Category: Philosophy of Religion
Understanding Romans 13 (Parts 1 – 5)
This is the single video version of the series found on my YouTube and Vimeo channels. Episode Timings Detailed contents and timing for each episode are below. 00:00:00 Part 1: Context I 00:28:08 Part... Read More
The Three Main Eschatological Views
In a recent talk I gave, I referenced the late Roger Price’s discussion of the three main eschatological views: premillenialism, amillenialism and postmillennialism. Regardless of whether you ag... Read More
The Book of Daniel
I recently did a video talk in which I referenced “Daniel’s 70th Week” (actually misreferencing it by calling it Daniel’s 50th week!!). I also discussed eschatological views an... Read More
The Transcendental Argument—Complete
This is the full length version of the series Pts 1-6 you can find on my YouTube channel. We examine in more detail Transcendentalism and the Transcendental Argument for God. 00:00:00 The Importance o... 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
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 Fundamentals and Fundamentalism
The terms “fundamentalist evangelical”, “conservative evangelical” or most recently just “fundamentalist” are often just used as imprecise pejoratives. More precisely, the term “The Fu... 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
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
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 MoreApplying 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
Macneil’s Guide for the Spiritually Perplexed
How I unapologetically explained the Christian God to thoughtful, foreign, Muslim and Hindu student housemates when I was 21. A PDF version of this book is found here.... 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 More
Is COVID-19 a sign of Jesus’s imminent return and the Rapture of the Church?
This is a reprint (with a small prologue and addendum) of an article I wrote for a previous publication which I feel is particularly appropriate as a response to some of the speculation in the Christi... Read More
Should I Obey my Government – Civil Disobedience in the COVID-Era
The question I pose is a question that needs to be asked particularly when “obedience” or “submission” to the will of the government is being presented as a moral and civic duty – both perso... 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
Scripture and the Post-Darwinian Controversy
Has the importance of the concepts of biblical inerrancy and infallibility changed for evangelical Christians today when compared to the end of the 19th Century? If so, why? At the end of the 19th cen... 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 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 More
Orality and the Welsh Revival 1904-1906
“Orality” is defined as “interaction with the world by means of the spoken word” and contrasts with “conceptuality” which is defined as “interacting with the world by means of ideas and ... Read More
Fundamentalism as a modernism
Fundamentalism is often conceived of as a reaction against modern, secular society. This essay argued the opposite – it is a form of modernism but a modernism distinct from secular modernism.... Read More
If we cannot prove the claims of religious belief, is it nevertheless reasonable to believe these claims?
This is an introduction to the Reformed Epistemology (RE) movement that was particularly associated with the philospher Alvin Plantinga. Plantinga was interested in establishing the grounds on which a... Read More
Christianity 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