Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 13

Intersex People Don���t Prove There Are More Than Two Sexes

In today���s podcast, Alan responds to Jonathan Merritt���s ���3 Reasons Conservative Christians Will Lose the Transgender Debate.��� Part of Merritt���s argument is that the existence of intersex persons shows ���it is generally true���that there are only two sexes. But not always,��� and I was reminded of part of an excellent post by Alastair Roberts that addresses the claim being made by Merritt:

It seems clear to me, as it generally seems to be to medical science, that human bodies are structured to be sexually reproductive���to be male and female���and humanity is a sexually dimorphic species. There is clearly considerable natural variation consistent with humanity���s dimorphic form, but there is an obvious difference in principle between variation and defect, even if not always clear in the most marginal cases in practice, where, for instance, function may be retained in an abnormal or impaired form (abnormal forms are not necessarily defective forms, although they frequently are). Sexual organs with intersex conditions are typically characterized by defect���usually manifested in infertility, for instance���and can���t adequately perform certain functions that sexual organs are supposed to perform.

Intersex bodies and bodies with intersex conditions are not evidence of further sexes in addition to male and female, even though particular types of intersex conditions may possess distinct and identifiable characteristics. [The] sexual organs of intersex persons are not ordered to some different sexual end of their own, but are abnormally and/or defectively lacking in the typical functional male or female form, imperfectly related to the ends of male and female sexual organs. Their abnormality is usually connected with evidence that the ordinary processes of sexual differentiation have gone awry in some recognizable manner. That they are generally considered defective doesn���t arise from the rarity of such conditions, but from the fact that they can���t effectively do what sexual organs are supposed to be able to do. They are disordered male or female bodies, or bodies that are neither male nor female. At the very least, to claim that they are a further sex would seem to require some far-reaching re-evaluation of how we determine bodily organs to be functional or not.

There may be some sort of an empirical spectrum between male and female, albeit one overwhelmingly populated at the poles. However, the existence of such an empirical spectrum is not proof against sexual dimorphism, because there remain only two functional forms of sex around which specific human beings are clustered. All intermediate forms are departures from these, without an integral purpose of their own. [Bold emphases added.]

Read the rest of Roberts���s post.

Links Mentioned on the 5/20/16 Show

The following is a rundown of today's podcast, annotated with links that were either mentioned on the show or inspired by it:

Commentary: Answering Jonathan Merritt on the Transgender Debate (0:00)

#STRask podcast
3 Reasons Conservative Christians Will Lose the Transgender Debate by Jonathan Merritt (the article discussed by Alan)
A New Kind of Apologist ��� Alan has a chapter titled "Transgender: Truth and Compassion"
Transgender: Truth and Compassion ��� Alan's chapter in the book linked above
Quick Thoughts about Target and Transgender Use of Bathrooms and Fitting Rooms (Video) by Alan Shlemon
The Church's Intersex Challenge by Matthew Anderson
Intersex ��� A helpful article by Alastair Roberts 

Guest: Eric Smith: Summit Ministries ��� Equipping Children with a Christian Worldview (0:21)

Summit Ministries
Please, Invest in a Summit Ministries Conference by Brett Kunkle (Note that the links in that post to the different camp locations will still work, but the dates in the post are not the 2016 dates. Click on the links to see the current dates for 2016.)
Student resources from Stand to Reason
reTHINK Student Apologetics Conferences

Questions: 

How should a Christian public school teacher handle the transgender bathroom policy? (0:46)

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To take part in the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00���6:00 p.m. PT), follow @STRtweets and use the hashtag #STRtalk.

Challenge Response: Snowflakes Are Complex without a Designer

Here's my response to this week's challenge:

Links Mentioned on the 5/18/16 Show

The following is a rundown of today's podcast, annotated with links that were either mentioned on the show or inspired by it:

Commentary: Message of Reconciliation in New Zealand (0:00)

Thinking Matters ��� Apologetics organization in New Zealand
Alan on Twitter and Instagram (see his bird pictures!)
How Does the Old Testament Law Apply to Christians Today? by Greg Koukl
Think of the Mosaic Covenant Like a State Law by Amy Hall (quoting Greg Koukl)

Guest: Megan Almon ��� Life Training Institute (0:21)

Megan Almon
Life Training Institute
Biola Apologetics Distance Learning Program
Life Is Best ��� Pro-life videos made for television (first episode is available online for free)
Making Abortion Unthinkable: The Art of Pro-Life Persuasion

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To take part in the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00���6:00 p.m. PT), follow @STRtweets and use the hashtag #STRtalk.

