If God knows every choice we’ll make from eternity past, doesn’t that mean our choices are not free – that God has caused us to do what we do? No. Knowledge is not a cause. Knowing what someone will choose to do in advance of their actually doing it does not cause them to do it. While it’s true that if God knows X will happen, X will most certainly happen, but it’s not God’s knowledge of X that makes X happen. It’s our choice to do X. God merely knows what we will freely choose in advance. While God’s knowledge is chronologically prior to our acts, our acts are logically prior to God’s knowledge. If we would have chosen A rather than B on October 12, 2006, God would have known A rather than B. The reason He knew B would happen from eternity past is because He knew we would freely choose B from eternity past. God’s foreknowledge does not determine our choices, but is informed by our choices. In other words, God’s foreknowledge is not the cause of our actions; our actions are the cause of God’s foreknowledge.
Apologetics
August 22, 2017
If God knows everything, are we truly free?
Posted by Jason Dulle under Determinism, Philosophy, Theology[201] Comments
June 27, 2017
Jesus’ resurrection and belief in Jesus’ deity
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Historical Jesus, Resurrection, Theology[24] Comments
Only the resurrection of Jesus from the dead can explain why Christians believed Jesus was divine. It also gives credence to the fact that Jesus claimed to be God.
Many skeptics think that Jesus never made claims to deity – that such claims were merely put on his lips by his followers. But why would they do so? The Jews had no concept of a divine messiah. Indeed, the idea that God could become a human being was considered blasphemy to the Jews. If the gospels are to be believed, the reason Jesus was condemned to death by the Jews was precisely because he claimed to be God.
June 6, 2017
Tactical response to the “no one knows when life begins” objection
Posted by Jason Dulle under Abortion, Apologetics, Bioethics, Tactics[12] Comments
When someone supports abortion on the basis that “nobody knows when life begins,” my immediate reaction is to immediately correct their misinformation with the facts of biology. Doing so, however, does not always end up with them becoming pro-life. People will often move the goalpost, offering another justification for abortion.
To prevent this, you could ask: “Does this mean that if we knew when life began – and we found that it began at conception – that you join me in opposing abortions?” If they say yes, then they commit themselves to becoming pro-life once you have provided them with the biological evidence. Of course, they could always say no, in which case you might ask them, “If it’s not our ignorance of when life begins that justifies abortion, then what does?” While this may prevent you from being able to provide them with the biological evidence to demonstrate their error, at least it will refocus the conversation to the reason(s) they think justifies abortion – which allows you to be more pointed in your apologetic, and provides a better chance of them changing their mind.
June 2, 2017
Can’t sell berries if you believe in natural marriage
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Same-sex Marriage[2] Comments
A farmer got evicted from a city farmers’ market because he does not permit same-sex couples to get married on his farm. Violate your convictions or be punished.
June 1, 2017
Taiwan approves same-sex marriage
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Same-sex Marriage[14] Comments
On May 24 Taiwan’s constitutional court ruled that same-sex couples ought to have access to the institution of marriage, and gave the legislature two years to amend the civil code. They are the first Asian nation to adopt same-sex marriage.
May 24, 2017
Something must be eternal
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Cosmological Argument[111] Comments
A simple reflection tells us that something must be eternal. After all, if you start with nothing, you’ll always end up with nothing. But we ended up with something, which means we must have started with something. Put another way, since something exists now something must have always existed. There could never be a time when absolutely nothing existed. Something must be eternal, but what is that something?
There are good scientific and philosophical reasons to conclude that physical reality has not always existed, so physical reality can’t be the eternal something. Since things which begin to exist must be caused to exist by something else, physical reality had to be caused by something else, and perhaps the cause of the physical world is the eternal something we are looking for. How would we know?
May 19, 2017
Don’t turn Adam and Eve into a society just yet: Evaluating the science behind the original human population size
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Evolution, Science, Theology[6] Comments
Could the human population have originated from two people? Many say science has proven this to be impossible and are reinterpreting the Biblical narrative to fit the current scientific thinking. In this article, Fuz Rana evaluates the science behind the claims regarding original human population sizes. He notes that it is based on mathematical modeling rather than empirical data, and those mathematical models have failed verification in each case we have been able to test them. At the very least this ought to give Christians pause before reinterpreting the Bible to fit the latest scientific thinking. It would be foolish to abandon the historicity of a primordial pair of humans based on scientific reasoning that has inaccurately “predicted” the original population sizes of animals for which we know the original populations. If the mathematics are too idealized for real-life biology, then Christians should not feel the pressure to “revise” our theology.
