Some modern philosophers pride themselves on their “naturalism” but real naturalism begins with a proper perspective on our specifically human intelligence. Palaeoanthropologists have taught us that the human brain gradually evolved from ancestral brains, particularly in concert with practical toolmaking, centring on the anatomy of the human hand. This history shaped and constrained the form [...]
Continue Reading...It is salutary to curb the scientific hubris that has dominated our culture during this [the 20th] century. Science has undoubtedly achieved wonderful things, but it has a dark side. The unbridled arrogance of science is part of what lies behind nuclear weapons, pollution, unnecessary animal (and human) experimentation. Showing that science has its limits [...]
Continue Reading...The basis of a Christian conviction of the truth of his faith is not that he has solved an intellectual riddle, but that he has come to know a living Person — the Person of Jesus Christ. It is his new relationship with God that makes the doctrine ring true, not the other way round. [...]
Continue Reading...I think it’s exciting as Christians to go exploring, because we’re never going to find anything that’s outside of God’s realm. Everything is part of this majestic creation, and the more you discover the more amazed you get by thinking about God, and so I think exploration is a divinely Christian activity and people should [...]
Continue Reading...Now we are no longer primitive. Now the whole world seems not holy… We as a people have moved from pantheism to pan-atheism… It is difficult to undo our own damage and to recall to our presence that which we have asked to leave. It is hard to desecrate a grove and change your mind. [...]
Continue Reading...In an age in which infidelity abounds, do we observe parents carefully instructing their children in the principles of faith which they profess? Or do they furnish their children with arguments for the defense of that faith? … When religion is handed down among us by heredity succession, it is not surprising to find youth [...]
Continue Reading...Despite the claims of the New Atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was not an atheist, nor was he a pantheist. Einstein expressly rejected both of these philosophical positions in favour of a form of deism, or maybe distant theism. Here are some quotes from Einstein to support this: I am not an [...]
Continue Reading...Science has its limits. One day, science will grind to a halt. No more scientific discoveries. Not that we’ll have discovered everything — complete knowledge, nothing more to know. It will be that we have discovered everything that is open to us to understand, which is not the same thing. Don’t get my wrong — [...]
Continue Reading...Christian apologetics is the rational defence of the Christian worldview as objectively true and subjectively meaningful. By ‘objectively true’ I mean it’s true whether or not you believe it. By ‘rational’ I mean to give compelling and convincing arguments for its truth; not merely saying I believe it or I know that I know it [...]
Continue Reading...I am struck that what many would consider the intellectual enterprise [of Christian apologetics and Christian philosophy] hasn’t really gone over well in many churches across the country [and, for that matter other western nations - Roger]. People don’t really think this is of particular value to the Kingdom. I have a great belief in [...]
Continue Reading...