Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.
• God and Logic
• What to believe?
• Genetic Similarity
• Debate Tactics
• Is God a monster?
• Pic of the Kindle winner...
• Resources to Reach Mormons
• Another new book by John Lennox
• Is Hell a Vital Doctrine?
• Is Hell For Real? How Would You Answer?
• Check Out ComeReason's Youtube Channel
• The Christian and the Euthyphro Dilemma
• J.P. Moreland on Apologetic Character
• Recommended Reading in Bioethics
 • Where did Tacitus get his information?
• Is Methodological Naturalism Question-Begging?
• The Rationality of the Christian Worldview
• Equipping Christians: Must Read Science Books
• Abortion debate: Scott Klusendorf vs Nadine Strossen
• Some intrinsic evidences of the Gospels’ genuineness
• Presuppositional Apologetics resources at Monergism.com
• Speaking the Truth in Love: Perspectives on Apologetics
• How the Holy Spirit is Restoring God-Confidence among Youth
• The Nature of Nature: Examining the Role of Naturalism in Science
• Is praying to God any different than praying to a milk jug?
• Inerrancy? What Do the Differences in the Gospels Really Prove?

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In this audio, from 4Truth.net, Rob Bowman interviews Craig Hawkins, director of Apologetics Information Ministry. He is author of two books on the subject of witchcraft and Wicca. In this interview, he explains various aspects of occultism in contemporary culture, clearing up many popular misconceptions about the subject. Find more at 4Truth.net here.

Full Audio Interview here (1 hr)

Enjoy.

Theologian Wayne Grudem, research professor at Phoenix Seminary (and author of a great Systematic Theology), presents four talks on the topic of: How to Interpret the Bible. This resource can be found at the TheologyNetwork here. Pick up his Systematic Theology, or listen to the Systematic Theology podcast as he teaches through the book. Here are the audios:

How to Interpret the Bible:
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4

Enjoy.

Blaise Pascal was one of the greatest thinkers of his day. He was a scientist, inventor, philosopher, mathematician and theologian. His book the Pensées is popular to this day. In today's featured resource, philosopher and theologian Ken Samples provides a multi-part series on Blaise Pascal. This is part of Ken Samples' excellent Straight Thinking podcast (subscribe via RSS or iTunes). More parts will be added below as they become available.

• Part 1: Man of Reason & Faith
• Part 2: Two Apologetics Insights
• Part 3: The Wager (part 1)
• Part 4: The Wager (part 2)

Enjoy.

More podcasts from Reasons.org here.

Today's interview is with Tony Watkins, speaker, writer and editor with Damaris and Managing Editor of Culturewatch.org. He talks about his background and work, CultureWatch and looking at the message behind the media, the definition of culture and media, the importance of critically examining culture and media, the influence of film on us personally and in culture, what movies tell us about ourselves and the world, identifying redeeming themes and issues that echo Christian truths, being culturally aware, the definition and importance of worldviews, discerning worldviews and the messages in film, and more.

Tony's webpage is: www.tonywatkins.co.uk. See also Damaris and Tools for Talks.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here (64 min)

Check out books by Tony Watkins:
• Focus: The Art and Soul of Cinema
• Dark Matter: A Thinking Fan’s Guide to Philip Pullman

Enjoy.

“Any position in which claims about Jesus or the resurrection are removed from the realm of historical reality and placed in a subjective realm of personal belief or some realm that is immune to human scrutiny does Jesus and the resurrection no service and no justice. It is a ploy of desperation to suggest that the Christian faith would be little affected if Jesus was not actually raised from the dead in space and time.

A person who gives up on the historical foundations of our faith has in fact given up on the possibility of any real continuity between his or her own faith and that of a Peter, Paul, James, John, Mary Magdalene, or Priscilla. The first Christian community had a strong interest in historical reality, especially the historical reality of Jesus and his resurrection, because they believed their faith, for better or for worse, was grounded in it.”

- Ben Witherington

New Testament History, pg 167 [HT:Eric... again]

Roger Bacon (c. 1214-94)
Roger Bacon was a Franciscan monk who was important right at the beginning of the development of modern science. He believed it was very important to have an empirical (observed or based on experiment) basis for beliefs about the natural world. He contributed to the idea of 'laws of nature'. He studied mathematics, optics, the making of gunpowder, astronomy, and the anatomy of the eye and brain.

Johannes Kepler (1571-1630)
Johannes Kepler was an astronomer who formulated the laws of planetary motion that were based on the observations of Tycho Brahe. These are still used to calculate the approximate position of artificial satellites, the outer planets and smaller asteroids. He also did a lot of work in the field of optics and invented a new type of telescope which was used to confirm the discoveries of Galileo.

Galileo Galilee (1564-1642)
Galileo Galilee was one of the early supporters of a sun-centred (heliocentric) view of the solar system. He was censured and imprisoned by the church, but this was mostly because of the way he spoke to people in power. His imprisonment was house arrest, and he was never tortured (as Huxley would have had us believe). He never abandoned his faith and contributed to many areas of science including our understanding of the physics of motion and sound.

Michael Faraday (1791-1867)
Michael Faraday was a chemist and physicist and also an elder in his church. He established the basis for the electromagnetic field concept, electromagnetic induction, and established that electromagnetism could affect rays of light. He discovered benzene and invented the first working electric motors. Some people think he was the greatest experimenter in the history of science.

James Clerk Maxwell (1831-79)
James Clerk Maxwell was a physicist who formulated classical electromagnetic theory in ‘Maxwell’s equations’, which synthesized all of the previously unrelated work regarding electricity, magnetism and light into one coherent theory. He demonstrated that electricity and magnetism travel in waves at the speed of light. He also created a statistical way to understand the kinetic motion of gases and laid the foundation for special relativity. Many scientists think that he was as important as Einstein and Newton.

