Gregory Koukl's Blog, page 156
November 27, 2012
Plantinga Reviews Mind and Cosmos
The New Republic
has published an excellent review of atheist philosopher Thomas Nagel’s book, Mind and Cosmos: Why the
Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False, by Alvin Plantinga.
Here are excerpts
from the review listing the four areas where Nagel objects to materialist
naturalism as being reasonable:
1. Mind and Cosmos rejects, first, the claim that life
has come to be just by the workings of the laws of physics and chemistry…. As
Nagel remarks, “It is an assumption governing the scientific project rather
than a well-confirmed scientific hypothesis."
2. The second plank
of materialist naturalism that Nagel rejects is the idea that, once life was
established on our planet, all the enormous variety of contemporary life came
to be by way of the [unguided] processes evolutionary science tells us about: natural
selection operating on genetic mutation, but also genetic drift, and perhaps other processes as well…. [Nagel:] “[T]he more details we learn
about the chemical basis of life and the intricacy of the genetic code, the
more unbelievable the standard historical account becomes.”
3. [Nagel] thinks it
is especially improbable that consciousness and reason should come to be if materialist
naturalism is true. “Consciousness is the most conspicuous obstacle to a
comprehensive naturalism that relies only on the resources of physical
science.”
4. According to
Nagel, materialist naturalism has great difficulty with consciousness, but it
has even greater difficulty with cognition. He thinks it monumentally unlikely
that unguided natural selection should have “generated creatures with the
capacity to discover by reason the truth about a reality that extends vastly
beyond the initial appearances.” He is thinking in particular of science
itself.
Plantinga explains each of these areas
in more detail, and his review is fascinating. I’ve resisted the temptation to
quote more extensively because 1) there’s too much good stuff in there, and I
wouldn’t know where to stop, and 2) you really should read the whole thing.
But I will close with an illustration
given by Plantinga in response to an objection we’re likely to hear to the
arguments above: “But the improbable happens all the time. It is not at all
improbable that something improbable should happen.”
Consider an example.
You play a rubber of bridge involving, say, five deals. The probability that
the cards should fall just as they do for those five deals is tiny—something
like one out of ten to the 140th power. Still, they did. Right. It happened.
The improbable does indeed happen. In any fair lottery, each ticket is unlikely
to win; but it is certain that one of them will win, and so it is certain that
something improbable will happen. But how is this relevant in the present
context? In a fit of unbridled optimism, I claim that I will win the Nobel
Prize in chemistry. You quite sensibly point out that this is extremely
unlikely, given that I have never studied chemistry and know nothing about the
subject. Could I defend my belief by pointing out that the improbable regularly
happens? Of course not: you cannot sensibly hold a belief that is improbable
with respect to all of your evidence.
November 26, 2012
Are Angels Made in God's Image? (Video)
November 25, 2012
Links Mentioned on the Show
The following are links that were either mentioned on this week's show or inspired by it, as posted live on the @STRtweets Twitter feed:
Jesus, the Recycled Redeemer by Greg Koukl (PDF)
Listen to today's show or download any show for free.
November 23, 2012
Radio Sunday
November 21, 2012
Samuel Adams' Thanksgiving
In 1778, a Thanksgiving resolution drafted by [Samuel] Adams was approved by Congress on Nov. 3, setting aside Wednesday, Dec. 30, as a day of public thanksgiving and praise, "It having pleased Almighty God through the Course of the present year, to bestow great and manifold Mercies on the People of these United States."
After the Revolution, Adams, who was eventually elected governor of Massachusetts, maintained the practice of declaring these holidays. In October of 1795, the 73-year-old governor proclaimed Thursday, Nov. 19, as "a day of Public Thanksgiving to God," recommending that prayer be offered that God "would graciously be pleased to put an end to all Tyranny and Usurpation, that the People who are under the Yoke of Oppression, may be made free; and that the Nations who are contending for freedom may still be secured by His Almighty Aid."
A year later, Gov. Adams offered a similar Thanksgiving proclamation, declaring Thursday, Dec. 15, 1796, as "a Day of Public Thanksgiving and Praise to Our Divine Benefactor." He recommended "earnest Supplication to God" that "every Nation and Society of Men may be inspired with the knowledge and feeling of their natural and just rights" and "That Tyranny and Usurpation may everywhere come to an end."
Amen.
A Visual Guide to the Unborn
A new iBook is a really stunning tool to show the unborn. Conception to Birth: The Visual Guide to Your Pregnancy uses photography and animation to go into the womb and follow the developmen of the pre-born. You can view and rotate 3D images, interact with the pictures to get more information, and play video of very high quality.
The book is published by The Visual M.D. It's not necessarily a pro-life book. There's one spot in the text where the unborn child is refered to as the "child to be." And medication is recommended to calm the mother and prepare for birth. These are small portions of the entire book.
What you can't ignore are the pictures that introduce you to a precious unborn human person.
The images show you the progression from fertizational to birth. It illustrations in remarkable pictures that development of the baby in the early stages when many are being abortion. (It does not mention abortion or show images of abortion.) It introduces us to the reality of the child that is at stake in aboriton.
Evem though the child may not look "human" at the early stages, it's what a human being looks like at that stage of development - just like the elderly person doesn't look like he did as a child. But it shows the consistent development from beginning to birth and illustrates that there's no differentiation at any point after fertilization that makes it any more human than it is from that intial moment.
It's a beautiful book with remarkable images that help answer the only question that matters: What is the unborn?
