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William Lane Craig

William Lane Craig is a visiting scholar in philosophy at Talbot School of Theology. He lives in Atlanta, Ga., with his wife Jan and their two teenage children Charity and John. At age 16, while a junior in high school, he first heard the message of the Christian gospel and yielded his life to Christ. He has authored or edited over thirty books, including The Kalam Cosmological Argument; Assessing the New Testament Evidence for the Historicity of the Resurrection of Jesus; Divine Foreknowledge and Human Freedom; Theism, Atheism and Big Bang Cosmology; and God, Time and Eternity, as well as over a hundred articles in professional journals of philosophy and theology. In 2016, Craig was named by The Best Schools as one of the fifty most influential living philosophers.

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  • The Good Book Blog

    Is the Theistic Anti-Realist in a Predicament?

    William Lane Craig — 

    "First, even though I am an atheist, I have learned a lot from you by reading your responses in Q&A and watching your debates. Even though you sometimes make my blood boil with your views, there are several areas of agreement. One of these is your nominalist (or anti-realist) position concerning abstract objects, which you recently discussed in your Q & A on God and Infinity. My question, however, concerns the implications of your nominalist view, which I think leaves you in an uncomfortable position regarding your ontology of beauty and possibly your moral ontology ..."

  • The Good Book Blog

    If ISIS’s God Were Real, Would I Be Obliged to Follow Him?

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr Craig, You may be aware that Frank Turek has a question he will sometimes ask atheists, "if Christianity were true, would you become a Christian"? Well, recently, an atheist flipped this question around and asked me "If the Islamic State were true (by which he means, if the specific type of Allah that IS believe in, existed) then likewise, would you become an IS member?" ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Why God the Father and God the Son?

    William Lane Craig — 

    Hi Sir, I am very glad to meet you through online... I understood the essentiality of trinity, there is no doubt about why I should believe in triune God. But, I have been thinking what could be the reason for son and father relationship in God’s head ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Theistic Ethics and Mind-Dependence

    William Lane Craig — 

    "... I have a question about morality that you'll hopefully be able to answer and clarify your position on. My knowledge of meta-ethics is pretty modest, but I'm actually leaning albeit tentatively towards morality being objective (see, there's at least one thing we agree on!). I'd argue that moral obligation can be objective without God (I won't do that here though), but I'd go even further and say that IF morality is founded in God it is NOT objective. If "objective" means "mind-independent" which might be a rough definition of objective, but let's accept it for now doesn't that make morality founded in God "divinely subjective" rather than objective? ..."

  • The Good Book Blog

    What Was Herod Thinking?

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig, In his debate with you and, on pp. 175 & 211 in his book "Jesus is Dead," Dr. Robert Price argues that the notion of resurrections are likely not all that unexpected in 2nd Temple Judaism and/or totally absent from the 1st century Jewish world view. He specifically cites the case of some wondering if Jesus is the resurrected John the Baptist. Beyond your answer that points out Price's essential category error (resurrected mere men are not the same thing as the expectation of a resurrected Messiah), could you please elaborate further as to why the two instances (Jesus mistaken as John resurrected and Jewish allowances for a dying & resurrected God) are wholly distinct?

  • The Good Book Blog

    The Reality of Time

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dr. Craig, You have played a vital role in my apologetic development, a long with other philosophers. I am puzzled by the fact that a lot of things are taken for granted although examining their legitimacy is the job of philosophy, thus I need to ask you, why do you believe in time in the first place? Isn't just an idea in our mind that helps us locate an event in relation to our experience? I do not get older because of time, but because of my biological development and entropic reality. These are physical constituents of the Universe that entail space and mass in a dynamical interaction. Moreover, the elements that shape events already exist in our universe, to say the time for x has not yet come, is strictly to say that the physical conditions for x to occur is not satisfied yet by the gathered factors. Can you help me identify what I could be missing here, please?

