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If you have enjoyed Bede's Library, you can order my book, The Genesis of Science: How the Christian Middle Ages Launched the Scientific Revolution (US) from Amazon.com or God's Philosophers: How the Medieval World Laid the Foundations of Modern Science (UK) from Amazon.co.uk. |
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For my latest thoughts on science, politics, religion and history, read Quodlibeta
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Links to Christian sites
Introduction
These links all lead to web sites dedicated to Christians and apologetics of various sorts. My entirely subjective comments are set out below.
Christian CADRE
Reasons to Believe
William Lane Craig's Virtual Office
Leadership University
The Academy of Christian Apologetics
Apollos.ws
The Christian Think Tank
New Advent
Doxa
CARM
The belief rating is defined as follows:
A - Atheist or sceptical agnostic
Content is rated out of ten. This rating in no way reflects my agreement with the material offered - but rather the amount of original material presented, web site presentation and the quality of writing.
| Christian CADRE | ||
| Author: | The Cadre | |
| Belief: | D | |
| Content: | 9 |
The Christian Cadre is a co-operative of apologists on the internet of which I am a member. Essentially we try to make sure we are addressing the current arguments of internet sceptics and hosting each others work as convenient. The CADRE website is mainly geared towards answering objections and providing quality material. This takes the form of links to individual CADRE member sites as well as original articles. If you are looking for replies to specific concerns questions like 'What is the evidence Jesus existed?', 'Are science and religion in conflict?', 'What about the crimes committed by Christians?' and 'How do we know God exists?' the CADRE site is the place to look. But it might just send you straight back here to one of my articles!
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| Reasons to Believe | ||
| Author: | Hugh Ross | |
| Belief: | E | |
| Content: | 6 |
Ross is an evangelical Christian and astronomer who has written several books purporting to show that modern cosmology backs up the literal truth of the bible. The site contains extracts from the books, some original articles and the magazine 'Faith and Reason'. A lot of this is comfort food for the religious who worry about science proving them wrong. However, Ross doesn't deal with things at a high enough level to convince anyone who knows much about physics. He also reaches conclusions that the data cannot justify.
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| William Lane Craig | ||
| Author: | William Lane Craig | |
| Belief: | E | |
| Content: | 8 |
The evangelical apologetic super star William Lane Craig, now has his own website called Reasonable Faith. It contains a treasure trove of articles, debates and a valuable collection of reader's questions (one of which is refers to me!). He is probably the most famous of the 'hard' Christian philosophers and produces work that should be read by anyone interested in the various 'proofs' that God exists. His reworking of the cosmological argument is widely felt to be the best around. I don't think there are any proofs for God except personal experience but Craig comes closest to convincing me there might be.
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| Leadership University | ||
| Author: | Many and various | |
| Belief: | D | |
| Content: | 9 |
For sheer quantity nothing beats this site. It contains literally thousands of articles on every conceivable aspect of theology, philosophy and science. Everything is from a Christian point of view but it has a much wider range of opinion than your average evangelical site. It can sometimes be hard to find the really good stuff and this site would certainly warrant a 10 if it wasn't for the poorer stuff scattered amongst the gems. Check out the essays on cosmology, evolution and the design argument for some difficult but rewarding reading.
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| The Academy of Christian Apologetics | ||
| Author: | Nick Keehus | |
| Belief: | D | |
| Content: | 8 |
Evangelical thinkers have finally realized that their points of view are not widely accepted any more. Therefore, they have decided to go on the offensive. This site is intended as a rallying point for all serious branches of Christian philosophy and boasts the backing of most of the biggest names in the business (Craig, Larson, Moreland etc.). It is relatively new and we should wait and see how it develops. Presently, it is short of original material but the collection of articles by Alvin Plantinga more than make up for this. In time the Academy could become a top site and I will be visiting frequently to see how they are getting on.
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| Apollos.ws | ||
| Author: | Bronson Taylor & John Sabatino | |
| Belief: | E | |
| Content: | 8 |
This is a relatively new website intended to provide high-end educational resources for evangelical Christians. Articles by many of the big names (Plantinga, Craig etc) are arranged in a huge number of categories. While most of the material has already appeared elsewhere, it is helpful to have it all in one place and on easy-to-read .pdf files. There is a very long list of recommended books. This being the era of broadband, the site also has a large collection of audio and visual resources. There is a little too much on Intelligent Design for my taste because it is rapidly becoming orthodoxy in evangelical circles.
While Apollos.ws is still developing, it is already an excellent one-stop shop for Christian brain food.
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| The Christian Think Tank | ||
| Author: | Glenn Miller | |
| Belief: | E | |
| Content: | 8 |
The Christian Think tank is definitely better for Christians who are assailed by doubts and questions rather than sceptics who are looking for evidence for the faith because the articles are all written as if the reader is assumed to be a Christian. Miller is obviously a capable thinker and there is a good deal of excellent original writing here. JP Holding refers to his work a lot and links to particular essays at this site. The site mainly contains well researched articles into all manner of objections to Christianity from the reliability of the Bible to the problem of evil. For someone who is being exposed to sceptical thought and needs to get a grip on what they are hearing this is an excellent place to surf to.
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| New Advent | ||
| Author: | Kevin Knight | |
| Belief: | C | |
| Content: | 8 |
New Advent is the premier Catholic site on the web. It links to all the other main Catholic areas and has plenty of useful material of its own. The Catholic Encyclopaedia can be found here but note this is the 1913 edition of the encyclopaedia so don't try basing arguments about Catholic theology on it - everything changed after the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. There is also a set of Catholic FAQs that seem to be mainly addressed to Protestants rather than seekers but are quite interesting. Be sure to read "Pillar of fire, pillar of truth" which is a useful concise guide to Catholicism.
My main criticism of this and many other Catholic sites is that it is rather
dry and worthy. Evangelicals seem so much more lively! That said, there is a lot
of useful stuff here and I recommend you have a look through it.
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| Doxa | ||
| Author: | Metacrock | |
| Belief: | D | |
| Content: | 7 |
Metacrock is a young student who has produced what must be one of the largest collections of original articles on the web. I cannot claim to have read anything like all of them but have enjoyed what I have tried. He is a traditional apologist who defends the Christian faith against every imaginable objection. Also, he is not nearly so conservative as many Christians on the net and this can only be a good thing.
The essays could do with being cut up into much smaller chunks as they are too long to read off a screen in one go. However lovers of religious debate and philosophy will enjoy this site.
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| CARM | ||
| Author: | Matt Slick | |
| Belief: | E | |
| Content: | 6 |
The Christian and Apologetics Research Ministry is simply not my cup of tea but is one of the most popular apologetics sites on the web. Matt is an exceedingly conservative evangelical to whom anyone who wavers from the line is a heretic or worse. He insists on the exclusivity of truth to Christianity and biblical literalism while he has also has refused to link to this site as I am much too much of a dangerous liberal. I have to admit this did not endear him to me.
That said, his writing is not too bad and the site very well put together and presented. The discussion boards are to be recommended as they popular with debaters of all colours although I don't post there myself. If you want to read conservative apologetics, I'd recommend Tekton Ministries before here but, if you would rather read an evangelical defending his turf from other Christians, this is the place to go.
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