In the thread of my essay “What if I stumble? Arguing against Christianity from the lives of Christians” Mike Gantt commented on the moral excellence of Jesus as follows: the moral excellence implied by his conduct, and made explicit by his teaching, were so elevated when compared to typical human behavior that even unbelievers will […]
defeater
If a child can do it, why can’t John Loftus?
Here is John’s latest response, titled “Even a child can do it,” in full: “Let’s say a recognized expert on cats claims one of them talked. People do not have to be experts in cats to say they need to see the evidence. Nor do any of us need a theory of knowledge to doubt it. But […]
Are Arminians better off when it comes to assurance? Why I’m not so sure.
Andy Derksen offered an interesting comment on my blog post “Compassion Reformed?” in which he sought to extend the argument from compassion for others to assurance of one’s own salvation. He wrote: Ironically, not only must the Calvinist–*IF* he’s logically consistent with his theology–hold merely “provisional” compassion toward the suffering, he must also hold only […]
Morriston on the evil god hypothesis
Earlier this week Walter forwarded the link to a 2004 article by Wes Morriston which nicely summarizes the problem with Stephen Law’s evil god argument. Before we get to that however, let’s recap the argument. Law argued against the existence of God (or what we can call “good god”) by pointing out that the believer in a […]
Where Stephen Law goes wrong with his evil god argument
The Atheist Missionary asked me to respond to Stephen Law’s evil god argument. His challenge came with an extended quote from Law. I’ve quoted the most important parts below: “Most people will happily conclude there’s no evil god purely on the basis of the evidential problem of good (whether or not there are other reasons […]
Beliefs that are forever justified?
El Bryan Libre takes issue with my critique of William Lane Craig. He writes “I think the doubt he’s talking about is strictly whether Christianity (or even just theism) is true.” “Out of the different ways you could have interpreted him what made you choose to go with the most negative (and easiest to knock […]
Dealing with Doubt? On William Lane Craig’s rather bad advice
Last week The Atheist Missionary made us aware of the following five minute piece of advice on dealing with doubt from the world’s foremost Christian apologist, William Lane Craig. Go ahead, take the five minutes to watch it. I’ll still be around when you’re done to share my opinion. Craig offers three points in response […]
Can we rationally believe in an atonement we don’t understand?
Having surveyed Ken Pulliam’s discussion of the PST, I have now been asked by Robert: “How do the other theories fare? I’m guessing they have problems too, since men like Luther and Calvin rejected them in favor of PST.” First off, Luther actually is associated with the Christus Victor model rather than PST, though Calvin […]
John W. Loftus and a Swede named Mario
Torgo has requested clarification on one point of my critique of John Loftus’s essay on the alleged improbability of Christianity. Torgo begins by quoting a section of my critique which was summarizing the core problem with Loftus’s argument: “From the perspective of a Christian John is like that analyst calculating the enormous implausibility of the ostrich riding […]
Belief in tooth fairies is dumb and belief in god is dumber
My village atheist alarm started going off this morning so I checked the blog and discovered that somebody was comparing God to the tooth fairy. This is part of what “Contararian” wrote: “If I wish to claim that either being [a tooth fairy or God] exists, it is for me to demonstrate that to an “outsider” […]
Committing moral horrors in God’s name revisited (yet again)
In “The mutilation of Isaac” I argued that it would have been wrong for Abraham to kill and mutilate his son as a burnt offering. This was in response to Matthew Flannagan’s argument that there is nothing inherently wrong with God commanding a father to kill his child if the father does so knowing that God […]
Ad Maitzen: On “What must I believe to be saved?”
Steve Maitzen’s response to my critique is brief and to the point: “Your proposal invites the same generic reply I gave on p. 182 of my article: You make belief in God (or belief in Jesus) out to be of no particular importance for salvation, a view that’s hard to square with much of the […]
