Category: Jimmy Stephens

Atheism, Doctrine of God, Ethics, Jimmy Stephens, philosophy, theologyLeave a comment

Is God good?

TheSire

The Euthyphro Dilemma sets theist with a Dilemma. Is God’s will good because he wills it, or because it appeals to an outside standard of goodness? The Christian takes this to be that Goodness is grounded in God’s being or nature. The issue that arises from that is that people push the issue to another problem: What does it mean to say God is good? Does that mean God is God? Does goodness lose all meaning? The way Christians get around this issue is that when we say “God is good” we are saying not that “God is God” but … Continue reading Is God good?

apologetics, Atheism, Jimmy Stephens, logic, Metaphysics, PresuppositionalismLeave a comment

Tautologicality and Christian Conceptualism

TheSire

I’ll respond to this because I think it is a good example of how people don’t understand the issue of when presuppositionalist discuss logic. This is some atheist named Barry on the internet responding to Hays’ about logic on the article “From Whence Does Logic Come? (And why you can’t use it to prove God)”. Steve Hays replied to the “first principles” part and said: “But necessary truths of logic can’t derive from contingent truths of the physical world. In many respects, the physical world might have been different. Causation is a weaker principle than logical entailment.” Well first, Hays is … Continue reading Tautologicality and Christian Conceptualism

apologetics, Atheism, Jimmy Stephens, philosophy, PresuppositionalismLeave a comment

When a Cactus misses the Point

TheSire

Necessitarian had a dialogue with an atheist named Cactus: Cactus: I understand that the problem of induction is philosophically pressing. To base your worldview on whatever answers this one complicated question best seems fair to me. But it does not follow that it’s True. I believe you will always win the argument of coherence in this chat, but – I’ve said it once and I will say it till it is properly addressed: A claim to knowledge != knowledge. ” ” ” Ultimate truth != ultimate truth And unfortunately, the Christian Worldview, as presented, is only actually coherent IF its … Continue reading When a Cactus misses the Point

Jimmy Stephens, MathematicsLeave a comment

Numbers and the Bible

TheSire

Here are Jimmy’s thoughts on mathematical truths: The simplest issue is that analyticity is not an absolute or flawless indicator of justification. There are equations so long they fill entire books, but these equations are just as analytically true as “2 + 2 = 4.” Simpler equations may be intuitive because of their analyticity combined with simplicity. However, the problem is that analyticity, were it a sufficient source of infallible justification, would justify book-long or even infinitely long equations. Book-long equations can be easily mistaken and infinitely long equations cannot even be computed by the mind. Also, there’s a huge … Continue reading Numbers and the Bible

apologetics, Epistemology, Jimmy Stephens, philosophy, Presuppositionalism, Steve HaysLeave a comment

Stroud and Van Til

TheSire

My friends Jimmy and Békefi Bálint had a conversation on the issue of his paper: Bosserman on Stroud’s Objection https://philarchive.org/archive/BKEVTV Necessitarian-discord-tact-convo Modest TAG argument: Modest is Hottest: A Brief Response to Bálint Békefi’s “Van Til versus Stroud: Is the Transcendental Argument for Christian Theism Viable?” Is TAG viable? Continue reading Stroud and Van Til

apologetics, Jimmy Stephens, PresuppositionalismLeave a comment

Dubious Deism

TheSire

Necessitarian: Here is a dilemma that ensues on deism. Is the deist god a transcendent creator? If so, then there are no categories, properties, or principles (nothing) he shares in common with creation by which to know of or about him without revelation. Yet, as the creator of the world, the unknowable god would still be the only one to possess an exhaustive concept of the universe, and so would still be indispensable to epistemology. And so, if the deist god is a transcendent creator, knowledge is impossible. Is the deist god an immanent creator? If so, then this god … Continue reading Dubious Deism

apologetics, Calvinism, Epistemology, Jimmy Stephens, Metaphysics, Presuppositionalism, theologyLeave a comment

Cartesian Demons and Christianity

TheSire

I’ll post a recent conversation between Jimmy and an atheist that recently occurred: Ledouche said: How do you know god isn’t an infinite deceiver? Jimmy said: I don’t consider infinite deceivers a possibility. Given the Christian worldview, the existence of the Christian God and His revelation rule out the possibility that there is such a deceiver floating about. God Himself is the original archetype of truth: his perfect self-coherence, self-reflection, and self-containment (by which I mean that all universals about God exhaust the particulars, and all particulars exemplify universals). And God determines the truths of the cosmos; His word is … Continue reading Cartesian Demons and Christianity