Alvin Plantinga: Divine Action

Biola University Center For Christian Thought Presents guest speaker Dr. Alvin Plantinga.

Professor Plantinga is currently the William H. Jellema Chair of Philosophy at Calvin College, and was until his retirement in 2010 the John A. O'Brien Chair of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association and the Society of Christian Philosophers, a Guggenheim fellow, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has been awarded several prestigious lectureships, including two Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen, the Wilde Lectures at Oxford University, and the Suarez Lecture at Fordham University.

[yhwhizlife]

Alvin is awesome, and has a humorous wit to himself, he really shows this at 44:50 - 45:50. Its easy to see why hes one of WLC's favorite philosophers.

[montdeslettres]

Excellent! 350 years ago, Jacques Abbadie wrote a big book of arguments for God. Alvin Plantinga seems to walk in this courageous way!!

[ivjdivfjalekvvjp]

Clever, sir. Bravo. You atheists are so very witty and brilliant.

[honahwikeepa]

Natural Science as two miracles. Something from Nothing and someone from no one.

[stevenb]

what is the difference between apologetics and christian philosphy?

[oldterry]

Please see “The Myth of Religious Neutrality” by Roy A Clouser

[alaski]

After reading many of the ignorant bloviating comments below, I found little to leave an impression of intelligent design among some of the participants. Though I find the teleological argument quite compelling, Sauniz1 has shaken that belief, where I find myself wondering how this persons could possibly have a purposive creator. Certainly God meant some for less noble positions in His creation. 

[Svengalish]

and by hilarious you mean awesomely smart? yah.. he IS hilarious

[BeyondtheChaos]

Well that's a strange thing to say. Lots of brilliant minds today and in the past have believed. Same is true for most major religions and holy books...

[SeanMauer]

I agree that why God does somethings is beyond our capacity to understand. I agree that there must be a physical mechanism by which God interacts with our universe to perform miracles. I don't agree with creation ex nihilo. If Plantinga, or any one else for that matter, thinks about this beyond the standard dogma they will see that ex nihilo is neither biblical nor logical. I recommend the video "Creation Ex Nihilo Revisited"

[Craevus]

I now know science doesn't preclude my Pastafarianism

[BeyondtheChaos]

I think he takes libertarian free will though.

[whoami]

Every intelligent atheist is an agnostic...

[sauniz]

Beliefs tell a lot about a mans thinking, and hence his intelligence.

[seancorum]

I like Plantinga, but he's out of his depth here.

[iamasmodai]

My imaginary friend can kick his imaginary friend's ass...

[ObjectiveBob]

It's a shame that Plantinga's logical arguments are led by his dreadful Calvinist theology.

[sauniz]

You were not allowed not to believe then. If you didn't believe the church teaching, you best keep it to yourself. Most didn't have access to the Bible anyway. The Bible is an arbitrary collection of books written by men, canonised by men. There's nothing to the claim that it is "God's word". Ludicrous!

[sauniz]

Atleast I don't believe ancients epics to be the divine unerring word of God.

[sauniz]

Christian theism is by far the most idiotic explanation within all religions...God sacrificed himself to himself to appease himself so that mankind might be saved from his hate through his love.