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Entries Tagged as 'Alvin Plantinga'

Sunday Study: Two Forms of Inerrancy

February 8th, 2010 6 Comments

The discussion arising in response to my recent post Inerrancy and Biblical Authority, both on this blog and on some of the blogs that linked to it, got me thinking a bit more about this topic. I was reminded of an interesting comment made by Alan Rhoda regarding the doctrinal statement of the Evangelical Philosophical [...]

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Sunday Study: Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part II

January 10th, 2010 13 Comments

In my previous post, Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I, I mentioned the position suggested by Alvin Plantinga and endorsed by Nicholas Wolterstorff that the passages in Joshua that appear to record the carrying out of genocide at God’s command, such as, “putting all the people to the sword”, “leaving no survivors”, [...]

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Sunday Study: Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I

January 3rd, 2010 18 Comments

Critics of Christianity often claim that the book of Joshua teaches that God commanded genocide. Raymond Bradley for example states,
In chapters 7 through 12, [the book of Joshua] treats us to a chilling chronicle of the 31 kingdoms, and all the cities therein, that fell victim to Joshua’s, and God’s, genocidal policies. Time and again [...]

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Plantinga & Ruse on Methodological Naturalism & Science Definitions

December 8th, 2009 31 Comments

Michael Ruse (and many others) contend that science is constrained by methodological naturalism, which is the thesis that that neither the data, for a scientific investigation, nor a scientific theory nor the background beliefs, against which a theory is assessed, can properly refer to or contain supernatural beings or propositions based on revelation. In Darwinism [...]

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Contra Mundum: “Bigoted Fundamentalist” as Orwellian Double-Speak

November 2nd, 2009 8 Comments

I am a Theologian with a strong background in Philosophy; apart from Philosophical Theology, my particular area of interest is Ethics. Given this, I often publish my thoughts and reflections on moral issues, of various persuasions, in various media.
I have written on the morality of warfare, whether it is sometimes permissible to lie, the morality [...]

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Darwinian Evolution, God and Ockham’s Razor

September 11th, 2009 27 Comments

In a previous post, Darwinian Evolution, Chance and Design, I argued that the contention that Darwinian evolution occurs by chance does not entail that it shows the world was not designed. Once one sees how the concept of chance is defined in evolutionary theory one can see that it does not rule out design.
It is [...]

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Darwinian Evolution, Chance and Design

August 28th, 2009 39 Comments

In a previous post, God, Darwinian Evolution and The Teleological Argument, I argued that evolution does not refute the teleological argument. Also, even if it did, a lot more significant philosophical work over and above any appeal to natural selection would be needed to infer from this that theism is rationally untenable. There is, however, [...]

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Evolution should not be taught in State Schools: A Defence of Plantinga Part II

July 1st, 2009 66 Comments

In Evolution should not be taught in State Schools: A Defence of Plantinga Part I, I articulated and defended Alvin Plantinga’s proposal that evolution should not be taught as “the sober truth” in state schools. In this post I will address what should be taught in state schools and look at Robert Pennock’s objections to [...]

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Evolution should not be taught in State Schools: A Defence of Plantinga Part I

June 30th, 2009 53 Comments

In this two-part series I will sketch and defend Alvin Plantinga’s proposal that evolution should not be taught as “the sober truth” in state schools. In Part I, I will sketch Plantinga’s position and the arguments he provides for it; in Part II, I will look at what should be taught and then I’ll defend [...]

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Tooley, Plantinga and the Deontological Argument from Evil Part II

May 27th, 2009 1 Comment

In my last post, Tooley, Plantinga and the Deontological Argument from Evil Part I, I sketched Tooley’s distinction between a deontological and an axiological argument from evil and argued that Tooley rejects the axiological version because it rests on controversial ethical claims that are likely to be rejected by many theists. I outlined Tooley’s deontological [...]

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