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86-499: According to Kenneth Keathley, author of Salvation and Sovereignty: A Molinist Approach, Molinists argue that God perfectly accomplishes His will in the lives of genuinely free creatures through the use of His omniscience . Molinists, following Luis de Molina himself, present God's knowledge in a sequence of three logical moments. The first is God's knowledge of necessary truths or natural knowledge. These truths are independent of God's will and are non-contingent. This knowledge includes

172-475: A nominalistic perspective that abstract objects are not ontologically real objects. Stating that the Quine–Putnam indispensability argument is the chief support of platonism, Craig criticizes the neo-Quinean criterion of ontological commitment, according to which the existential quantifier of first order logic and singular terms are devices of ontological commitment. Craig favors a neutral interpretation of

258-534: A Christian. After graduating from high school, Craig attended Wheaton College , majoring in communications. He graduated in 1971 and married his wife, Jan, whom he met on the staff of Campus Crusade for Christ , the next year. They have two grown children and reside in suburban Atlanta, Georgia. In 1973, Craig entered the program in philosophy of religion at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School north of Chicago , where he studied under Norman Geisler . In 1975, Craig began doctoral studies in philosophy at

344-457: A bold and positive assertion and therefore requires warrant in excess of that which attends the Molinist assumption that there are true counterfactuals about creaturely free actions" and that "Anti–Molinists have not even begun the task of showing that counterfactuals of creaturely freedom are members of the set of propositions or statements which require truth–makers if they are to be true." Thus

430-413: A choice can be free, and yet the way in which an agent will make that choice can be known apart from observation of the actualized choice itself (and even apart from the actualization of the choice entirely). Critics maintain that this is no longer really a free choice: if it is known of someone that "If she were offered a dollar, she would take it," apart from actually offering that person a dollar, then she

516-539: A complete understanding of how people would freely choose to act in response. Craig also appeals to Molinism in his discussions of the inspiration of scripture , Christian exclusivism , the perseverance of the Saints , and missionary evangelism . Craig has written two volumes arguing for the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus , The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus (1985) and Assessing

602-451: A counterfactual of freedom to be true, it is not required that the events to which they refer actually exist; all that is required is that they would exist under the specified conditions." The idea here is that if we imagine God creating multiple universes in multiple dimensions and giving people libertarian free will in the various universes and letting events all play out, we would have no problem grounding counterfactuals of freedom based on

688-402: A creature, if that creature is free in the libertarian sense. (Molinists naturally accept this, but deny that this entails that counterfactuals of creaturely freedom lack truth values .) Many philosophers and theologians who embrace the grounding objection prefer to claim that instead of counterfactuals of freedom being true, probable counterfactuals are true instead. So instead of truths of

774-429: A feature of his omniscience, God must know the truth related to tensed facts about the world, such as whether the statement "Today is January 15th" is true or not or what is happening right now . Craig has published on the challenge posed by platonism to divine aseity or self-existence. Craig rejects both the view that God creates abstract objects and that they exist independently of God. Rather, he defends

860-504: A first physical state of the universe cannot be explained in terms of initial conditions and natural laws. Craig's arguments to support the Kalam argument have been discussed and debated by a variety of commentators, including Adolf Grünbaum , Quentin Smith , Wes Morriston, Graham Oppy , Andrew Loke , Robert C. Koons , and Alexander Pruss . Many of these papers are contained in

946-516: A kind of knowledge that is sometimes termed "middle knowledge". Protestant-Molinism, such as Craig's, first entered Protestant theology through two anti-Calvinist thinkers: Jacobus Arminius and Conrad Vorstius . Molinists such as Craig appeal to this idea to reconcile the perceived conflict between God's providence and foreknowledge with human free will. The idea is that, by relying on middle knowledge, God does not interfere with anyone's free will, instead choosing which circumstances to actualize given

