What intellectual and social paradigms have made atheism seem like a plausible and viable alternative worldview in the 21st century? What factors have contributed to the cultural dissolution of the Christian faith in our time?

On the next two episodes of the Profile, we will tackle some of these questions with our guest, author and teaching fellow of the Davenant Institute in Landrum, South Carolina, Dr. Joseph Minich. Minich's 2023 book Bulwarks of Unbelief - Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age explores the thesis that the Industrial Revolution of the 19th century has created intellectual and social plausibility structures for modern-day unbelief.

From the Davenant Institute
Dr. Joseph Minich Dr. (PhD, The University of Texas at Dallas) is Faculty Chair and Professor of Philosophy at Davenant Hall. As part of his work, he also co-hosts the Pilgrim Faith podcast. The founding editor of Ad Fontes and former Editor-in-Chief of the Davenant Press, he is the author of Enduring Divine Absence (Davenant Press, 2018) and Bulwarks of Unbelief: Atheism and Divine Absence in a Secular Age (Lexham Press, 2023). His public writing can be found at The Calvinist International, Mere Orthodoxy, Modern Reformation, and Ad Fontes.

Link to the audio clip from the couple from the UK. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy-QQDlJb20

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Charles Darwin
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Atheism

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Daniel Ray's The Story of the Cosmos - How the Heavens Declare the Glory of God (https://www.thestoryofthecosmos.com).
Apologetics Profile is a ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit www.watchman.org © 2025 Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

Today, science has uncovered many wonders about the cosmos and about life within it, but science has also "reduced" most everything in the universe to virtually nothing. In our attempt to understand the universe and ourselves down to a quantified, subatomic constituency we have not only emptied the universe, but also virtually emptied ourselves.

C.S. Lewis well understood that scientific quantification of the physical universe and scientific empiricism in general, cannot be the foundational paradigm for how we understand the cosmos and our place within it. Lewis was not criticizing science per se, however. Rather, he was highly critical of the belief that the scientific quantification of reality was the only way to understand reality. In such a universe, the essential facets of what make us human, morality, virtue, truth, beauty, and goodness all become mere emotive sentiments.

This week on the Profile we continue our conversation with C.S. Lewis scholar Dr. Michael Ward about Lewis's prescient work The Abolition of Man and how it remains relevant for us today.

From michaelward.net

Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning and best-selling Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press) and of After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man (Word on Fire Academic); he is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis (Cambridge University Press). Though based at Oxford in his native England, Dr Ward is also employed as Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University, Texas, teaching one course per semester as part of the online MA program in Christian Apologetics.

Free Four-Page Articles From Watchman Fellowship

Charles Darwin
Carl Sagan's Cosmos
Naturalism
Deconstruction

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Apologetics Profile is a ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit www.watchman.org © 2025 Watchman Fellowship, Inc.

On the last four episodes of the Profile, we have discussed the importance of understanding and living in accordance with the fact that we as human beings are intentionally created by God, in His image. When we lose sight of this central truth about our humanity, much moral and societal confusion and many evils will soon follow.

If naturalism is true, then morality and virtue are mere sentiments, not anything objectively true or real. Literary scholar and Christian apologist C.S. Lewis recognized what individual and cultural consequences would follow in the wake of moral relativism.

On this episode of Apologetics Profile, we discuss C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man with Lewis scholar and author Dr. Michael Ward and how Lewis's thoughts are still very much relevant for our time.

From michaelward.net

Michael Ward is an English literary critic and theologian. He works at the University of Oxford where he is an associate member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion. He is the author of the award-winning and best-selling Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C.S. Lewis (Oxford University Press) and of After Humanity: A Guide to C.S. Lewis’s The Abolition of Man (Word on Fire Academic); he is the co-editor of The Cambridge Companion to C.S. Lewis (Cambridge University Press). Though based at Oxford in his native England, Dr Ward is also employed as Professor of Apologetics at Houston Christian University, Texas, teaching one course per semester as part of the online MA program in Christian Apologetics.

Free Four-Page Articles From Watchman Fellowship

Charles Darwin
Carl Sagan's Cosmos
Naturalism
Deconstruction

FREE: We are also offering a subscription to our 4-page bimonthly Profiles here: www.watchman.org/Free.
PROFILE NOTEBOOK: Order the complete collection of Watchman Fellowship Profiles (over 600 pages -- from Astrology to Zen Buddhism) in either printed or PDF formats here: www.watchman.org/notebook.
SUPPORT: Help us create more content like this. Make a tax-deductible donation here: www.watchman.org/give.
Apologetics Profile is a ministry of Watchman Fellowship For more information, visit www.watchman.org © 2025 Watchman Fellowship, Inc.