The Freethinking Podcasts

We thought we'd take some time to talk about the big issues dealing with religious liberty in today's tense climate. Specifically, we'll be talking about the issue of the man fired from Crossfit for his tweet about Pride, and the baker from Colorado who was sued for not baking a cake for a gay couple's wedding. Both of these issues illustrate some points about religious liberty that Tim and I want...

We're back with another episode on Molinism! In this episode, Tim and I explain why the term "middle knowledge" is named as it is, as well as providing some more clarification on topics discussed in the previous episode. It's another action-packed and interesting episode of the Freethinking Podcast! One of my favorite things when talking about Molinism is to see the other person's face light up on...

You've heard us talk about it quite a bit in previous episodes, so we thought it might be a good idea to explain just what Molinism actually is. Tim is one of the leading experts on Molinism, so you'll be getting a "Molinism education" from one of the best. But don't worry, if you don't understand it right away, we've got a few more episodes coming out dealing with Molinism. The doctrine of middle...

We're finishing up the objections posed by the Messianic Manic on this week's episode. Safe to say, the Freethinking Argument has survived this manic attack unscathed and stronger for it. This has been a fun series to do. Even though the quality of objection wasn't terribly high, I think it's important to publicly show the objections for what they are. Sometimes, people can get discourage by the m...

We're continuing our series responding to the Messianic Manic's objections to the Freethinking Argument. This episode deals with what is probably the most substantive objection he raises, so we deal with it accordingly. Be prepared, this episode is fairly intense in terms of its philosophical content, but if you've listened to our other episodes on the Freethinking Argument, you'll be just fine. D...

I know we just talked about the Freethinking Argument a couple of episodes ago, but there's been a video making the rounds claiming to have debunked the argument. If you know Tim, he's not going to let that slide! In this episode, we interact with a YouTube video from a guy named the Messianic Manic. Needless to say, Tim doesn't let him off the hook! Hopefully, by the end of the podcast you'll see...

It's the final episode with Dr. Mike Licona where he answers more of your questions on the Gospels. He answers concerns regarding taking the Bible literally, the "I am" statements in the Gospels, as well as his personal outlook on Scripture after his research. These should all be of great interest to Christians, so I'm excited for you all to hear him respond. This has been an incredibly fun series...

Mike Licona is back in this episode to answer some specific questions that members of our private Facebook group had in regard to his position on why there are differences in the Gospels. This led to another fantastic conversation that hopefully clarifies Dr. Licona's position even more. In this episode, you'll learn how Mike views the teachings of Jesus, why he believes we should look to Plutarch...

Finally, we're finishing up the moral argument for God's existence. In this episode, we talk about the second premise and conclusion, primarily focusing on defending the existence of objective moral values and duties. This premise isn't one that is typically denied, but it's a good idea to know how to respond to some objections. Very few people deny the objectivity of moral values and duties. It w...

This is turning into quite the series of episodes! We're finishing up this week with our interactions with Erik Wielenberg's proposed model for accommodating objective morality on an atheistic worldview. One of the points Tim mentions is that, on Wielenberg's view, even if successful, morality doesn't seem to matter! Sure, perhaps his model can accommodate objective morality (though we wouldn't ev...

We're back with the second episode discussing the moral argument for God's existence. Tim deals with a specific objection posed by Erik Wielenberg to the first premise of this argument. Wielenberg is an atheist philosopher at Depauw University, and he purports to have a model by which the atheist can hold to objective morality. Needless to say, this episode was quite interesting! The objection we...

The Moral Argument for God's existence is one of the most powerful that the Christian has. Tim and I begin discussion of the first premise of the argument in this episode. We talk about Sam Harris' attempt to ground objective morality in human flourishing and conclude that this attempt is unsuccessful. The great thing about this type of argument is that it's quite simple to learn how to defend. Mo...

Finally, we've reached the conclusion of the Kalam cosmological argument. This is Tim's favorite part, as there is so much we can learn about God merely from the conclusion that the universe has a cause. Tim walks you through all of the characteristics of the cause of the universe, which is like discovering God! The Kalam is such a simple and powerful argument for God's existence. It may seem rath...

Listen closely to this one, as it's very easy to get lost while defending the second premise of the Kalam. Fortunately for you, Tim takes you through exactly what you need to know for 95% of all of your interactions using this argument. This premise of the Kalam is a tough one for me to defend, as I am not very good with a lot of the science that is talked about in support of it. But what I love a...

Yes, it's the Kalam cosmological argument this week! It's one of the simplest and most powerful arguments we as Christians can use. It also happens to be one of Tim's "Mount Rushmore" arguments, so it's definitely an important one to understand and have in your toolbelt. Tim gives a fairly comprehensive defense of the first premise in this episode. He takes you through most of the objections you m...

It's the final episode on the FAAN! Don't worry, if you haven't listened to the first two episodes on the argument, we recap a bit of what we talked about. But seriously, you need to listen to those episodes (come on, they're called parts 1 & 2 for a reason!). We've reached the conclusions of the argument that have some very interesting consequences. This argument deductively proves that humans po...

It's the next episode on the FAAN! I try and push back on premises 3 and 4 of the argument, of which 3 is by far the one most taken issue with. In order to defend any good argument, you need to be prepared to answer objections of all sorts. Never be surprised by the same objection twice! As you follow along in this series on the Freethinking Argument, we always encourage you to be reading the arti...

Atheists love to label themselves as freethinkers, but as Tim Stratton argues, this is actually an oxymoron! In this episode, Tim and I discuss the Freethinking Argument Against Naturalism (affectionately abbreviated as FAAN). This argument was Tim's first ever argument he crafted on his own, so it was interesting to get the backstory of how he came up with it. Tim gives an overview and defense of...

Hello everyone, and welcome to the Freethinking Podcast! In this introductory episode, Tim Stratton and myself, Scott Olson, have a conversation about Freethinking Ministries, the Christian apologetics & theology ministry started by Stratton himself. If you're listening to this podcast, you likely have taken 1 Peter 3:15, which says "but in your hearts honor Christ the Lord as holy, always being p...