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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote]Take a look at any YouTube video of William Lane Craig. He is a Christian philosopher [b](not a theologian, but a philosopher)[/b][/quote]

Why is this distinction so important? Particularly when he has a PhD in philosophy AND a Doctor in Theology degree?[/quote]

The distinction is relevant because when he has these structured debates, he does so in a way that is more philosophical than theological.  He uses logic and presumes that his debate opponent would not agree to any theological premise.  [/quote]

William Lane Craig is to logic what Michael Behe is to biology.

Craig's logic is demonstrably flawed when it comes to cosmology and other arguments he makes where he uses logical constructs that sound good at the time, but fail upon detailed inspection. Among other things, Craig has admitted multiple times that he will not change his faith no matter what the evidence points to, because he has "witnessed the Holy Spirit in his heart". (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q78ahkiMtFk)

So that doesn't sound like someone who's open to the spirit of inquiry, that sounds like someone who has decided what his conclusion is and is now trying to justify it.

If Craig simply stopped at his statement that he will not change his faith no matter what the evidence points to, because he has "witnessed the Holy Spirit in his heart," that would be a testament to faith. But people like Craig and Behe and those who look to prove the existence of God via science or logic are doomed to fail, because such efforts are contrary to faith.

But you have to feel sorry for people like Craig and Behe. Faith is belief despite the lack of evidence. At it's most basic, faith in God is like the "trust fall" that you do at team building exercises - you can't see your team members, and you simply have to trust that they won't let you hit the ground when you fall backwards, or, in the case of Indiana Jones, when you deny your rational mind and step off the cliff hoping there's an invisible bridge.

But when we do the trust fall, we're scared. We try to listen to make sure that our team members are actually behind us. We look for evidence to support our belief (and hope) that someone will be there to keep us from getting hurt.

We want support for our belief when faith falters, and having atheists running around saying, "There is no God," and having science continually pushing back the boundaries of the universe/multiverse feeds that kernel of doubt. So, one way to address that is to use the tools of science to try to prove the atheists wrong and prove there must be a God.

Unfortunately, science and logic are really bad at proving the improvable unless they are manipulated to achieve fraudulent results.

At the Dover School Board trial, Behe was ultimately forced to admit that the definition of science he was advocating to justify Intelligent Design would have to allow astrology and other similar pursuits to qualify.

The logical arguments Craig uses to "prove" God must exist are all the logical equivalent of the exercise you do in algebra that "proves" 1=2, but there's a trick in the middle that involves dividing by 0, which invalidates the proof because division by 0 is undefined.

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