Street Theologian Meets Inspiring Philosophy: A Behind-the-scenes Discussion With Inspiring Philosophy's Michael Jones
Addressing the prosperity gospel. Asking why Christianity? Testimonials. Islam and child marriage. The Gospels as eyewitness accounts. Consciousness and quantum physics. Battling depression and more.
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1. Why Jesus?
2. Addressing the prosperity gospel
3. Michael’s story
4. Testimonials of people turning to Jesus
5. Michael’s day-to-day
6. Upcoming projects
7. Islam and child marriage
8. Legalism, division and apologetics
9. The Holy Spirit, conviction and rest
10. The Holy Spirit, evidence and evangelism
11. The Gospels as eyewitness accounts
12. Onomastic congruence (evidence from names)
13. Consciousness, mind and quantum physics
14. Battling depression
15. Michael’s words for Street Theologian subscribers
Inspiring Philosophy
Michael Jones runs the YouTube channel Inspiring Philosophy. Michael is a prolific YouTuber and his channel covers a wide range of topics as shown below. Last week I jumped on a call with him and our discussion is outlined below.
Discussion
ST
I just wanted to say, first of all, before kicking things off, thanks for all your hard work and everything you do.
It's definitely something that I've appreciated, that's helped me grow. I get a lot of inspiration from seeing all your hard work and all your research. I remember when I first came across your channel it was as if I had your videos playing in the background of day-to-day life for an entire month straight.Â
So just wanted to say thanks a lot in that regard. And also just all the work I could see you do with the goal of sharing the Gospel and good news to people.
It's something that's very important and you're doing it in places where there's obviously hostility to Christianity and where there's a lot of people that might not necessarily be open to going to church. It's been great to hear a lot of testimonials on that front. So I just wanted to say thanks.
IP
Oh yeah, I appreciate it. I definitely appreciate it.
Why Jesus?
ST
Cool. On that front, the first thing I want to ask is why do you find Jesus compelling?
How does Jesus shape your life?
IP
Oh, okay. Yeah, well, I mean, that's a good question. I mean, it can be kind of complicated for sure.
One of the things I'd say is that for one thing, I think the evidence is overwhelmingly in support of Christianity. Most religious movements start with one guy's private revelations. And then we just have to take his word for it.
But Christianity is based on the public execution of Jesus, his public burial, and a public empty tomb, and that he publicly appeared to multiple people. So it's something that is definitely more evidence-based compared to just getting revelations from one guy and just expecting to trust him. Whereas, with the Christians in the early movement, it was all based on public events that could be verified or not.
And so that definitely is remarkably different in the history of world religions. So we have a lot of evidence. And then Christianity itself is a unique religion in how it operates.
It doesn't operate on a works-based system where you sort of have to earn salvation, but on one on grace, which is remarkably different in terms of how it operates compared to other world religions. So philosophically, it is unique. It is the only religion I see that actually has any evidence for it.
And so with those two factors in mind combined together, I think Christianity by far is the best and most cogent worldview.
Addressing the prosperity gospel
ST
For sure. And that actually leads well into my second question, because I was going to ask around some of the videos on your site, looking at the teachings of Tim Keller and C.S. Lewis, and also warnings around the prosperity gospel. Do you want to give us a quick rundown around what these videos are about and what the Christian Gospel is about and how it's fundamentally different to other worldviews?
IP
Yeah. So, I mean, a lot of prosperity gospel nonsense is very much built on this idea that God wants us to be wealthy and famous. And of course, that's nowhere in the Bible.
So it's a total perversion. And that's really not what Christianity has ever been about. It's a religion about following Christ.
And that means following Christ along multiple paths. Some people are called to be rich, like Abraham, and some are called to be poor, like John the Baptist. It's not this religion that we use to get things.
It's a religion that we use to give to God and give our talents, our skills and our money to him to be used. So it's very much a religion that is more about worshiping the one true God and what he did for us. Now, this is not like other world religions where it's a God who sits on the throne and sort of just cast down commands and forces us to do certain things.
Christ is a God who comes down and lives the life that we should have lived, that dies the death we all deserve. And so he's not a God who says, go into as I say or else, but a God who says, come and follow me. He washes the disciples' feet and then calls us to wash feet.
