Book Review: On Guard by William Lane Craig
Pages: 286
Publisher: David C. Cook
Year: 2010
Author: William Lane Craig
What an unexpected surprise. This is a book I really wish I could have read when I first became interested in apologetics, as Craig has written an extremely accessible and easy to understand guide to defending and explaining the truthfulness of the Christian faith, as well as the reasons one might have for believing.
The first apologetics book that I ever read was Craig’s Reasonable Faith, and while it is a very good book on its own merits, it isn’t the most accessible book–it initially had me scratching my head at a few places. On Guard serves as not only an introduction to many of the arguments found in Reasonable Faith, but offers a sufficient explanation of these arguments such that one could use them presented as they are. This is not the definitive explanation of … (Read more)
Value in apologetics?
Probably everyone (or mostly everyone) who’s been interested in apologetics for any amount of time has heard the following: people won’t believe in Jesus because of arguments, they are useless! Well, I’ve certainly heard the comment, anyway. What is interesting about it, is that it’s limited in scope. It ignores the fact that there are many ways to do evangelism, and there are many “steps” in evangelism. I’ve been reading William Lane Craig’s On Guard, and he makes a few observations that I think it would be profitable to share (or at least share the main one).
Craig points out (correctly) that there is a “culture war” going on in the West, and that this is relevant to the gospel because the gospel is “never heard in isolation” (p. 17). Apologetics has the ability to make people more receptive to the gospel. Consider the following extract:
A person who has … (Read more)
Book Review: God is Great, God is Good
Pages: 258
Publisher: Intervarsity Press
Year: 2009
Editors: William Lane Craig | Chad Meister
A couple of weeks ago I reviewed Atheism Remix, describing it as an excellent introduction to the movement known as the New Atheism, but noting that it did not deal with the arguments presented by new atheists. This week I’ll be reviewing God is Great, God is Good (graciously sent to me by the nice people over at Intervarsity Press), a recent effort by a collection of accomplished Christian theologians, philosophers and scientists — such as William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, Michael Behe and Alister McGrath, among others — whose purpose for the book is to “answer challenges advanced by the New Atheists and others raising objections to believe in God and the Christian faith“1. At this, the book shines. Where Atheism Remix is an excellent introduction to the New Atheism, God is … (Read more)
William Lane Craig: Kalam and contemporary science
Some times I hear people criticize William Lane Craig for his lack of knowledge when it comes to science in general and astrophysics especially. It’s a criticism I really don’t understand, I don’t think it’s valid at all. I came across a series of videos on Youtube where Craig fields questions from professional philosophers and physicists and again, I don’t see how people believe they can ‘get away’ with saying Craig isn’t informed…
Relationship between Faith and Reason
I just don’t get it. I don’t understand why there are Christians who hold to the idea that as Christians, we’re to abandon the head for the heart (we don’t place the head above the heart to begin with), knowledge for the Spirit (we certainly understand that all things are in subjection to God, including knowledge) and logic for the spiritual. Better not tell Paul in Athens. I don’t see what reason there is to abandon the head for the heart, while I do see the importance of creating proper distinctions between the primacy of knowing and loving with respect to its object. I believe it was Aquinas (or perhaps, Kreeft?) who said that when you love something, you become more like it. When you know something, it becomes more like you. The question of which has priority (the head or the heart) would then depend. With God, the heart … (Read more)
And you thought Anselm was absurd?
I must admit, I’m a fan of Anselm’s Ontological argument for the existence of God. Well, to be more exact, I’m a fan of Plantinga’s modification of Anselm’s proof. I’m reminded of my fondness for this proof as earlier today I was skimming through The God Delusion to find something to write on and Dawkins wrote something which peaked my interest.
Before quoting Dawkins I think it best to outline Anselms original argument. As approximated by Plantinga, Anselm’s argument goes as follows:
- God exists in the understanding but not in reality.
- Existence in reality is greater than existence in the understanding alone. (premise)
- God’s existence in reality is conceivable. (premise)
- If God did exist in reality, then He would be greater than He is. [from (1) and (2)]
- It is conceivable that there is a being greater than G0d is. [(3) and (4)]
- It is conceivable that there be a being greater
Fetus: human being, if not, what?
We’ve all heard it said before:
I don’t feel that a fetus is alive until it can survive outside of the mother. I’m not going to change my mind about that…
I find this an untenable position, though at least he used the word fetus rather than baby, excusing the emotional language, more on this in just a little bit.
This entry isn’t intended as any sort of exhaustive discussion of abortion, it isn’t even necessarily intended as a religious examination of abortion, though keeping in mind a Christian world view would be of great benefit (as that is where I am ‘coming’ from, even if I try to remove as many of my presuppositions as possible). These are my initial thoughts which will more likely than not be expanded elsewhere.
In discussing abortion it seems clear to me that we need to define a few terms, terms that would be … (Read more)
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