Tom Price - How A Philosophy Degree Led Him To Jesus - Insight with Karl Faase

Tom Price was as far from Christianity as he could get - trying to cope with life by self-medicating and intentionally distancing himself from the religion of his parents. That was until a choking uncle and some late-night advice sent him down a path that led, eventually, to lecturing at the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics.

In this conversation, Tom talks with Karl Faase about why he thinks the New Atheists were never a serious intellectual movement, what's really behind Richard Dawkins' talk of being a “cultural Christian,” and the uncomfortable questions apologetics now has to answer in the wake of high-profile church scandals - including the one that engulfed his own organisation's history. He also charts his personal journey of finding faith after adding Philosophy to his university study.

About Tom Price:
Tom Price is an author, lecturer, and speaker with the Oxford Centre for Christian Apologetics (OCCA). His PhD examines how popular film shapes the ideas people carry into everyday life, and his work takes him into schools, universities, workplaces and churches, helping people think through faith questions. Tom became a Christian while studying computer science and philosophy at university, after years estranged from his own churchgoing parents.

Key Moments & Highlights:
• Tom argues the New Atheists were never a serious academic force - just "angry atheism" that helped people justify their hurt with the church
• Why Richard Dawkins calling himself a "cultural Christian" is about more than nostalgia for carols and candles
• Inside the ARC conference: a packed, mostly non-Christian room warming to the idea that the West needs to “recapture” Christian values
• The real founding story of OCCA at Wycliffe Hall, and why the organisation is now completely independent of Ravi Zacharias
• Betrayal trauma theory: psychology borrowed from research on domestic abuse survivors that explains why churches almost always get their first response to scandal wrong
• Tom's own admission that he took a paycheck, stayed quiet, and regrets not resigning during the crisis at OCCA
• Growing up hyperactive and disconnected, dropping out of school at sixteen, and performing the Heimlich manoeuvre on his choking uncle at Christmas lunch
• A drunken piece of late-night advice from that same uncle sends Tom into a philosophy degree — and, eventually, toward Jesus
• The prayer he prayed alone in his room, with no "churchy" language, that he still describes as the start of being "reconciled" to God every day since
• Years of estrangement from his parents, and the slow, mutual forgiveness that followed

Find Out More:

Olive Tree Media: www.olivetreemedia.com.au
Watch+ Platform: www.olivetreemedia.com.au/watch
Daily Nudge: www.dailynudge.org

Special Thanks To:

- Excelsia University College: https://excelsia.edu.au/
- Christian Finance: https://christianfinance.org.au/
- Vision Christian Media: https://vision.org.au/

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