Over the last few days I’ve had some exchanges with “Mike D” who, it turns out, moonlights as “The A-Unicornist.” Mike summarizes the exchanges in a couple blog posts here and here. Things have not gone well, and it is not hard to see why. Consider this opening of Mike’s first article-summary. He notes that […]
science
1. Denis Lamoureux on Evolution and Creation
Welcome to the inaugural Tentative Apologist Podcast! Since this is the first episode I had some hiccups along the way. The production value of the audio is not what I had hoped for. But for those who don’t mind turning up the volume, the interview is well worth it (so I say anyway!). In this […]
The case of the miraculous eclipse
In the midst of our ongoing discussion of miracles the creatively named Physicsandwhiskey (henceforth P&W) pressed me on my equivalence of “miracle” with whatever passes through the design filter: “If someone prayed for an expected eclipse to occur in order to convince people of God’s power, and it occurred, would that be a miracle? It […]
Knowledge, scientific and otherwise
Robert presents a scenario which he seems to believe presents a problem for an account of religious beliefs as being properly basic. It goes like this: “imagine a biologist is confronted with new evidence that common descent is wrong, and replies, ‘That can’t be right. I have an inner witness that confirms common descent!’” Now […]
Three sentences into Lewis Wolpert’s book, and already bogged down
I’ve had Lewis Wolpert’s book Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief (Faber and Faber, 2006) sitting on my shelf for a while now. So yesterday I pulled it off and decided to give it a read. I didn’t get very far before I had to pause. The third sentence of the […]
Would God be lying if he created the world with apparent age?
Ever since the publication of the great naturalist Philip Gosse’s treatise Omphalos in 1857 Christians have proposed to reconcile the apparent great age of the earth with a commitment to young earth creationism by proposing that God created the universe six to ten thousand years ago with apparent age. And for just about as long […]
Does theology make progress? A response to Jerry Coyne
I was asked to provide a response to Jerry Coyne’s essay “A sophisticated theologian explains why theology doesn’t progress.” In the essay Coyne focuses on mocking J.P. Moreland for a book he wrote back in 1989 on the reconciliation of theology and science. Coyne is not a charitable reader. Indeed, he is one who wears […]
Everything you ever wanted to know about divine action (except how it really works)
Yesterday I was asked about some good material to read on the topic of divine action and science. Right away I thought of Nicholas Saunders’ book Divine Action and Modern Science (Cambridge University Press, 2003). Saunders did a really interesting overview of the topic of divine action and the problems with current theories of it […]
Does a candle really illumine the darkness?
In the Christmas eve service our pastor poignantly declared “The faintest light can illumine the deepest darkness” as he lit a candle. He then started lighting the candles of the congregants (for we had all been granted our own slender white candle upon entry to the sanctuary). Soon the sanctuary was brightened (if not quite […]
A breathtakingly larger canvas: The Cross in cosmic perspective
In my last article I pointed out that the New Testament (Paul specifically) seems to view the atonement as having truly cosmic implications. Thomas Torrance describes the cross as a “world altar” and says it “has cosmic significance in that it claims and suborns the world for its redeeming purpose.” (Atonement: The Person and Work […]
God, miracles, and amazing Kentucky Blue
It is an oft heard complaint against theism: belief in God undermines your ability to say anything else is improbable. Why? This is the way Adam Hazzard put it in response to my essay “The Resurrection of Jesus, 52 Pickup, and Prior Probabilities“: you assume the existence of an omnipotent, invisible, immaterial being who can […]
How does the failure to define naturalism affect Lowder’s argument for naturalism from the history of science?
In retrospect, it may have been good to put this at the end of my previous article. But better late than never. How does Lowder’s failure to define naturalism adequately affect his argument for naturalism from the history of science? To put it mildly, it doesn’t do it any favors. First, let’s recount the argument […]
Not even wrong: The many problems with Naturalism
The phrase “not even wrong” is commonly used as a quip directed at an allegedly scientific claim which is not falsifiable. More generally, it is used as a description of any statement or question which is so off-base, which assumes so much baggage, that one cannot begin to engage it on its own terms. An […]
Prejudice against supernatural persons?
Over the last few days I’ve been having an exchange with Jeffrey Jay Lowder on his argument that the history of science provides prima facie support for naturalism over-against theism. I engaged in the discussion by bracketing the question of what naturalism is. I did so as a division of labor with the intent to […]
