Author Archives: Alan Rhoda

Recent Discussion of Open Theism and Intelligent Design

Over at Bill Dembski’s blog, Uncommon Descent, I recently got into an extended discussion on the relation of intelligent design and open theism (short answer – neither entails anything regarding the other). For those who might be interested, here’s the link. (The initial comment on open theism that prompted my reply occurs near the end… Read More »

More on Trumping: Reply to an Objection

A blogger named Brandon has criticized the argument of my previous post as follows: What Rhoda calls “Trumping” is in fact simply a tendentious way of saying “correcting one’s own reasoning on the basis of authority”; and the Trumper Rhoda particularly has in mind is someone who says that on matters where Scripture speaks plainly… Read More »

The Theologian’s Fallacy

In his contribution to a recent book, Perspectives on the Doctrine of God (Bruce A. Ware, ed.), Paul Helm leads off with an epigraph from Anselm (the exact source is not given): But if Scripture indubitably opposes our understanding, even though our reasoning appears to us to be impregnable, still it ought not to be… Read More »

Two Articles Relevant to Recent Class Topics

1) Philosopher William Vallicella argues that the Buddhist “no-self” doctrine (the view that nothing has an enduring self-nature) is self-refuting here. (Incidentally, if any of you want to write a paper on Buddhism, this would be a fine article to comment on.) 2) Yandell remarks that contemporary dismissals of mind-body dualism (an assumption of Jainism… Read More »

Religious Pluralism

In class Pluralism or 1st Definition– The idea that all religions are basically the sameDifferent Definition or 2nd definition- Religious Pluralism may describe the world view that one’s religion is not the sole and exclusive source of truth, and thus recognizes that some level of truth and value exists in at least some other religions.… Read More »

Conference Highlights

Just got back from the Open Theology and Science conference held April 10-12, 2008 at Asuza Pacific University. It was quite a fun conference. My wife and baby daughter accompanied me, and we all had a good time. Baby Janelle was a big hit with the other participants. Unfortunately, one of the presenters, Bill Hasker,… Read More »

Open Theology and Science

The next four days I’ll be at an “Open Theology and Science” conference at Azusa Pacific University in California. While there, I’ll be reading a paper entitled “The Fourfold Openness of the Future” in which I distinguish between four different ways in which the future may be thought of as “open” – causal, ontic, alethic,… Read More »

Baby at 3 Months

A couple weeks ago, right around Easter, my daughter Janelle had her first quarter-birthday. Here are four of my favorite pictures. (click to enlarge) Proud Father Porcelain Doll Wide Eyed Say What?

Notre Dame, Here We Come

A couple weeks ago I was offered a one-year postdoc position at the University of Notre Dame’s Center for the Philosophy of Religion. It’s a great opportunity that my wife and I are both excited about. While there, I’ll be working on a book project. Tentatively entitled “The Openness of the Future and the Openness… Read More »

Foreknowledge and Creaturely Freedom

I am of the opinion that God cannot have infallible foreknowledge of creaturely libertarian free choices. I’d like to try to explain why I think this. First, I should define my terms. By ‘infallible’ I mean the impossibility of error. By ‘foreknowledge’ I mean knowledge of an event that is temporally prior to that event.… Read More »