Before I read Van Til I didn’t read apologetics very much. I did quite a bit of apologetics, but found reading it dull and not very useful. I couldn’t get through reams of logic or piles of evidence without the realization that the next time I met a teenager with questions I would have no chance of even remembering what I had read let alone maintaining the attention of my interlocutor. Being committed to a presuppositional method I now lap up contributions on the subject. Here are a few I have read recently:God Is by Doug Wilson is a read-in-an-hour-or-two rough-shod ride over the pages of Christopher Hitchen’s God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.…
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The Bible: A Problem for Whom?
Christianity is not the problem, the Bible is. So argues Amber Dillon from The Independent (read the full article here): I can’t help thinking that some of the Bible’s teachings are irrelevant to modern day life and I feel that it is time for Christianity to move on, and that Christians should accept the Bible as a product of its time… I think Christianity can progress by accepting that the Bible is a piece of History, taking from it what is still relevant (for example equality, treatment of the poor and elderly) and perhaps this could be the start of a modern, understanding religion that more people can believe in. None…
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Epistemology in the Psalms
Psalm 19 and Psalm 139 form a good basis for a Biblical epistemology. Psalm 19 describes human knowledge of God via the created order and the word of God. Revelation of God in the created order is clear and available to all human beings; it is unavoidable. Revelation in the word is clear, but only available to those to whom it has been given. Once special revelation has been accepted, believed in and loved, the general revelation of God in nature is seen rightly, leading to worship of the true God. In Psalm 139 we see the knowledge that God has of human beings. It is comprehensive, grounded in his creation of human…
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Defining Skepticism
What is skepticism? Michael Shermer, a self-described skeptic, defines it as “the rigorous application of science and reason to test the validity of any and all claims” (see here for full article). Shermer argues that skepticism is not disbelief of all propositions, only the resistance to belief in any proposition without reason or evidence. Shermer, drawing upon ideas from Carl Sagen, provides five guiding questions in the examination of any claim. The first question is: does the source of the claim make many similar claims? One who claims to have seen a strange phenomena is rendered less believable if he or she is constantly claiming to have observed a strange phenomena. Second, has the source…
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Wittgensteinian Anti-Essentialism
Ludwig Wittgenstein Essentialism suggests that a word is a sign for a meaning which correlates to an object. The way words connect with the world is by picturing a state of affairs by the use of names/signs which have determinative meanings. The object in the world has a sign. The meaning is the object in the world. The essence of the word is the meaning, the object. This, it is assumed, is known through the pointing and repeating the name of the object you are pointing to. This is an ostensive definition. To ostensibly define something is to point at something and say its name. For example, I can point at a chair, and say, “chair.” My…
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When the Shine Comes Off
Many things look good on a post card. Cities, hair and teeth gleam when treated to a professional lens. What one needs is to get up close and personal, to see it for oneself. The trouble with the first-hand method of observation is that there is an inevitable loss of nobility – the shine always comes off. It takes years of first-hand experience to realize that media feeds us a fake, that people with shiny teeth often have disappointing personalities, that nothing is really as good as it looks in a photograph. It has to do with the inescapable problem of idolatry and the endless production of things and personas that are said to be “the real deal.” Christians, who…
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Exchanging Truth for a Lie
Atheism is the rejection of belief in the existence of any gods, the claim that any gods do not exist or the absence of belief in the existence of any gods. But atheism is not merely the removal of gods from the equation; it is the exchange of God for something else. And it is the exchange of truth for a lie. Paul writes: For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. For since the creation of the…
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Calvin’s Sensus Divinitatis
John Calvin On the five hundredth anniversary of the Reformation it is a little odd that we are still talking about Calvin’s sensus divinitatis. For one thing, the sensus appears only at the beginning of the Institutes and is somewhat dismissed by Calvin as being inadequate for saving anyone. The sensus is also a species of innate idea. But ever since John Locke’s Essay forced a retreat by nativists, talk of innate knowledge of anything has remained largely a niche activity. More recently, however, some philosophers of religion have proposed interpretations of Calvin’s sensus that do not entail innate ideas and thus do not fall foul to Locke’s criticisms. Although…