006 - Outgrowing God? with Peter S. Williams

In this episode, Brian Auten and Chad Gross interview Christian Philosopher Peter S. Williams about his book Outgrowing God?: A Beginner’s Guide to Richard Dawkins and the God Debate.Find his resources at www.peterswilliams.com2:50 - Introduction to Peter and his various books.5:00 - The goal for writing a book dealing with Richard Dawkins’ book, Outgrowing God. 12:20 - The characters in the book, and coming at the God debate from various angles.16:00 - Why address Dawkins and not “the best that atheism has to offer?”19:00 - Key things that Peter would want to challenge Dawkins on in his thinking.22:30 - Addressing inconsistency and lack of philosophical training.24:00 - Problems with requiring “extraordinary evidence” for “extraordinary claims.” The subjectivity of the word “extraordinary.”30:05 - Engaging in the God debate with the best of scholarship.34:00 - Different ways of looking at the Old Testament, and reasons to take it seriously. Accurate incidental details we see in the OT.40:00 - Addressing the topic of slavery, how we define it, and what we see in the Bible. 44:00 - Human rights and dignity, the Biblical worldview, and the culture of the day. Moral development in culture.48:30 - How moral values are grounded. Dawkins judging the character of Yahweh. What worldview makes the best sense of our moral experience?52:00 - Is there any hope of grounding moral values in something other than God? Discussion of moral platonism.58:00 - Characters in the book struggling with depression; presenting the Christian life with more realism. 63:00 - Where to find more resources for the book.64:20 - Reflections on the interview.