Today's interview is with Christian philosopher Paul Moser, Professor and Chair of Philosophy at Loyola University Chicago. He talks about his background, epistemology and evidence, his work on New Testament epistemology, the evidence for God, the role (or not) of natural theology, problems with the "two-step" approach, divine hiddenness, purposively available evidence for God, the role of human volition, authoritative evidence vs. spectator evidence, willingness and evidence, advice for Christi...
May 16, 2011•53 min
Today's interview is with Dr. Tim McGrew, Professor of Philosophy at Western Michigan University. He is a philosopher and apologist who has written extensively in areas pertinent to epistemology. He talks about his background and work, examples of undesigned coincidences in the New Testament and Old, the arguments made by Bart Ehrman in his new book Forged and its fatal flaw, textual and literary criticism, spotting actual forgeries, good historical approaches to determining reliability, assessi...
May 09, 2011•53 min
Today's interview is with Dr. Glenn Peoples. Glenn is a New Zealand based Christian philosopher, podcaster, and blogger. He runs the Beretta blog and hosts the Say Hello to My Little Friend podcast. In this interview, Glenn explores moral terminology, objective morality, the difference between ontology and epistemology, the moral argument, the Craig/Harris debate, advice for apologists, and more. Enjoy.
May 02, 2011•49 min
Today's interview is with Peter Kreeft, professor of philosophy at Boston College and at the King's College, in New York City. He talks about his background and influences, his view of philosophy and theology, why we should learn logic (and his logic textbook), etiquette in evaluating arguments, Socratic method & dialogue, caring for the soul, dealing with difficult and loaded questions, preparation for apologetics dialogue (it's not just study), cultivating integrity and character, advice f...
Apr 25, 2011•33 min
Today's interview is with apologist and author Lee Strobel. He talks about how God has used his books, his journey from atheism to Christianity, the role of evidence and the influence of the heart, being a popularizer, his upcoming book The Ambition, areas where Christians can reach culture, lessons from journalism, advice for apologists, and more. Enjoy.
Apr 18, 2011•53 min
Today's interview is with Jay Smith, a Biblical Scholar specializing in Islam. He talks about his background in Islamic studies, the difference between apologetics and polemics, his debates with Muslims, the prophet Muhammad's life and the spread of Islam, the five pillars of Islam, key worldview differences to keep in mind, common mistakes Christian make when interacting with Muslims, advice for those in Islamic studies, and more. Enjoy.
Apr 11, 2011•1 hr 9 min
Today's interview is with Robert M. Bowman, Jr. - the Director of Research at the Institute for Religious Research. He talks about his background, his work with IRR, the reasons for examining apologetic methodology, four basic categories or approaches to apologetics (classical, evidential, reformed, fideistic), apologetic questions and meta-apologetic questions, the sorts of methodological questions one should consider, understanding presuppositionalism, finding an integrated approach to defendi...
Apr 04, 2011•47 min
Today's interview is with Dr. Alastair Noble, director of the Centre for Intelligent Design in the UK. He talks about his background, how he got interested in ID, a bit about the UK organization, the reception of ID theory in the UK, responses to common objections to ID, objective criteria for design detection, why ID is not creationism, three areas where the evidence of design is indisputable, the influence of worldviews, and more. Enjoy.
Mar 28, 2011•36 min
Today's interview is with Richard Morgan, a former atheist who found salvation in Jesus Christ. His testimony is fascinating, as part of his conversion story came about through his interactions on the Richard Dawkins website discussion boards. He has appeared on the Unbelievable? Radio program (here / MP3). He talks about his background, how he arrived at atheism, how he viewed God, his encounters on the RD forums, and his conversion to Christianity. He also offers some words of insight for Chri...
Mar 21, 2011•46 min
Today's interview is with Rick Schenker, president of Ratio Christi, a Student Apologetics Alliance that strengthens the faith of Christian students at secular institutions across the country. He talks about their initiative to start 500 apologetics chapters in the next five years. If you are an apologist, please listen to this interview and see how you can get involved. Enjoy.
Mar 14, 2011•36 min
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, ...
Mar 07, 2011•40 min
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 Gos...
Feb 28, 2011•53 min
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,...
Feb 21, 2011•45 min
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 be...
Feb 14, 2011•48 min
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 ap...
Feb 07, 2011•45 min
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.