Gregor Mendel (1822-84)
Gregor Mendel was an Augustinian priest and is known as the ‘Father of Genetics’. He studied inherited traits in pea plants and discovered that inheritance follows certain laws. His work went largely unappreciated until the turn of the twentieth century.*

Are science and faith opposed to one another? Apparently not for these scientists.
[*Excerpt from Test of Faith: Science and Christianity Unpacked study guide, p.79]
Review of materials forthcoming.

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.
• What Is Apologetics?
• The End of Morality?
• Can We Be Good Without God?
• A Brief History of Apologetics
• More Falsifications of Evolution
• A secular case for the pro-life view
• Can Science and Creationism Coexist?
• Are the New Testament Texts Reliable?
• How to Waste Your Theological Education
• A "Twelve Facts" resurrection logic puzzle
• Using the News for Apologetics and Evangelism
• Worldview: Stephen Crane’s Red Badge of Courage
• Online Christian Writing Conference: August 18th
• Two more interviews on the historicity of Scripture
• 10 Reasons the New Testament Writers Told the Truth
• Looking forward to this book: Seven Days That Divide the World: The Beginning According to Genesis and Science

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William Lane Craig's UK Speaking Tour is coming in October 2011. This includes a debate with Polly Toynbee at Central Hall Westminster on Mon, 17 Oct at 7:30pm, the "Is God a Delusion?" Lecture at Sheldonian Theatre on Tues, 25 Oct from 7:30pm to 9:30pm, and a debate on Does God Exist? with Peter Atkins at Manchester University on Wed, 26 Oct from 7:30pm to 9:30pm. Register for these events at the Unbelievable page here, and get more info from BeThinking here. Here's a teaser video:

The purpose of this post is to provide helpful resources on the doctrine of hell - in particular, those that deal with issues raised by Rob Bell's Love Wins. If you would like to recommend audio, blog posts, or books, please contact Ap315 with your suggestions. This is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but a short list of good starting points for further review. Here are a few to get you started:

Discussions:
Rob Bell & Adrian Warnock on Unbelievable MP3
Martin Bashir Interview Video
Audio:
William Lane on Hell & Rob Bell MP3
Frank Turek on CrossExamined MP3
Michael Licona: "Is Jesus the Only Way?" MP3
Jonathan Morrow: "Is Hell for Real? How would you answer?" MP3
Douglas Groothuis (interview): MP3
Blog Articles:
Tim Challies review
CultureWatch review
Ben Witherington (chapter by chapter review)
part one | two | three | four | five | six | seven | eight
Further Index of Reviews (via Thinking Matters)
Books on Hell:
Hell Under Fire
Four Views on Hell

From the Unbelievable? Podcast Website: William Lane Craig and AC Grayling debate at the Oxford Union in 2005. Does the existence of evil and suffering in the world preclude the existence of the Christian God? William Lane Craig is Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology California. AC Grayling is the UK's most noted atheist Professor of philosophy. Click here to read more about Grayling's statement about not debating Craig, and subscribe to the podcast.

Full Debate MP3 Audio here. (2 hr)

Enjoy.

This debate has been added to the William Lane Craig Debate Audio podcast feed. Get it here.

Today's interview is with David Wood, a former atheist who converted to Christianity after examining the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus. As well as being a Teaching Fellow in Philosophy, David directs Acts 17 Apologetics Ministries,  defending the Christian Faith against atheistic and Islamic objections. He talks about the Dearborn Arab Festival, the growth of Islam, the crucifixion of Jesus (Christian view compared to Islam), the usage of the word "Allah," Muslim arguments for the Qu'ran, the question of Jihad, assessing arguments in favor of Islam, inaccuracies in the Qu'ran, recommended resources on Islam, and more.

Find Acts 17 Apologetics here, as well as great resources at Answering-Islam.
Blog here: AnsweringMuslims.com.

Full Interview MP3 Audio here. (90 min)

Enjoy.
Subscribe to the Apologetics 315 Interviews podcast here or in iTunes.

"People have presuppositions, and they will live more consistently on the basis of these presuppositions than even they themselves may realize. By presuppositions we mean the basic way an individual looks at life, his basic world-view, the grid through which he sees the world. Presuppositions rest upon that which a person considers to be the truth of what exists. People's presuppositions lay a grid for all they bring forth into the external world. Their presuppositions also provide the basis for their values and therefore the basis for their decisions."1

- Francis Schaeffer

1. Schaeffer, Francis. How Then Should We Live?: The Rise and Decline of Western Thought and Culture (New York: Fleming H. Revell Co., 1976).

This is part three of a three part series (part 1 here, part 2 here) of reviews of the content of Biola University's Distance Learning Certificate Program in Apologetics. The goal of today's post is to assess the overall program and the certificate quiz and process.

Here are this week's recommended apologetics links. Enjoy.
• Is God an Exalted Man?
• How an Atheist Found God
• Is God a Moral Monster? a review
• Philosophy means “love of wisdom."
• Beyond Blind Faith by Paul Little
• Book Review: Defending Constantine
• Question and Answer with Lee Strobel
• Lessons from a Christian Philosopher (MP3)
• Advanced Optics during the Cambrian Period
• The Ontological Argument and the S5 Objection (vid)
• Was the New Testament Influenced by Pagan Religions?
• Michael Murray explains how to talk about religion in public
• Philosopher Doug Groothuis on the Cosmological Argument (vid)
• Composite Multilayered Fish Armor Provides Protection Design Ideas
• Dearborn Police Prevent Christians from Witnessing on Public Property
• Lee Strobel interviews Drew Dyck on young people leaving Christianity

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What's on your summer reading list?