Philosophy Apologetics & Theology - B. Kyle Keltz

Some people elevate science to the level that they believe it is the only way to truth. If something isn't scientifically provable or testable, they say, then it is unknowable or irrelevant. In this episode, I am going to discuss this view of science (called "scientism"), and I will show how it is either self-defeating or simply false.

Popular atheists claim that "faith" is believing something you know to be false or believing in spite of the evidence, but this is not what Christianity teaches about the relation between faith and reason. In this episode, I will survey historical Christian views of faith and reason, explain one particular view in detail, and discuss the practical implications these views have for evangelism and apologetics.

Traditional answers to the problem of evil show why God might allow evil, but they leave many questions unanswered. So, in this episode, I discuss what the Bible has to say about why there is evil in the world. Specifically, I show what the Bible says regarding God's purpose for creating, the purpose of humanity, and the results of the Fall. Noting these Biblical concepts helps to provide a more comprehensive and satisfying answer to the problem of evil.

The existence of evil in this world is a large barrier for many people considering whether the God of theism exists. If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, then why do bad things happen? In this video, I discuss several theodicies (answers to the problem of evil) that provide reasons as to why God would allow evil. I discuss theodicies including the free-will defense and natural order defense, and I provide practical tips for sharing theodicies while doing evangelism/apologetics.

If God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-good, then many people think that evil should not exist in the world. If God wants to eliminate evil and has the power to do so, then why does God allow evil? In this episode, I am going to discuss two main types of arguments that atheists have used to argue that God doesn't exist because evil exists. This episode will prepare us to discuss answers to the problem of evil in the next episode.

If salvation is only available through Jesus Christ, then what happens to people who never hear about the gospel before they die? In this episode, I will discuss several Christian answers to this question and explain why I think one of the views is the best.

It is claimed that all religions are the same at the core, so it doesn't matter what people believe as long as they believe in something. However, this claim involves the misconception that religions are simply meant to help people live moral lives. In this episode, I am going to discuss the topic of religious pluralism and emphasize that the claims of all world religions are contradictory, so they all can't be true.

It is claimed that believers cannot view the Bible as the word of God without being guilty of using circular reasoning. So, in this episode, I will discuss how the three-step apologetic method provides a way around this circularity problem and can be used to show it is rational to believe the Bible is inspired by God. I first discuss the definition of inerrancy, explain how inerrancy is defended, and then I discuss implications inerrancy has for evangelism and apologetics.

The truth of Jesus' resurrection is the basis of Christianity, and in this episode, I will defend Jesus' resurrection using the Modern Trilemma Argument. I discuss the argument, show how it is defended, and then discuss how it answers objections to the resurrection.

The three-step apologetic method culminates in defending the historicity of Jesus' resurrection, and in this episode, I will survey three arguments for Jesus' resurrection. I will briefly introduce each argument and discuss reasons why I will focus on one of the arguments for an entire lecture in the next episode. Finally, also in preparation for the next episode, I will introduce several ancient, extra-Biblical sources that mention Jesus and early Christians.

Although there is evidence that the New Testament manuscripts and writers are reliable, there seem to be several places in the Synoptic Gospels where the authors are contradicting each other. In this episode, I will discuss several concepts that help to explain why there seem to be contradictions, but ultimately, there are none.

Some people have claimed that Jesus never said He was God, so in this episode, I discuss several claims Jesus made about Himself that are found in the Bible. Namely, I show that Jesus claimed to be the Messiah, the Son of God, and the Son of Man, and I explain how these titles are associated with divinity.

In this episode, I discuss how the New Testament writings (and other extra-biblical sources) provide evidence that the New Testament authors wrote reliable, eyewitness accounts of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Here I will explain the "earmarks of historicity" and show how the New Testament writings possess each earmark.

In this episode, I discuss how the New Testament manuscripts provide evidence that we are certain that we have the original words that the New Testament authors wrote when describing the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Here I will explain the bibliographical test and show how the New Testament manuscripts are more reliable than any other ancient writings.

In this episode, I argue that we can have objective knowledge of past events. After discussing the beginnings of modern historical methods, I explain the view of historical knowledge called historical relativism, consider arguments for it, and then provide objections to those arguments.

In this episode, I will discuss why the possibility of miracles is so important when transitioning from defending God's existence to defending Jesus' life, death, and resurrection. I will explain and answer several objections to the possibility of miracles from philosophers like Baruch Spinoza and David Hume.

In this episode, I discuss a few objections to mind-body dualism and then explain and defend two arguments showing that it is self-defeating to believe that physicalism is true.

In this episode, I discuss and defend two arguments for the existence of the soul that are against property dualism and for mind-body dualism. These arguments are known as the conceivability argument and the argument from unity and the first-person perspective.

In this episode, I discuss mind-body dualism, which is the view that a human being has both a physical body and an immaterial soul. I discuss mind-body dualism, contrast it with physicalism, and then I explain and defend two arguments against physicalism.

This episode presents and defends the moral argument for God's existence, which is the argument that says that moral values and duties can only be objectively true if God exists. In this episode, I will defend the argument and discuss how to answer common objections.

This episode defines and discusses ethical relativism and ethical objectivism. Several types of ethical relativism are explained and arguments for and against relativism are surveyed. Ultimately, it is shown that ethical relativism is not rationally defensible.

This episode discusses the argument from fine-tuning, which is a design argument for God's existence that emphasizes the cosmological constants found in nature and concludes that the best explanation for these constants is a powerful, intelligent cause outside of the universe.

Like my video on cosmological arguments, this video will introduce design arguments and briefly survey three major formulations of the design argument. Arguments covered are Aquinas's Fifth Way, William Paley's Watchmaker Analogy, and the Argument from Fine-Tuning.

This episode provides an analysis of the Kalam Cosmological Argument. I explain how the argument is defended and then briefly mention some objections to the argument and how they can be answered. There is much more to this argument, but this episode provides a beginner's introduction to it.

This episode introduces and briefly explains several cosmological arguments for God's existence.

This episode discusses three theories of truth and argues that the correspondence theory of truth is the most rational theory as well as being essential to the Christian faith.

This episode discusses the three-step method of doing apologetics and gives some helpful tips to focus on while doing apologetics in an evangelism context.

This is an episode discussing Bible verses that command Christians to defend their faith and/or show Jesus and the apostles doing something like apologetics.

This is the first in a series of apologetics episodes that will explain what apologetics is and show the topics that will be covered in the rest of the series.