The Freethinking Podcasts

There's a bit of a role reversal in this episode. Tim interviews me about my favorite argument for God's existence: the Ontological Argument. Not only is the argument extremely controversial, but it also has an incredibly rich intellectual history, so it makes for a fascinating episode. Even if you don't find the Ontological Argument convincing (many Christians don't), I think there is value in di...

As we continue commenting on the Big Think video, what became apparent to us is that Mr. Aslan desperately wants the reason why Donald Trump was elected to have nothing to do with Hillary Clinton. But, as we talk about in this episode, his election was much more about how bad of a candidate Hillary Clinton was than anything to do with Trump's merits. In fact, one could even say that Donald Trump's...

We're going to be talking about a video by Big Think that tries to understand why evangelicals voted for Donald Trump for president. The man in the video, Reza Aslan, theorizes about several different reasons he believes that evangelicals acted out of character and voted for a man he did not think they would have voted for. Both Tim and I believe this video completely misses the whole reason Donal...

John Limanto comes back to talk about the problem of divine hiddenness. Divine hiddenness refers to the idea that, if God were to exist, we might expect him to reveal himself more fully to more people. The fact that some people do not feel as though God has been revealed to them might be thought of as an issue to the theist, particularly one who believes that God is all-loving and desires all huma...

John Limanto joins the podcast this week! For those of you who do not know, John Limanto is a 17-year-old guy from Indonesia who is one of the deepest thinkers in the Christian apologetics and theology circles. In this episode, we talk about what it's like to be into apologetics and theology at a young age and how that affects one's ministry. John is a really fun and energetic guy who I highly enc...

The second part of Dr. Jacobus Erasmsus' interview is here. We finish up our discussion on the Kalam and the argument from an actual infinite. Also, Dr. Erasmsus and Tim talk about their co-authored journal articles on Calvinism and Molinism. Finally, Dr. Erasmsus finishes up with his assessment of the "current state" of South Africa (where he's from). It is really a fascinating interview that I'm...

We've got Dr. Jacobus Erasmus on the show for this episode, who is likely one of the smartest people we'll have on the podcast. In this episode we talk about how he met Tim and the contributions he makes to Freethinking Ministries, including making Tim appear much smarter than he actually is. Not only that, but Dr. Erasmsus talks to us about the application of computer science to philosophy, as we...

That's right, it's another Q&A episode about free will! What can we say, we love to talk about it! In this episode, we look at a reader question dealing with the evil that happens to devoted Christians and babies. So yeah, not a light and breezy topic at all! This certainly is a question that is common among non-Christians. Why would God allow evil to happen to babies? Maybe they can understand so...

Can we still make real choices after God creates the world? One of the readers at the Freethinking Ministries website asked essentially this question, so Tim and I decided to take a stab at answering it (okay, so mainly Tim. But I edited the episode which has to count for something). If you're wondering if we'll ever run out of things to talk about when it comes to Molinism and free will, then you...

In the second part dealing with the problem of evil, Tim comes to the incredible conclusion that not only is God's allowing evil consistent with his moral character, but it actually would be EVIL for God to eradicate evil! You'll definitely want to hear his argument (or you can read it at the link below). It's likely clear after listening to this episode that understanding Molinism is a huge part...

After hearing a bunch of arguments FOR God's existence, it's important to understand what the other side has to offer in terms of arguments AGAINST God's existence. Most of the time, this boils down to the problem of evil, without a doubt one of the toughest questions for the Christian to answer. However, it is not without an answer, as Tim explains throughout this episode. The problem of evil see...

Today we are lucky to be joined by Mikel del Rosario, "the apologetics guy." I use quotes not in jest but because that's literally how he is known in the apologetics community. So you know he's got some great things to say! In this episode, we talk about how he first became interested in apologetics, his work with Darrell Bock at the Hendricks Center, and the divine claims of Jesus. Not only that,...

Finally, we're at the last episode on Molinism (although we certainly will be dealing with it in many future episodes). In this episode, Tim and I interact with one of the most common objections to Molinism: the grounding objection. Many opponents of Molinism feel as though this quite a strong argument against Molinism, but Tim and I don't really feel its force. In fact, as Tim shows in this episo...

Now that you know what Molinism is, we need to make sure that it is true! After all, a doctrine isn't true simply because it is useful in explaining many things. In this episode, we begin to tackle some of the more common objections to Molinism. Tim gives several helpful analogies that are useful to assuage any concerns that on this view, God still causally determines what we free creatures do. Th...

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...