Think for Christ

The next biblical story up for consideration in Chapter Five of Jordan Peterson's book, We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine, is the Tower of Babel as found in Genesis 11:1-9. What is the spirit that led mankind to pridefully and presumptuously build a tower as a monument to human ingenuity and greatness in direct opposition to the command of God? How is that sprit manifested today? What are the consequences of following a spirit that worships technology and seeks to usurp the divine order, both for individuals and for society. Peterson is at his very best when he turns his formidable intellect to contemplate the tragic reward of a godless culture. He is a prophetic voice of our times echoing amplifying the grave biblical warning: Pride goes before the fall.

In this lecture Andrew Payne considers the central importance of meta-narrative as a framework for meaning and the dire consequences of the postmodern dissolution of meta-narratives for the western world in general and for Christianity in particular. Using critical texts as his guide, Andrew surveys the downward spiral of the postmodern dissolution from the relativistic postwar consensus, to the therapeutic atomization of the individual, to the politicization and moralization of Christianity.

In this episode Anthony Alberino and Andrew Payne critical review chapters 3 and 4 of Jordan Peterson's We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine. In these chapters, Peterson takes on the biblical accounts of Cain and Abel and Noah and the Great Flood.

In this episode Anthony Alberino and Andrew Payne critically review the first two chapters of Jordan Peterson's book, We Who Wrestle with God. Peterson begins the first chapter of his work with a consideration of the creation account at the opening of the biblical book of Genesis and then moves to an interpretation of the divine likeness within man and woman. Along the way Peterson draws insights from the text related to the nature of the Garden of Eden, the Serpent, and the Fall.

In this episode in our series on an Introduction to Apologetics we conclude our look at the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus by considering some of the most prominent and promising of alternative naturalistic explanations that have been offered over the centuries. Examined here are the Conspiracy/Fraud Theory, the Apparent Death (or Swoon) Theory, the Wrong Tomb Theory, the Hallucination Theory, and Combination Theories.

Anthony Alberino and Andrew Payne launch a new series of episodes dedicated to a critical evaluation of Jordan Peterson's 2024 book, We Who Wrestle with God: Perceptions of the Divine. In this introductory episode we discuss Jordan Peterson and his influence on western culture in general and on western Christianity in particular. We then seek to identify and unpack the ideological framework that control's Peterson's interpretation of biblical texts throughout his work. Finally, we take a look at the introductory chapter of the book which Peterson titles, "Foreshadowing: The Still, Small Voice."

In this episode we continue our review of six well-attested facts that provide evidence for the historical case for the resurrection of Jesus and from which the resurrection can be inferred. Last time we looked at the first three, here we review the final three, which are: 4. The origin of the Christian faith depends on the belief of the earliest disciples that God had raised Jesus from the dead. 5. The church persecutor Paul was suddenly changed. 6. The skeptic James, brother of Jesus, was suddenly changed.

In this episode we continue our review of the historical case for resurrection of Jesus. There are six well attested historical facts that will serve as our evidence for the resurrection. The first three are: 1. Jesus died by crucifixion. 2. The tomb of Jesus was found empty by a group of women followers on the first day of the week following his crucifixion. 3. On separate occasions different individuals and groups had experiences of seeing Jesus alive from the dead.

In this episode in our Introduction to Apologetics series we set the stage for making a historical case for resurrection of Jesus by comparing the top-down method with a bottom-up method. That is we can arrive to the truth of the Resurrection by first establishing the historical credibility of the New Testament sources which testify to the Resurrection (top-down) or by starting from some well-attested historical facts and arguing that the Resurrection is the best explanation for those facts.

In this episode of Think for Christ Andrew continues to walk us through Soren Kierkegaard's highly influential work Fear and Trembling. Andrew reviews the structure of the work and explains some of Kierkegaard's big ideas. Among the central themes of the book is the "Knight of Faith" which is Kierkegaard's name for the heroic believer who recognizes his absolute duty to God above all else. Kierkegaard illustrates the radical nature of faith through the story of Abraham's willingness to sacrifice Isaac at God's command.

