AK47 Season 2 Episode 39: Becoming An Apologist Without a Degree, with Richard Porter

 In the next episode of Kyle's apologetics series, he has Richard Porter on to talk about how you can learn apologetics without having to spend years of your life and thousands of dollars of your money getting an advanced degree.  We get to know how Richard became a Christian and got into apologetics, how to learn apologetics effectively, the usefulness of verbal and written debates on the truth of Christianity, Richard's views of Reformed Epistemology and Lydia McGrew's approach to arguing for biblical reliability, the importance of mentors and reading hard books, and more.

To listen to the episode, click here.  If you prefer listening on another platform, check out the links on the left side of this site.

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Other Episodes in the Series

1. Sam Harper (Philochristos)

2. Evan Minton (Cerebral Faith)

3. Cameron Bertuzzi (Capturing Christianity)

4. Clinton Wilcox (this one is on the topic of abortion specifically)

AK47 Season 2 Episode 37: The Weight of Glory by C.S. Lewis and Idolatry

Aaron and Kyle talk about C.S. Lewis's influential sermon, The Weight of Glory, what its message is, and how it affected their lives.  They also talk about C.S. Lewis's other book, Till We Have Faces.  Eventually, they start talking about idolatry, what it is, and how to tell if you're idolizing something or not.  They then end off by talking about what's going on with their lives and COVID.

To listen to the episode, click here.  If you prefer to use other platforms like iTunes, Stitcher, or others, click one of the links on the left side of the site.

If you would like to financially support this podcast, click here.

AK47 Season 2 Episode 35: Responding to Bad Atheist Arguments Part 2

Tripp Parker (M.A. in philosophy from Duke) joins Kyle to continue going through Jay Beecher's tweet thread claiming that the Bible is based on pagan myths, it's full of errors, the biblical canon was decided at the Council of Nicaea in 325 A.D., and much more.

To listen to the episode, click here.  If you prefer to listen on another platform such as iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and more, click one of the links on the left side of the site.

If you would like to financially support this podcast, click here.

Sources Used for the Episode

The Mirror or the Mask: Liberating the Gospels from Literary Devices by Dr. Lydia McGrew

Alleged Historical Errors in the Gospels part one and part two by Dr. Timothy McGrew

We didn't mention this during the episode, but for a humorous response to the claim that Jesus and the stories about him are copied from pagan myths, check out this video from Lutheran Satire.

AK47 Season 2 Episode 34: Responding to Bad Atheist Arguments

Aaron and Kyle bring on a special guest, Tripp Parker (M.A. in philosophy from Duke) to talk about a tweet thread from Jay Beecher arguing that the Bible is copied from pagan myths and makes a bunch of historical errors.

To listen to the episode, click here.  If you prefer to listen on another platform such as iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and more, click one of the links on the left side of the site.

If you would like to financially support this podcast, click here.

Sources Used for the Show

Jay Beechers tweet thread.

The History for Atheists blog.

AK47 Season 2 Episode 33: Thoughts on the Coronavirus

The members of the AK47 Podcast and The New Worlders teamed up for this episode.  We give our thoughts on the coronavirus, the reactions to it, whether or not its a natural evil, and more.  We read extensively from some articles to help drive the discussion.

To listen to the episode, click here.  If you want to listen to it on a different platform such as iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, or others, click one of the links on the left side of the site.

If you would like to financially support the podcast, click here.

Sources Used for the Episode

We Were Wrong: So Sorry that We Ruined Your Life by Jeffrey A. Tucker
Novel Coronavirus, Ancient Economics by C.R. Wiley
Is the Coronavirus Evil? by Daniel Harrell

AK47 Season 2 Episode 26: A Pastor's Thoughts on Jordan Peterson

Paul Vanderklay, a pastor in Sacramento and avid Youtuber, comes on the show to talk about Jordan Peterson and the phenomenon surrounding him.  We talk about Peterson's effect on people, his approach to interpreting the Bible, and his views of God.

Listen to the episode here.  If you prefer another platform such as iTunes, Stitcher, or others, click one of the links on the left side of the page.

If you want to support the podcast, click here.

Links to Paul's Content

Paul Vanderklay's Youtube channel.

Follow Paul on Twitter.

AK47 Season 2 Episode 24: The New Chappelle Special, Comedy, and Joshua Harris

Aaron and Kyle are back after hiding in the shadows for way too long!  They discuss Chappelle's new comedy special on Netflix, comedy in general, and a little bit about what recently happened to Joshua Harris, the author of I Kissed Dating Goodbye.  Of course, politics are big part of the conversation as well.  About an hour and 26 minutes into the recording you'll notice a pause because we ended up having some technical difficulties and had to cut our conversation short, but we'll try to continue the Joshua Harris conversation when we're more prepared in a future episode.

