Conference day 1 Intro
Jp Moreland
A. History of intellectualism in xianity
1. now seen as bigoted and dangerous…we have a PR problem
B. Where is this view coming from?
1. Three world views
a. Xian theism
b. Scientific naturalism
1. Science is our best epistemic tool
2. Physical world is all there is
c. Postmodern Relativism
C. Faith, knowledge, and certainty
1. Faith is trust based on what we already know to be true.
2. You can know something without having empirical certainty.
Francis Beckwith
A. No God, No Good
1. How do you answer the question ‘is there a moral law?’
2. How do we help people realize what they already intuitively know?
3. Believing in oughts indicates you believe in objective truth
Greg Koukl
A. Simple cosmological argument
1. A big bang requires a big banger
2. Worse than magic…. Big bang lacks magician. What is more reasonable? God or something from nothing?
3. How is faith illogical?
Jay Richards
A. Different questions require different types of evidence
1. Most of our answers come from a few accomplished intellectuals
2. The more accomplished you are, the crazier your claims can be, unchallenged.
B. Hawking’s errors
1. Category error: gravity is one of the things that needs to be explained, not a cause
2. He uses ‘nothing’ to refer to a ‘quantum vacuum’
Craig Hazen
A. What are we afraid of?
1. Most people ask the same simple questions which have answers
2. Most people are not angry atheists, but ARE hurt by anti-intellectual religionists and anti theist misinformation