Other Resurrection Myths?
• Advice To Young Aspiring Apologists
• What I Needed to Hear When I Was An Atheist
• 4 Areas of New Testament Studies That You Need to Know
• Are Apologists Hypocrites Because They Criticize Others?
• Video: Seven Days that Divide the World by John Lennox
• Unbelievable? Conference 2014 – Reasonable faith in an uncertain world
• Four Reasons You Should Attend the 2014 CrossExamined Instructor Academy
• Is the Bible True? Cumulative Case for the Reliability of the Gospels (Free Bible Insert)

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.

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Terminology Tuesday: Paradigm

Paradigm: comes from the Greek paradeigma: evidence, example, pattern, model, archetype. In linguistics, a paradigm provides an example of a conjugation or a declension. In philosophy, its meanings include an archetype, a standard of measurement, a typical case or suggestive example, and a dominating scientific orientation. The term paradigm is frequently used in the social sciences. In popular understanding, paradigm often simply means a collection of ideas, a cluster of theories, models or actions representing a guiding idea, or a conceptual framework. (read more...) 1

1. Antje Jackelén, Encyclopedia of Science and Religion.

Weekly Apologetics Bonus Links (03/28 - 04/04)

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

KINDLE DEALS:
• The Ambition by Lee Strobel - 2.99
• Alive: A Cold-Case Approach to the Resurrection - 1.99
• The End of Reason by Ravi Zacharias - 4.99

WEEKLY LINKS:
• Why Bother Arguing?
• Raising Your Kids for Christ
• Book Review: The End of Apologetics
• Everyday Opinions on Apologetics - Pastor Jay Wolf
• Apologetics Training is No Longer an Option: 12 Quotes
• Unjustified Skepticism: The Reliability of Luke’s Testimony
• An exchange on purpose from one of William Lane Craig’s early debates
• 5 Questions You Should Ask Yourself When Seeking an Education For Apologetics

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.

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For daily post links, please follow on Facebook.