Listen to the episode here or on any of our other platforms.  Find the links on the left of the site.

The AK47 Podcast Season 2: Episode 7

I am starting a new series of interviews interviewing people who are Christian apologists, but not academics.  My purpose in these interviews is to encourage Christians who want to do apologetics, have apologetics ministries, or implement apologetics into their discussions with skeptics, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars of their money and years of their time on formal degrees in apologetics or other related fields.

In this episode, I interview Cameron Bertuzzi of Capturing Christianity.  I ask him how he became a Christian, how he became interested in the intellectual side of the Christian faith, and why he decided to start a blog on the topic.  I ask him for advice on how to become a good apologist without a formal education, how to deal with anxiety about having discussions or debates with skeptics,  his more controversial theological opinions, and where we can read his stuff.  I also ask him how one can start an online apologetics ministry and the importance of having knowledge and skill in marketing when building a ministry based on apologetics.

Listen to the episode here.

To learn how to support our podcast, click here.

Check out Capturing Christianity

Follow Cameron on Twitter.

Check out the Capturing Christianity Youtube channel.

Other Episodes in this Series

1. Sam Harper (Philochristos)

2. Evan Minton (Cerebral Faith)

3. Clinton Wilcox (specifically on the topic of abortion)

4. Richard Porter

The AK47 Podcast Season 2: Episode 4

I am starting a new series of interviews interviewing people who are Christian apologists, but not academics.  My purpose in these interviews is to encourage Christians who want to do apologetics, have apologetics ministries, or implement apologetics into their discussions with skeptics, but don't want to spend thousands of dollars of their money and years of their time on formal degrees in apologetics or other related fields.

In today's episode, I interview Sam Harper, who blogs at Philo Christos.  I ask him how he became a Christian, how he became interested in the intellectual side of the Christian faith, and why he decided to start a blog on the topic.  I ask him for advice on how to become a good apologist without a formal education, how to deal with anxiety about having discussions or debates with skeptics, his more controversial theological opinions, and where we can read his stuff.

(Note: We still seem to experience a slight audio problem.  When two people speak simultaneously or when noise happens on one end while another person is talking, it creates a sudden drop in quality for one of the parties.  The audio is still good and understandable, especially on Sam Harper's end, but if anyone knows how to solve this issue, let us know.)

Listen to the episode here.

To learn how to support our podcast, click here.

Read his blog, Philochristos.

Other Episodes in this Series

1. Evan Minton (Cerebral Faith)

2. Cameron Bertuzzi (Capturing Christianity)

3. Clinton Wilcox (specifically on the topic of abortion)

4. Richard Porter

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 42

Aaron gives his thoughts on the sudden and tragic death of Bre Payton, the former staff writer for The Federalist.

Listen to the episode here.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 41

Aaron and I are going to focus on less politically, socially, and philosophically heavy things in the rest of the episodes this year.  It's break time, so we want to take it easy.  That doesn't mean those topics won't come out of our mouths though.

Aaron and I are all over the place in this episode.  We talk about the Aquaman movie, which Aaron recently watched, superhero movies in general, the Gospel, some apologetics, our thoughts on Ben Shapiro's interview with John MacArthur, stuff about the spiritual vs. the psychological, and more.

Listen to the episode here.

If you are interested in supporting our show, find out how here.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 38

Aaron's description of the new episode.

Aaron interviews bestselling author Brian Godawa and they discuss the weird stuff in the Bible. Brian has written several series of "Theological Novels" (Aaron, in his characteristically pretentious style describes them as "Didactic Christian Myth") which explore the more bizarre (but scholarly accurate) aspects of the Old Testament. We discuss the book of Enoch, Giants, Angels, Demons, and other aspects of what Dr. Michael Heiser calls the Deuteronomy 32 worldview. Even the Epic of Gilgamesh comes up at one point. Godawa's first series is entitled The Chronicles of the Nephilim. His latest series, The Chronicles of the Apocalypse, is a kind of antidote to the Left Behind craze by focusing on distinctly preterist eschatology which teaches that John's Apocalypse mostly concerns events in the later 1st century AD. But eschatology (one of Aaron's favorite subjects, yet one Kyle remains willfully and lazily ignorant of) will concern our next episode with Godawa. Kyle is absent from this episode and the next one. Aaron put him in a box to repent of his eschatological ignorance. He won't be allowed back until he's completed all of Jurgen Moltmann's books, and he has to read them in the original Klingon.

