The Missing Links – February 10, 2013

• In case you haven’t heard, William Lane Craig debated atheist philosopher Alex Rosenberg on February 1 at Purdue University.  The video is here, and good reviews can be found at Reasons for God, the Wintery Knight, and by J. W. Wartick.

• A self-described lesbian leftist professor describes her conversion at Christianity Today.  “I continued reading the Bible, all the while fighting the idea that it was inspired. But the Bible got to be bigger inside me than I. It overflowed into my world. I fought against it with all my might. Then, one Sunday morning, I rose from the bed of my lesbian lover, and an hour later sat in a pew at the Syracuse Reformed Presbyterian Church.”

• a Liberal-Democrat Member of Parliament and former minister, explaining why she voted against the redefinition of marriage in the British Parliament on February 5.   “My concern, however, is that by moving to a definition of marriage that no longer requires sexual difference, we will, over time, ultimately decouple the definition of marriage from family life altogether. I doubt that this change will be immediate. It will be gradual, as perceptions of what marriage is and is for shift. But we can already see the foundations for this shift in the debate about same-sex marriage. Those who argue for a change in the law do so by saying that surely marriage is just about love between two people and so is of nobody else’s business. Once the concept of marriage has become established in social consciousness as an entirely private matter about love and commitment alone, without any link to family, I fear that it will accelerate changes already occurring that makes family life more unstable.”

• Randy Everist discusses the “Evil God” argument at the Christian Apologetics Alliance blog.  Could an evil God explain morality as well as a good God?

• Wintery Knight points to several pieces of evidence for the early historicity of Jesus’ divinity.

• Mikel Del Rosario gives several tips for defending the faith without becoming defensive, which often involves asking good questions.

• Jonathan Morrow interviews Old Testament scholar C. John Collins on the days of Genesis and also takes up the question whether God is subject to human logic.

The Missing Links – January 13, 2013

 

• A number of insightful responses to the controversy over Louie Giglio and the presidential inauguration.  For example, Joe Carter writes, “as the Giglio incident reveals, no amount of good works can atone for committing the secular sin of subscribing to the biblical view of sexuality. . . . Anyone who has ever spoken about the issue—or at least has not recanted from believing what God says about homosexuality—is to be treated as a bigot.”

• Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands in Paris protest gay marriage.

• Jonathan Morrow writes on “The God Gene, Neuroscience, And the Soul.”  As Francis Collins wisely observes, “Yes, we have all been dealt a particular set of genetic cards, and the cards will eventually be revealed. But how we play the hand is up to us.”

• The Christian Apologetics Alliance is in the midst of a helpful blog series on becoming a community apologist.

• Bob Prokop on the extreme measures many skeptics demand as evidence for Christianity. “Some, like Loftus, have quite specifically demanded to see stars arrange themselves to spell out Bible verses, or some such nonsense like that.”

• Tragically, slavery has made a global comeback.

• Read Tolkien’s famous essay “On Fairy Stories” online, or download as a PDF.  Listen to Tolkien read a lengthy excerpt from The Hobbit.

• Philosopher Jim Spiegel’s book The Making of an Atheist is still available on Amazon for .99 cents.

The Missing Links – April 1, 2012

The front side (recto) of Papyrus 1, a New Testament manuscript of the Gospel of Matthew. Most likely originated in Egypt. Also part of the Oxyrhynchus Papyri (P. oxy. 2).

Dr. Bryant G. Wood recently presented lectures on “Archaeology and the Conquest: New Evidence on an Old Problem.”  Wood is editor of Bible and Spade, and director of the Excavations at Khirbet el-Maqatir (suggested as a possible site for Biblical Ai). Four separate talks cover:

• Background and Chronology of the Exodus and Conquest
• Digging Up the Truth at Jericho
• The Discovery of Joshua’s Ai
• Great Archaeological Discoveries Related to the Old Testament

Alexander Pruss points to a new blog on the philosophy of cosmology.

Daniel Wallace and Bart Ehrman debate on the topic: “Is the original New Testament lost?”

A new article on “Platonism and Theism” is up at the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Alvin Plantinga lectures on “Religion and Science: Why Does the Debate Continue?” at Rainier Beach Presbyterian Church in Seattle Washington

Craig Blomberg writes on “Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters” (PDF). 

Peter S. Williams engages with the question “Can Moral Objectivism Do Without God?”

The Missing Links – Nov. 21, 2011

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Max Andrews shares his Top Ten Philosophy, Science, and Theology Podcasts

J. P. Moreland talks about the argument from consciousness at last week’s ETS/EPS meeting in San Francisco (video).

Craig Blomberg discusses the historical Jesus and the reliability of the Bible (video).

