Bill Pratt | December 29, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Some statements about the world are objectively true, meaning they are true for all people, places, and times, regardless of whether anyone actually believes the statements. Other statements about the world are subjective, meaning they merely refer to a person’s preferences or tastes. An objective statement would be: “The sum of [...]
Bill Pratt | October 3, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt During the Renaissance and Enlightenment, philosophers continuously changed their views on how science and religion should interact. Philosopher William Lawhead describes the continuum chronologically in his textbook The Voyage of Discovery. Initially, most scientists and philosophers “saw religion and science as co-equal partners in the search for truth.” Lawhead continues: “Gradually [...]
Bill Pratt | March 7, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Philosophers who study how we know things (epistemologists) have long debated whether we have innate or intuitive knowledge. This kind of knowledge is often referred to as a priori knowledge. It is knowledge that one has prior to or independently of sense experience. It cannot be proven by experience. The debate [...]
Bill Pratt | December 24, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt According to church historian John Hannah, there were four major Protestant streams that developed during the Reformation in the 16th century: Anglicanism, Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anabaptism. Each of these streams placed great stress on the idea of salvation by faith alone, yet they did not all agree on what infant baptism [...]
Bill Pratt | December 20, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt The Book of Revelation, according to some Christians, teaches a literal thousand-year reign of Christ on earth after his second coming (see Rev. 20). This will then be followed by the creation of a new heaven and new earth. This view is known today as premillenialism. But there are other Christians, [...]
Bill Pratt | October 25, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the early centuries of Christianity, believers were mostly without complete written copies of the New Testament as we know it today. They may have possessed portions of it, but most Christians were taught doctrine orally. In order to focus on and remember what was important, the early church composed several [...]
Bill Pratt | June 22, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt We want to make the blog more relevant to your needs and interests. To do that, we need to know more about you. As a result, we have created the 2010 Reader Survey. Would you please take a few minutes to fill out the survey? By doing so, you will ultimately [...]
Bill Pratt | April 5, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt A recent NY Times article linked people who are skeptical about evolution with people who are skeptical about global warming. The author noted that there seems to be a correlation, that if you doubt one, then you likely doubt the other. This really has me thinking about why that is, as [...]
Bill Pratt | April 2, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt This question first came to a dramatic head in the church in the fifth and sixth centuries. There were four main protagonists. Augustine of Hippo argued that salvation is totally and causatively of God’s grace. A contemporary of Augustine, Pelagius, argued that salvation is totally and causatively of man’s free will. [...]
Bill Pratt | February 18, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt Recently I read an incredibly thought-provoking book written by Thomas Sowell, called A Conflict of Visions. In this book, Sowell traces out two conflicting visions of the nature of man, the constrained and the unconstrained. Sowell argues that these two visions have been at odds for centuries and the conflict between [...]
