By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 Each time the apologetics television ministry of The John Ankerberg Show presents a series on science featuring trained theologians and scientists who accept modern findings of cosmologists and linguists concerning origins and a universe of enormous age, the ministry receives many questioning letters from listeners. I have been privileged to respond…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 In a legal system, juries are impanelled to hear evidence and pass judgment on a case according to the facts presented. When a jury is being selected, prosecutors are entitled to a certain number of challenges enabling them to exclude certain people from the jury panel. The legal term is challenge…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 Recently I continued a long-running conversation with my cousin concerning the philosophy of science. His emailed statement merits examination: “Philosophers of science typically understand the epistemological and philosophical dimensions of science–presuppositions, values, what kinds of knowledge claims are being made and how they are justified…” He claimed the philosophers may understand…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 The intuitive identification of an intelligent mind at work in the design and purpose of our cosmos and the living things which inhabit it seems highly justified. From an article in Conservapedia on Intelligent Design comes this quote: “An inference of design first springs from intuition—subconscious pattern-matching that alerts the mind…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 Marshall McCluhan’s familiar phrase “The Medium is the Message” could help us understand the contrast between the metaphysical naturalist and the creationist Christian worldviews. Naturalists claim intelligent design features are not evident. Creationists say such features abound, especially in living things. McCluhan (1911-1980) is often identified with his famous phrase. His…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 One may wonder why these posts have dwelt at length on the topic of creationism, a term the secular media often associate with recent origins of the earth and universe. The community of evolutionary science has derived benefit from the perception that creationism is now defined that way. The evolutionary community…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 Misunderstandings and suspicion of the Christian view of creation are rampant in the secular world. Unbelievers look at young earth creationist beliefs and may reject the entirety of biblical claims. They feel biblical claims are not credible if they are anchored to young earth interpretaions of Scripture. Agnostics cannot consider theological…

By: Jim Virkler; ©2010 The emphasis of our blog since January has been “creationism.” Unknown to many people is the fact that the usual suffix “ism” is a dictionary entry which stands on its own. As such it refers to a doctrine, theory, system, belief, or practice. Some sources claim it is often used in…