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1032-655: A non-voluntaristic divine command theorist , Craig believes God had the moral right to command the killing of the Canaanites if they refused to leave their land, as depicted in the Book of Deuteronomy . This has led to some controversy, as seen in a critique by Wes Morriston. Craig has also proposed a neo-Apollinarian Christology in which the divine logos stands in for the human soul of Christ and completes his human nature. According to Nathan Schneider , "[many] professional philosophers know about him only vaguely, but in

1118-554: A particular one. God's middle knowledge of counterfactuals would play an integral part in this "choosing" of a particular world. Molinists say the logical ordering of events for creation would be as follows: Hence, God's middle knowledge plays an important role in the actualization of the world. In fact, it seems as if God's middle knowledge of counterfactuals plays a more immediate role in perception than God's foreknowledge. William Lane Craig points out that "without middle knowledge, God would find himself, so to speak, with knowledge of

1204-425: A person has the choice to freely accept it or reject it (but God knows that if the person were put in a particular situation he or she would not reject it). This differs from Calvinistic double predestination , which states that a person's salvation is already determined by God such that he or she cannot choose otherwise or resist God's grace. While both Arminianism and Molinism agree that God definitively knows how

1290-496: A person would react to the Gospel message. Molinism relies on the concept of middle knowledge while Arminianism does not. Molinists have internal disagreements about the extent to which they agree with Calvinism, some holding to unconditional election, others holding to conditional election and others still holding to an election that is partly both. Alfred Freddoso explains: “Some Molinists, including Bellarmine and Suárez, agree with

1376-517: A preliminary study for his systematic philosophical theology Craig explored the biblical commitment to and scientific credibility of an original human pair who were the universal progenitors of mankind. Following the Assyriologist Thorkild Jacobsen, Craig argues on the basis of various family resemblances that Genesis 1-11 plausibly belongs to the genre of mytho-history, which aims to recount historical persons and events in

1462-419: A temporal state beginning with creation, by virtue of his knowledge of tensed facts and his interactions with events. He gives two arguments in support of that view. First, he says that, given his tensed view of time, God cannot be timeless once he has created a temporal universe, since, after that point, he is related to time through his interactions and through causing events in time. Second, Craig says that as

1548-412: A true statement even if there isn't an actual object called a “price.” He defines these references as a speech act rather than a word-world relation, so that singular terms may be used in true sentences without commitment to corresponding objects in the world. Craig has additionally argued that even if one were to grant that these references were being used as in a word-world relation, that fictionalism

1634-413: A world in which He infallibly foresees Peter's good use of the supernatural graces afforded him, and only then does he accept Peter among the elect in light of his free consent to those graces.” Other Molinists avoid the issue altogether by holding to the view of trans-world damnation, the idea that the unsaved in this world would have rejected Christ in any world. In 1581, a heated argument erupted between

1720-487: Is a viable explanation of their use; in particular pretense theory, according to which statements about abstract objects are expressions of make-believe, imagined to be true, even if literally false. In preparation for writing a systematic philosophical theology, Craig undertook a study of the doctrine of the atonement which resulted in two books, The Atonement (2019) and Atonement and the Death of Christ (2020). Also as

1806-557: Is an American analytic philosopher , Christian apologist , author, and Wesleyan theologian who upholds the view of Molinism and neo-Apollinarianism . He is a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University and at the Talbot School of Theology of Biola University . Craig has updated and defended the Kalam cosmological argument for the existence of God . He has also published work where he argues in favor of

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1892-413: Is an attribute of God, yet it is also an attribute that reveals sciences to humanity: In like manner, the moment the word expressing My attribute “The Omniscient” issueth forth from My mouth, every created thing will, according to its capacity and limitations, be invested with the power to unfold the knowledge of the most marvelous sciences, and will be empowered to manifest them in the course of time at

1978-466: Is an attribute that any individual can eventually attain. In Buddhism , there are differing beliefs about omniscience among different schools. The word omniscience derives from the Latin word sciens ("to know" or "conscious") and the prefix omni ("all" or "every"), but also means " all-seeing ". The topic of omniscience has been much debated in various Indian traditions, but no more so than by

