Some years ago the Jewish philosopher David Shatz wrote an essay titled “The Overexamined Life is not Worth Living.” That title could apply equally to chapter 31 of my 2012 apologetics book The Swedish Atheist, the Scuba Diver and Other Apologetic Rabbit Trails. The book features an extended Socratic-styled dialogue between an atheist named Sheridan and […]
reason
What is the Trinity? A Review
Dale Tuggy. What is the Trinity? Thinking About the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. CreateSpace, 2017, 142 pp. In one of his comedy sketches, Jim Gaffigan recalls an occasion when his young son said: “Look daddy! A silver stick!” Gaffigan replied, “Actually son, that’s an antenna!” Puzzled, the boy replied: “What’s an antenna?” After a moment, […]
Atheists who celebrate intellectual regression
Intellectual development involves, among other things, the increased ability to analyze the views of others with critical nuance and charity. At its most sophisticated level, that trend includes the skill of rigorous devil’s advocacy, i.e. the ability to defend the views of others with as much sophistication and putative conviction as genuine advocates for the […]
How the atheist rhetoric of “reason” undermines reason
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 […]
Can a person be a fundamentalist about atheism?
The question was posted by Mike D in reaction to my article “Atheist Fundamentalism Lives.” Mike writes: “How can you be a fundamentalist about something that has no doctrines, creeds, or dogmas? That’d be like writing a dissertation about the richness of TV programming on the “off” setting.” Mike goes on to state that atheists […]
Do theists need a proof for God to be rational? A response to Dan Barker
Over the last few days I’ve been reading through Dan Barker’s book Godless. I thought it only fair to do so after writing a critique of a few sentences. I plan to write a review of the book in the next week or so. Not to give things away, but I can say both that the […]
Faith is Irrational: Reflections on the Worst Arguments Against Christianity (Part 5)
Let’s get back to our list of the worst arguments against Christianity as suggested by my readers. Tim offered a long list of suggestions including this doozy: “Religious belief is a matter of ‘faith,’ hence irrational since faith is ‘Believing what you know ain’t [sic] so,’ or some such.” I have rebutted this ridiculous canard too […]
Understand Why You Believe? The Problem of Confabulation
Here is the cover of The Apologetics Study Bible. Note the tagline at the top: “Understand why you believe.” Uh? Anybody see the paradox here? If you do not yet understand the grounds you have for belief, then those grounds cannot presently be your grounds for belief. What the tagline should have said is something like this: “Understand […]
Irrational? Faith from Ignatius of Loyola to Carl Sagan
The philosopher Wilfrid Sellars famously distinguished between the “manifest image” of the world — i.e. the way the world presents to the average person — and the “scientific image” — i.e. the way the world presents to the scientist. Evolutionary biologist Richard Lewontin wonderfully captured the chasm between the manifest and scientific images in an influential […]
Wheaton College, Larycia Hawkins, and Freethought
Larycia Hawkins has stated that she is “flummoxed and flabbergasted” at Wheaton College’s decision to place her on administrative leave and proceed with firing. I can’t say that I am flummoxed and flabbergasted given the current reactionary and polarized state of much of evangelicalism. But I certainly am disappointed. I see no basis in Hawkins’ original […]
Why Brilliant People Believe Nonsense: A review
J. Steve Miller and Cherie K. Miller, Why Brilliant People Believe Nonsense: A Practical Text for Critical and Creative Thinking. Wisdom Creek Academic, 2015. There may be no skill more basic to human flourishing than the ability to reason well. It’s a skill that encompasses knowledge, wisdom, self-awareness, and emotional intelligence. And it seems to […]
The Skeptic Community and Irrational Doubt: A second response to Justin Schieber
I devoted my previous article “Atheist tweets on faith: A response to Justin Schieber” to providing a critique of the following tweet: It’s now time for part 2. While it might seem disproportionate to devote two articles to a single tweet, the reality is that this tweet summarizes some deep and persistent problems with the way […]
Atheist tweets on faith: A response to Justin Schieber
The other day I came across this tweet from Justin Schieber in my twitter feed: First off, let me say that this is a good tweet: pithy and provocative, so much so that it’s apparently worth two blog posts. That’s right, two! So let’s get started. And let’s make that start on a positive note […]
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 […]
