The Aristophrenium

Aristostaff

Mathew Hamilton

Looking for purpose in a seemingly purposeless world, Mathew – as a young adult – was drawn to Christianity because its advocacy of a fallen world best matched – and made the most sense of – his own experience and understanding of why the world is the way it is. Since then, Mathew has become progressively amazed at the intellectual integrity found within Christian theology and philosophy, and of its standing as a historically grounded faith, pursuing these fields with a keen layman’s interest. While Mathew’s interests extend out to Christian apologetics, he particularly enjoys pitting the Christian worldview against the prevailing secular ideologies that seek to erode time-honored social values and ethics. These latter areas are where he is most commonly expending his writing efforts, upholding pro-life, conservative family values and the preservation of religious liberty and free speech. Mathew writes from Melbourne, Australia, and also sporadically maintains his own blog titled thoughts out !oud where you’ll occasionally find fits of poetry, light-hearted reflections on Christian living and other musings.

Duane Proud

Duane is not formally trained in theology, apologetics, philosophy, history or any of the sciences, but takes a great interest in all of these fields for the purpose of influencing others for Christ and for helping those who are already followers of Christ to better understand the hope they have in Him. In short, Duane is in the disciple-making business (Matthew 28:19) and wants to influence your thinking so that you will come back to a relationship with God—serving, loving and glorifying Him as you were originally created to do. Duane’s motivation is his love for Jesus Christ and his desire to obey Him, always being ready to provide answers to those who seek God’s Kingdom. The apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever” (1 Cor. 9:25). Duane would like to share in that training and hope with you. He is based in Sydney, Australia and is a married father of four.

David Smart (Ryft)

David Smart is a developing Christian and a skeptical philosopher who enjoys exploring and understanding the essential realities of the human experience. Together with his associates Mathew and Duane, he helped found and develop the Aristophrenium over the course of several months in late 2009. David’s principle areas of interest and study, which he invests in the majority of his writing, are theology, philosophy, and apologetics. His love for both studying and writing are borne on his passion for deep contemplation. David has a particular interest in critical thinking, a discipline which governs all his thoughtful pursuits. As for philosophical issues, he is a student of presuppositionalism. On issues related to apologetics, a student of revelational epistemology. And when it comes to theological issues, he is a student of the Protestant Reformation. He hopes to one day become a published author, but for now he is still searching for his thesis. Until that day, he continues to blog in order to refine his writing and to debate in order to refine his arguments.

Adam Morgan

Although attracted to apologetics and evangelism, Adam is drawn more to ‘big picture’ issues than fine details.  To get a sense of how Adam approaches the issues, the Bible character Luke is somewhat illustrative: after investigating the relevant materials, he reports on what he has discovered. As for what he enjoys writing about, it is less about original thought and more about sharing and exploring the research and insights from others he has come across; he is content to leave the ‘heavy lifting’ to those with more ability and passion in areas of philosophy, science, etc., concentrating his efforts on sharing with others this work already done. Adam is based in Sydney, Australia, and is the proud father of one (due October 2010).

Luis Dizon (Fisher)

Luis Dizon is a young Canadian of Filipino descent who describes himself as “young, restless and reformed.” Like many Filipinos, he was originally raised as a Roman Catholic; but he was never really a devout believer in God and gradually drifted into Agnosticism at around the age of sixteen. But by the providential grace of God, he was brought to faith in Jesus Christ around October 2007 and has since been transforming into a budding theologian and apologist. His primary interests are in church history, systematic theology, and apologetics (with a regard to Christian cults), and a growing interest in Islam and outreach to Muslims. While he is currently enrolled at Toronto Baptist Seminary taking a one-year Bible diploma, he is planning to pursue undergraduate studies on History and Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto. Luis is hoping to someday make use of his skills in formal ministry, especially in the work of evangelizing the lost and defending the gospel against the many conflicting worldviews and religions that seek to undermine the Christian faith today. He also maintains a personal blog called Epagonizesthai.