2064-558: Is attributed with absolute omniscience. God knows the past, the present, and the future. It is compulsory for a Muslim to believe that God is indeed omniscient as stated in one of the six articles of faith which is: Say: Do you instruct God about your religion? But God knows all that is in the heavens and on the earth; God is Knowing of all things It is believed that humans can only change their predestination (wealth, health, deed etc.) and not divine decree (date of birth, date of death, family etc.), thus allowing free will. Omniscience

2150-465: Is consistent with the A-theory and with absolute simultaneity. Craig criticizes the standard interpretation of SR on the grounds that it is based on a discredited positivist epistemology. Moreover, he claims that the assumption of positivism invalidates the appeal to SR made by opponents of the A-theory. Craig argues that God existed in a timeless state causally prior to creation, but has existed in

2236-438: Is if that cause is a personal agent endowed with free will. Second, the only candidates for a timeless, spaceless, immaterial being are abstract objects like numbers or unembodied minds; but abstract objects are causally effete. Third, Craig uses Richard Swinburne 's separation of causal explanation; causal explanation can be given in terms either of initial conditions and laws of nature or of a personal agent and its volitions; but

2322-475: Is not compatible with free will is known as theological fatalism . It is argued that if humans are free to choose between alternatives, God could not know what this choice will be. A question arises: if an omniscient entity knows everything, even about its own decisions in the future, does it therefore forbid any free will to that entity? William Lane Craig states that the question subdivides into two: However, this kind of argument fails to recognize its use of

2408-461: Is not free to take or not take that dollar. The question hinges upon whether, by the definition of a free choice, it is possible to know which choice will be made independently from the actualization of that choice. Omniscience Omniscience is the capacity to know everything. In Hinduism , Sikhism and the Abrahamic religions , this is an attribute of God . In Jainism , omniscience

2494-580: Is plausible that the Law of Conditional Excluded Middle (LCEM) holds for counterfactuals of a certain special form, usually called 'counterfactuals of creaturely freedom'. Third, the Scriptures are replete with counterfactual statements, so that the Christian theist, at least, should be committed to the truth of certain counterfactuals about free, creaturely actions." William Lane Craig calls Molinism "one of

2580-486: Is private, meaning that no outside observer can gain knowledge of what it is like to be me as me . If a subject cannot know what it is like to be another subject in an objective manner, the question is whether that limitation applies to God as well. If it does, then God cannot be said to be omniscient since there is then a form of knowledge that God lacks access to. The philosopher Patrick Grim most notably raised this issue. Linda Zagzebski argued against this by introducing

2666-423: Is the word used by Jains to refer to those human beings who have conquered all inner passions (like attachment, greed, pride, anger) and possess Kevala Jnana (infinite knowledge). They are said to be of two kinds: Whether omniscience, particularly regarding the choices that a human will make, is compatible with free will has been debated by theologians and philosophers . The argument that divine foreknowledge

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2752-650: The Alexander von Humboldt Foundation to pursue research on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus under the direction of Wolfhart Pannenberg at the University of Munich in Germany. His studies in Munich under Pannenberg's supervision led to a second doctorate, this one in theology, awarded in 1984 with the publication of his doctoral thesis, The Historical Argument for the Resurrection of Jesus During

2838-642: The Israelites will forsake God after they are delivered from Egypt. Some opponents of Molinism claim that God's foreknowledge and knowledge of counterfactuals are examples of what God is going to actively bring about. That is, when Christ describes the response of the Sodomites in the aforementioned example, God was going to actively bring it about that they would remain until today. Molinists have responded to this objection by noting that scripture contains examples of God's foreknowledge of evil acts. For example,

2924-595: The Jesuits , who advocated Molinism, and the Dominicans , who had a different understanding of God's foreknowledge and the nature of predestination. In 1597, Pope Clement VIII established the Congregatio de Auxiliis , a committee whose purpose was to settle this controversy. In 1607, Pope Paul V ended the quarrel by forbidding each side to accuse the other of heresy, allowing both views to exist side-by-side in

