I opened my 2011 book You’re not as Crazy as I Think by chronicling some of the myriad ways that evangelical Christians invoke the rhetoric of truth as a way of reinforcing binary in-group out-group oppositions. In our age of marketing identities, I noted that evangelicals have attempted to brand themselves and their communities with “truth”. And […]
indoctrination
How the British Humanist Association Promotes Propaganda
This is my second critique of the British Humanist Association video “How do we know what is true?” In my first article on the topic I pointed out how the video tacitly endorses scientism and thereby undermines the value claims upon which humanism is predicated. It is now time to turn to the deeper and […]
Freethinking children? Not so much.
Today I came upon the following tweet courtesy of a retweet by Secular Outpost. (As a disclaimer, Secular Outpost does not consider a retweet an endorsement of the tweet. Nor, for that matter, do I.) Meet Zea, the 7-year-old who stood up to a homophobic hate preacher this week by holding up a rainbow sign. […]
On Ape-Men and Grand Illusions
Last week when I was at a conference in Atlanta I attended a session featuring a dialogue between geneticist Darrel Falk of Biologos (an evangelical organization which promotes theistic evolution) and Nathaniel Jeanson of Answers in Genesis (the premiere young earth creationist organization). It was a significant event insofar as this is one of the […]
Preparing Christian kids for the university faith-buster class
A couple days ago I posted an article responding to a comment by Lee Strobel given in the midst of an interview with Darrell Bock at Dallas Theological Seminary. In this article I want to return to that interview to address an interesting exchange Bock and Strobel have over so-called “faith-buster” classes, i.e. university classes […]
Apologetics and the cult of concision or, not every conversation can be had in under four minutes
The other day I was at the Wintery Knight blog when the following article title caught my eye: “What if you only had four minutes to defend Israel’s attack on the Canaanites?” The article provided a brief synopsis of Jonathan Morrow’s book Questioning the Bible: 11 Major Challenges to the Bible’s Authority by focusing on one […]
Can evangelicalism save you from spiritual confusion?
The other day I was listening to an interview of Christian apologist Lee Strobel at Dallas Theological Seminary. In this clip Strobel recalls the time when he first became a Christian while working as a reporter at the Chicago Tribune. Listen to how he describes his moment of illumination over-against the spiritual confusion of every […]
Is there still a place to tremble before God?
Christianity Today recently published a web review of Peter Enns new book The Bible Tells Me So. The reviewer, a fellow named Andrew Wilson, provides a fair-minded and balanced critique of Enns’ book, noting both its strengths while flagging its weaknesses. (That said, I find Wilson’s rating of the book at 2 1/2 stars out […]
Tim McGrew gives Peter Boghossian an unbelievable public drubbing
On Saturday, May 24 “Unbelievable” with Justin Brierley hosted a discussion/debate between Peter Boghossian, the atheist bigot and author of A Manual for Creating Atheists, and the brilliant Christian philosopher Tim McGrew. If you haven’t heard it yet you can listen to it here. The discussion starts off with the two bizarre definitions of “faith” that […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 8): Anti-religious indoctrination
Boghossian’s book evinces one of the clearest examples of indoctrination that I have yet encountered in atheist literature. One of the hallmarks of indoctrination (as I explain in my book You’re not as Crazy as I Think) is found in the categorization (and marginalization) of all opinions that dissent from the in-group in terms of mental or […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 7): Doxastic Closure
Thus far in my review I’ve argued at length that Boghossian’s definitions of key terms — deepity, faith, atheism, agnosticism — are wholly spurious. I have identified my method as one of taking core samples or test cases (i.e. my analogy with testing the candidate for his adeptness at sign language translation). Given that Boghossian […]
Can you be indoctrinated into atheism?
Yesterday Mike D posted a comment in the discussion thread of my article “Christians reason from Christian assumptions! Who woulda thunk it?” Since I thought there is an instructive error here (but then, aren’t all errors instructive?) I decided to spotlight it for further reflection. Here’s what Mike D wrote: As for whether children can be […]
Medicated shampoos that feed the head lice and evangelical curricula that feed the prejudice
Imagine that you become aware of a medicated shampoo which is being marketed to combat head lice. Given the ubiquity of head lice in the community you take a real interest in the shampoo. If it can deliver on its claims you definitely want to promote its virtues. So you run an investigation. And much to your chagrin […]
Steve Hays redefines colorblindness
As you may know, I am currently co-writing a book with atheist John Loftus, a series of short debates on a range of issues that divide us. Loftus blogged about the book this weekend which prompted Steve Hays, a paleo-Calvinist from the seventeenth century who, while pining to be my nemesis, merely serves as comic relief, to post […]
