Welcome back to Reasonable Faith with Dr. William Lane Craig. Here it is, part two of his interview with Matt Frad on the Pints with Aquinas

with Aquinas Podcast. Say that three times fast.

This show is called Pines with Aquinas,

and I know you differ with Aquinas,

as many of us do on different things,

but I'm sure you have some respect for the man oh of course

especially when it comes to argumentation and things like this yes whenever I deal with a

substantive theological issue one of the first things I'll do is see what Thomas Aquinas has to say about it so that even if I disagree

with him in the end certainly his viewpoints need to be sought.

So in my most recent work on the atonement that I did, I look not only

at Ansems whose book, Courdeus Homo, Why the God Man is epical in medieval theology.

Nevertheless, I wanted to see what Aquinas had to say on the atonement as well.

One of the things I think people appreciate about him and I do too is that he would seem to

steal man as opposed to straw man his opponent's arguments.

Have you heard that phrase? No I haven't but you're right. I think you do a great job at that.

You articulate your opponent's position fairly, which I think then

gives that, allows that person to kind of respect you more before you critique it.

Well, thank you. That is important. You don't want to attack straw men because then your

critique has little value but if you can state the opposing view persuasively for

example the problem of evil and suffering I you present that forcefully, then your answer will have all that,

all the more weight if you're able to turn back the force of that argument. I think it's illustrative that, you know,

Aquinas in some of his works he has a big work called Day Marlow on evil and

...