3010-617: The Philosophy of Time Society from 1999 to 2006. He helped revitalize the Evangelical Philosophical Society and served as its president from 1996 to 2005. In the mid-2000s, Craig established the online Christian apologetics ministry ReasonableFaith.org. Craig has authored or edited over forty books and over two hundred articles published in professional philosophy and theology journals, including: The Journal of Philosophy , British Journal for

3096-544: The Resurrection Summit , a meeting held at St. Joseph's Seminary , New York, in order to discuss the resurrection of Jesus. Papers from the summit were later compiled and published in the book The Resurrection. An Interdisciplinary Symposium on the Resurrection of Jesus , edited by S.T Davis, D. Kendall and G. O'Collins. Craig defends a presentist version of the A-theory of time . According to this theory,

3182-455: The University of Birmingham in England, writing on the cosmological argument under the direction of John Hick . He was awarded a doctorate in 1977. Out of this study came his first book, The Kalam Cosmological Argument (1979), a defense of the argument he first encountered in theologian Stuart Hackett's work on the same topic. Craig was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in 1978 from

3268-402: The modal fallacy . It is possible to show that the first premise of arguments like these is fallacious. Some philosophers, such as Patrick Grim , Linda Zagzebski , Stephan Torre, and William Mander have discussed the issue of whether the apparent exclusively first-person nature of conscious experience is compatible with God's omniscience. There is a strong sense in which conscious experience

3354-543: The scientia media , which they think implies passivity, which is repugnant to Pure Act. The Thomists disputed it before the Popes, as bordering on semi-Pelagianism , and afterwards there were ten years of debate in the Congregation de Auxiliis . The grounding objection is at present the most debated objection to Molinism, and often considered the strongest. The argument claims that there are no metaphysical grounds for

3440-484: The A-theory is incoherent, suggesting that McTaggart's argument begs the question by covertly presupposing the B-theory . Second, he defends the A-theory from empirical challenges arising from the standard interpretation of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity (SR). He responds to this challenge by advocating a neo-Lorentzian interpretation of SR which is empirically equivalent to the standard interpretation, and which

3526-635: The Bañezians that God antecedently elects certain people to eternal glory and only then consults His middle knowledge to discover which graces will guarantee their salvation. Thus, in Peter's case, God would have chosen different graces if those He actually chose had been foreknown to be merely sufficient and not efficacious for Peter's salvation. Other Molinists, including Molina himself, vigorously reject any such antecedent absolute election of Peter to salvation. They insist instead that God simply chooses to create

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3612-650: The Buddhists. After Dharmakirti 's excursions into the subject of what constitutes a valid cognition , Śāntarakṣita and his student Kamalaśīla thoroughly investigated the subject in the Tattvasamgraha and its commentary the Panjika. The arguments in the text can be broadly grouped into four sections: Some modern Christian theologians argue that God's omniscience is inherent rather than total, and that God chooses to limit his omniscience in order to preserve

3698-537: The Catholic Church. Thomas Flint has developed what he considers other implications of Molinism, including papal infallibility , prophecy , and prayer . William Lane Craig uses Molinism to reconcile scriptural passages warning of apostasy with passages teaching the security of believers. Craig has also used middle knowledge to explain a wide range of theological issues, such as divine providence and predestination , biblical inspiration , perseverance of

3784-743: The Deist Controversy (1985). Craig joined the faculty of Trinity Evangelical Divinity School in Deerfield, Illinois in 1980, where he taught philosophy of religion until 1986. After a one-year stint at Westmont College on the outskirts of Santa Barbara , Craig moved in 1987 with his wife and two young children back to Europe, where he was a visiting scholar at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven ( Louvain ) in Belgium until 1994. At that time, Craig joined

3870-685: The Department of Philosophy and Ethics at Talbot School of Theology in suburban Los Angeles as a research professor of philosophy, a position he currently holds, and he went on to become a professor of philosophy at Houston Christian University in 2014. In 2017, Biola University created a permanent faculty position and endowed chair, the William Lane Craig Endowed Chair in Philosophy, in honor of Craig's academic contributions. Craig served as president of

