Category: Philosophy
I Found A Reason To Live
I suffered from Manic Depression for three years of my life, during which I tried to commit suicide three times. I was reminded of this in the last week when talking to a friend who was struggling, so... Read MoreProof and the Transcendental Argument for God (Complete)
This is the full length version of the five part series examining the different concepts of proof and the transcendental concept of proof which can be found on my YouTube channel. The overall argument... Read More
Analytical Philosophy
This is the single video version broken into 5-parts + a postscript (6-parts!) on my YouTube channel. This introduces the broad designation “Analytical Philosophy” by contrasting it with o... Read MoreThe Problem of Evil, Free Will and Philosophical Determinism
This is the single video version of this talk, broken into 6-parts on my YouTube channel. This is a complex and multi-faceted issue, including some of the most forceful attacks against the Christian f... Read More
Why Study Philosophy?
In this video I want to give an answer to that question generally by sharing my personal journey into philosophy that culminated in doing a PhD in Philosophy. I then consider why Christians specifical... Read More
Moral Calculus
Jeremey Bentham (b.1748, d.1832), an early proto-socialist and reformer, coined the term “moral calculus”. He, like many of his contemporary reformers, was born into great wealth and patronage b... Read More
Theonomy in Christian Ethics
Modern theonomy was primarily the work of two men, Rousas Rushdoony and Greg Bahnsen in applying Van Tillian thought to first the socio-political sphere and then more broadly.[1] Bahnsen was to refl... Read More
The Lewis and Anscombe Debate
C S Lewis helped found the Socratic Society at Oxford which hosted some of the liveliest debates of the post-WWII era. Lewis was not just a popular author and public speaker, but was a distinguished... Read More
Kant, Rationalism, Empiricism, and the God Question
(This was originally a footnote I had to remove from my book to meet the word limit, I then added to it) After Descartes, modern Western philosophy divided at two major views – Continental Rationali... Read More
Epistemological Self Consciousness
After starting this journey by returning to study for a BD in 2006, MA in 2012 and then the PhD at the end of 2017, I finally graduated as Dr Macneil this week! My thesis is about what makes philosoph... Read More
Sexual Ideology, Child Trafficking and The Sound of Freedom
None of the ferocity of the attack, which I wrote about at length here on the ‘Sound of Freedom’ film by the mainstream media and entertainment publications has let up. In fact, the attacks have... Read More
Postmodernism, Relativism and Post-postmodernist Modernity
After the radical cultural upheavals of the twentieth century, a radical reassessment and a realignment within culture seemed inevitable and no more than in the philosophical academy where the major c... Read More
Wittgenstein, The Tractatus and Logical Positivism
Appendix 2 – Wittgenstein, The Tractatus and Logical Positivism Wittgenstein was unique amongst 20th century philosophers in that he precipitated two revolutions of thought despite only have one pub... Read More
Van Til and Plantinga, Comparison and Contrast
Appendix 1 – Van Til and Plantinga, Comparison and Contrast Our book examined the work of Van Til and Plantinga as it specifically intersected the major epistemological questions of our book, but th... Read More
Richard Rorty’s Iconoclastic Deconstruction of Philosophy
One of my contentions in my PhD thesis (coming soon!) of modern philosophy as incoherent and arbitrary, lacking a reasonable defence, is not original. Indeed the essence of the postmodern critique w... Read More
Applying the Epistemological Self Consciousness Transcendental Critique to Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism
(This article cannot be considered an academic, comprehensive rebuttal of the claim but does highlight its problematic nature) We note that one of the unique features of reasoning regarding ultimate a... Read More
Censorship – The New Normal
As I have been around for over five decades on the planet now, I have had a lot of experiences such as marriage and divorce, children then no-children, friends committing suicide (me-trying, unsuccess... Read More
“Why it’s time to think differently about COVID” – the BBC
“Why it’s time to think differently about COVID” Thus spake the British Broadcasting Corporation (otherwise known as the world-famous BBC) in what can only be described as a complete reversa... Read More
The Death of the Modern University in the COVID Era (but it has been going on for a while)
(The grammar and style might seem a little strange in this article as I have strained to avoid using the masculine and feminine pronouns to keep things as anonymous as possible) I have just had a supe... Read More
The Case for Universal Basic Income in the COVID Era
“Recent Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang hinged his entire campaign on the idea of a true universal basic income where every American over the age of 18 would receive US$1,000 every... Read More
The Death of Amnesty International
Now I am not easily shocked these days, but something I read yesterday really did shock me. The CEO of Amnesty International Ireland, Colm O’Gorman has signed an open letter published in Gay Communi... Read More
Are Science and Theology competing views of reality?
