Claim OwnershipReasoned Hope
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© Parks Edwards
Description
In this podcast, we explore the intellectual credibility of the Christian faith.
50 Episodes
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There is a lot in the Bible about worshiping and praising God. Do the commands and passages that refer to this mean that God is arrogant, self-absorbed, or even needy?
While the commands to worship and praise God are often taken for granted by Christians, they raise good questions that help us clarify what this means. In this episode, I look at some things CS Lewis had to say about the worship of God.
Is humanity in a position to know if God exists? If not, this means that claims to know that God exists are groundless.
Agnosticism, in its strong form, says that we are unable to have knowledge of God. What does this view involve and is it a credible objection to belief in God?
Christmas is a celebration of the Incarnation, when God entered our world as a human being in Jesus Christ. But why was this necessary and what significance does the Incarnation have for Christian theology? What implications does this have for our lives today?
The Christian worldview involves supernatural events, but many reject the supernatural as rationally credible. One reason given is that such events cannot be empirically tested and are outside the scope of scientific investigation.
But is this true? And is it a good reason to reject belief in the supernatural? In this episode, I discuss these questions and argue this idea makes serious philosophical mistakes about science and knowledge.
Greg Koukl returns as a guest on the podcast to discuss his latest book, Street Smarts.
Greg and I discuss how the book aids Christians in dialoguing with people about Christianity as well as the many contentious issues of our time.
A common critique of arguments for God's existence is they are based on a "God of the gaps" fallacy. In essence, this says that such arguments are fundamentally based on ignorance. They use God as an explanation to fill a gap in knowledge. When this is done, skeptics argue, belief in God is shown to be based upon ignorance instead of knowledge.
But is this true? In this episode, I aim to show why the God of the gaps objection fails as a critique of arguments for God.
Beauty is all around us and it permeates our universe. The existence of beauty is confirmed in the natural world and in works of human creation such as music and art. But what is beauty and how do we best explain it?
In this episode, I argue that beauty is objective and that it requires a transcendent explanation. In this way, the existence of a personal God best explains beauty.
Skeptics claim belief in God's existence is irrational. Furthermore, they claim their position (most often, atheism) is based upon careful reasoning and evidence.
But the argument from reason calls into question the very ability of atheism to provide a grounding for our rational faculties. Furthermore, it shows that pantheism (the worldview of most Eastern religions) also fails to provide a foundation for human reason.
In this episode, I explain and defend the argument from reason and show how reason itself provides evidence for God.
True happiness. Lasting peace. Contentment. Something more. While people may differ on the details of what provides these things, every person alive is in pursuit of them. It seems there is an innate desire for the transcendent that we possess. How does such a desire function as evidence for God's existence? What exactly is a desire for the transcendent and where do we encounter it? Is this just an exercise in wishful thinking? In this episode, I explain what the Argument from Desire is, show how it provides evidence for God's existence, and respond to objections.
"I can't believe in a God of wrath, I believe in a God of love. After all, doesn't the Bible say 'God is love'"?
This statement expresses what many feel to be a plausible account of the nature of God. It seems that if God is a loving God, then He would not be a wrathful God who brings punishment upon people. Is this true? What is the relationship between the love of God and the wrath of God? What does it mean for God to be loving and are human beings deserving of His wrath? In this episode, I explore these questions and show why it is crucial to understand the attributes of God according to the Bible's teaching.
Religious experience claims are innumerable, but what are they and do they provide evidence for God's existence? Can they be explained away as a result of physical processes in the brain or psychological illusions? What about religious experiences in other religions? And aren't these experiences subjective? How can they be trusted? In this episode, I discuss the nature of religious experience, show how it contributes to the case for God's existence, and respond to objections.
Every human being faces the question of life's meaning in one form or another. This is a question we encounter off and on and in different levels of intensity throughout our lives. But does it have an answer? And what is the nature of this "meaning"? In this episode, I survey three answers to the question of life's meaning. Along the way, I explain the deficiencies of atheism in this area and how Christianity provides a foundation for meaning in life.
In this episode of the podcast, I interview Greg Koukl of Stand to Reason. We discuss the moral argument for God's existence and how it contributes significantly to the case for God in general and Christianity in particular.
To find out more about Greg and Stand to Reason, visit str.org
Christmastime provides more frequent exposure to the person of Jesus than at other points in the year. But there are two main temptations we can face in regards to Jesus during Christmas. I discuss these temptations and explain why I think they should be resisted as well as what a right response to Jesus looks like.
Many today think that religious and moral truths are completely subjective, being determined by our desires and preferences alone. Phrases such as "you do you", "live my truth", or the idea that a given religion "does not work for me" capture this perspective. But the view that religious and moral truths have no connection to facts is mistaken. In this episode, I explain why this is the case and argue that religious and moral truths are objective facts about the world that we all should take seriously.
Do miracles occur today? Can we rationally believe in them? In this episode, I address these questions as well as objections to belief in miracles. I then show why they support a case for the existence of God.
In this second episode of the series on God's existence, I discuss the nature of morality and how it points towards God. I look at various secular ethical theories and explain why I think they fail to provide an adequate foundation for morality.
Is there evidence for God's existence? If so, what kind of evidence is this? In this episode, I begin a series on evidence for God's existence to try and answer these important questions.
The phrase "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" is popular with many skeptics when discussing miracle claims. In many cases, it is used to dismiss belief in miracles as irrational. But is this move justified? Is it really irrational to believe in miracles?
The existence of evil and suffering in the world is an obvious fact about our universe. Skeptics argue against God's existence on the basis of evil. However, they frequently miss the reality that they also must give an account of the nature of evil. In fact, every person (and therefore every worldview that persons hold) must have some explanation for the existence and nature of evil. Which worldview provides the best explanation for evil?
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