3956-480: The Israelites forsaking God, or Peter's denial of Christ, are both examples of what one would call overt acts of sin. Yet, according to opponents of Molinism, God is actively bringing about these overt acts of sin. This is fallacious according to the Molinist. In order for this account of prophecy to be valid all prophecies must be wholly good, and never contain evil acts; but this is not what opponents believe to be

4042-478: The Molinist can embrace both God's sovereignty and human free choice. Take the salvation of Agent A. God knows that if He were to place A in circumstances C, then A would freely choose to believe in Christ. So God actualizes the world where C occurs, and then A freely believes. God still retains a measure of His divine providence because He actualizes the world in which A freely chooses. But, A still retains freedom in

4128-604: The New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus (3rd ed., 2002). In the former volume, Craig describes the history of the discussion, including David Hume 's arguments against the identification of miracles . The latter volume is an exegetical study of the New Testament material pertinent to the resurrection . Craig structures his arguments for the historicity of

4214-544: The Philosophy of Science , Philosophy and Phenomenological Research , Philosophical Studies , Australasian Journal of Philosophy , Faith and Philosophy , Erkenntnis , and American Philosophical Quarterly . Craig has written and spoken in defense of a version of the cosmological argument called the Kalam cosmological argument . While the Kalam originated in medieval Islamic philosophy, Craig added appeals to scientific and philosophical ideas in

4300-647: The Sodomites would have responded to Jesus' miracles and ministry in a way that Sodom would still have been in existence in Jesus' day, given that hypothetical situation. Matthew 11:23 contains what is commonly called a counterfactual of creaturely freedom. But counterfactuals are to be distinguished from foreknowledge , and middle knowledge is to be distinguished from God's knowledge of counterfactuals (because, for example, Thomists affirm that God has counterfactual knowledge). The Bible contains many examples of foreknowledge such as Deut 31:16–17 , where God tells Moses that

4386-452: The argument's defense. Craig's work has resulted in contemporary interest in the argument, and in cosmological arguments in general. Craig formulates his version of the argument as follows: Craig's defense of the argument mainly focuses on the second premise, which he offers several arguments for. For example, Craig appeals to Hilbert's example of an infinite hotel to argue that actually infinite collections are impossible, and thus

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4472-405: The argument's second premise, such as the standard Big Bang model of cosmic origins and certain implications of the second law of thermodynamics . The Kalam argument concludes that the universe had a cause, but Craig further argues that the cause must be a person. First, Craig argues that the best way to explain the origin of a temporal effect with a beginning from an eternally existing cause

4558-880: The author of sin and to obliterate human freedom, since in that case it is God who decrees which counterfactuals about creaturely free acts are true, including counterfactuals concerning sinful human decisions. Thus, we have good reason for thinking that if such counterfactuals are now true or false, they must have been so logically prior to God's decree.” Thomas Flint claims the twin foundations of Molinism are God's providence and man's freedom. Molinism harmonizes texts teaching God's providence (such as Acts 4:28 or Ephesians 1:11 ) with texts emphasizing man's choice (such as Deuteronomy 30:19 or Luke 13:34 ). Molinism has been controversial and criticized since its inception in Molina's concordia. The Dominican Order which espoused strict Thomism criticized that novel doctrine and found fault with

4644-513: The bidding of Him Who is the Almighty, the All-Knowing. In Jainism , omniscience is considered the highest type of perception. In the words of a Jain scholar, "The perfect manifestation of the innate nature of the self, arising on the complete annihilation of the obstructive veils, is called omniscience." Jainism views infinite knowledge as an inherent capability of every soul. Arihanta

4730-428: The case. It may simply be the fact that Christ's human nature made a rational prediction of the said actions, as he once experienced beforehand from Peter, to which he replied, " Get thee behind me Satan ". Molinists believe that God has knowledge not only of necessary truths and contingent truths, but also of counterfactuals . [God's knowledge of counterfactuals is often referred to as his middle knowledge , although

