I was already a Christian by the time I made it to university, but I had never seen the sorts of sophisticated arguments that could be presented for Christianity. Somehow, I stumbled upon a website called Leadership University, and that pointed me to a whole bunch of Christian professors who had written essays on a wide variety of topics. From there, I was able to locate actual lectures they had given to students on university campuses.

Although I grew up in a trashy communist country, I was still able to order campus lectures on audio cassette or VHS video tape. I got them from Veritas Forum, Integrated Resources, Access Research Network, etc. So I was able to listen to and watch lots of lectures by Phillip E. Johnson, Michael Behe, Walter Bradley, Henry F. Schaefer, J. P. Moreland and of course William Lane Craig. Some of these recordings were actual debates between a Christian and a non-Christian. That’s how I got serious about Christianity.

There is just something about watching a Christian professor get up on stage at a secular research university and deliver a lecture to non-Christian faculty, graduate students and undergrad students. And then take questions – that’s the key part that’s so different from church sermons and vacation Bible school. In the campus lectures, you can see hostile questions from non-Christian thinkers being handled gracefully by Christian scholars. Sometimes I wonder if the reason I stuck with Christianity this far is because of the non-traditional way that I learned about it.

Anyway, what made me think about this? Well, it was this interesting article written by physicist Dr. Brian Miller. We just had him on the Knight and Rose Show, to discuss fine-tuning and the multiverse. He just did some talks at a different universities, and I wanted to share what he wrote and the video of one of the talks with you.

Here’s what he wrote:

I recently had the privilege of speaking at High Point University, ranked the best-run university in the country, and at Duke University, my alma mater, on the cumulative case for God drawn from cosmology, the origin of life, and the centrality of information in biology.

I was joined by Dr. Rice Broocks, whose training in philosophy and history complemented my scientific expertise. Over the past several years, we have also addressed students together at several other universities, such as Berkeley and MIT, engaging in questions at the intersection of science, philosophy, and Christian thought. Last year, I spoke at the University of Washington, and the presentation, along with the Q&A, was recorded. The consistently positive response reflects a deep hunger among students to examine foundational questions of truth, meaning, and purpose.

Dr. Broocks and I labored to create an atmosphere in which listeners from any philosophical or religious background felt respected and safe to share their ideas.

So, the key part is that when you are on a non-Christian university campus then you really have to know your stuff. Because people who don’t agree with you are going to ask you questions, and this is in front of a live audience, and the recording is probably going on the Internet.

Brian listed some of the questions that he was asked:

• How can we infer that Earth was designed if we do not know the total number of planets? I addressed this question in a recent article (here).
• In what ways can evolutionary theory be integrated with faith, and which evolutionary claims conflict with traditional religious beliefs?
• To what extent is modern science consistent with various religious doctrines?
• If God is an all-powerful creator who is directly involved in the world, why does so much evil and suffering exist?
• What role does evidence play in Christianity, if religion is supposed to be grounded in faith?
• Why should anyone even pursue the ultimate truth? Isn’t skepticism the easiest option?

Have you ever heard any Christian leader in a church take questions from a non-Christian? Have you ever heard a Christian leader in a church even interact with non-Christian views? Have you ever heard a Christian leader in a church explain why people who go to church just assume that the Bible is authoritative? Most people who grow up in the church never hear questions, because most leaders in the church don’t know how to answer them. And that does send a message to young people about the sort of thing that Christianity is. As J. P. Moreland says, most Christians see Christianty as a “faith tradition”. But Moreland says that Christianity is actually a “knowledge tradition”. Young Christians dump Christianity because a “faith tradition” grounded in community is easily swept away when they arrive at university and have a new godless community. But if they were trained to see why Christianity is a “knowledge tradition”, then maybe they would be a bit more resilient.

Anyway, back to Dr. Miller. Here’s a lecture where Dr. Miller shares reasons and evidence for the core claims of his Christian worldview:

Here’s the summary:

• evidence for an origin of the universe
• evidence for cosmic fine-tuning
• evidence for habitability fine-tuning
• evidence from the origin of life
• refutation of naturalistic alternatives

So, there is a “show your work” approach to Christianity that is going on outside of the church / family environment. That’s how I learned about it, and I’m still taking Christianity seriously even nearing my wealthy early retirement years, where I don’t have any felt needs. People who stick with Christianity over the long-term don’t do it because of “needs” or “feelings”. They choose it because it’s true. Christianity actually makes life harder these days, because of the moral rules, the self-denial and the social disapproval. But real Christians like all that, because we want to suffer like Jesus suffered for obeying the Father. We like losing some of our autonomy for the sake of relationship and we like taking a loss to our reputations when we stick up for the Boss. Christianity is life on hard mode, and we like that. We want the deep vertical relationship more than we want the shallow horizontal relationships.

