Over the past few years I have occasionally been asked by para-church, church and home-schooling groups to put together a critical thinking or “mini logic” course, with a focus on fallacy spotting, and teach it to their youth. I have done this from time to time and have often found as many adults in attendance as youth; […]
Entries from January 21st, 2011
Transitioning to University
January 20th, 2011 1 Comment
What is university like? Is it possible to be a Christian there? What does it mean to live well as a student? If you know someone heading off to university this year, they may be asking themselves these kinds of questions. If they’re not asking these, it’s definitely to be encouraged. To help, I’m pleased […]
Alexander Pruss on Scientific Rigour
January 19th, 2011 166 Comments
Given the debate raging on JT’s Progressive Enslavement: The Seductions of Scientism I thought it timely to share this comment left on The Prosblogion by Baylor University Associate Professor of Philosophy and blogger Alexander Pruss, “Given the pessimistic meta-induction, or given the fact that we know that at least one of the two central theories in […]
Tags: Alexander Pruss · Humour · Science and Religion
Hear Matt Speak on Divine Command Theory @ Auckland Uni
January 17th, 2011 4 Comments
The Auckland Reason and Science Society have invited Matt to speak on Divine Command Theory at an upcoming meeting: What: Divine Command Theory with Dr Matthew Flannagan Date: Friday 4 February 2011 Time: 3:00pm – 4:00pm Location: Auckland University – Room to be advised From the Facebook event page: “Venturing back into ethics and […]
Tags: Events · Reason and Science Society
God and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part III: Two Implications of the Hagiographic Hyperbolic Account
January 16th, 2011 21 Comments
This three-part blog series is a modified version of what I presented to the Evangelical Philosophical Society meeting in November 2010. In a recent Conference at Notre Dame Alvin Plantinga suggested that the commands to wipe out the Canaanites, recorded in the book of Deuteronomy, might be hyperbolic; they should be understood more like how […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Canaanites · Christopher J H Wright · Genocide · Gordon Wenham · Hagiography · Hermeneutics · Hyperbole · J McConville · J P U Lilley · Joshua · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Old Testament Ethics · Paul Copan
NT Wright on Myth in Genesis
January 15th, 2011 65 Comments
If certain passages in Genesis are of the genre ‘myth’ it does not necessarily entail that they are therefore untrue or lacking in authority. This was the argument in Matt’s post Myth, Truth and Genesis 1-11 and it is also NT Wright‘s point in this short video made by the Biologos Forum, Hat Tip: Ropata
Tags: Biologos Forum · Genesis · Myth · NT Wright
A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.
Progressive Enslavement: The Seductions of Scientism
January 18th, 2011 138 Comments
One of the silly characteristics of our age is the credulous and naive veneration of science. It has led to the emergence of what we call scientism–faith in science as the ultimate source of truth and wisdom. This faith is pervasive. How many social issues or ethical questions are falsely claimed to be resolved by […]
Tags: J Judd Owen · John Dewey · R J Rushdoony · Science and Religion · Scientism · Stephen Prickett