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Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

How to Explain the True Story of the Universe and Our Place in it with Paul Gould

Hank Unplugged: Essential Christian Conversations

The Christian Research Institute

Education, Religion & Spirituality, Society & Culture

5791 Ratings

🗓️ 30 March 2023

⏱️ 90 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

We all live our lives according to a story—a story that explains the universe and our place in it. But, how do we know if the story guiding the way that we live our lives is true? Dr. Paul Gould joins Hank Hanegraaff to discuss his book, A Good and True Story: Eleven Clues to Understanding Our Universe and Your Place in it, in which Gould leads readers on an engaging journey through eleven clues that suggest Christianity is not only true but satisfies our deepest longings—explaining the foundations of Christian truth behind the universe, morality, happiness, pain, beauty, and more. The evidence for God is found everywhere in the universe, but that evidence needs to be rightly interpreted. Today’s episode will equip listeners to explain the true story of the world and our own place in it, showing that Christianity holds the most satisfying answers to life’s biggest questions. For more information on receiving Dr. Gould’s book A Good and True Story, please click here. https://www.equip.org/product/cri-resource-a-good-and-true-story-cultural-apologetics-and-person-of-interest/



Topics discussed include: Why did Paul Gould write A Good and True Story? (2:45); do we live our lives according to a story? (4:30); evidence for God is everywhere, but it needs to be rightly interpreted (6:45); what are the non-religious stories that explain our existence? discussing scientism, materialism, atheism, nihilism and reductionism (9:15); what are the origins of the universe? (13:30); should the immensity of the universe inspire belief in God? (18:20); what is the nature of life? (22:40); how do we know that life is valuable? (26:30); how the Cambrian explosion uprooted Darwin’s Tree of Life (27:30); the current revolutions and shifts in evolutionary theory (30:50); does the modern world suffer from a nature deficit? (32:45); can materialism account for consciousness? (34:15); is there an objective moral order? what best explains morality? (38:40); the new phenomenon of nice nihilism (43:30); what is enchanted naturalism? (45:15); counterfeit happiness and the nature of true happiness (48:30); the problem of evil and the existence of God (52:00); has the logical problem of evil been solved? (54:40); is free will essential to what it means to be human? (57:15); can God do anything? (58:45); the evidential problem of evil (1:00:25); the significance of suffering in our lives (1:02:45); what is love? (1:05:00); how does the existence of love point to the existence of God? (1:07:00); the relationship between truth and beauty (1:10:00); what is the chief value of art? (1:15:00); what is religion? (1:16:45); why can’t all religions be true? (1:19:10); the story of Christianity is not only true, but it is a good story that satisfies our deepest longings (1:20:15); have you ever been disillusioned by the Christian worldview? (1:24:45).


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Transcript

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0:00.0

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0:05.4

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0:10.3

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0:15.1

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0:20.2

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0:22.7

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0:27.3

Get started today at constantcontact.com. And welcome to another edition of the Hankun Plug podcast.

0:56.8

We love doing this podcast because we have the opportunity to bring the most interesting, informative, and inspirational people directly to your earbuds.

1:07.0

And today we have an opportunity to talk to Dr. Paul Gould, and we've had him on the podcast before,

1:14.6

and he lives up to every billing we could possibly give him.

1:20.6

He's a philosopher, a scholar, a teacher, a husband.

1:25.8

He's the father of four.

1:30.9

He's a professor of philosophy of religion, and he's a husband. He's the father of four. He's a professor of philosophy of religion.

1:39.5

He's a founder and president of TuTas Institute. He has a PhD in philosophy from Purdue University.

1:42.9

And I could say a whole lot more about his credentials, but I'm going to leave it at that.

1:44.7

To the point of this podcast, he has written many books, but I think a book that has really captured our attention

1:52.5

at the Christian Research Institute, a book titled A Good and True Story, subtitled 11 Clues to

2:00.1

Understanding Our Universe and Your Place in it. And by the way,

2:04.9

Dr. Gould is a contributor to Christian Research Journal, and we have a deep and abiding appreciation

2:10.7

for him on many counts. But this is one of those areas that he really helps us get a hold of.

2:19.2

He gives us a way of understanding something that is oftentimes confusing to people.

2:25.8

And this is the issue of origins.

...

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