What is a “strong argument”? This is a question that every apologist should consider. You should start with premises that are true or plausibly true. Next, a conclusion that follows from the premises. That makes it a *valid* argument. But there’s more. After all, a valid argument with premises which cannot be understood by the […]
argument
Rebuttals: From Worst to Best
Haw haw haw. That’s simply absurd. Nobody believes that anymore. Unfortunately, your second premise is false or at least highly questionable. You seem to have an unstated premise that is in need of defense. And your entire position leads to a reductio ad absurdum. Allow me to explain… It’s amazing how many rebuttals, especially within […]
Good arguments don’t need to persuade everyone to be good
This morning, I tweeted a brief critique of Carl Sagan’s famous soliloquy on the pale blue dot: Carl Sagan famously looked at an image of that "pale blue dot" called earth taken from Voyager 1 and mused about human insignificance in the universe. Sorry, Dr. Sagan, size does not map onto significance. One human life […]
Why do good apologetic arguments produce bad results?
Should Christians help atheists make better arguments for atheism?
Let’s talk about a very practical issue. Consider two scholars, Chris the Christian philosopher and Alan the atheist philosopher. Alan writes a new paper in which he argues that God does not exist based on the problem of evil. He sends a draft to his friend Chris and asks Chris for feedback. Chris reads through […]
Loftus has no argument and what you can learn from that fact
Yesterday I spent an afternoon trying to help John Loftus figure out what his argument is. It was a laborious exercise, to be sure, but it did have a reward. And the reward was that it became clear John didn’t actually have an argument in the first place. So here’s the rundown of what happened […]
Must we apologize for the apologists?
Note: An earlier version of this article appeared at The Christian Post in 2010. Apologetics is a mainstay of Christianity and for good reason. As 1 Peter 3:15 declares, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with […]