4816-399: The choice being actualized. God may be able to observe these choices via prescience, but even He must still observe them to know them. Therefore, God cannot know what we will do, unless He sees the future. The Molinist position, exemplified by Craig in the preceding paragraph, is 1) to argue this requires potentially heretical arguments relating to a limitation of divine omniscience, and 2) that

4902-417: The concert. For God could not make observations like this without also finding out what creative decisions He is actually going to make, which would destroy the whole purpose of middle knowledge.” Thus, there are no "truth makers" that ground counterfactuals . Opponents to middle knowledge claim that the historical antecedent of any possible world does not determine the truthfulness of a counterfactual for

4988-424: The creation decree God allows for freedom in the libertarian sense. The placing of middle knowledge logically after necessary truths , but before the creation decree also gives God the possibility to survey possible worlds and decide which world to actualize. Craig gives three reasons for holding that counterfactual statements are true: "First, we ourselves often appear to know such true counterfactuals. Second, it

5074-448: The earth" or something particular about this world which God has actualized. Free knowledge encompasses the future of what will happen. In between God's natural and free knowledge is His "middle knowledge" which contains the range of possible things that would happen given certain circumstances, by which God knows what His free creatures would do in any situation. These are "truths" that do not have to be true, but are true without God being

5160-496: The events in the various universes. But why should God need to create such universes to know how events would unfold, and couldn't how they would turn out ground statements about how they would turn out? Further objections at this point lead to a second line of response. Alvin Plantinga responds to the grounding objection by saying "It seems to me much clearer that some counterfactuals of freedom are at least possibly true than that

5246-404: The field of philosophy of religion, [Craig's] books and articles are among the most cited". Fellow philosopher Quentin Smith writes that "William Lane Craig is one [of] the leading philosophers of religion and one of the leading philosophers of time." In 2021, Academic Influence ranked Craig the nineteenth most influential philosopher in the world over the previous three decades (1990-2020) and

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5332-401: The figurative and often fantastic language of myth. Most recently Craig has begun writing a projected multi-volume systematic philosophical theology. Craig is a critic of metaphysical naturalism , New Atheism , and prosperity theology , as well as a defender of Reformed epistemology . He also states that a confessing Christian should not engage in homosexual acts. Craig maintains that

5418-495: The following passages: Matthew 17:27 , John 21:6 , John 15:22–24 , John 18:36 , Luke 4:24–44 and Matthew 26:24 . Craig accepts that the most these texts indicate is that God has counterfactual knowledge. In order for this knowledge to be middle knowledge, it must be logically prior to God's free knowledge, something the biblical texts mentioned do not seem to affirm or deny. However, Craig argues that if God's decree were logically prior to His middle knowledge, that would “make God

5504-445: The following sort: "God knows that in circumstance C creature X will freely do A" God knows truths of this sort: "God knows that in circumstances C creature X would probably do A." Yet, as Edward Wierenga has pointed out, probable counterfactuals are also contingent truths and fall victim to the same grounding objection. Molinists have responded to the aforementioned argument two ways. First, as William Lane Craig argues "[I]n order for

5590-617: The free will and dignity of his creatures. John Calvin , among other theologians of the 16th century, comfortable with the definition of God as being omniscient in the total sense, in order for worthy beings' abilities to choose freely, embraced the doctrine of predestination . In the Bhakti tradition of Vaishnavism , where Vishnu is worshipped as the supreme God, Vishnu is attributed with numerous qualities such as omniscience, energy, strength, lordship, vigour, and splendour. God in Islam

5676-432: The full range of logical possibilities. Examples include such statements as "All bachelors are unmarried" or "X cannot be A and non-A at the same time, in the same way, at the same place" or "It is possible that X obtain." The second is God's free knowledge. This type of knowledge consists of contingent truths that are dependent upon God's will, or truths that God brings about. Examples include statements such as "God created

5762-461: The future but without any logical prior planning of the future." The placing of God's middle knowledge between God's knowledge of necessary truths and God's creative decree is crucial. For if God's middle knowledge was after his decree of creation, then God would be actively causing what various creatures would do in various circumstances and thereby destroying libertarian freedom. But by placing middle knowledge (and thereby counterfactuals ) before

