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Entries Tagged as 'Christian History'

Published: Abortion and Capital Punishment UPDATED

April 21st, 2009 13 Comments

Heh! I just discovered on Cambridge Journals that my publication for the Spring 2009 edition of Think: A Journal of the Royal Institute for Philosophy is online. You can download the pdf here, Abortion and Capital Punishment: A Response to Beverly Harrison. UPDATE: As some people are having trouble with the direct link to the [...]

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Maverick Philosopher on the Historical Atrocities Argument

April 11th, 2009 7 Comments

In making their case against theism many of the “new atheists” (indeed many of the old) commonly appeal to historical atrocities allegedly committed by believers in God. I was discussing this phenomena recently with Doug Geivett in the aftermath of the Craig v Hitchens debate. I cited the need for Christian apologists to rebut not [...]

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What About the Poor? More on Sustenance Rights

November 19th, 2008 9 Comments

In my last post, What About the Poor? Sustenance Rights Examined, I noted the position of Nicholas Wolterstorff that, “If a rich man knows of someone who is starving and has the power to help that person, and chooses not to, then he violates that person’s rights as surely and reprehensively as if he had [...]

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What About the Poor? Sustenance Rights Examined

November 18th, 2008 4 Comments

When I began university I had strong socialist leanings. The reason was that I believed, as a Christian, we had a duty to help the poor. Studying at Waikato University, however, brought me face to face with socialist academics and left-wing activists and I discovered a hostile and dangerous social agenda that I could not [...]

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Take Nobody’s Word for Anything – Especially Bob Brockie’s

October 3rd, 2008 3 Comments

In one of the definitive discussions of the issue, Philosophers Alvin Plantinga and Robert Pennock debated the teaching of evolutionary theory in public schools of religiously pluralistic societies at the December 1998 meeting of the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association. [The following is a crude rendition of the issues in the debate - [...]

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More on the “Dark Ages” and Other Propaganda

September 27th, 2008 13 Comments

Those of you who have followed my discussions with Peter Cresswell on the history of Christianity and the relationship between faith and reason in the middle ages may find this abridged article by Dr James Hannam interesting. Dr Hannam has recently completed his PhD on the History of Science at the University of Cambridge. UPDATE: [...]

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The “Dark Ages” and Other Propaganda

April 22nd, 2008 12 Comments

Perhaps I am a glutton for punishment, but I have been having an interesting dialogue with Peter Cresswell about the history of theology. To sum up PC follows the 20th century novelist Ayn Rand. Rand’s followers view Aristotle as the “father of the enlightenment,” they appear to hold a view of history that is extremely [...]

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Perigo on Faith, Reason, and Tertullian

September 21st, 2007 1 Comment

In a recent issue of Salient Lindsay Perigo laments the “power wishful thinking”. Predictably he cites Christianity as a paradigm of such thinking. However, like many in the media who take swipes at orthodox or conservative expressions Christianity his analysis is superficial. Perigo writes. Two thousand years of Christianity have been based on a lie, [...]

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Things They Don’t Teach you in Public Schools…

July 4th, 2007 2 Comments

Tonight I watched an ad on TV which has a man congratulating New Zealanders for being the first to give women the vote. This ad reminded me of the following picture which I discovered in Alvin Schmidt’s book “How Christianity Changed the World.” The picture on this page shows women voting at the polls in [...]

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