Ep 07: Properly Basic Beliefs

Explicit content warning

08/27/20 • 109 min

Andy and TJ are joined by Sam Tunnell, who was in Andy's grade at Christian High School (class of '06). Andy and Sam were also in the same "Christian Ministry" undergraduate program at Lindenwood University. Sam is a pastor in St. Louis. He also co-hosts the podcast "Please Be Reasonable".
They discuss Alvin Plantinga's philosophy of "Properly Basic Beliefs", axiomatic assumptions, what it means to be a Baptist, John Hick's book "Philosophy of Religion", faith deconstruction, hell, and other things.
Extra stuff:
- You can get a quick introduction to Plantinga's philosophy of "Properly Basic Beliefs" here.
- You can buy John Hick's book, "Philosophy of Religion", here.
- Andy was a guest on Sam's podcast in 2017 (disclaimer: this was before Andy was on Lexapro AND before a sinus surgery that made Andy a bit less nasaly). You can listen to that episode here.

Previous Episode

Ep 06: What Does TJ Actually Believe?

Andy and TJ are guest-less (thanks Covid!), which worked out well because they needed to clarify some things anyway. Andy attempts to figure out what the heck TJ actually is, and TJ raises some critiques of Andy's thinking.

Next Episode

Ep 08: Biblical Criticism With Dr. Alan Meyers

Andy and TJ are joined by Dr. Alan Meyers.
Dr. Meyers is Professor Emeritus of religion at Lindenwood University as well as Parish Associate at Oak Hill Presbyterian Church in St. Louis. Andy and TJ both took classes with Dr. Meyers while at Lindenwood.
We talk about "biblical criticism" (or the "historical-critical method"), as well as the difficulty of squaring the findings of biblical scholarship with the fundamentalist perspective.
Biblical criticism is "the process of establishing the plain meaning of biblical texts and of assessing their historical accuracy... and indicates the effort at using scientific criteria (historical and literary) and human reason to understand and explain as objectively as possible the meaning intended by the biblical writers." (Source)
It was a fantastic conversation, and we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!
Book Mentions:
1. "Jesus Interrupted" by Bart Ehrman
2. "Philosophy of Religion" by John Hick
3. "The Harper Collins Study Bible" (NRSV version)