Check out Brian Godawa's stuff on Amazon and godawa.com

We mention Michael Heiser quite a bit. Check him out at drmsh.com

And for those of you who are counting down we only have about 30 days left to get out 9 episodes! 

Listen to the episode here.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 34

Aaron and Kyle talk about "woke" Christianity, social justice, critical theory, intersectionality, and their compatibility with the Christian worldview.  We get into issues of politics, freedom, the Gospel, and some book recommendations.

Listen to the episode here.

McArthur's social justice statement.

Find the Neil Shenvi articles cited on the show here and here.

Click here to learn how to support our show.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 33

Aaron and Kyle discuss some logical, apologetic, and epistemological issues that are brought up by the Kavanaugh case.  The reliability of eyewitness testimony and memory, how that applies to the Gospels, thoughts on "believe all women," and more are discussed.

Listen to the episode here.

If you want to support our show, click here to learn how.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 32

Aaron and Kyle talk about some recent controversies surrounding the famous preacher and apologist, Ravi Zacharias, and his academic credentials and experiences.

Listen to the episode here.

Click here for the article by Randal Rauser.

To learn how to support our show, click here.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 30

Kyle interviews Daniel Vargas, a software engineer and immigrant from Venezuela, on socialism and the state of Venezuela under socialism.  What is Socialism?  What role did it play in Venezuela's decline?  Is Capitalism any better?  What should Christians think of political theories like Socialism and Capitalism?

Listen to the episode here.

To learn how to support our podcast, go here.

Apologist Recommendation: Edward Feser

In this series, I will recommend certain scholars and apologists to our readers and listeners.  These are people that I believe are worth listening to because they are informed and give good arguments and insights into the subjects that they study, which helps intellectually equip Christians so that they can grow in their own faith and their outreach towards non-Christians.  I am not claiming that these scholars and apologists have everything correct, but I think they are intellectual powerhouses that we can learn much from.

Edward Feser

Dr. Feser is a Catholic philosopher who teaches at Pasadena City College.  Being a Catholic, his metaphysics is heavily influenced by Aquinas, which may make his philosophy slightly different from other well-known Christian apologists like William Lane Craig, but his material is still valuable.  A lot of his material is academic, but he has a lot of more popular-level materials that offer great arguments and insights.  Here are some of his works.

His Blog

Feser regularly writes on his blog, where you can find his thoughts on everything philosophy, theology, Catholicism, and apologetics.  This is a good place to go to introduce yourself to his material.

Atheism

Dr. Feser has a lot of scathing and often hilarious critiques of the "New Atheism" and particular atheist writers.  In book form, he wrote The Last Supertition, which is a critique of the new atheism.  His criticisms of Jerry Coyne are all entertaining to read.  He has a review of Coyne's book, Faith Versus Fact, on First Things.  You can also find his blog posts and articles critiquing Coyne here and here.  Feser also critiques Lawrence Krauss, a physicist and atheist, here.  He has a lot more material on atheism and responses to atheist apologists, so look them up.

Existence of God

Dr. Feser has also written on the arguments for the existence of God.  His new book, Five Proofs of the Existence of God, is pretty self-explanatory.  Feser is also interviewed here, where he responds to Dawkins' critiques of the arguments for God's existence in his book, The God Delusion.

Misc.

I recommend just looking through his blog for more materials.  He has a lot of articles on philosophy of mind, ethical issues like sexual ethics, abortion, and capital punishment, explanations of Catholic docrines, and much, much more.  I hope you learn a lot from his resources.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 28

Aaron and I are back together, but this episode is definitely more somber and honest than the others.  We start out by giving our thoughts on the new scandal in the Catholic church.  We then move on to bearing our souls to our audience by talking about the pain in our lives and the things that have made things difficult for us.  I hope our honesty can help you get some perspective on your own troubles and help you realize that you are not alone in struggling with life.

Listen to the episode here.

To learn how to support our podcast, go here.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 27

Kyle interviews Anthony Costello on his journey from Catholicism and nominal religiosity to Evangelical Protestant Christianity.  We talk about the events that lead to his current beliefs and some of his criticisms of the Catholic church.  Anthony got an M.A. in Christian Apologetics from Biola University and an M.A. in theology at Talbot School of Theology.

Listen to the episode here.

For more from Anthony, check out his website.

To learn how to support our show, click here.

The AK47 Podcast Season 1: Episode 24

Today, I interview Dr. Lydia McGrew on undesigned coincidences as evidence for the reliability of the Bible.  We also talk about a concerning trend in New Testament studies that Lydia calls "Literary Device" theory and the problems with it.

Listen to the episode here.

For more from Lydia, check out her writings on What's Wrong With the World and her personal blog.

For more on the topic we discussed, get her book, Hidden in Plain View.