Tim Muehlhoff and Richard Langer, Winsome Persuasion: Christian Influence in a Post-Christian World. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2017. I’ve been concerned with the art of persuasion for almost as long as I have been interested in apologetics. And there’s a good reason why. As I like to say, you can have the best engine in […]
rhetoric
On Anti-Abortion Extremists (and other unhelpful rhetoric)
CNN just posted an article titled “Before judging ‘late-term abortion,’ understand what it means, doctors say.” I agree with the sentiment. There is way too much heat and not enough light in this complex and highly emotional debate. That said, I cannot help but reply to the comment of one of the two doctors interviewed […]
Alarmist evangelical apologetics and the so-called post-truth world
If you listen to evangelical Christian apologists for any length of time, you will soon hear reference to an ominous “post-truth culture” or a “post-truth world”. As Lee Strobel observed in a 2017 interview: “we see a trend toward a postmodern mindset and ‘post-truth’ culture.” (source) And as John C. Richards, Jr. opines in Christianity Today: “culture […]
On Fundamentalism: The Best Thing Alvin Plantinga Ever Wrote
I was called a “liberal” this week on Twitter. I don’t have any problem per se with being called a liberal. But in this case it clearly wasn’t intended as a compliment. So I asked my interlocutor about his basis for making the charge. He replied by pointing out that I support public healthcare for all. Guilty […]
A Case Where I Spend WAY TOO MUCH Time Analyzing a Snide Atheist Meme
Here is a tweet from the folks at “Atheist Republic”. Call it a meme if you want. (Might as well since the word “meme” seems to apply to most anything that gets retweeted.) So here’s the meme: pic.twitter.com/AduwjnloUq — Atheist Republic (@AtheistRepublic) August 16, 2017 I’m not sure what definition of “bullshit” the folks at […]
Genuine Inquiry vs. Partisan Advocacy: A Couple Comments
Jeff Lowder just wrote a helpful article in which he contrasts “genuine inquiry” vs. “partisan advocacy”. Jeff describes genuine inquiry as “reading opposing viewpoints, not with the goal of preparing pithy one-liners for debates, but with the goal of actually trying to learn something or consider new ways of looking at old topics.” He adds […]
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 […]
Who are the Hollywood Elites?
Yesterday Meryl Streep delivered a powerful and eloquent speech at the Golden Globe Awards. It was a speech that expressed great concern for justice and compassion, for defending the wayfarer and the marginalized, for promoting civility and kindness, for encouraging empathy and understanding. In short, it was a speech that one would expect any Christian to […]
The rhetorical indulgences of some Christian testimonies
The other day I was listening to a recording of a gentleman giving a personal testimony of his Christian conversion. Just prior to the conversion he observed, “According to the world I had it all: money, fame, drugs, and sex.” I’ve heard a thousand testimonies over the years that used similar language. But this time this […]
Goddidit and Golden Hammers
It’s been awhile since I commented on that favorite atheist quip intended to shut down any explanatory appeal to God: “Goddidit”. Want to argue that God is the best explanation of cosmic fine-tuning? The origin of the universe? Moral obligation? Truth-directed cognitive faculties? You can shut ’em all down with one three syllable word-phrase: Goddidit! […]
Fetus as Parasite? A disturbing trend in pro-choice rhetoric
Throughout history attempts to justify killing members of outgroups has been carried out by invoking labels for members of the outgroups. David Livingstone Smith chronicles this lamentable aspect of human history in his book Less Than Human: Why We Demean, Enslave, and Exterminate Others (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2012). And so, for example, the Nazis called Jews and […]
A Slap of Persuasion? A Review of Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion
Os Guinness, Fool’s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion. (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2015). Os Guinness’s latest book, Fool’s Talk, is devoted to a very important topic: apologetic persuasion. And the time couldn’t be better for such a book: While contemporary Christian apologetic arguments have attained an impressive level of sophistication, all too often the […]
74. The Problem with Jebus
One of the oft-noted traits of the New Atheism is a new hostility and contempt toward those of differing opinion. In this episode of The Tentative Apologist Podcast I address this troubling trait with respect to the specific convention of referring to Jesus Christ as “Jebus”. I begin by tracing the origins of this convention. […]
One simple way to tell that a particular atheist lacks intellectual credibility
The title of this article begins with an ambitious promise: one simple way to tell that a particular atheist lacks intellectual credibility. But as with many ambitious promises, this one comes with a couple caveats. First, the lacking of intellectual credibility is pertaining only to one sphere: the debate between atheism and contrary perspectives. Thus, […]