5848-402: The grounding objectors must prove a universal negative regarding the falsity of counterfactuals of freedom or they must explain their theory of the basis for truth and prove that theory true. The difference in perspectives here may be briefly described in the following way. According to critics, the way in which an agent will make a free choice inherently cannot be known apart from observation of

5934-476: The historical plausibility of the resurrection of Jesus . His study of divine aseity and Platonism culminated with his book God Over All . Craig was born August 23, 1949, in Peoria , Illinois , to Mallory and Doris Craig. He attended East Peoria Community High School from 1963 to 1967, where he competed in debate and won the state championship in oratory. In September 1965, his junior year, he became

6020-543: The most fruitful theological ideas ever conceived. For it would serve to explain not only God's knowledge of the future, but divine providence and predestination as well". Under it, God retains a measure of divine providence without hindering humanity's freedom. Since God has middle knowledge, He knows what an agent would freely do in a particular situation. So, agent A, if placed in circumstance C, would freely choose option X over option Y. Thus, if God wanted to accomplish X, all God would do is, using his middle knowledge, actualize

6106-500: The notion of perfect empathy , a proposed relation that God can have to subjects that would allow God to have perfect knowledge of their conscious experience. William Mander argued that God can only have such knowledge if our experiences are part of God's broader experience. Stephan Torre claimed that God can have such knowledge if self-knowledge involves the ascription of properties, either to oneself or to others. William Lane Craig William Lane Craig (born August 23, 1949)

6192-457: The past is finite and has a beginning. In another argument, Craig says that the series of events in time is formed by a process in which each moment is added to history in succession. According to Craig, this process can never produce an actually infinite collection of events, but at best a potentially infinite one. On this basis, he argues that the past is finite and has a beginning. Craig also appeals to various physical theories to support

6278-523: The present exists, but the past and future do not. Additionally, he holds that there are tensed facts, such as it is now lunchtime , which cannot be reduced to or identified with tenseless facts of the form it is lunchtime at noon on February 10, 2020. According to this theory, presentness is a real aspect of time, and not merely a projection of our thought and talk about time. He raises several defenses of this theory, two of which are especially notable. First, he criticizes J. M. E. McTaggart 's argument that

6364-643: The primary cause of them. In The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy , John D. Laing has provided an example of middle knowledge: "If John Laing were given the opportunity to write an article on middle knowledge for the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, he would freely do so." Molinists have supported their case scripturally with Christ's statement in Matthew 11:23 : The Molinist claims that in this example, God knows what His free creatures would choose under hypothetical circumstances, namely that

6450-425: The propositions that are supposed to constitute middle knowledge? The truth of subjunctives of freedom cannot be discerned a priori, for they are contingent. It is not a necessary truth that if placed in circumstances C, I will decide to attend the concert tonight. Nor can we allow that God might learn the truth of C from my actual behavior — that is, by observing that I actually do, in circumstances C, decide to attend

6536-432: The quantifiers of first-order logic , so that a statement can be true, even if there isn't an object being quantified over. Moreover, he defends a deflationary theory of reference based on the intentionality of agents, so that a person can successfully refer to something even in the absence of some extra-mental thing. Craig gives the example of the statement “the price of the ticket is ten dollars” which he argues can still be

6622-622: The resurrection under 3 headings: Craig argues that the best explanation of these three events is a literal resurrection. He applies an evaluative framework developed by philosopher of history C. Behan McCullagh to examine various theoretical explanations proposed for these events. From that framework, he rejects alternative theories such as Gerd Lüdemann 's hallucination hypothesis, the conspiracy hypothesis, and Heinrich Paulus or Friedrich Schleiermacher's apparent death hypothesis as lacking explanatory scope, explanatory power, and sufficient historical plausibility. In 1996 Craig participated in

