Western Culture/Worldview

The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 44): More on the Enlightenment–Two Brief Notes on Voltaire and David Hume

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Today’s post will simply provide a few brief observations about two more Enlightenment thinkers: Voltaire and David Hume. Voltaire, Natural Religion, and Self-Evident Truths Along with Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Voltaire (1694-1778 AD) was another major philosophical voice of the Enlightenment in France leading up to the French Revolution. And like Rousseau, Voltaire harbored a deep-seeded hatred…

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Creation Evolution Debate/Ken Ham

Inside the Nye/Ham Debate (Part 5): The Last Three “Mirrors” of YEC’s Debate Tactics

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In my last post, I began to point out five specific talking points/tactics that are routinely used by young earth creationists. We see these in play in both Ken Ham’s debate with Bill Nye and the book by Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge about the debate, Inside the Nye/Ham Debate. I equate these talking points…

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Western Culture/Worldview

The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 43): The Enlightenment and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (Is it too much to say he’s the devil?)

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When we speak of the Enlightenment, we are primarily speaking of 18th century Europe. After 200 years of religious wars throughout Europe, the men of the Enlightenment had had enough of religion, particularly of Christianity. The “godfathers” of the Enlightenment, men like Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Spinoza, had laid the foundation upon which later men like…

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Church History/Western Culture/Worldview

The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 42): The Bridge to the Enlightenment: Bacon, Locke, Descartes, and Pascal

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In order to understand where the Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire and Rousseau really came from, you have to first “bridge the gap” between what happened with the Protestant Reformation and its connections with the Machiavellian strategies of some secular rulers at that time, along with the growing scientific discoveries that were happening as all that…

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Creation Evolution Debate/Ken Ham

Inside the Nye/Ham Debate (Part 4): Ken Ham’s Presentation and Fun With Mirrors–Historical Science and the Laws of Logic

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This week, I am continuing in my walk through of Inside the Nye/Ham Debate by Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge, in which they “analyze” the debate that took place between Bill Nye and Ken Ham three years ago. The purpose of these posts is not to rehash the debate itself, but rather take a closer…

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Church History/Western Culture/Worldview

The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 41): Let Me Introduce You to the So-Called Enlightenment

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For the past 200 years, ever since the so-called “Enlightenment,” there has been a false narrative that has held sway over Western culture. Consider the very terms we just take for granted as being historically accurate: the Dark Ages, the Enlightenment—these were terms coined by secular atheists who were hell bent on convincing successive generations…

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Book Review/Creation Evolution Debate/Ken Ham

Inside the Nye/Ham Debate (Part 3): Changing Natural Laws, why Non-Christians Aren’t Allowed to Use Reason…and why Bill Nye is kind of like Hitler

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In my last post on Ken Ham and Bodie Hodge’s take on the Nye/Ham Debate that took place in February 2014, I took a look at the way Ham and Hodge (HH) attempted to frame Ken Ham’s opening statements in a favorable light. As I noted, nothing in Ham’s statements or HH’s analysis of them…

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Book Review/Creation Evolution Debate/Ken Ham

Inside the Nye/Ham Debate (Part 2): The Smoke and Mirrors of YEC Debate Tactics

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If you have ever spent any time in one of the many “creation/evolution” debate forums on Facebook, you can attest to the fact that many of the debates get pretty toxic pretty quickly. Indeed, it is easy to get frustrated and to allow yourself to get sucked into the pettiness. It is hard to stick…

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Church History/Western Culture/Worldview

The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 40): Baruch Spinoza, and How to Control Religious Idiots

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At the same time Hobbes was putting forth in England his theory regarding the absolute authority of a secular ruler, Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) was in the Netherlands doing something very similar. Spinoza is actually seen by many to be one of the first men to advance what is called “historical criticism” of the Bible. At…

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Church History/Western Culture/Worldview

The Ways of the Worldviews (Part 39): Thomas Hobbes–Leviathan Arises

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Almost 150 years after the publication of The Prince, another book of tremendous influence was published in 1651 AD: Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan. Hobbes’ political outlook and aims regarding Church/State relations closely resembled those of Machiavelli, in that he grounded his outlook upon a presuppositional materialistic worldview. Like Machiavelli, Hobbes believed that it was a huge…

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