Has Science Buried God?

As I travel around speaking, the vast majority of the questions I get have to do with the intersection of science and faith. Has science made miracles impossible? Is there any scientific proof for God? Is faith in God a blind leap in the dark? What about evolution? How old is the earth?

Some people see no compatibility between science and faith. For example, last September, theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss wrote an article in The New Yorker titled ���All Scientists Should Be Militant Atheists.��� In the article, Krauss writes, ���This commitment to open questioning is deeply tied to the fact that science is an atheistic enterprise.��� He goes on to say, ���It���s ironic, really, that so many people are fixated on the relationship between science and religion: basically, there isn���t one.... It���s inevitable that it [science] draws people away from religion.���

It is no surprise that many people view science as a gosptacle. They don���t think you can believe in science and rationally believe in God. In part two of my Answering Gosptacles series, I take this challenge head-on. I demonstrate how a biblical understanding of faith is compatible with science. In fact, there are a number of places where modern scientific evidence points towards a Creator and Designer of the universe. Therefore, science should strengthen your faith rather than destroy it.

You can watch the entire presentation here.

If you missed part one of my Answering Gosptacles series, then click here.

Challenge: Snowflakes Are Complex without a Designer

Here���s a challenge from a website called Truth Saves:

Yes, life is complex but that does not mean it had a conscious designer. A snow flake is complex and it does not require a conscious designer.

I���ve heard people mention snowflakes as evidence of undesigned complexity before, so it���s worth discussing this one. What���s the difference between the kind of complexity in a snowflake and the kind ID proponents cite in their arguments? Make your case in the comments below, and then we���ll hear Tim���s answer to this question on Thursday.

[Explore past challenges here and here.]

How Do You Resolve the Tension Between Divine Sovereignty and Human Responsibility?

Greg responds to the question: To what extent are we responsible for our own salvation? 

A Plan for Teaching Apologetics to Your Children

In this month���s Solid Ground, ���A Practical Plan to Equip the Next Generation,��� Brett builds his plan on an ancient educational model:

As our oldest daughter approached the junior-high years, my wife and I began to rethink our views on educating and discipling our kids. We were dissatisfied with things we were seeing in her life, not only academically, but also spiritually and morally. In that process of reevaluation, we discovered an ancient approach to education called ���classical education,��� stretching back to the Classical Greeks and Romans and formalized in the Middle Ages. Educator Susan Wise Bauer offers a concise description of this approach:

Classical education depends on a three-part process of training the mind. The early years of school are spent in absorbing facts, systematically laying the foundations for advanced study [Grammar Stage]. In the middle grades, students learn to think through arguments [Logic Stage]. In the high school years, they learn to express themselves [Rhetoric Stage].

While not an exhaustive definition, it gets us started and highlights the three-stage pattern of classical education called the trivium���.

The medievals believed this trivium pattern corresponded to the universal human experience of learning. It accurately captures the manner in which young minds are best trained. Thus, we should take this ancient approach to education and breathe into it new life for our modern context. Indeed, the trivium provides us with a three-stage approach to discipling the next generation.

Brett goes on to apply the trivium approach to apologetics instruction, outlining a plan for you to use this strategy to train your children in the truth.

The article was originally published as a chapter in A New Kind of Apologist, a collection of essays addressing current apologetics topics and strategies for reaching our culture (Alan also has a chapter); so after you finish reading the article, make sure you check out the rest of the book.

Links Mentioned on the 5/13/16 Show

The following is a rundown of today's podcast, annotated with links that were either mentioned on the show or inspired by it:

Guest: Mitch Stokes ��� How to Be an Atheist: Many Skeptics Aren���t Skeptical Enough (0:00)

How to Be an Atheist: Why Many Skeptics Aren't Skeptical Enough by Mitch Stokes
Mitch Stokes's website
Brett's Berkeley Mission Trips for students

Listen to today's show or download any archived show for free. (Find links from past shows here.)