  • The Good Book Blog

    Questions about Leibniz’s Cosmological Argument

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig, I have been arguing with a friend that is an atheist. I am also an atheist or perhaps more correctly, an agnostic about Leibniz’s cosmological argument ... If after sufficient research, Leibniz’s argument proves more plausibly true than false, than on the basis of it and the abductive argument for the historicity of Christ's resurrection, I'm prepared to take Pascal's Wager.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Indefeasibility and Openness to Evidence

    William Lane Craig — 

    ... I have read and listened to you on your reformed epistemologist view; the Christian faith being based on Holy Spirit witnessed properly basic beliefs; distinguishing between knowing and showing your Faith to be true and all. In your statements, and especially with reference to the recent 'Problem with Christian Apologetics' podcast, you state that when a believer encounters a more skilled and sophisticated rebuttal of his Faith, because he knows his Faith to be true primarily by the Witness of the God, he only has to go and research on good defeaters to the rebuttals. The unanswered rebuttals in no way should trump the witness of the Spirit to us on the Truth of Christianity. My question is, wouldn't that be argued to be having the end game in mind and only finding the reasons to shore up a presupposed conclusion? Wouldn't the incentive to beef up your case lead to interpreting the data to fit the conclusion already at hand? I believe you hold that we should move towards where the evidences lead us, how open are we to the evidences if we have a conclusion that has got to and can only be upheld? I would love to have a response from you.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Bizarro Ontological Arguments

    William Lane Craig — 

    "I'm an agnostic undergraduate philosophy student, and I find the idea of divine necessity particularly interesting for whatever reason. I wonder if you might respond to the following question / argument ..."

  • The Good Book Blog

    Anti-Platonism and Moral Realism

    William Lane Craig — 

    "Can you be an anti-realist about some things and a realist about others? For example, do you no longer give the realist resolution to the Euthyphro Dilemma, no longer ground the Good in God's nature? Couldn't abstract objects be grounded in the Logos (divine, rather than Platonic, essentialism)?"

  • The Good Book Blog

    Necessity and the Argument from Contingency

    William Lane Craig — 

    In this week's Q & A, Dr. William Lane Craig tackles some questions regarding the Leibnizian cosmological argument.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Why Don’t I Quote More Women Philosophers or Theologians?

    William Lane Craig — 

    Hi Dr Craig I was wondering today after binge listening your podcast if there are any women theologians or philosophers you read/quote in your arguments/works. I've listened to a great deal of your podcast and read a small handful of your work but I don't remember ever seeing you've favourably quoted or referenced a women as a peer ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Questions on the Origin of the Universe

    William Lane Craig — 

    This week's Q & A topic with Dr. William Lane Craig addresses the beginning of the universe and includes reflections on Dr. William Lane Craig's recent debate with Sean Carroll.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Fregean Abstract Objects and God

    William Lane Craig — 

    Hello Dr. Craig, I have recently become interested in your work on abstract objects. I have a quick question regarding the Fregean argument for mathematical platonism. The argument concludes that mathematical objects exist because they are referred to by singular terms. For example, "3 is prime" is a true, simple sentence in which "3" is a singular term referring to an abstract object. So, does the claim that abstract objects exist mean anything other than that they can be referred to by singular terms? I don't see how it could, since they have absolutely no impact on the world. But if that's the case, their "existence" seems to be more about the function of a word than anything to do with ontology. Thanks, Ander

  • The Good Book Blog

    God, Evil, and the Rules of Logic

    William Lane Craig — 

    "As far as I understand God created all things that exist. He is the ultimate entity. Thus, can he not create a free being that follows him no matter what? Sure, to my human understanding that is impossible. But with God all things are possible. Could he not have created a world where freedom of choice and ultimate happiness co-exist? ..."

  • The Good Book Blog

    Gospel Authorship—Who Cares?

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig, I am an atheist and have found you to be very sincere and reasonable in your defense of the Christian religion. You have addressed many of Dr. Bart Ehrman's positions on textual criticism of the bible, yet I haven't found you address the main claim of his book dealing with forgeries. How do we know that the gospels were written by the authors listed in our current day bibles? The titles were later additions, and upon reading through the other books of the new testament a common theme is that there are ample false teachers spreading false doctrine. In short, is there good evidence supporting the claims to the gospels authorship, and if so, what is it?

