determinism – Christian Life Coaching Franklin Tennessee

02Mar 2026 by Post

What a Straw Man Argument is and What is Not.

Apologetics, Calvinism, Christianity, determinism, free will, FreeThinkingMinistries.com, Gospel, logic, Molinism, Phil Kallberg, Straw Man Fallacy, Theology and Christian Apologetics

[Editor’s Note: in November 2025, at the Evangelical Philosophical Society meeting in Boston Massachusetts, Tim Stratton and Phil Kallberg presented a coauthored essay, “Is Divine Determinism a Different Gospel?”. You can see it here or listen to here. The provocative essay – critiquing a major brand of historic Christian thought: Calvinism – evoked some controversy. Phil responds here to one of the critiques.] I’m inspired to write this both for the accusations of “straw manning” that came from Tim’s and my essay at the 2025 EPS, and due to examples that I have seen. While no one accused me of this directly (all the interactions I had with people in relation to the essay were positive, even when they were pushing back), I heard through the grapevine that some people…

20Apr 2025 by Post

Are “Mind” and “Brain” the Same Thing?

Angus Menuge, animals, Artificial Intelligence, bacon, Benjamin Libet, brain, C. elegans, ChatGPT, computer, Denyse O'Leary, determinism, Dogs, free will, free won't, human exceptionalism, Humanize, large language models, machines, Medicine, Michael Egnor, mind, Minding the Brain, neural mechanisms, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, philosophy, Podcast, The Immortal Mind, totalitarianism, Wesley J. Smith

Neurosurgeon Michael Egnor passionately argues that denying free will undermines moral responsibility and paves the way for totalitarian ideologies. Source

24Mar 2025 by Post

Is Guidance Control COMPATIBLE with Divine Determinism?

Apologetics, Christianity, compatibilism, determinism, Gospel, guidance control, john martin fischer, Libertarian Freedom, reasons responsiveness, regulative control, Theology and Christian Apologetics

STRATTON: Dear ChatGPT, Guidance control is a concept from philosophy, particularly in discussions of free will and moral responsibility. It refers to the capacity of an agent to guide their behavior in a way that reflects their reasons, values, and intentions. In the context of free will, guidance control is often contrasted with what is referred to as regulative control. Allow me to explain: Guidance control asserts the ability to guide one’s actions in accordance with one’s rational deliberation and decision-making process. It does not necessarily require alternative possibilities (understood as the ability to do otherwise). Regulative control, on the other hand, includes both the ability to guide actions and the ability to choose among alternative options (i.e., free will in the sense of having genuine alternatives and the ability…

01Jan 2024 by Post

Happy New Year! No. 1 Story of 2023: Joe Rogan and Stephen Meyer Talk Science and Faith

aliens, Bible, Brian Greene, Bryan Callen, determinism, Faith & Science, faith and science, free will, Intelligent Design, interviews, James Webb Space Telescope, Joe Rogan, Joe Rogan Experience, language, Michio Kaku, miracles, multiverse, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Podcasts, psychedelics, Return of the God Hypothesis, Richard Dawkins, Sean Carroll, Sir Roger Penrose, Spotify, Stephen Meyer, Summer Seminars on Intelligent Design, Time magazine, transcendence

For more than three hours, Rogan asked questions about the scientific argument for the reality of God, as well as Meyer’s reasons for believing the Bible. Source

27Dec 2023 by Post

No. 6 Story of 2023: On Free Will, ChatGPT4 Blows Away Atheist Sam Harris

atheists, Being as Communion, Belief, brain, ChatGPT4, consciousness, Culture & Ethics, decision-making, determinism, free choice, free will, illusion, irony, Judgment, mind, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Persuasion, reality, Reasoning, Sam Harris, The Design Inference, Winston Ewert, YouTube videos

Yes, the irony here is palpable, and I’ve long been critical of Harris’s view of free will as an illusion. Source

15Nov 2023 by Post

Why Free Will Denial Is Self-Refuting

action potentials, Alain Aspect, Anton Zeilinger, atheists, brain states, cellular metabolism, chance, Chemistry, Culture & Ethics, determinism, Evidence, fluid dynamics, free will, government, Jerry Coyne, John Clauser, John Stewart Bell, Justice, logic, Love, marriage, meat robot, molecules, morality, neurochemistry, neuroscience, physics, Physics, Earth & Space, relationships, spilled ink, truth

The only "scientific" basis for the denial of free will is determinism, the theory that every change in nature is determined prior to its occurrence. Source

06Nov 2023 by Post

Why Did God Put That Tree in the Garden of Eden?

determinism, free will, free will theodicy, garden of eden, Problem of Evil, Problem of Hell, Punishment, rebellion, Theology and Christian Apologetics, tree of the knowledge of good and evil

God created humans in a state of sinless perfection, but all of that changed when Adam and Eve ate of the forbidden fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. “The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Gen 2:15-17 ESV). So why did God put that tree in the Garden in the first place? Not only that, He put it right in the middle of the Garden! It wasn’t…

24Oct 2023 by Post