So he leads by example. And so this is remarkably divergent from most world religions where gods are distant, foreign, and we don't have access to them.
But in Christianity, we have a God who actually becomes human, gives his life for us, and teaches us how to live by serving.
Michael’s Journey
ST
Yeah, very beautiful. If we have a look at your journey more specifically around Christian apologetics and faith, do you want to give us a quick rundown around how you got into Christian apologetics? How you got the idea?
I know you mentioned in the past, you were working as a security guard and you saw some things on YouTube you thought you could address, but do you want to give us a little bit more insight into the story of your interest in apologetics and how that's grown?
IP
Yeah, so when I started, it was early in YouTube years, but there weren't a lot of good Christian voices online. And so I thought, I'll consider doing a couple of videos to maybe help out a little bit. But I never considered to keep going.
I was eventually just going to stop. But it seemed that people really liked the videos and they kept asking me to do more. So I kept doing more.
Then that turned into more and that turned into more. And yeah, it just sort of snowballed is what I tell people. It was never really my intent to just keep going, but just try to help a little bit and contribute a little bit.
But there was really a need on YouTube because there was a lot of questions that people had and there weren't good answers or good ways to address them, especially in video form at the time. So I tried to start contributing to that because I thought a lot of people had questions and people had caricatures of what they thought Christianity was. And so I was trying to present a more intellectual understanding of Christianity that was based on the data, not something that was just based on these misrepresentations of what we actually believe.
Testimonials of people turning to Jesus
ST
Yeah, absolutely. Lately, I've seen you've been receiving a lot of testimonials of people coming to faith. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that?
I think you're saying it's essentially a weekly occurrence at the moment?
IP
Yeah, I'll get a good testimony all about once a week on average. These are people who come across my videos on various platforms and the videos help lead them to Christ, which is always very wonderful to hear. I remember talking to a man in Albania who just discovered my videos and he left Islam because of that.
He came on one of my TikTok lives maybe a year or so ago. But yeah, we're definitely getting a lot of great testimonies from the work we do. And that's why we just keep doing it because it's helping people and we want to keep seeing more of that.
Upcoming projects
ST
Yeah, that's great. Very encouraging. And when it comes to your time, obviously you prepare a lot of content.
There's a lot of videos out there that you've prepared on a wide variety of subjects. There's clearly topics that you need to spend a lot of time researching and new fields you want to research some more. How do you split your time between content creation and researching new ideas?
You'd also spend a fair bit of time at the moment engaging with different people, whether it's podcasts, interviews, etc. Just curious what all that looks like for you since you've made the move to full-time in the last few years.
IP
I mean, it's hard to say because every day is different. I mean, I'll be working on a script or I'll be editing or I'll be recording a voice-over. I mean, it's hard to say.
It really just depends on what videos I'm working on and what the needs of that video are. So I don't know if I really have like a set schedule or a set thing I do. It's just day-to-day, it's different.
It depends on what's on my plate that day and what I have time to get to.
ST
And with that in mind, what areas of research would you say you're hoping to look into in the near future? What sort of videos are you hoping to focus on that you perhaps haven't produced similar videos to in the past?
IP
Yeah, I'm going to do some videos arguing the Pentateuch is very early. Did it date before the pre-monarchic time? I think I've got two I want to do on that.
And I want to do a long series on the benefits of Christianity. So I have one planned for how Christianity ended slavery, how Christianity created human rights, how Christianity spread literacy, how Christianity created science, a lot of things like that. And then I'll do some on Islam, like how Islam creates violence and war, how Islam helped but also hindered science.
So those are the kind of videos I want to get to. I do want to eventually do another series on the resurrection, a longer one, and really go into a lot of the psychology of group hallucinations and that kind of stuff. So I hope to do more on those topics soon.
Islam and child marriage
ST
Great. That actually leads to my next question. I was going to ask around the videos you've been producing regarding Islam.
I noticed in the last one or two years, that seems to have been an area you're taking more and more interest in. I noticed you've done some work with David Wood as well. Was it something that initially led to that interest or was it something that you wanted to get to eventually and it just took some time or what did that look like for you?
