“I contend we are both atheists, I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” —Stephen F Roberts In discussions over the existence of God, many atheists seem to assume that anything that can be labeled “god” counts toward what informed…
Introduction While treated as synonymous with “sweet” in today’s common speech, the term “angelic” actually describes beings that are far more amazing than any of their various depictions (each of which is related to particular angelic qualities – none of them complete). When angels appeared to men in the Bible, the reaction was often one…
Introduction Saint Thomas Aquinas is famous for his philosophical proofs for the existence of God, but proving theism does not prove Christianity. Fortunately, Aquinas did not stop there. Although they are less well-known, and sprinkled throughout several of his works, Aquinas extended his apologetic arguments to the truth of Christianity itself. In many apologetic systems (e.g., McDowell, Geisler, or Montgomery), the…
Introduction One of the most convicting (i.e., terrifying) theological passages I ever read had to do with lack of faith. Now, a reasonable guess as to its content would be something about the threat of Hell – maybe a Sinners In The Hands of An Angry God sort of thing. But it wasn’t. In fact,…
“Truly here is the light of the Church. Here he found the entire way of discipline.” Why Are We Here? This life often does not make sense to us. It can seem like a wildly fun ride one moment, and a terrifying roller coaster the next. Undeserving people often seem to have it easy, while…
Introduction In the Free Grace vs. Lordship Salvation debate particular focus is paid to James chapter two. Here James makes a number of troubling statements for those who favor a strict “faith alone” stance, and one of them has to do with James’s analogy of the body. In 2:26 he states, For as the body…
Introduction The Christian Church was against against abortion from the earliest days (see The Fathers on Abortion). It can be something of an embarrassment, then, for Christians to discover that the views of the Church’s greatest theologian, Thomas Aquinas, have been used to support abortion. The specific view in question has to do with Aquinas’s statement that God created the rational human…
Introduction A friend told me about a short article that appeared recently concerning God’s impassibility titled Is God an Android? by Norman L. Geisler. In this article Geisler makes the claim that people “sometimes object to the classical view of God by claiming that if God is impassible then He cannot experience feelings like love and…
Here is an outline and exposition of what is often called the “Vertical Cosomological Argument” based on Thomas Aquinas’ thoughts in On Being and Essence. Outline A contingent being exists. Say, me – or the one who says nothing exists. 🙂 This contingent being must have a cause of its existence that is something other than the…
Having struggled with this issue for some time, I thought I would attempt to get a final answer as to how Thomas Aquinas’s Summa Theologiæ* is to be cited in academic writing. What I discovered is that there seems to be no authoritative answer. This does not mean, however, that there are no wrong ways…
Douglas Beaumont 