Apologetics 315 Podcast

Today's interview is with John Dickson, Director of the Centre for Public Christianity in Australia, Senior Research Fellow in Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University, and Senior Minister at St Andrew's Roseville. He talks about his background and studies in acient history, his research into the historical Jesus, The Christ Files: How Historians Know What They Know about Jesus, the data that historians use to learn about Jesus, the implausibility to the "Jesus never existed" view, his work with the Centre for Public Christianity, how Christians should get engaged in media and public Christianity, his advice to apologists, and more.Enjoy.

Today's interview is with New Testament scholar Dr. Craig Blomberg, distinguished professor of New Testament at Denver Seminary in Colorado. He talks about how he got into NT studies, the importance of the Gospels and their dating, how we determine the authorship of the Gospels, how we got four Gospels and not more, the selection of the Gospel canon, the use of non-canonical sources, dealing with miracles account found in historical documents, responding to the claim of contradictions in the Gospels, interpreting historical documents, differences in the Gospel of John, the work and impact of Bart Ehrman, the "all-or-nothing" approach to reliability of scripture, dealing with prophetic passages by Jesus, and advice to Christian apologists.Enjoy.

Today's interview is with astrophysicist Hugh Ross, founder and president of Reasons to Believe. He talks about his educational background and how he became a Christian, his approach to defending the faith, two books of God's revelation, the relationship between faith and science, RTB's creation model and how it is tested, the use of cosmological arguments, the integration of philosophy, theology, and science, the age of the earth controversy, critiquing young-earth views, advice for apologists, advice for those in the sciences, and more.Enjoy.

Today's interview is with biochemist Fazale Rana, executive vice president of research and apologetics at Reasons to Believe, a science-faith think tank based in Southern California. He talks about his journey to faith, the role of natural theology, trying to create life in the lab, the thesis of his new book, how we define life, two different approaches to synthetic biology, the goals for synthetic biology, possible moral issues behind artificial life (are we playing God?), the harmonization between new scientific discoveries and scripture, RTB's origin of life model, the plausibility of "pre-biotic soup," the future of synthetic biology, the apologetic value of science, having confidence in the scriptures, and more.Enjoy.

Today's interview is witth Scott Klusendorf, president of Life Training Institute. LTI is the first place to look for excellent resources to get better equipped to defend the pro-life position. Scott talks about defining abortion and its terms, the issue of the debate, the legal history of abortion, defending the pro-life view using science and philosophy, the four pillars of the pro-life argument, answering a litany of objections to the pro-life position, the right and wrong use of emotional appeals, taking on the right tone in the debate, how to get better equipped, and more.Enjoy.

Today's interview is the third and final in a series of three short podcasts dealing the atrocities committed in the crusades, Luther's insights on the crusades, the idea of a Christian nation, and the complex lessons of the crusades.

Today's interview is with Alister McGrath, Professor of Theology, Ministry and Education, and Head of the Centre for Theology, Religion and Culture at King's College, London. He talks about his journey out of atheism, his interactions with the New Atheists, the future of atheism, the tone of debate, his new book The Passionate Intellect (Mere Theology in UK), the role of a theology in apologetics, the role of natural theology, collaborative apologetics, advice for Christian apologists, and more.Enjoy.

Today's interview is the second of a series of three short podcasts dealing with the general perception of the Crusades, what the Crusades were, motivations behind them, Augustine's concept of "just war," the atrocities of the Crusades, and their overall outcome.

Today's interview is with Jay Richards, program director of the Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture. (articles by Jay here) He talks about the use of intelligent design arguments in Christian apologetics, understanding the limits of arguments, removing obstacles to the Gospel, "God must have done it" caricatures, the Privileged Planet thesis, the factors needed for a life-sustaining planet, the overlap between the conditions for life and the conditions for discovery, the materialistic worldview and the Copernican principle, pre-Copernican cosmology, earth-like exoplanets, design and constrained optimization, the importance of the moon for life and for science, the benefit of philosophical tools for apologetics, advice for apologists, and more.Enjoy.

Apologetics 315 is happy to welcome Clay Jones for a series of three interviews. Clay is assistant professor at the Master of Arts in Christian Apologetics program at Biola University - and he teaches courses in Theodicy & the Issue of Evil, apologetics research and writing, and defending the resurrection. He has been interviewed in the past on Apologetics 315 on the problem of evil.Today's interview is the first of a series of three short podcasts dealing with some of the attacks against Christianity because of events such as the Crusades, witch hunts, and other historical events. This introductory episode begins to unpack how we as Christians should approach and think through the issues.Enjoy.