May 5, 2017
What I’ve Been Reading: The Resurrection of Jesus
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Book Reviews, Resurrection, Theology[11] Comments
Michael Licona’s magnum opus on the resurrection, The Resurrection of Jesus: A New Historiographical Approach, is a must read for those who are interested in the historical evidence for the resurrection. It has some overlap with other great works on the resurrection such as N. T. Wright’s The Resurrection of the Son of God, but it is distinct in that it begins with an examination of history and method (philosophy of history) before examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus and drawing any conclusions. Licona explores the nature of historical knowledge (what can be known) and historical methodology. He even assesses the source material (canonical as well as non-canonical material) to determine each source’s value for the investigation. Finally, he gets to the heart of the matter by determining the historical facts, and then assessing competing hypotheses to determine the best explanation. All 600+ pages are worth your attention!
March 27, 2017
What I’ve Been Reading: The Story of Reality
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Bible, Book Reviews, Theology[3] Comments
I recently finished reading Greg Koukl’s new book, The Story of Reality. In fact, I read it twice – and I rarely read a book more than once. Koukl contends that while most Christians know most of the bits and pieces of the Christian worldview, few know how to put those pieces together in a coherent fashion to form a truly Christian worldview. They may have a lot of knowledge about the Bible’s contents (micro-level understanding), but few understand the overarching Biblical storyline (macro-level understanding). The Story of Reality sets out to tell that story, breaking it up into five major areas: God, man, Jesus, cross, and final resurrection.
March 10, 2017
Darwin’s mechanism works, but not in the way Darwin imagined
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Evolution, Intelligent Design[10] Comments
When it comes to neo-Darwinian evolution, the question isn’t whether Darwin’s proposed mechanism of biological change is true – we know it is because we observe it in nature. The question is whether it can explain what Darwin thought it explained: the diversity of life.
While the process of natural selection working on random mutations (NS+RM) is too slow to observe in mammals, we can observe the equivalent of millions of years of mammalian evolution in mere decades using microbial life and viruses. Experimental data over the last ~20 years has shown that while natural selection working on random mutations does produce change and variation within microbial species, it does not create new species.[1]
February 21, 2017
Who made nature? God. Who made God? Nothing.
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Cosmological Argument[12] Comments
Atheists claim that nature is all that exists. If nature made us, then what made nature? After all, the scientific evidence tells us physical reality had a beginning. Things which begin to exist need a cause, so nature needs a cause. That cause must be supernatural (beyond nature) by definition. God is what made nature.
But if God made nature, what made God? Nothing. Unlike nature, God is eternal. Things that are eternal never begin to exist, so they do not need a cause. How do we know God is eternal? Time is a feature of the physical world, so it began to exist when nature began to exist. That which brings time into existence cannot itself be temporal, but must be eternal. God is eternal. Nature is not. That’s why nature needs a cause but God does not.
February 14, 2017
Biology deniers
Posted by Jason Dulle under Abortion, Apologetics, Bioethics, Transgender[8] Comments
Liberals love to label those who have ethical objections to cloning, doubts about man-made global warming, and the like as “science deniers” and “climate change deniers.” Matt Walsh suggests that we start calling those who deny that one’s biological sex determines their actual gender as “biology deniers.” And in this case, the term is an accurate description rather than a derogatory, non-descriptive insult. Those who want to normalize transgender thoughts are truly denying biology. They affirm that someone who is biologically male is actually female.
Transgender advocates aren’t the only biology deniers. So are abortion advocates. They deny the biological fact that the unborn are human beings from the moment of conception.
So the next time you meet someone who is arguing for abortion or transgenderism, ask they why they are a biology denier.
February 8, 2017
Why defund Planned Parenthood?
Posted by Jason Dulle under Abortion, Apologetics, Bioethics[9] Comments
Those who are opposed to state and federal defunding of Planned Parenthood argue that these dollars are not paying for abortions, but contraception and other female-related health services. So why would pro-lifers want to defund this? Do we just hate women? Do we want to ensure that more women are “punished” for premarital sex by getting pregnant? Of course not. What we understand is that the grants Planned Parenthood receives for their non-abortion services indirectly funds their abortion business. To see why, imagine for a moment that the government provided grants to churches to pay for all of their office supplies, marriage counselors, city permits, and building repairs. Would the pro-Planned Parenthood-funding crowd agree with the government that this is not supporting religion? Of course not! They realize that the money a church saves by not having to pay for those government-funded items will be redirected to evangelistic efforts. So while the government’s funds would not be directly funding Christian evangelism, they are indirectly funding it. The same is true of federal funding of Planned Parenthood. While these funds are not directly responsible for aborting babies, they are indirectly responsible because Planned Parenthood can use all of the money the government saved them and direct it to their abortion business. And when 41% of their revenue comes from government, that’s a lot of money to redirect to their abortion business.
