Category: Theses
Proof 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
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
Jonathan Edwards and the Destruction of the Puritan Canopy in Early US History
As is well known to students of American history, the “Puritan Canopy” was a reflection of the New England Puritan’s desire to construct a society based on what they had found in the scriptures ... 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
Skinner’s Utopia
(This was originally two chained footnotes I had to remove from my book to meet the word limit, the thesis with the notes in context, is found here.) Skinner presented his utopian vision in his novel ... Read More
Evolutionary Theory and Probability Theory
(This was originally a footnote I had to remove from my book to meet the word limit, I added a little to it as a cross-reference) A major non-partisan (i.e., non-religious) mathematics colloquium, Mat... 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
Van Til’s Presentation of TAG
Appendix 6 – Van Til’s Presentation of TAG (Excerpted from ‘A Survey of Christian Epistemology’ (1969), pp.204-5) Although this publication is still available second-hand, its contents are s... Read More
Rorty’s Iconoclastic Deconstruction of Philosophy
Appendix 3 – Rorty’s Iconoclastic Deconstruction of Philosophy One of my contentions in this work of modern philosophy as incoherent and arbitrary, lacking a reasonable defence, is not original. ... 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
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 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
The Fideistic Leap
Appendix 5 – The Fideistic Leap One of the most interesting challenges to reasonable and rational Christianity was to reject the possibility that Christianity could or more strongly, should be defen... Read More
Politics, Church and State in the Post-Trump Era
My blog has been quiet this year because I have been working on what turned out to be a 45000 word study on Politics, Church and State caused by the “chaos” in the Christian world regardin... 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
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