Paul Copan
He is currently a professor at the Palm Beach Atlantic University and holds the endowed Pledger Family Chair of Philosophy and Ethics.
Bjuge Award for a thesis that “evidences creative scholarship in the field of Biblical and Systematic Theology.” In May 2000, Copan received his Ph.D. in philosophy of religion from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
"[3] Copan started his career by working on the pastoral staff of First Presbyterian Church in Schenectady, NY from July 1989 – December 1995.
Additionally, an undergraduate degree in Apologetics at Palm Beach Atlantic University will be launched in August 2022, with Copan set to teach many of its courses.
[7] Copan also believes that belief in God is generally not a psychological crutch, claiming that the argument that Christianity is wish fulfillment itself falls victim to a number of fallacies.
One can have epistemic certainty of God's existence from private experience and still appeal to public evidence to persuade others of that fact.
Other contemporary Near Eastern military reports use this language to describe attacks that left many survivors, for the purposes of expressing bravado.
Copan also observes that the herem commands include merisms such as "young and old", "man and woman", which denoted total warfare in the Near Eastern context, even if the victims were combatants living in military garrisons and forts, which were unlikely to have women and children.
He argues that no civilians existed in cities such as Jericho and Ai, which were targets of herem, based on the archaeological evidence.
He says that we should compare Hebrew debt-servanthood (many translations render this “slavery”) more fairly to apprentice-like positions to pay off debts.
This resembles indentured servitude during America's founding when people worked for approximately 7 years to pay off the debt for their passage to the New World.
Copan uses James 3:9 to argue that the New Testament presupposes a fundamental equality because all humans are created in God's image.
He states that early Christians undermined slavery indirectly, rejecting many common Greco-Roman assumptions about it and acknowledging the intrinsic, equal worth of slaves.
Copan argues that if the New Testament authors had been too explicit about overthrowing Rome's slavery system, it would have done the gospel a disservice.
Copan concludes that the New Testament took a more subversive strategy, by opposing oppression, slave trade, and treating humans as cargo — which eventually led to a slavery-free Europe a few centuries later.
Copan also compares these psalms to the emotional rants of Jeremiah, wishing he had remained in his mother's womb until he died.