IP
Well, I think what really got me into Islam was I was shocked at how many Muslims were actually arguing, not only that child marriage was okay, but that it should be practiced today. That was quite alarming because we're talking about the health and well-being of girls all over the world.
And these sickos want to promote child marriage and pretend it's actually a good thing because Muhammad engaged in it, which is really alarming when you think about how much harm they're actually trying to unleash upon girls.
So that got me more into Islam when I realized how incredibly evil and harmful it will result in. And how little these guys really care about the science that shows how damaging child marriage is. Because for them, the science does not matter.
What matters is whatever Muhammad said, which is unfortunate. And that needs to be combated before it causes more harm and damage. So that's kind of why I've gotten more into Islam lately.
It's mainly that issue.
ST
And are you considering doing broader research into the Quran or the prophethood of Mohammed or those types of topics?
IP
Yeah, I'm going to do some more research on the history of Islam to start and then I'll get more into the theology. But it's just, it's a whole another field to break into. And it would take a lot of reading to do.
So I just have to find the time.
Legalism, division and apologetics
ST
Yeah, absolutely. And what do you find unhelpful or dangerous in Christian apologetics today that you perhaps see a lot of?
IP
Yeah, a lot of legalism I think is dangerous. People that are turned apologetics into like a witch hunt in that they just look for the devil in everything. Like this, if you listen to this song, you'll get possessed by the devil.
Or if you watch this movie, you'll be engaging in devil worship. Or if you engage in Halloween, it's, you're engaging in an occult ritual. That I see as very detrimental because it's not based in reality or fact, it's based in conspiracy theory nonsense, which is not helpful in the long run.
And that just turns people more away from Christ because if we're always looking for the devil, we're spreading a spirit of fear, not a spirit of victory. And that will always just turn people off, unfortunately. So I see that to be one of the dangerous things in Christian apologetics we have to avoid.
ST
Would you see it’s also fairly common to see a spirit of divisiveness by always looking for something to throw on someone else rather than being united in Christ and the truth?
IP
Yeah, you can definitely see some of that. And also a sense of moral superiority based on things that are not, do not revolve around morality. It's on rituals you perform or customs you have.
And if people don't have the same customs, therefore you're more holy.
And so they're acting more like Pharisees than Christians. And so it definitely can cause divisiveness.
Holy Spirit, conviction and rest
ST
Good reflections there. Before I move on to a few quick, more specific questions around some of your videos, I just wanted to ask, again, coming back to your schedule and how you manage your time.
I know you do a lot, you research a lot. What do you find helps you switch off or also remember that Christianity is about a personal relationship with God and not just our work on this earth and that our work is actually a response in gratitude to Christ's love. And the Christian life is also one of rest.
Are there things that you've put in place that help you remember that or help you maintain a sense of balance? Because I can understand your schedule would be quite hectic and you've also got a wife and children as well so that would be something that you'd have to juggle.
IP
I just try to remember that it's not contingent on what I do, it's contingent on what Christ does. And so, you know, if ultimately I can do, make the greatest video ever and it doesn't convert anyone, then okay, that's, God is still in control. It's not like it's going to affect my salvation or affect my relationship with Christ.
If I don't convert people, I just have to focus on what He has called me to do. So ultimately it is the Holy Spirit that convicts people. We don't do that.
And I think if we keep that in mind, a lot of the pressure falls and we don't have to worry too much about like, that it's contingent upon what we do. And so I try to keep that in mind.
Holy Spirit, evidence and evangelism
ST
Yeah, that's great. What would you say to someone that in response to that will say, well, the Spirit doesn't convince people through evidence or arguments, because I think sadly that's a fairly prevalent view. How would you tend to respond to someone that would say something like that?
IP
Well, that's just not true at all. I'd like to know where they're finding that in the Bible. That's definitely not the case.
I mean, the Spirit sent Paul around to convince people and Paul often did miracles which convinced people. So obviously he's providing evidence. And so evidence does convince people.
