Today we have our first guest: Dr. Justin Gash of Franklin College.Justin is a professor in the math department, and also assistant Dean of the college. He occasionally teaches a class on Reasonable Faith, as well as guiding independent studies of that material.Our conversation is about his own intellectual/spiritual journey, what he has learned from teaching these classes, and what he thinks about the arguments for God's existence.In our next episode, Dr. Gash will walk us through his favorite argument for the existence of God: the moral argument.

Can we prove God's existence by the fact or features of the universe? To tackle this issue we will discuss:The difference between proofs and signsThe meaning of the cosmological argument, and its various formsThe meaning of the argument from design (also known as the teleological argument)The resurrection of the argument from design in the last 50 yearsThe curious case of Anthony Flew

If love is the meaning of creation, then how exactly does that play out in our individual lives? What is MY purpose? What will my future life be like?That is what we tackle in this episode.

The great philosopher Martin Heidegger said the most fundamental question in philosophy is this: Why is there something rather than nothing?Christianity, unlike naturalism, gives an answer to the question, and it is both satisfying and stimulating.

A discussion about the nature of time and of God's eternity, especially about whether God's eternity means simply everlasting duration or atemporality. We also discuss theoretical physics, prayer, and Bruce Almighty.

This episode focuses on the relationship between God and the universe. More specifically we will address:The problem of evilWhy naturalism makes the problem of evil worseWhy the church has sometimes come across as anti-sexTheism vs. naturalism and eastern thought on this questionIs the ultimate nature of reality personal or material, and what difference does this make?Will we have physical bodies after death and resurrection?and more

How can we know the God who transcends human categories and ways of knowing? Some thinkers have said that we can only have "negative" knowledge about God: that the only thing we can say of Him is that He is not like the things of this world.But is it possible to go beyond that, and, if so, how?This episode also includes a discussion of the following:How negative theology paved the way for mysticism, both in the western church but especially in the Eastern (Orthodox) church.The meaning of iconsHow analogical knowledge of God works.How pseudo-Dionysius, Maimonides and Aquinas answered the problem of how we can know God.

How can we know God?He's not a part of this universe of time, space, with its forms of causation, movement, or even being. So how is it possible to know Him?That is what this episode deals with.Note: we did have some technical problems with the audio on this one, so parts of it are a bit muffled (but not too bad).

In this episode we dive into aesthetics, the study of beauty and art. WE have a few digressions here, including one about Van Gogh and another about micro-bears on the moon. Yeah. But we also talk about:Defining beautyWhy Plato didn't appreciate art, and why Aristotle didThe radiance of the formHow beauty relates to GodHow beauty relates to truth and goodnessHow a naturalist would develop a theory of beautyAnd a few things more

Why are we here, and what happens to us after we die?This episode answers those questions through the lens of the four great worldviews (theism, naturalism, paganism, and eastern thought). A resource mentioned in this episode: The Universe Next Door, by James Sire.