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Podcast: “The Leviathan of Christian Atheism”

I just did a podcast with J. R. Miller’s & Leroy Hill’s “Raze the Roof” podcast. We discussed Thomas Hobbes’s ethical views, and how these are related to his views of what is real (ontology) and how we know things (epistemology). We also looked at his religious views, which have been described as a type of “Christian atheism.”

Even though Hobbes died long ago (1679), his ideas still affect us today, including a political philosophy of power, leadership, and ethical narcissism. What can we as Christians do to help address how these views, whether for Christians to grow as disciples, or as we engage in evangelism?

Ep 15: The Leviathan of Christian Atheism (substack.com)

Podcast on relationship of science and philosophy

Yesterday I recorded a podcast with Tucker Shannon, a senior in Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute and a Biblical Studies major. We discussed Bacon’s ideas, the fact-value split, and more. Hope it is helpful!

YouTube: https://youtu.be/O6GxkwU1NZY?si=4rjtAkYMyN7HZ0d2

Spotify: S2E5 – Dr. Scott Smith – You Can’t Separate Science & Religion – Ascending Podcast | Podcast on Spotify

Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/s2e5-dr-scott-smith-you-cant-separate-science-religion/id1743678510?i=1000665445973

Podcast on nominalism, part 1

In this Podcast The Kirkwood Center Team interviews Ronald Scott Smith, PhD USC, philosopher at Talbot School of Theology on the philosophical problem of Nominalism. Nominalism has been the default ontological view in the Western world for at least two hundred years, and it has had devastating consequences for western, liberal culture.

– Anthony Costello; Lenny Esposito

Can we have knowledge if naturalism is true?

We are doing much cutting-edge work in the MA Christian Apologetics program at Talbot School of Theology. Please join us!

Here’s one of them. One of my biggest interests is to see what needs to be real for us to have knowledge. One key focus for me has been to see if we can have knowledge, given naturalism.

Here, I give a talk on that subject, using the views of a leading philosopher of neuroscience, Daniel Dennett. I try to show that we cannot have knowledge based on naturalism. I also have written on this topic in (e.g.) Naturalism and Our Knowledge of Reality: Testing Religious Truth-claims.

I think this is an important line of argument we can use to help show naturalism is false. For, there are many things we do in fact know. But that must be due to the reality of a very different worldview.

Ethics & Critical Race Theory

Here’s a new video created and posted by my program, the MA Christian Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology/Biola University. The ethics of CRT is one of my latest areas of research, and now I am working with one of our graduates, Michael Williams, on a forthcoming book. One of the things we are trying to do is give a careful description of CRT, including its underlying philosophical presuppositions, and then assess it in terms of its strengths and weaknesses. This talk gives an overview of several of those things.

Dr. R. Scott Smith talks on Critical Race Theory (youtube.com)

Article: “Propositions: Who Needs Them? Craig’s Nominalism Revisited”

This essay came out in Philosophia Christi 24:2 (2022). Here’s an abstract:

William Lane Craig has defended nominalist forms of “anti-Platonism” as normative for orthodox Christians. He believes Platonic abstract objects (AOs) undermine God’s uniqueness as the only being that exists a se. Yet, I will argue that his view actually depends upon the reality of AOs. Furthermore, I will draw upon insights from phenomenology. By paying close attention to what can be before our minds in conscious awareness, I will argue that, contrary to Craig, we can become aware of the reality of Platonic, ante rem universals, including propositions and properties.

I will develop my argument first by sketching Craig’s nominalist views and his important use of Carnap’s linguistic frameworks. In so doing, I will draw extensively upon his essay, “Propositional Truth – Who Needs It?” to sketch the importance of his neutralist theory of reference and his deflationary view of truth, and how those relate to truth as correspondence. Second, I will draw upon Edmund Husserl’s phenomenological method and apply it to examples of Craig’s concrete particulars. I will focus especially on Craig’s linguistic examples. My findings will serve as evidence against his nominalist anti-Platonism, and in favor of ante rem universals.