To take part in the Twitter conversation during the live show (Tuesdays 4:00���6:00 p.m. PT), follow @STRtweets and use the hashtag #STRtalk.

Should Christians Pull Their Kids out of Public Education?

I recently answered the question ���Should Christians keep children in public schools to be ���salt and light?������ for our weekly video blog. This, and the larger question of whether Christians should allow their kids to be publicly educated, period, are questions I have been wrestling with for some time. I tread carefully with this question because I know many good Christian parents who enroll their kids in the local public school, and I also know many good Christians who are public school administrators and teachers. And I certainly don���t want to offer simplistic answers that minimize the gravity and implications for my brothers and sisters in Christ. I also know that school districts within the same states and even the same local region can vary widely in terms of their quality, culture, and commitments, so I don���t want to paint with too broad of a brush and be dismissive of the entire enterprise without taking these things into account. But, given the current cultural context, I think this is a question every Christian parent must seriously grapple with and do so year-in and year-out.

Let me offer a question to my Christian friends whose kids are being publicly educated, or who are working in public education, that should help guide this conversation: What is your tipping point? In other words, can public education and all that it involves disintegrate to a level where you would say ���enough is enough��� and pull your kids out? Of course, I would hope your simple answer is yes. But beyond that, you must begin to outline some specific criteria. You must make explicit the tipping point in your own mind so that you can effectively evaluate whether your local public school has reached that point. Andrew Walker summarizes this well in his article ���How the Federal Government is Transforming Public Education���:

Christian parents need to establish a tipping point. This may be the most important response to consider. What actions taken by your local school will be sufficient for you to re-evaluate public education? Is having a teacher reprimand your child for his or her belief about marriage, sex, and gender acceptable? Will you allow them to be in schools where bathroom policies are based on gender identity rather than biological sex? Not establishing a tipping point could leave your child over-exposed to environments they shouldn���t be in. Not thinking about a tipping point is irresponsible and will communicate carelessness about a child���s education and Christian formation. This is not a call to exit the public schools; it is a call to vigilance. It is advisable that spouses have a candid conversation and establish a line in the sand.

So, what���s your tipping point? Christian parents, I���m pleading with you to consider this question carefully and, indeed, to even write out specific criteria that will guide you into the future. The challenges are coming at breakneck speed. For example, entire school districts are adopting pro-transgender policies and will use coercion to enforce them. Therefore, you and I cannot simply float along with the cultural currents, as the church has for the last century, without reaping serious consequences, which we certainly are now. As one possible example, here is a Christian principal who has reached a tipping point in his role as administrator.

I know this opens up a huge conversation, and there are significant practical consequences for individuals and families to face (e.g. leaving a job as a public school teacher or moving from a two-family income household to one in order to homeschool). And of course, the way in which we are most effectively salt and light in the culture must be carefully reflected upon too. But before you consider those things, maybe first we need to spend some time rethinking our views about education itself. Is there a Christian view of education and if so, what it is? What does Scripture say? And given these things, what does wisdom demand from us in this day and age? Biblical thinking about education and our role in it will help clarify what our tipping point(s) should be.

Here are a few resources to get you thinking about a Christian view of education:

BOOKS

For the Children���s Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School by Susan Schaeffer Macaulay
Education for Human Flourishing by Paul Spears and Steven Loomis
Beauty in the Word: Rethinking the Foundations of Education by Stratford Caldecott
Norms and Nobility: A Treatise on Education by David Hicks
The Abolition of Man by C.S. Lewis

ARTICLES

The Role of Education���Part 1 by Glenn Sunshine
The Role of Education���Part 2 by Glenn Sunshine
The Myth of a Value-Free Education by Ronald Nash
To Know the Lord: A Christian Education Prospectus by T.M. Moore
Why Christian Education by Jim Drexler

Take a first step. Now. Read an article. Discuss the question of a tipping point with your spouse, trusted family member, friend, or mentor. Purchase one of the books above. Take action immediately. The Body of Christ is responsible for raising up the next generation of Christian ambassadors, so doing nothing is not an option.