Jonathan McLatchie is a Christian writer, international speaker and debater. He holds a Bachelor’s degree (with Honors) in forensic biology, a Masters (M.Res) degree in evolutionary biology, and a second Master's degree in medical and molecular bioscience. Currently, Jonathan is completing his PhD in cell biology. Jonathan is a contributor to various apologetics websites, including CrossExamined.org, the Christian Apologetics Alliance, and AnsweringMuslims.com. He is also a contributor at Evolution News & Views, the official blog of the Discovery Institute. He is the founder of the Apologetics Academy (Apologetics-Academy.org), a ministry that seeks to equip and train Christians to persuasively defend the faith through weekly online webinars, as well as assist Christians who are wrestling with doubts. Jonathan has also been interviewed on podcasts and radio shows including "Unbelievable?" on Premier Christian Radio, “Line of Fire” radio, "Apologetics315", "the one minute apologist", "Dogma Debate" and many others. He has also been a featured guest multiple times on ABN Sat’s Trinity channel discussing issues pertinent to science and faith, as well as Islam and Christianity. Jonathan has participated in a total of 22 moderated debates: 13 formal debates and 9 radio debates. Jonathan has spoken internationally in Europe, North America and South Africa promoting an intelligent, reflective and evidence-based Christian faith.
Do you really believe what you say and think you believe, and how can you know? The answer may at first brush appear obvious — “of course I believe what I say and think I do,” you might say. If you didn’t, after all, why would you be spending so much time engaged in the […]
The status of women in Islam is a subject enshrouded in controversy. According to many Muslims, Muhammad was a champion of women’s rights, bestowing upon the women in his community privileges and rights that they did not have previously. The notion that women in pre-Islamic Arabia had no rights, however, is demonstrably untrue. Former Muslim […]
Frequently, in dialogues with Muslim polemicists, one will encounter the charge against Christianity that the doctrine of penal substitution is unjust. How, after all, can the blame of all humanity be laid on an innocent? How can an innocent be made to carry the burdens of mankind? In this article, I want to offer a […]
I am sometimes asked to offer advice to up-and-coming young Christian apologists. As one who is of the younger generation myself (having just turned 25), and who has been active in the public apologetics arena from relatively young (from around 20 years of age) I have some experience to speak of when it comes to […]
Anyone who has had even a mild exposure to Islamic apologetics will have encountered the argument for the Qur’an’s divine origin based on its purported scientific miracles — that is, scientific assertions contained within the Qur’an which have only been validated by modern science. Out of all of the arguments for the Islamic religion, this […]
It is a verse that all of us who are involved in apologetics have grown to love and cherish. 1 Peter 3:15 is the New Testament’s mandate for being always ready to offer a rational defense for the Christian worldview. It is unfortunate, however, that we have come to be so familiar with this verse […]
The Islamic religion claims that the Qur’an, revealed allegedly by the angel Gabriel to the prophet Muhammad beginning in 610 A.D., is the inspired and inerrant word of God. Such an assertion, however, is highly problematic, and many, many arguments could be given to convincingly refute it. In this article, I am going to offer […]
An old debate, featuring Dr. Kenneth Miller and Dr. Paul Nelson, has found its way onto YouTube. The debate took place at the time of the Kitzmiller v. Dover trial in Pennsylvania in 2005. Moderated by Sally Satel at the American Enterprise Institute, it focuses on the question of teaching evolutionary theory and intelligent design in science […]
This past Friday night at University Presbyterian Church in Seattle, internationally renowned philosopher Alvin Plantinga addressed an audience of more than a thousand on the central thesis of his recent book, Where the Conflict Really Lies: Science, Religion and Naturalism (Oxford University Press). Click here to continue reading.
The application deadline for the 2013 Center for Science & Culture Summer Seminars, for postgraduate and upper-division undergraduate students, is quickly approaching. The seminars (“Intelligent Design in the Natural Sciences,” “C.S. Lewis Fellows Program on Science and Society”) run concurrently from July 12-20. The deadline for applications is Monday, April 15. What could be better […]
In previous articles (see here, here and here), I’ve been reviewing the molecular nano-machinery needed for the replication of DNA. Before DNA polymerase is able to synthesize the new complementary strands, it needs to be given access to the nucleotides of the single-stranded template DNA. The internal base pairing in the double helix must therefore be broken and the helix unwound. […]
Convergent evolution and discordant phylogenetic signals are subjects that have been much discussed at ENV (for example, here). The fact that there is so much phylogenetic conflict at every level of the tree of life undermines one of the arguments for common descent (that the nested hierarchical distribution of similarities and differences reveals a family-tree like […]
A new paper has just been published in Nature reporting on the successful use of DNA to store large amounts of data including Shakespearean sonnets and an MP3 file. Click here to continue reading.
The “god-of-the-gaps” objection to intelligent design is one that we have addressed numerous times at ENV and elsewhere (most recently, here). Yet even though the argument has been convincingly refuted time and again, it lives on in the popular literature. My friend Jamie Franklin recently published a post on his website explaining why he has come to […]
In a previous article, I gave a brief overview of the complex molecular mechanisms governing DNA replication. Now, I will focus specifically on the replication enzyme DNA polymerase. DNA polymerase is the enzyme responsible for synthesizing new strands of DNA, complementary to the sequence of the template strand. The unidirectional DNA polymerase progresses along the template […]
Recently I have been reviewing some literature on the elegant molecular mechanisms by which DNA is replicated. As an undergraduate biology student, I recall being struck by their sheer complexity, sophistication, and intrinsic beauty. As I read about such a carefully orchestrated process, involving so many specific enzymes and protein complexes, and its extraordinary accuracy, […]
We were saddened to learn of the passing of Carl Woese, world-renowned microbiologist and professor at the University of Illinois. He died at the age of 84, following a battle with Pancreatic cancer. Click here to continue reading>>>
On Saturday night, as I was home alone, the doorbell rang. I opened the front door to greet the two young smartly-dressed gentlemen. They introduced themselves as missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (a.k.a. the Mormons). Interacting with Mormon missionaries is a rare treat for me. I’m currently abroad, working […]
I recently received correspondence from a chess Grand Master I know. As an atheist, and an adherent of evolutionary orthodoxy, he wanted to know how I, an ID advocate, would respond to the problem of poor or suboptimal design in nature — an argument to which, he claimed, he had never encountered a satisfactory answer. […]
In Chapter 8, Coyne turns his attention to human evolution. He lists examples of alleged human-chimpanzee intermediates, including Sahelanthropus tchadensis, Orrorin tugenensis, andAustralopithecus africanus. Click here to continue reading>>>
Chapter 6 is concerned with questions pertinent to sexual selection and the evolutionary advantages of sex. There is almost nothing I dispute in the first half of the chapter (except perhaps the validity of Coyne’s appeal to theological arguments about what a Creator would and would not do). In the second part of the chapter, […]
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