#745 Will the Revolution Continue?

Dr. craig’s response

Thank you for your encouraging words, Caleb! The short answer to your question is that we cannot “be confident that the truth of Christian theism will remain evident throughout the decades to come,” at least if we’re talking about many decades, say, until the end of this century. There are no guarantees. Secular Western culture is adrift and is affecting culture throughout the world. Who knows whether a new Enlightenment, such as swept away church and monarchy in the 16-17^th centuries, may not loom, bringing widespread apostasy and unbelief in its wake?

It is precisely for that reason that your generation needs to seize the torch being passed to you by my generation and run with diligence the race set before you. The arguments of natural theology need to be renewed every generation, both to take account of ongoing developments and to answer objections newly raised against them. We can never rest on our laurels; Christians in every successive generation need to outthink their secular contemporaries.

Having said that, I am not at all pessimistic about the enduring soundness of the arguments you mention. As I have explained elsewhere, it is very improbable that “eventually the origin of the universe [will be] satisfactorily explained without God.” Nothing points in that direction; indeed, the trend in contemporary cosmogony is quite the opposite, as one proposed model after another has failed to avert the beginning of the universe. Similarly for fine-tuning: the multiplicity and variety of the parameters requiring fine-tuning are such that it is highly improbable that any future physics is going to make it go away, and formidable objections confront multiverse proposals to account for the fine-tuning by chance. The argument from contingency may be (and doubtlessly already is) “deemed irrelevant,” but that is itself irrelevant to its soundness. On the other side, the burden of proof that the problem of evil and the hiddenness of God lay on the shoulders of the atheist is so crushing that it is doubtful that anyone could sustain it.

Rather the proper concern is that these arguments will no longer find able defenders in the next generation, so that their cultural influence is eclipsed. As you put it, they are not refuted but just deemed irrelevant.

Will the revolution in Christian philosophy that was begun by Plantinga and Alston and Adams and others falter or will it be carried forward with zeal and ability by the next generation? I must say that I am greatly encouraged by the intellectual ability and number of young Christian philosophers who are taking the place of the old guard. Great work continues to be done. One especially encouraging development is the birth and growth of analytic theology, a spinoff in theology of the revolution begun by Christian philosophers. In the near term, at least, the future looks bright.

The point, Caleb, is that you needn’t be worried about the arguments. What you need to worry about is carrying on the good work begun by those who went before you. This is a call to arms and to action!