The Philosopher’s Brew Podcast

In studying the testimony of those who have 'deconverted' from Christianity, I've been struck by the importance of something Jesus said--to have eternal life, he said the first step is to "deny" yourself in exchange for a new, supernatural life--a new "you". Yet today there is a trend to not talk about this, or to even affirm the opposite in order to make it as easy as possible for the person to put their "faith" in Christ when, in fact, they have not even taken that first step of faith--laying aside everything they are and cherish, in exchange for what Christ offers. Thus, many people think they are Christians only to be shocked on the day they stand before God and hear him say, "I never knew you."

Intelligent design is entrenched in science to the point where we can no longer deny or ignore it. When we apply a scientific method to the information encoded in the genomes of life, it tests positive for an intelligent origin. The fingerprints of intelligence are all over the genomes of life.

It might be surprising what emerges as we take a philosophical perspective in answering three questions: Is hell necessary? Does it have to be forever? And could it be a five-star resort?

Many people believe that modern science is the ultimate bastion of truth. The reality, however, has become quite different.

Some have argued that the fact that since many people have sincerely searched for God and not found him, he probably does not exist. This is the problem of "divine hiddenness,' but what if God is, in fact, calling each person in ways they have not anticipated and, therefore, missing?

As science advances, some gaps in our understanding not only are getting much wider, but the evidence is pointing quite strongly in the direction of an intelligent mind behind the universe and behind life. Rather than acknowledge this, those scientists who are committed to scientism appeal to something other scientists describe as a non-testable "fantasy".

People often mistakenly label any argument for the existence of God as a 'God of the Gaps' argument. In this podcast, we discuss these mistakes and how to avoid them.

In this episode, Heather recounts how she has worked through the emotional trauma of the sudden death of her husband, with the hope that others may find at least one thing helpful when they face the sudden loss of a loved one.

Continuing from Part 1 in the previous episode, we look at more hints, reasons, and clues from God as to why suffering and evil are permitted to occur in this world.

Although the justification for permitting an event may span millions of future consequences, God does give different reasons or factors involved in some specific examples of suffering. In this episode, we look at some of them, especially the death of children.

An understanding of what it means to be human is essential to understanding why God permits suffering in this world.

Arguments from evil against the existence of God hang on the premise that God cannot permit gratuitous evil. But if we grant that premise, then when a society becomes a gratuitous evil, God must terminate it. But then there are the objections ...

Every event produces an exponentially increasing number of consequences to the end of history, affecting an exponentially increasing number of causal chains, making calculations of the net moral value of any event impossible.

Just as it is absurd to complain about a high crime rate if, in fact, there are no laws to break, so it is nonsense to complain about evil and injustice unless there is some ultimate standard of truth and beauty that is being violated.

Maybe the reason the universe is incredibly fine-tuned to support life, is that it was actually designed to do so--which has implications for a mind behind the universe.

Science cannot answer this question but cold, hard logic can.

Why cold, hard logic requires that the cause of nature, cannot be natural.

In listening to many testimonials from young Christian leaders who abandoned their belief in God, they appeared to be utterly unaware of three factors that may have had a very significant influence in their loss of faith.

In listening to numerous testimonials from ex-Christians, I observed there were six major categories of reasons they gave. In this episode, we work through those reasons.