6708-626: The saints , and Christian particularism. Molinists have often argued that their position is the biblical one by indicating passages they understand to teach God's middle knowledge. Molina advanced the following three texts: 1 Samuel 23:8–14 , Proverbs 4:11 , and Matthew 11:23 . Other passages used to support Molinism are Ezekiel 3:6–7 , Jeremiah 38:17–18 , 1 Corinthians 2:8 , Deuteronomy 28:51–57 , Matthew 23:27–32 , Matthew 12:7 , Matthew 24:43 , Luke 16:30–31 , and Luke 22:67–68 . William Lane Craig has argued at length that many of Christ's statements seem to indicate middle knowledge. Craig cites

6794-657: The sense of being able to choose either option. Molinism does not affirm two contradictory propositions when it affirms both God's providence and humanity's freedom. God's providence extends to the actualization of the world in which an agent may believe upon Christ. In contrast to the Calvinist acrostic TULIP and the Arminian Five Articles of Remonstrance , Timothy George has devised an acrostic summary for Molinism called ROSES: Molinism differs from Calvinism by affirming that God grants salvation, but

6880-594: The term technically encompasses more than just the knowledge of counterfactuals.] A counterfactual is a statement of the form "If it were the case that P, it would be the case that Q." An example would be, "If Bob were in Tahiti he would freely choose to go swimming instead of sunbathing." The Molinist claims that even if Bob is never in Tahiti, God can still know whether Bob would go swimming or sunbathing. The Molinist believes that God, using his middle knowledge and foreknowledge, surveyed all possible worlds and then actualized

6966-571: The theory of evolution is compatible with Christianity. He is a fellow of the Discovery Institute 's Center for Science and Culture and was a fellow of the International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design . In his debate with Paul Helm , Craig explains that he would call himself an " Arminian " "in the proper sense." Elsewhere, he has described himself as a Wesleyan or Wesleyan-Arminian . As

7052-438: The truth of propositions must, in general, be grounded in this way." William Lane Craig follows up on this by pointing out the burden of proof the grounding objector bears. The grounding objection "asserts that there are no true counterfactuals about how creatures would freely act under any given set of circumstances. This assertion is no mere ostensibly undercutting defeater of Molinism, but a putatively rebutting defeater. It makes

7138-453: The truthfulness of counterfactuals of creaturely freedom. As Hugh J. McCann puts it: "Perhaps the most serious objection against it is that there does not appear to be any way God could come by such knowledge. Knowledge, as we have seen, is not merely a matter of conceiving a proposition and correctly believing it to be true. It requires justification: one must have good reasons for believing. But what justification could God have for believing

7224-500: The two-volume anthology The Kalām Cosmological Argument (2017), volume 1 covering philosophical arguments for the finitude of the past and volume 2 the scientific evidence for the beginning of the universe. Craig is a proponent of Molinism , an idea first formulated by the Jesuit theologian Luis de Molina according to which God possesses foreknowledge of which free actions each person would perform under every possible circumstance,

7310-625: The world in which A was placed in C, and A would freely choose X. God retains an element of providence without nullifying A's choice and God's purpose (the actualization of X) is fulfilled. Molinists also believe it can aid one's understanding of salvation . Ever since Augustine and Pelagius there has been debate over the issue of salvation; more specifically, can God elect believers and believers still come to God freely? Protestants who lean more towards God's election to salvation and sovereignty are usually Calvinists while those who lean more towards humanity's free choice follow Arminianism . However,

7396-797: The world's fourth most influential theologian over the same period. In 2009, New Atheist Christopher Hitchens had an interview before his debate with Craig in that same year. During that interview, Hitchens said: "I can tell you that my brothers and sisters and co-thinkers in the unbelieving community take him [Craig] very seriously. He's [Craig] thought of as a very tough guy. Very rigorous, very scholarly, very formidable. And I would...I say that without reserve. I don't say it because I'm here. Normally I don't get people saying: 'Good luck tonight' and 'don't let us down,' you know. But with him [Craig] I do." In 2011, with respect and compliment to his debating skills, New Atheist Sam Harris once described Craig as "the one Christian apologist who seems to have put

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