February 7, 2017
Children defy gender-neutral parenting
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, TransgenderLeave a Comment
Great op-ed piece in the LA Times about the futility of gender-neutral parenting. Liberals think it’s a great idea, but kids have a way of exposing a stupid idea for what it is.
February 3, 2017
Locked-in patients are happy
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Bioethics, Euthanasia1 Comment
Doctors have found a way to communicate with locked-in patients. Perhaps surprisingly to some, most report being “happy” despite having what most would considerable to be a miserable existence. We often think to ourselves that life would not be worth living if we had X debilitating condition, and yet, those in such a condition usually want to go on living. We need to be very careful about making value judgments considering how worthwhile one’s life is. While we may not be able to imagine how life would be worth living if we were to experience some major illness like locked-in syndrome, it’s amazing how those who experience such conditions continue to find meaning and value in life. Every life is valuable, and even those who are experiencing terrible suffering still prefer life over death. Life is precious.
February 3, 2017
Boy Scouts Allows Transgender “Boys”
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Transgender[18] Comments
First it was the approval of homosexuality. Now it is the approval of transgenderism. The Boy Scouts have jumped ship, and now it’s time for Christians to jump ship as well. An organization that was based on teaching boys to be “morally straight” has lost its way, capitulating to political correctness. Sad.
January 17, 2017
Abortion continues to decline
Posted by Jason Dulle under Abortion, Apologetics, Bioethics, Statistics1 Comment
Some good news! The Guttmacher Institute just released their abortion data from 2013-4. The number of abortions fell below one million for the first time in 2013 (958,700), and dropped again in 2014 (926,200). The last time they were this low was in 1975, just a couple of years after Roe.
The abortion rate has also continued to decline from 29 p/1000 women (aged 15-44) in 1980, to 14.6 p/1000 women in 2014. This is the lowest it has been since 1973.
While there are many factors that contribute to this decline (better contraception practices, pro-life legislation making it more difficult to obtain an abortion), one of them is most certainly the pro-life message of equal protection for all human beings. We have a lot more work to do to make abortion a matter for the history books, but I’ll rejoice over each step along the way.
January 12, 2017
Danzil Monk on the Kim Burrell controversy
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Homosexuality[10] Comments
Check out my friend Danzil Monk’s post regarding the Kim Burrell controversy.
December 30, 2016
What to do for the man who is a woman who wants to be a man
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Transgender[9] Comments
A biologically normal person who experiences transgender feelings is not the opposite gender trapped in the wrong body, but a person who is experiencing mental and emotional confusion (I’ve written some on gender issues here and here). They need therapy, not gender reassignment surgery. But what about a person who was born genetically male (Y chromosome), but with malformed or ambiguous genitalia?
There have been many cases where doctors and parents made the decision to surgically alter their genitals to appear female and then raise the child as a girl. But the child is a male, biologically, and the male hormones make them feel and act like a boy despite being told they are a girl and raised as a girl. Later in life, they discover their past. Now, as an adult, though they look like a girl, they want to be what they feel like and truly are: a man. They want to dress as a man and act like a man, and even undergo surgery to physically alter their genitals to look like a man again.
December 16, 2016
The most objective study of same-sex parenting
Posted by Jason Dulle under Apologetics, Same-sex parenting[2] Comments
The effect of same-sex parenting on child development is a highly politicized research topic. Various studies have come to different conclusions. Most studies suffer from sampling bias, too few participants, etc. (see “A Review and Critique of Research on Same-Sex Parenting and Adoption” for an analysis on every study related to same-sex parenting).
The most objective study to-date comes from the National Center for Health Statistics, a division of the U.S. Center for Disease Control. They collect a range of data on civilian households each year. Out of a sample of nearly 1.6 million people, they found a random and representative sampling of 512 children from same-sex parenting homes. When compared to children raised by married parents of the opposite sex, they were found to have a significantly higher rate of emotional problems and developmental disabilities. (more…)
Thinking to Believe 