Let me know in the comments if you have any experience with campus lectures and debates contributing to your lasting faith.

Welcome to episode 73 of the Knight and Rose podcast! In this episode, Wintery Knight and guest host Terrell Clemmons welcome Dr. Brian Miller from the Discovery Institute to discuss the evidence for fine-tuning and the multiverse theory. If you like this episode, please subscribe to the podcast, and subscribe to our YouTube channel. We would appreciate it if you left us a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify.

Podcast description:

Christian apologists Wintery Knight and Desert Rose discuss apologetics, policy, culture, relationships, and more. Each episode equips you with evidence you can use to boldly engage anyone, anywhere. We train our listeners to become Christian secret agents. Action and adventure guaranteed. 30-45 minutes per episode. New episode every week.

Episode summary:

Wintery Knight and guest host Terrell Clemmons welcome Dr. Brian Miller to discuss the the evidence for fine-tuning in physics and cosmology and the multiverse theory. They discuss how the laws and constants of nature suggest intentional design. Miller explains specific examples of fine-tuning and critiques the main naturalistic explanation for this data: the multiverse theory. He recounts his shift from skepticism to accepting design via evidence.

Outline and transcript

Here is a transcript of the show provided by TurboScribe AI. TurboScribe AI allows you to translate the transcript into many, many different languages. You can also export the transcript into many different formats, with optional timestamps.

Episode 73:

Speaker biographies

Dr. Miller obtained a BS in physics with a minor in engineering from MIT and a PhD in complex systems physics from Duke University. His research focuses on thermodynamics, information theory, protein rarity, and the origin of life. Dr. Miller is a Senior Fellow and Research Coordinator for the Center for Science and Culture at the Discovery Institute. He helps manage the ID 3.0 Research Program and helped launch the biannual Conference on Engineering in Living Systems (CELS). He has contributed to multiple books and technical journals covering the debate over intelligent design, including The Mystery of Life’s Origin: The Continuing Controversy and The Comprehensive Guide to Science and Faith. 

Wintery Knight is a black legal immigrant. He is a senior software engineer by day, and an amateur Christian apologist by night. He has been blogging at winteryknight.com since January of 2009, covering news, policy and Christian worldview issues.

Terrell Clemmons earned a BS in Computer Science from Clemson University and worked in software development until she hopped off the career track to be a full-time mom. She began writing on Christian living and apologetics in 2004 and joined Salvo magazine in 2007, where she now serves as Executive Editor. She has also worked with Ratio Christi and Anchorsaway apologetics ministries for youth.

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There’s a big problem facing Christian families today. Thanks to decades of growing government spending and higher taxes, many Christian parents can’t afford to keep one parent at home to homeschool their children. Most of the Christian parents I know both work. So how do these Christians parents educate their children? Many don’t have enough money for anything except for public schools. But some turn to private Christian schools.

Here’s an interesting story from The Federalist about a Christian school in Nashville, TN:

Parents and staff at a Christian prep school in Nashville are upset about what they say is a trend away from biblical teaching and toward leftist ideology after Lipscomb Academy hired a principal who wrote his dissertation on school diversity policies.

This is a very expensive school for high-earning Christian parents. But what are Christian parents getting for all that tuition money?

Some of the parents have expressed concerns about leftist ideologies infiltrating the school:

Lipscomb Academy has shifted to a more politicized, “diversity, equity, and inclusion”-influenced education, some Lipscomb parents and others connected to the academy including employees tell The Federalist. They asked not to be identified for fear of reprisal against their children and their positions with the school.

The problems seem to be related to the new leader of the school:

These individuals claim the shift picked up when Brad Schultz was tapped to lead Lipscomb Academy. Schultz, whose 2013 doctoral dissertation was titled “Intentionally Diverse: A Historical Investigation of a Southern Private School’s Ten-Year Diversity Initiative,” began his tenure as Lipscomb’s Head of School in June 2020 — just as race riots took off in Minneapolis and other U.S. cities.