  • The Good Book Blog

    The Coherence of Theism

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig, You have often said that the problem of evil is the best argument for atheism, but I actually disagree. I think that the incoherence argument(s) is the best. What responses have you given to these arguments ... To me, this seems to be a serious problem for theism and I'm even thinking of giving up belief in God because of it so I would appreciate your help. If nothing else, please let me know of some books that answer these arguments. Thank you very much.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Human Insignificance

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dr. William Lane Craig addresses questions regarding God's love for us and our significance as human beingings in a vast and uncomprehendable cosmos.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Still More Reflections on the Sean Carroll Debate

    William Lane Craig — 

    In this week's Q & A, Dr. William Lane Craig finishes answering questions related to his debate with Sean Carroll, sharing his stance on fine-tuning.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Further Reflections on the Sean Carroll Debate

    William Lane Craig — 

    In this week's Q & A blog post, Dr. William Lane Craig continues to respond to last week's questions regarding his debate with Sean Carroll, touching on the Boltzmann Brain problem and fine-tuning.

  • The Good Book Blog

    Some Reflections on the Sean Carroll Debate

    William Lane Craig — 

    I wanted to ask you about the latest debate with Sean Carroll. There were some strong points made in that debate that as a layman in cosmology make me want to seek further and further what are the theoretical physicists really saying on their theories. The media is not always clear on separating the cosmologist opinion/belief vs what their theory actually says without bias ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Discounting Historical Jesus Scholarship

    William Lane Craig — 

    "Those who attempt to discount the majority views of New Testament (NT) scholars on certain issues on the basis of Christian bias only show how naïve they are about historical Jesus studies. While it is doubtless true that Christians will be disproportionately represented in NT scholarship in contrast to various secular disciplines, it is far too simplistic to dismiss the conclusions of NT scholarship as heavily biased and thus easily discounted ..."

  • The Good Book Blog

    Grounds for Skepticism Concerning Jesus’ Burial and Empty Tomb

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dr. Craig, In your debates on the Resurrection, you often present four facts that the majority of New Testament scholars support, namely the honorable burial, the discovery of the empty tomb by women, the post-Resurrection appearances, and the disciples' genuine belief in the Resurrection. While the majority of scholars support these facts, my question has to do with the minority who disagree. For example, John Dominic Crossan has claimed Jesus was buried in a shallow grave, where his body was eaten by wild dogs. My question is this: from what sources do scholars who disagree with the four facts stated above draw their conclusions? The way I understand it, there are very few extra-Biblical sources that discuss the Resurrection, and none that contradict the four facts stated above. And the Canonical Gospels make it very clear that the four facts are indeed what happened. So on what grounds do these dissenting scholars dispute the four facts stated above?

  • The Good Book Blog

    Jesus’ Predictions of His Own Resurrection

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dr. Craig, I appreciate the work you do a great deal and it has been personally beneficial to my faith and my ministry. I do have a question, however, concerning the 1st century Jewish expectations of resurrection. You write, and I agree that the evidence points to a Jewish belief in a general resurrection at the end of the age (John 11:24), as opposed to that of a dying and rising Messiah during their own lifetime. This would seem to work as evidence against certain theories that would deny the resurrection, such as it being a hoax, or the resurrection appearances being hallucinations, etc. ...

  • The Good Book Blog

    Can an Atemporal Being Be Personal?

    William Lane Craig — 

    Dear Dr. Craig I am a Christian student from Norway. During a debate about if god exists or not (on a Facebook group called political youth), I defended his existence to the best of my ability, using the Kalam cosmological argument. I had seen on your YouTube videos, and on your articles here on RF. However, I encountered a problem. Someone else tried to undercut the argument using the problem of existence of an unembodied mind beyond time and space. I fear I cannot counter this, and I struggled to find an explanation to this on your pages.