This was my second undergraduate thesis which I submitted in 2011 for my BD degree. I had previously studied for a BSc and an MSc in Electronic Engineering in 1989-1992, returing to study for a BD par... Read More
Dominion Theology – Its Origin, Development and Place in Christian Thinking
This was my Masters thesis for the degree of Master of Arts in Studies in Philosophy and Religion. This was marked at Distinction level and my supervisor recommended I publish it. This is primarily a ... Read More
When Truth Does Not Matter – The “New Normal” according to COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus
“The government said evidence suggests that when used correctly, face coverings may reduce the chance of infecting others” Estimated 9 minute read Tomorrow is a significant day in the UK and in va... Read More
Is the Church a Vestigial Organ?
On the role of churches during the COVID-19 crisis. A quaint relic of a bygone age Estimated 11 minute read In evolutionary theory a “vestigial organ” is said to be a vestige, an artefact, a relic... Read More
COVID-19 Novel Coronavirus: God’s Blessing or Satan’s Curse?
Satan Smiting Job with Sore Boils — William Blake c.1826 Estimated 6 minute read One of the biggest questions we can ever ask as Christians is who is behind a catastrophic world event like COVID-19,... Read MoreFeeling Good About Truth
Culturally in the West since the 1960s, popular culture might be summarised with the words “your truth but certainly not mine and so you certainly cannot tell me what to do, my view is equally a... Read More
Another Truth about Late-Term Abortion
This was an answer on Medium to the well known feminist writer Jessica Valenti who had written a piece, “the truth about late-term abortion“. In my view, and I believe in the view of any s... Read More
It Is Not Just About Abortion
This, without doubt, proved to be the most controversial article I had written and caused considerable unintended hurt and upset, which I truly wish had been avoided by being more careful to anonymise... Read More
Why the medical termination of Charlie Gard and Alfie Evans against their parent’s wishes are the inevitable outcomes of European culture – a British citizen’s view
The case of baby Alfie Evans was in the news yesterday (Friday 20th April 2018) with the judgment from the British Supreme court to support the hospital’s refusal to release Alfie to his parent’s ... Read More
Abraham Kuyper, Culture and Art
Abraham Kuyper [1] (b.1837, d.1920) was described in a recent publication ‘as one of those rare intellectuals who actually led a popular movement. He thought it not enough just to articulate a wor... Read More
Augstine and Plantinga on the Problem of Evil
Augustine, otherwise known as St Augustine, is said to have returned “again and again, over a period of nearly half a century” to the “problem of evil” and is credited with clearly definin... Read More
The Problem of Evil
The Logical Problem of Evil if God is Good, Omnipotent and Omniscient – How Can He Allow Evil? John Polkinghorne in developing the scientifically responsible apologetic that he has spent his pos... Read More
Evaluating rival epistemological conceptions of Religion and State as templates of reform
The purpose of this essay is to review and evaluate why we are where we are with the categories of Religion and State within the Humanities. It contends they are vague and arbitrary because of natur... Read MoreWittgenstein and Religious Language
Discuss the relationship between Wittgenstein’s rejection of the anti-metaphysical stance of logical positivism and his account of religious language in his later philosophy Wittgenstein’s tho... Read More
Descartes showed there was no need for God in philosophy
With reference to Descartes’ key philosophical ideas and with particular reference to Descartes’ Discourse on the Method and related metaphysical works, discuss and critically assess this ... Read MoreChristianity and Postmodernism
Postmodernism is an amorphous term that started to appear in the middle of the 20th century and was first applied to a particular school of Art that rejected the normal and conventional conceptions of... Read More
Kant’s Moral Argument for the Existence of God
Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804) is considered by many philosophers to be one of the most important of Western philosophers, if not the most important. His Critique of Pure Reason (1781, 2nd edi... Read More
Hume and the Argument from Design
David Hume (1711-1776) was a Scots philosopher who developed empiricism in opposition to the continental Rationalism. More than any other thinker of his time, perhaps with the exception of Immanuel ... Read More