ST
Yeah, absolutely. I think people confuse the hardness in the human heart and the fact that evidence doesn't always lead to a result to then conclude that actually there's no need for it at all or God can’t use. Even beginning of the book of Acts in Acts 1:3, it says Jesus went around showing many proofs to people that he had risen. Paul pointed people to the eyewitness evidence of a risen Jesus in 1 Corinthians 15, Luke emphasised the importance of eyewitness testimony in Luke 1 and John said he wrote about the signs of Jesus so that people may believe in John 20.Â
IP
Yeah, absolutely. That's important to keep in mind that they did employ evidence as a part of their evangelism.
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The Gospels as eyewitness accounts
ST
Great. And like I said, I wanted to ask a few quick questions around some of your videos. Lately, I noticed you'd done a series on Gospel reliability.
I know that you'd been researching on that for a long period of time. What initially inspired that idea? Was it the likes of Bart Ehrman perhaps that were gaining quite a lot of press for saying the Gospels aren't based on eyewitness accounts?
Or was it something that you just had on your heart for a long period of time?
IP
Well, I was sick and tired of hearing the Gospels are not eyewitness accounts. And then that just being the default position without any evaluation of the data. And so I was like, well, I'll just go through and present it all.
And there turned out to be a lot more than even I expected.
So I was just sick and tired of hearing this nonsense because there is a lot of evidence the Gospels are eyewitness accounts. And when people say they're not, they just sort of assert it dogmatically and don't actually go into the data as to why they aren't or provide good cases as to why they're not.
It's just sort of assumed. Like they're written after Paul, so they're later, so they're less trustworthy apparently. And that doesn't logically follow.
And then of course, they're ignoring a plethora of evidence that supports Gospel reliability. So I just wanted to present that so I could stop hearing this nonsense that the gospels are not based on eyewitness accounts. And then when people say it, now I have videos that I can use to show them in hopes that I can just, at least I have a resource there is what I mean.
ST
Yeah, that's great. As part of my writing, I do one-minute cases from time to time. I was wondering if you'd be able to give us a quick case for each Gospel, whether it's 30 seconds or a minute, demonstrating it is an eyewitness account?
IP
MarkÂ
Let's start with Mark, because Mark is the first one written. Well, Mark surprisingly tells the story from Peter's perspective in so many ways. Peter's often speaking on behalf of the group.
He's who Jesus is addressing. Things are told from his perspective in a lot of ways, like after Jesus's arrest, his story is told independently. And then at the end in Mark 16, it says, go tell the disciples and Peter.
So the church tradition is that Mark was writing down the preaching of Peter. And it's interesting that it's often told from Peter's perspective in very intricate ways that we don't see in the other Gospels. But this very much does seem to be the preaching of Peter.
And that would support the notion that Mark was using Peter as a source. Even Maurice Casey, who is an atheist, wrote a book called Aramaic Sources for the Gospel of Mark and said that Mark was getting his information from some Aramaic source and probably a member of the 12. Well, that likely would have been Peter if you combine it with the church tradition.
MatthewÂ
Now, when we look at Matthew, people go, well, how could Matthew be an eyewitness if he was using Mark as a source? But scholars have noted, even Dale Allison has noted, that sometimes Matthew is more reliable than Mark. And it seems to be written by a Hebrew-speaking Jewish Christian who is really just enhancing the Gospel in multiple ways.
But also he is very much interested in monetary aspects, more so than the other Gospel aspects. He often gets the right names of coins in ways that other Gospel authors just sort of speak about coins generically. And he'll use very specific terms for coins.
And he's very interested in monetary policy. So we see a lot about money and debt in Matthew's Gospel more so. So that would support the notion that a tax collector wrote this because whoever wrote it was very much interested in and knowledgeable of monetary aspects.
Luke
Luke tells us he got his information from eyewitnesses. And then we see throughout his Acts of the Apostles, he keeps using these wee passages, sections where he claims to be travelling along with Paul. Well, throughout his Gospel, it's filled with Semitisms.
But then when we get to the wee passages and the opening prologue of Luke, it has very few Semitisms in it. So that would tell us that this is some Gentile Christian who, when he's writing his own accounts in Acts, he's writing as a Greek Christian would. But when he's talking about Jesus, he's not using the same language and he's using a ton of Semitisms, which suggests he got his information from some Semitic speakers.