The Christian parents I know want their children to have an accurate and defensible Christian worldview. So that means not only learning what the Bible teaches, but how it applies to every area of life. And it also means not just taking the Bible “on faith”, but knowing how to disagree with other faiths and cultures using logic and evidence. It means being able to show objective evidence for the core claims of Christianity, such as the origin of the universe and the goodness of chastity, right to life, natural marriage, etc.

But what is Schultz concerned about in his dissertation?

Schultz’s dissertation relies on several critical theorists, including Antonio Gramsci, Frantz Fanon, Paulo Freire, and Max Horkheimer. According to its adherents, critical social theory aims to challenge systemic power structures on behalf of “oppressed” people.

[…]The dissertation expresses “concerns” that Northeastern Christian School’s mission statement — “To help each child grow as Jesus did in wisdom, in stature, and in favor with God and man” — showed “signs of cultural invasion.” The mission statement’s “commitment to help students grow in favor with God” presents a “significant threat here of students being negatively influenced by a hidden curriculum,” he wrote.

“Is the school saying it holds the key to being in favor with God? If so, what is this saying to students who come to the school from different religious faiths or cultures?” Schultz wrote of the Christian school, which was “run and taught by members of the Churches of Christ.”

The dissertation also warned Northeastern was missing out on further “diversity” by turning away homosexual students and families. Schultz said the school uses “rules and disciplinary measures” to “prevent homosexual students and/or parents from ‘accomplishing its educational and spiritual purposes.’”

“As support for gay marriage continues to rise, the school’s stance towards homosexuality and same-sex marriage is likely to come into question,” Schultz wrote.

Do you think that a leader of a Christian school should be intimidated by what members other religions – like Islam – feel about the truth of Christianity? Do you think that a leader of a Christian school should be intimidated by what homosexuals and proponents of same-sex marriage feel about the Bible’s teachings on those issues? I think the problem we are having today is that we have redefined Christianity to be about feeling good and being liked by non-Christians. Those were not concerns of Jesus, according to the Bible. But they are the concerns of people today.

We have a discipline called “apologetics” that teaches Christians how to be comfortable showing why they believe what they believe to non-Christians. But it takes effort to learn. It’s not taught in most Christian homes, churches or Christian schools. So many Christians never learn how to challenge non-Christian ideas like Marxism and sexual immorality. And some of those unequipped people end up as administrators and teachers in Christian schools. And then those Christian schools don’t produce students who go on to become Christian scholars like Stephen C. Meyer or Michael Licona or Fazale Rana.

In the specific case of Lipscomb Academy, they seem to value achieving racial diversity. They highlight that priority on Schultz’s biography page. This is something Jesus did not prioritize. Jesus seemed to be more concerned with telling people the truth and then providing evidence for them to believe his truth claims, as with the healing of the paralytic.

The Federalist article has many more details. Please go read it.

And if you missed our episode of the Knight and Rose Show on this topic with Dr. Corey Miller, you might want to check it out.

Now let’s flip over to Daily Signal and see what Tyler O’Neil has to say.

He writes:

According to two Lipscomb Academy parents who spoke to The Daily Signal on condition of anonymity, the academy sent the new Code of Conduct to parents Feb. 24, requiring them to sign it by March 5 in order to keep their kids enrolled for the 2026-2027 academic year.

[…]“Families shall respect the confidentiality of administration, faculty, staff, and other students, and parents/guardians/families,” reads a section on privacy. “Information about personnel matters, disciplinary actions, grades, or other student matters must not be discussed publicly or shared through social media, texts, email, or conversation.”

The privacy section demands that families not “publicly speculate or criticize personnel decisions or school matters.”

Lipscomb Academy doesn’t seem to like parents (their customers) complaining about the quality of the school.

Also note:

Lipscomb reportedly threatened The Federalist with legal action when the conservative outlet started asking questions.

“After The Federalist started looking into the allegations about the school’s left-leaning turn, Lipscomb’s general counsel sent a letter to Federalist Executive Editor Joy Pullmann warning that ‘publication of statements known to be false or made with reckless disregard for their accuracy could expose The Federalist to potential liability,’” the outlet’s M.D. Kittle reported.

Does this behavior sound like something Jesus would do? It sounds to me like something an atheist like Stalin would do. “Straight to the Gulag!” he’d say.

By the way, we have a forthcoming episode of Knight and Rose Show with Tyler O’Neil, so stay tuned to the podcast!