Feb 03, 2011•13 min
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....
Jan 31, 2011•37 min
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.
Jan 27, 2011•15 min
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 materia...
Jan 24, 2011•35 min
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 C...
Jan 20, 2011•12 min
Today's interview is with Christian apologist and philosopher Paul Copan. This is my second interview with Paul - the first covered a number of different topics for apologists -- but today's interview focuses on his recent book entitled: Is God a Moral Monster? Making sense of the Old Testament God. He explores the questions of the "mean" Old Testament God, is God proud and jealous, Abraham being commanded to sacrifice Isaac, challenging Old Testament laws, slavery, and the judgement of the Cana...
Jan 12, 2011•55 min
Today's interview is with Dr. Mark Eckel, Dean of Undergraduate Studies and Professor of Old Testament at Crossroads Bible College in Indianapolis, IN. He is a notable voice in Christian teaching, having written Christian worldview curriculum for schools. He talks about our teacher/student relationship, learning in community, the influence of Francis Schaeffer in his thinking and teaching, what we can learn from Schaeffer today, the balance between generalizing and specializing, the intertwining...
Dec 27, 2010•58 min
Today's interview is with Lindsay Brooks, staff apologist of Apologetics.com. He talks about his work with Apologetics.com, the area of aesthetics (or philosophy of beauty), the nature of beauty itself, aesthetics and arguments from design, the argument from desire, the idea of objective beauty, the difference between beauty and taste, the arts in worship, literary apologetics and music, and advice to fellow Christian apologists. Enjoy.
Dec 20, 2010•44 min
Today's interview is with Paul L. Maier, the Russell H. Seibert Professor of Ancient History at Western Michigan University and a much-published author of both scholarly and popular works. He talks about his background as an historian, the existence of Jesus, his debate with Dan Barker, the pagan myth accusation, ancient sources for the life of Jesus, the historicity of the first Christmas, and more. Enjoy.
Dec 13, 2010•47 min
Today's interview is with Holly Ordway, professor of English and literature and author of Not God's Type: A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith. She talks about her background as an atheist, her encounters with Christians in the past, the influence of literature and poetry, personal influences from others, looking at arguments for the existence of God, counter-arguments against God, psychological explanations, her encounter with Christ, her advice to skeptics and her advice to Christian apol...
Dec 06, 2010•42 min
Today's interview is with James Sire, author, lecturer, and Christian apologist. He talks about his background, the impact of The Universe Next Door, defining the concept of worldview, the benefit of understanding worldview concepts, the intellectual life as a Christian calling, the renewal and discipline of the mind, the cultivation of wisdom, thoughts on lifelong learning, the biggest errors of Christian communicators, tips for better communication, apologetics and calling, advice to Christian...
Nov 29, 2010•40 min
Today's interview is with Joe Carter, online editor of First Things magazine and author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History's Greatest Communicator. He talks about the the use of arguments (and how Jesus used them), the importance of rhetoric for the communicator (and Aristotle's framework), the difference between persuasion and manipulation, the proper use of emotion, using imagery and idiom, rhetoric vs. sophistry, making messages more memorable, Jesus as a debater, el...
Nov 22, 2010•35 min
Today's interview is with biochemist Michael Behe, Professor of Biochemistry at Lehigh University. He is also a leading voice in the Intelligent Design community and Fellow of the Discovery Institute. He talks about Intelligent Design, detecting design in molecular systems, his views on evolution, Lenski's fruit fly research, irreducible complexity, philosophical presuppositions, and more. Enjoy.
Nov 15, 2010•45 min
Today's interview is with Michael Licona, the Apologetics Coordinator at the North American Mission Board and Research Professor of New Testament at Southern Evangelical Seminary. He discusses his new book The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, philosophy of history and historical methodology, the knowability of the past, historical facts, miracle claims and the historian, judging the relevant evidence, assessing the historical bedrock, weighing competing historical hypothe...
Nov 08, 2010•52 min
Today's interview is with David K. Clark, executive vice president and provost of Bethel University and author of Dialogical Apologetics. He talks about apologetics as a practice (and not just a discipline), being a specialist and being a generalist, his book Dialogical Apologetics, relationships and dialogue, how dialogical apologetics applies to methodology, paying attention to emotions as well as questions, "less is more," becoming better communicators, belief formation, using creativity, the...
Nov 01, 2010•47 min