Also, he is very much interested in medical language, which the church tradition is that he was a doctor. So there's a lot more medical language that scholars like Luuk Vandeweghe have highlighted throughout his Gospel.
John
And then John is the most vivid of all the Gospels.
It has so many accurate details. And you just go through Craig Blomberg's book, The Historical Reliability of John's Gospel, you get fact after fact, after fact, after fact, confirming that what we have here is a very reliable gospel.
Onomastic congruence (evidence from names)
And then when you take all four of the gospels and Acts, Luuk Vandeweghe and Jason Wilson did a study on the naming patterns in them and found that it's extremely reliable.
So if you look at the naming pattern in Josephus, it's got a 6% chance of matching the naming pattern from ancient Judea at the time. But the Gospels in their study scored an 86% chance of having an accurate naming pattern from the first century. That's something that you wouldn't get if you were writing fiction, because they also looked at like Apocrypha Gospels and fictional accounts.
And neither of those works, or none of those works were able to get accurate naming patterns from the first century. But Josephus and the Gospels could, which tells us it's very likely that whoever was writing these documents were getting their information from actual people that were in Palestine and actually did interact with Jesus and the disciples. So there's just a lot, and that's just the tip of the iceberg.
There's a lot of evidence for reliability and that the Gospels use eyewitness accounts.
ST
Sorry, with Josephus, did you say 60%?
IP
No, Josephus got 6%.
ST
Six, yeah, right. I thought you might have said six, but wow, that's very low. So that's the studies on onomastic congruence that you've done some videos on and also referred to in your Gospel series, right?
IP
Correct.
ST
Yep. And that would be building on the work of Bauckham, he did some work on that, I think a while back, looking at the names between 330 BC and 200 AD in Palestine with the bulk of the data coming from 50 BC to 135 AD. So that would be building on that database using more statistical means.
IP
Yeah, they build on Bauckham a lot and they corrected him in certain ways and they actually ran it through a goodness of fit test, so an actual mathematical model, which Bauckham never did. So this has really made this argument far more superior than whatever Bauckham put forward.
ST
Excellent. And have you done much work on the letters of Paul or the epistles? I'm assuming that's something that you're planning to get to eventually, but curious how much research you've done yet.
IP
Yeah, it's not something I've gotten to. It is something I want to look more into though.
Consciousness, mind and quantum physics
ST
Shifting gears a little bit, I know you've done some work on consciousness, mind, quantum mechanics, and how that points to God. Could you give us a quick rundown why you think consciousness is incoherent without God?
IP
It's built on the argument that consciousness is fundamental and cannot be reduced to other parts or particles or something like that. There is no evidence that we can explain consciousness through brain activity or material interactions. In fact, everything we know about consciousness seems to suggest it's fundamental as is and cannot be reduced to smaller parts.
And if that's the case, then we have to question where consciousness comes from. It's not coming from material interactions. So the argument I put forward is the cosmic conscious argument.
And it's generally built on J.P. Moreland's argument from consciousness. But if I was to go a little further, and one of the things we basically say, consciousness would either have a material or a personal source. It doesn't have a material source, so it has to have a personal source.
And this personal Source is what we would call God. And I would also support this through research done in quantum mechanics and the philosophical applications of that. Because if we need to explain how we get from the wave function to particles, but there's no mathematical formula to explain that.
This is why we have the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. How do we go from the mathematics of the wave function to the mathematics of particles? Well, there is no explanation.
We have a measurement problem. Philosophically, this is solved easily by positing consciousness, that the observer interacts with a system and causes collapse. So it's not that material reality creates consciousness, it's that consciousness is creating, so to speak, material reality, or causing it to collapse at least.
And that would tell us that consciousness is not a product of material reality, but is necessary for the appearance of material reality and the collapse of the wave function. So if that's the case, it definitely doesn't have a material cause, and it would have a personal cause, which we would call God, the source of all consciousness.
Battling depression
ST
Excellent. Thanks for that quick rundown. Shifting to a more personal note, and wanted to end on this, I noticed you did a video several years back on depression, and you had some more personal reflections in there, and you drew parallels in terms of the depression experience people might have and the story of Elijah in 1 Kings 19.
Do you want to give us a bit of background as to what was behind this video and what some of the key principles in that video were?