Pat Flynn joins Anthony Alberino to discuss a new version of Thomas Aquinas's cosmological Argument for God. Following on the work of philosopher Barry Miller, Pat makes the case for the existence of God without appealing to the Principle of Sufficient Reason (PSR) allowing him to bypass two of the most recurrent objections to cosmological reasoning: (a) the possibility of brute facts (i.e., that not everything needs an adequate explanation of its existence) and (b) the accusation of the composition fallacy. Pat argues that any contingent entity, upon metaphysical analysis, is either a contradictory structure and therefore an impossible existent or else points towards an extrinsic cause for the unity of its really distinct metaphysical parts (namely, its essence and its existence). This conclusion enables the inference that only an uncaused cause with no really distinct metaphysical parts can ultimately produce anything with really distinct metaphysical parts. Amazon link to Pat's book The Best Argument for God: https://www.amazon.com/Best-Argument-God-Patrick-Flynn-ebook/dp/B0CL2P973T/ref=sr_1_1?crid=39U9H0C3ZKFMV&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.4DuJewgSkxzUqIp6I3W5KRUu-dGXgSvnsffyJoixPZ8roBd45LQeT4R0jnc78HimJsKNZyzw8pK0bGBk1T7x7iNhxF4_XcdSz2cOwfAKuo_6S_ZXdjCRV0XhnxghWCGBVTEv0n6vQ0snDvvKq0QK4j5PDm37wy6yg9OFl5m68AVSeSm4zpE1cMXIp8PbkTsQDdBJ9CTyMSu1huSdAV-aw4sYle4BpAzjJ8ng2dvpjgM.UoTCL7dQ3UV7bOl-YQviW3rb59dCVGSXDksaWh0qV0w&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+best+argument+for+god&qid=1733768828&sprefix=the+best+argument+for+god%2Caps%2C120&sr=8-1 Link to Pat's Substack The Journal of Absolute Truth: https://journalofabsolutetruth.substack.com/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email Link to Pat's YouTube channel Philosophy for the People: https://www.youtube.com/@PhilosophyforthePeople

Anthony and Andrew discuss the main theme of Soren Kierkegaard's famous short work, Fear and Trembling. We consider the main theme and aim of the book and how Kierkegaard intends us to see that the intent of Scripture is to order us to God rather than to order us to a system of ethics or morality. True faith, as seen in the story of Abraham's willingness to offer Isaac as sacrifice, requires a radical alignment of one's life to God as to the ultimate authority, an authority which transcends all our ethical rationalizations and culturally conditioned expectations.

In this episode we continue our consideration of the historical reliability of the New Testament by reviewing some reasons that can be given in support of the claim that the New Testament authors actually did provide a reliable account about Jesus. Three general categories of evidence for New Testament reliability are considered. First there is what sometimes goes by the name "signs of credibility" (or sometimes also "marks of authenticity"). Here we see that much of what the New Testament reports about the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus meets the criteria historians use when evaluating the historical reliability of a source. Then we consider confirmation of the New Testament from non-canonical sources. Here we look at ancient sources, Christian and non-Christian, that corroborate some of the central claims of the New Testament. Finally, we have a brief look at how archaeology has added support to the general historical reliability of the New Testament. Here we consider ways in which archaeological discoveries have contributed to the credibility of some New Testament reports.

In his dialogue the Republic the ancient Greek philosopher Plato famously warned us about the perils of democracy and the moral degradation of what he calls the "democratic man". In this episode, and on the heels of the historic election of Donald Trump to a second term as President of the United States, Anthony Alberino and Andrew Payne discuss what Plato has to say about democracy and its relevance to modern political society.

In this episode on the life and thought of Soren Kierkegaard, Dr. Andrew Payne reviews four major themes that emerge across his works.

Sometimes it is claimed that the NT authors, especially the Gospel authors, never actually intended to give us a factual account of the life, ministry, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Instead, what we have are mostly fabricated stories full of embellishments and non-historical material. The gospels are thus said to belong to a genre that is more akin to folk lore, legend, or myth rather than to the genre of historical memoir or biography. Of course, if this is the case, then even if the NT was written at the right time and by the right people, it won’t be a historically trustworthy source of information about Jesus since it was never intended to be one in the first place. However, despite the claims of some radically skeptical scholars and internet atheists, we do in fact have very good reasons to believe that the NT writers intended to provide us with historically factual accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus.

In this episode we continue our look at the life and thought of Soren Kierkegaard by considering whether he can rightly be characterized as an existentialist.

In this episode we begin our review of the case for the historical reliability of the New Testament. To make this case, we first argue that the writers of the New Testament were well able to write a reliable account by focusing on the dating and authorship of the New Testaments documents. We show that the authors of the New Testament were the right people writing from the right place and writing at the right time. In other words, the New Testament documents were written close enough to the events they describe and by people who were in a position to know whether the events described actually happened.

In this episode we begin a new series on the hugely influential nineteenth century Danish theologian, philosopher, and literary master Soren Kierkegaard. Dr. Andrew Payne kicks off the series with a biographical sketch of some of the important events in Kierkegaard's life. Andrew also explains the relevance of Kierkegaard's thought for Christians today.

In this episode of Think for Christ, we welcome back philosopher J.T. Bridges to talk about his new book Beyond ‘Origin’: A Post-Darwinian Design Theory. In this book Dr. Bridges provides a much-needed critique of the somewhat stalled debate between Neo-Darwinist and Intelligent Design proponents. The book is full of valuable and probing insights for the ID movement, but, by way of disclaimer, it is not by any means an “easy read” or a “beginner-level” work. Dr. Bridges is presenting a philosophical critique of the of the current debate and in doing so he surveys ideas from several academic fields of inquiry including epistemology, the philosophy of science, and, of course, from both neo-Darwinian and Intelligent Design theory. Likewise, and again by way of disclaimer, this interview with Dr. Bridges will at times get us into some technical material and complex ideas. If you are someone familiar with or interested in the ongoing debate between Darwinism and Intelligent Design, both this book and this interview will be well-worth your considered attention.