Thursday, March 12, 2009

The New Apologetic Challenges

I have been asked why I not posted for a while. The reason is that I have been tied up with a ton of research and I prefer to post when I am more sure than less.

What I do want to share is that Christian belief ought to acknowledge that none of us belief is splendid isolation - we adopt the authorities of others only when it makes sense to us (however well we disguise this process). Even those of us who 'feel' led by the lord is simply expressing the fruit of our reasoning in Christianese.

When asked why I chose to believe in the Christian faith having studied so many others, I answered that 3 criteria seems to me to be reasonable. If God exists and has been revealed to humanity, I expect the message to be:

1. universally accessible. No one ought to be underprivileged by geography and history (lived in wrong part of the world or born at the wrong time).
2. philosophically coherent. This is not bowing down to classical philosophy but merely stating how we think. We are made to discover knowledge by observing, pondering and then making judgments on what seems to us most believable. If our beliefs are not coherent, they will soon unravel when questioned.
3. scientifically convergent. This is not bowing down to the scientific method. Rather, it is drawing from the fruits of good scientific inferences based on measurable evidence from which models, hypotheses and theories are constructed for testing.

These 3 criteria serve as my own Baloney Detection Kit (adapted from C. S.'s) to assess any claims to divine truth.

Now to the new apologetic challenges. They come in several forms but their sources appear to be drawn from the following fields of inquiry.

Archaeological findings and their interpretations.
Natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology and the neurosciences).
Social sciences (psychology, psychiatry and sociology).
Religious pluralism that leads to epistemic relativism.
Historical and geological analyses of events and locations.
Literary analyses including the issue of canonization.

I shall expand on these in later posts.

4 comments:

Paul Long said...

Ron

Interesting blog. Will be visiting often.

God bless

Paul Long

Anonymous said...

Ron, I have been following your blog and then heard that you have been working on your PhD at Princeton and Yale on neuroscience and moral cognition. Have you completed it? Can I purchase a copy at www.actministry.org?

Keep up the great work

Ben, Oxford, UK

Anonymous said...

Ben, I completed my dissertation in April but do not plan to publish it as it - a bit too controversial, but a toned down version may be available in 5 small volumes. Tentative titles are:

1. The Evolution of Creation and the Creation of Evolution

2. Who was Adam? Paleoanthropology and the cognitive modern human (CMH)

3. The supervenient emergence of moral cognition and the advent of love

4. Nolition and the neurophysiology of temptation

5. Kenotic cognition and preconscious volition


Check out my new blog at www.ronchoong.com



Thanks, Ron

Ron Choong said...

Ben,

I am working on writing out 6 books for Project Timothy so although I completed the dissertation in April, I will only publish in late 2010 as 5 small more accessible volumes, tentatively titled:

1. The Evolution of Creation and the Creation of Evolution

2. Who was Adam? Paleoanthropology and the cognitive modern human (CMH)

3. The supervenient emergence of moral cognition and the advent of love

4. Nolition and the neurophysiology of temptation

5. Kenotic cognition and preconscious volition

In the emantime, check out my new blog www.ronchoong.com

Ron