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”, […]
Entries Tagged as 'Alvin Plantinga'
Sunday Study: Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part II
January 10th, 2010 45 Comments
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Canaanites · Genocide · K Lawson Younger · Kenneth Kitchen · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Old Testament Ethics · Sunday Study
Sunday Study: Joshua and the Genocide of the Canaanites Part I
January 3rd, 2010 52 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 […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Brevard Childs · Canaanites · Genocide · Hermeneutics · Joshua · Kenneth Kitchen · Nicholas Wolterstorff · Old Testament Ethics · Raymond Bradley · Sunday Study · Theology · Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
Plantinga & Ruse on Methodological Naturalism & Science Definitions
December 8th, 2009 32 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 […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Methodological Naturalism · Michael Ruse · Science and Religion
Contra Mundum: “Bigoted Fundamentalist” as Orwellian Double-Speak
November 2nd, 2009 16 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 […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Contra Mundum · Fundamentalism · Investigate Magazine
Darwinian Evolution, God and Ockham’s Razor
September 11th, 2009 31 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 […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Charles Darwin · Evolution · Faith and Reason · Ockham’s Razor · Philosophy of Religion · Science and Religion
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, […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Charles Darwin · Del Ratzch · Faith and Reason · Philosophy of Religion · Science and Religion
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 […]
Tags: Alvin Plantinga · Evolution · Public Policy · Public Schools · Religion in Public Life · Robert Pennock · Science and Religion · State Schools
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.
