Back in the mid 1990s my vision of apologetics involved memorizing lists of factoids on countless issues I deemed relevant to the defense of Christianity. When it came to homosexuality, I memorized some facts about the high rates of promiscuity among gays that I learned from the Bible Answer Man. So if the topic of […]
Archives for September 2017
Help! Let’s kick cancer’s butt together
Let me be blunt. Cancer sucks. So let’s do something about it. This is the fourth year my daughter and I are participating in the Run for the Cure (October 2) to make cancer history (aka to kick cancer’s butt). If you appreciate this blog I hope you’ll consider donating at our fundraising site here. […]
Alvin Plantinga’s Surprisingly Deflationary Take on his own Ontological Argument
Living legend Alvin Plantinga was recently a guest on Unbelievable with Justin Brierley. The show was classic Plantinga — clear analysis, dry wit, admirable humility — and surveyed some of the highlights of his impressive career including warrant, proper basicality and Christian belief, the evolutionary argument against naturalism, and the ontological argument. The last choice […]
The Provincial Atheist
The term provincialism refers to the unsophisticated individual who confuses their regional perspective (i.e. from the provinces) with a global or universal perspective. As a case in point, consider this passage from A.C. Grayling: tell an average intelligent adult hitherto free of religious brainwashing that somewhere, invisibly, there is a being somewhat like us, with desires, […]
A “Confusing” Dialogue with Dale Tuggy … and more
I’m delighted to be a guest once again on one of my favorite podcasts, Dale Tuggy’s Trinities. It was a fun and wide-ranging discussion about my new book What’s So Confusing About Grace? You can listen to the episode here. And here’s the latest review of What’s So Confusing About Grace? by David Leal where he […]
Teetotalism Reconsidered
Anyone who reads What’s So Confusing About Grace? will learn that I grew up within a teetotaling fundagelical church. Teetotalism is not simply the personal observance of total abstinence from alcohol but the advocacy for abstinence: i.e. I abstain … and here’s why you should too. We had a blunt reason why you should give up […]
God, Natural Disasters, and My Next Book
A few weeks ago I published an article at Strange Notions titled “Does God Punish People Through Natural Weather Events?” For some time I’ve been thinking about writing a book on the topic of whether God punishes human populations by way of natural disasters. Well, this past week I finally got around to starting the […]
Gender-neutral Pronouns in Grade 5
A grade 5 teacher in Florida has requested that her students use gender neutral pronouns in the classroom. Sorry, I should have said their students. As she (sorry, I meant they) writes: “my pronouns are ‘they, them, their’ instead of ‘he, his, she, hers.’ I know it takes some practice for it to feel natural but students catch on […]
Apologetics without the hardcore bit
A few days ago I received the following note from a friend who read What’s So Confusing About Grace? Completed the book. Loved it. Was expecting some hardcore apologetics based on your interactions with atheists, but was very pleasantly surprised by the anecdotal, memoiristic, essay style. My friend didn’t bother to define “hardcore apologetics”, but I […]
My Book What’s So Confusing About Grace? is FREE Today
Kindle is doing a promo for my book What’s So Confusing About Grace? and as a result it is free for download for one day only … TODAY, SEPTEMBER 19TH! Download it at Amazon.com here. Download it at Amazon.ca here. Download it at Amazon.co.uk here. Spread the word, read, and review!
Do atheists get their moral values from humanism?
This morning I came across the following tweet from Counter Apologist: Humanism is where Seth & most of the atheist community gets our morals, and what Sargon has done runs way against ithttps://t.co/EJS4MtLT9J — Counter Apologist (@CounterApologis) September 18, 2017 I think this is mistaken. For the most part, it seems to me that atheists […]
Is it wrong for First Nations people to refer to non-indigenous people as “settlers”?
A few days ago a group of First Nations people were riding the LRT (mass transit) to the National Gathering of Elders at the Edmonton Expo Centre when they were stopped by transit police and asked for proof of purchase. The encounter that ensued has resulted in charges of racial profiling. While I don’t think the […]
My Biggest … and Most Frustrating Publishing Success
A few weeks ago one of my readers, David, let me know that on his travels in Brazil he had seen copies of my book Encontre Deus na Cabana (the Portuguese translation of Finding God in the Shack) at different Brazilian bookstores. Since I haven’t been paid any significant royalties on this edition of the book for several […]
What is wrong with this Ancestry DNA ad?
I’ve seen this irritating ad on TV multiple times. And while there are several things wrong with it, let’s focus on one. “Lyn” discovers she is “26% Nigerian.” Apparently a genetic plurality in one’s DNA profile is sufficient to claim any cultural expressions historically associated with that genetic identity as one’s own. Since Nigerian DNA […]