IP
Yeah, I think one of the points is that I have been diagnosed with major depressive disorder, so I wanted to do a video on that topic. And so let me just explain to people that depression is not something you can just solve with a one quick fix. It's a real medical issue that people suffer.
And the Bible does not teach it as always a spiritual issue. It teaches that it represents depression as a multidimensional issue, that there are physical aspects related to depression. There are emotional aspects.
There are extrinsic and intrinsic aspects of depression. So we cannot treat it like it's somehow always a spiritual problem. And so I wanted to try to give people hope in dealing with depression and realizing that, because a lot of Christians have this mentality that if they're depressed, it's a spiritual problem.
And I wanted to push away from that idea and remind people that sometimes there are mental health issues that we need to deal with. And it's not just your fault for not being spiritual.
ST
And with the part at the end, you talked about how God gave Elijah a purpose and how that could assist with dealing with depression after Elijah had voiced his pain and his concerns. Do you want to tease that out a little bit? What that looked like in terms of the story of Elijah?
IP
Yeah, so basically I was pointing out that depression needs something to keep us active because a lot of people that are depressed get stuck in depression. They don't move or go. So God gives Elijah things to do and actual purpose in serving him to go out and do his kingdom work.
And so a lot of times we just need motivation to do that kind of stuff.
But if we really want to fight our depression, we need to be active participants in that and actually do things, motivate ourselves, sometimes force ourselves. And I know from experience to actually go out and do stuff because that actually helps in fighting depression.
And so one of the best ways to do that is to do God's kingdom work, whether it's helping a neighbor, volunteering time, just doing anything will help with that because you're interacting with people, you're seeing them benefit from it.
And that is very helpful for humans because we are a communal species. And so very much in our isolated world that we have built, we don't interact with people as much as we used to in decades past.
And so people are developing depression and they're forgetting that one of the best ways to deal with depression is to serve because service makes other people happy.
And being that person that brings people joy often brings you joy. So that was what I was trying to get at with that.
ST
That's great. And I think it's also good how you highlighted before that Elijah needed a good night's sleep and he needed some food and also was able to voice his concerns to God. And you highlighted how the Psalms are full of raw prayers of pain and how God isn't distant and he wants to hear our pain.
And then also gives us a purpose as you say as well because Elijah went off to anoint Elisha afterwards as part of his kingdom work. And I like how you tied all that together.
IP
Thank you. Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at with that video.
Michael’s words for Street Theologian subscribers
ST
Do you have any final words for my readers? I've been quite fascinated really that, and surprised in a sense, I should say, although I shouldn't be surprised in that we all have a God-shaped void in our hearts. But just how much interest there is in these topics globally.
I have readers from around the world. And I can see a lot of people are really, really, searching, they're looking for a transcendent narrative. They've heard a lot of things about the Bible or about scripture that don't actually meet reality or the facts.
And also, are not really aware of the sheer incoherence of a materialistic worldview or when it comes to areas like Islam, just how much, evil and falsehood there is in such a worldview. With all that in mind, are there some final words or thoughts you just wanted to share with my readers? Perhaps some thoughts on being Christian in today's world and, engaging both the heart and the mind as a Christian.
IP
Yeah, I would just encourage people to persevere. There's a lot of anti-Christian rhetoric today.
There's a lot of people actively trying to de-convert Christians because they think that that's going to make the world a better place and they don't realize the opposite is true. The less there is of Christianity, the worse the world will get.
And so I encourage people that we're in a time now where there's going to be a lot of attacks from various areas and to keep focusing on Christ, keep focusing on the evidence and to not get swayed by secularism or promises that your life will be better and more meaningful without Christ because it won't be, you’ll be ruined.
You'll replace it with pleasure, hedonism, self-worship, you name it, but it won't fulfill you in the way that Christ will. And ultimately you will slowly destroy and incinerate your soul while looking to fill that God-shaped hole in you for the rest of your life.
ST
Yeah, very beautiful. Great. Thanks a lot for your time and for your reflections brother. God bless.
IP
No worries. God bless. Talk to you later.
You can find more of Michael’s work here:
https://www.youtube.com/@InspiringPhilosophy
