All posts by Wintery Knight

https://winteryknight.com/
Podcasts

J.P. Moreland talks about the meaning of happiness

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A while back I posted an article about the changing definition of happiness. I noticed then that Wes picked up on the post and he posted a lecture on happiness by J.P. Moreland.

Here is the short 26-minute lecture on happiness that he linked to. (He posted the video, I grabbed the audio)

This is really, really good. The same thing applies to love. A lot of people talk about love being a feeling, but I think rather that it is a decision that a person makes when they perceive that someone else can be moved closer to God, and they decide to act to make that happen.

Sometimes I worry about having grown up with non-Christian parents who really didn’t have much to tell me about what life was really about. But lectures like this really help me to learn the kinds of things that people really need to know.

I also just wanted to post a cleaned-up version of the Walter Bradley lecture that I had posted previously, with the noise removed, and the file size reduced. This is my favorite lecture of all. There are a couple of other versions of it in different venues here and here. These are all good, at least if you like Christians talking about the Christian life in a courageous, yet realistic way. I wouldn’t give these the attention I’m giving them unless I felt they were important.

About DropBox

I’m hosting some of those lectures using DropBox. I use it to share files with people.

Videos

Can atheists trust the truth-detecting ability of their own minds?

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Or, to be more precise, is a rational mind compatible with biological determinism and Darwinism?

This is just 3 minutes long. (H/T Reason to Stand)

The original argument is from Alvin Plantinga, the top Christian philosopher in the world.

This lecture is about 54 minutes long across 6 clips.

Commentary

C. Michael Patton explains why women cannot teach in the church

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He explains why he thinks that the Bible teaches that women cannot teach in the church.

His point:

Now, let me give my short and sweet answer as to why Paul did not allow women to teach:

Paul did not let women teach due to the often aggressive and combative nature that teaching must entail concerning the confrontation of false doctrine. Men must be the teachers when combating false teaching. However, because the role of a teacher in the church is so often to combat false doctrine, and because false doctrine is always a problem, generally speaking, the principles are always applicable. The “exercising of authority” is inherently tied to teaching and its necessary condemnation of false doctrine.

The combative nature of teaching is particularly relevant to a broader understanding of the characteristics of men and women.

I agree with Patton on this one. I think in practice most women are more interested in relationships and community than they are in truth and polemics. Christianity is a propositional faith, though. It’s not meant to be a set of arbitrary preferences that give our lives hope and meaning without any evidential foundation. And it needs to be defended using rational arguments and evidence against lies.

I would make an exception for women who want to teach on an area of knowledge not related to the Bible but related to apologetics or Christian living, like astrophysics, economics, ancient history, bio-ethics, etc. In that case I would allow a woman to teach. I would also be willing to make exceptions for women who are truth-focused and who do not mind making exclusive claims if it makes them unpopular, e.g. – Jennifer Roback Morse.

Apologetics advocacy

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