Dr Owen Anderson is a professor of philosophy and religious studies at Arizona State University and an adjunct theology instructor at Phoenix Seminary. He is pastor of Historic Christian Church, a Reformed Church in Phoenix Arizona. Companion web page with more audio and video: drowenanderson.com. A link to his books can be found below.
I love the note added to the video that in no uncertain terms says humans are completely at fault for rising world temperatures. It is amusing that a video saying that climate change is a religion gets a note that makes factual statements that have absolutely zero evidence to back it up.
Nice to finally hear a genuine conversation about the premise of this book without getting into peripherals. This is such an important book and I really appreciate Megan's demeanor and strength under fire! Thanks for the excellent interview. PS: also great to know that there is at least one solid instructor at ASU! 🙏🏻
Megan’ book is a brilliant treatise on the comprise of the evangelical elites. Her research, documentation and context draws the map to the origin of the current “wokeness” we are facing in the evangelical church. Beyond the strength and journalistic scholarship in building the case for the leviathan we face, is the beauty of her own personal testimony in the last chapter. Not since the moment that Christ brought me to the end of myself have I wept the warm flowing tears listening to her voice sharing her story of conversion. The final truth in this book is what propelled her to write it. We need the redeeming truth of Jesus Christ and the Word to be the essential foundation of our faith in practice.
She's being "attacked" by fellow believers like myself, who think she needs to have a more honest/factual treatment of Gavin Ortlund. She's instead chosen to double down. Not great. Yea I've read the parts of the book relevant to my point. It's a problem. A book like this cam have a powerful effect, but if it relies on sloppy journalism that mischaracterizes and discards fellow believers who disagree, but who are otherwise totally non radical, non political and conservative, then her narrative undermines itself and its persuasive power fails.
Relativism and postmodernism has infiltratred the Evangelical churches. No one wants to be "uncharitable." Compromise leads to further compromise and even apostasy. Nothing is free. Someone is going to pay for free stuff. Marxism is the opposite of Christian charity.
Great conversation. There are many professing 'Christians' who don't understand the Bible. They've mixed Scripture with culture and that's what they believe. Being pro-illegal immigration is a great example.
In Romans 1:20 ,when Paul says "without excuse", Paul is claiming that general revelation is a scientific proof of God's existence, divine nature, and eternal power. But, if you know the scientific method, you would know that general revelation does not prove anything about God. It is an assertion. You don't prove any assertion by jumping to a conclusion and saying the conclusion proves the assertion. You also eliminate other possibilities. There are many examples of where assuming something in science does not get the right answer, so "common sense" does not prove a scientific claim. You cannot look around, see what is "clearly seen" and "seen by the things that are made" and know what caused it (or even if it had a cause at all). Also, logic by itself does not prove a scientific assertion. You also need observations and data. No observation or data exists about God, so God's existence remains unproven. In summary, just know that Romans 1:20 does not prove (or disprove) God's existence or nature.
I’ve been studying Job deeply for years. I would love to know your thoughts on Elihu. We learn the three friends have spoken what is wrong about God but Job has, but God seemingly has no commentary on Elihu.
What Doug said about studying philosophy Just so that he can steal man All of the other arguments ...... I have a similar frame of mind. I study every thing I can get my hands on. From origin of life science to The doctrines and dogmas of every other religion and denominations within christendom. I want to have a ready answer for every question presented to me ....
theo- relating to God or deities. Woke ideology is not theological. It is an ideology, but there is no god or deity. Wokism is reverse racism and an obsession with equality of outcome… not a theological position. Also, there are more options than Christianity and woke. Like, scientific rationalism and secular humanism.
So to be clear when a mother who, through no fault of her own, has never heard of of Jesus, watches helpless as the botfly maggot burrows into her baby's eyeball, by your theology, she is receiving "general revelation" of a supposedly all loving god and if she "rejects" this revelation god finds her guilty as condemns her to extreme eternal violence. Sick beyond belief. As the saying goes "there is no greater hate than Christian love".
I don't want any life form to suffer against their will and that's why I won't ever force another life form into the type of existence where they would suffer against their will.
Haven’t heard this ,it sounds like nonsense, picking on group of people with different ideas ,Well the Klan was a group of people that had different Ideas also I don’t remember seeing in history where people said hold on a minute! To the awful CRIMES they committed on the people of color
I love Pascal's Wager. Atheism is a wager, too! Pascal wrote 200 pages in "Pensees" why Christianity is the one true religion. Pascal addressed the "many gods" objection.
Glad to see a serious treatment of Pascal, he is very profound and I always wondered why Christian philosophers and apologists don’t give him more attention.
Great point about the theoretical "agnostic," who doesn't live out agnosticism. How we live is representative of what we believe. So you are always living in a way oriented toward what you believe is true or false.
Also, people should not neglect reading Pascal's Provincial Letters, they are quite revelatory and incisive about historical issues of the day, and ecclesiology more generally.
Great interview! It's interesting that C.S. Lewis opens up Chapter 1 of The Problem of Pain with an Epigraph from Pensees (Pensees IV, 242-243). In that portion, Pascal is quite critical of the usefulness of natural theology. That Lewis uses that portion of the Pensees to open up a book on the problem of pain, I think is telling. I would consider Pascal to be the first modern existentialist, understanding that answering the existential questions are as important, or even more important, than articulating more and more precise descriptions of physical reality. Of course, I still consider natural theology a valuable project, one we probably shouldn't give up on.
You mentioned, a "common vocabulary," aka a common mythos, imho. I think this is missing in society. At least when nearly everyone was familiar with the Great Ideas more or less, and the Biblical narrative, then at least we could have common ground and language to discuss social, political, philosophical, and literary issues.
