Disputed Questions

Sep 25, 2024 | patheos.com | Robert Hutchinson |Disputed Questions

In the 1990s, a handful of scientists, mathematicians and lawyers launched an organized critique of evolutionary theory that became known as the Intelligent Design (ID) movement. The leaders in this movement included the attorney Phillip Johnson, the biochemist Michael Behe and the mathematician William Dembski.

Aug 29, 2024 | patheos.com | Robert Hutchinson |Disputed Questions

An interesting new book has just come out, a collection of stories about people who once were true believers in Richard Dawkins’s unique brand of evolutionary atheism but who have since come to doubt their leader’s key claims. It’s called “Coming to Faith Through Dawkins: 12 Essays on the Pathway from New Atheism to Christianity, edited by the British Christian biologist Denis Alexander and the theologian Alister McGrath. I plan on reviewing the book as soon as I get a copy.

Aug 10, 2024 | patheos.com | Robert Hutchinson |Disputed Questions

Over the centuries, Christians have used the word faith in many different ways. From the texts of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament up through statements of conciliar councils and theologians, there have been numerous understandings of what faith is and how it comes about. Is faith a kind of knowledge, the “evidence” of things hoped for, as St. Paul says? Or is it a kind of trust – in the Bible, the teachings of a church, or in God?

Jul 30, 2024 | patheos.com | Robert Hutchinson |Disputed Questions

The Australian philosopher John Leslie Mackie’s 1955 article, “Evil and Omnipotence,” is widely considered one of the most forceful articulations of what is now known as the Logical Problem of Evil (LPE). It’s often said that the LPE is no longer considered a valid argument. It supposedly has succumbed to purely logical objections raised by the Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga in the 1970s – which we will look at in a moment. In its purest force, the LPE is as follows:P1.

Jul 21, 2024 | patheos.com | Robert Hutchinson |Disputed Questions

William F. Vallicella has an interesting post on his blog Philosophy in Progress on “mortalism,” the doctrine that when the body dies the “soul” or mind dies as well.