Atheist philosopher Daniel Came criticizes Richard Dawkins’s decision not to debate William Lane Craig.

Chad Meister writes on “Atheists and the Quest for Objective Morality.”

Similarly, William Lane Craig lectures on the question “Is God Necessary for Morality” at Boston College Law School.

A distinguished group of evangelical scholars discuss the impact of the King James Version of the Bible (audio).

The Missing Links – Sept. 9, 2011

• The History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps

Peter Adamson, Professor of Ancient and Medieval Philosophy at King’s College London, takes listeners through the history of Western philosophy, “without any gaps.” Beginning with the earliest ancient thinkers, the series will look at the ideas and lives of the major philosophers (eventually covering in detail such giants as Plato, Aristotle, Avicenna, Aquinas, Descartes, and Kant) as well as the lesser-known figures of the tradition.

 

• University of Cambridge – Investigating Atheism

The purpose of this site is to set [the] contemporary ‘God Wars’ in their historical context, and to offer a range of perspectives (from all sides) on the chief issues raised by the ‘new atheists’. We hope this will encourage more informed opinion about the issues, discourage oversimplification of the debate, and deepen the interest in the subject.

 

• Could a Universe Create Itself?

Edgar Andrews answers this question in an article written for the Christian Apologetics Alliance.

 

• Bestsellers in the history of science

The Missing Links — May 15, 2011

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• Audio of the 2010 debate between Christopher Hitchens and Dinesh D’Souza at Notre Dame.  The video is here.

• The blog of the recently formed Christian Apologetics Alliance is up and running.  You can follow us on Twitter as well.  If you’re on Facebook and a student of apologetics, you can search for our name and request to join the Facebook group.

• Charles Taliaferro and Elizabeth Duel write on different approaches to teaching philosophy of religion in a paper entitled “Testimony, Evidence, and Wisdom in Today’s Philosophy of Religion.”

• Kevin Timpe writes on “Free Will in Philosophical Theology.”

• Alvin Plantinga’s recent Bellingham Lectures on the topics of  “God and Evolution:  Where the Conflict Really Lies” and “Does Science Show That Miracles Can’t Happen” can be viewed online here.  It’s not clear whether both lectures are included on the video or only one, but the running time of two hours, 22 minutes seems long for a single talk.

• I love this video.  Your favorite characters from Star Wars quoting Jean-Paul Sartre. : )

The Missing Links — March 7, 2011

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• Streaming Videos from the 2010 St. Thomas Summer Seminar in Philosophy of Religion and Philosophical Theology.  The speakers included Alvin Plantinga and Peter Van Inwagen with talks on the epistemology of religious belief, science and religion, and the problem of evil.

• Alexander Pruss, professor of philosophy at Baylor, writes on “Eight Tempting Big-Picture Errors in Ethics,” such as “Sometimes you should do the wrong thing” and “Some areas of life are exempt from morality.” Other papers by Pruss are available here.

• Calvin’s Virtual Library of Christian Philosophy is another fine source of free articles and papers by Christian philosophers.

• An interesting collection of critical reviews of Richard Dawkins’s The God Delusion.

• Insightful non-Christian critique of the new atheists at ABC Australia. “The militant atheist bandwagon – driven by Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris and Dennett – continues to paint their theist opposition as irrational simpletons who favor superstition and myth over reason and science.”

• The top philosophy journals according to a poll of 36,000 contributors.  The top 10 are:

1. Journal of Philosophy
2. Philosophical Review
3. Philosophy & Phenomenological Research
4. Nous
5. Mind
6. Ethics
7. Philosophical Studies
8. Synthese
9. Philosophy & Public Affairs
10. Analysis

The Missing Links – Dec. 3, 2010

• The Magis Center for Reason and Faith is a good resource on faith, reason, and science, as is The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion.

• Jonathan Merritt interviews former Bush speech writer and City of Man author, Michael Gerson.

• A short account of Blaise Pascal’s conversion.

• Keen observations by Douglas Groothuis on Carl Sagan’s Cosmos.  In part, “Sagan infamously begins this paean to the cosmos with, “The universe is all that was, is, or ever will be.” This is not a statement derived from any of the sciences, not from Sagan’s astronomy, not from physics, not biology, not from any science. This is a statement of metaphysics, the worldview of naturalism . . . “

• Michael Behe debates Michael Reiss on Intelligent Design in the UK (audio link is listed on the post).