You don’t accuse somebody of lying just because they said something that is false. The accusation of lying is only justified if you have good evidence that they knew that what they were saying is false at the time that they said it and that they said it with the intention of persuading someone else […]
strawman
Here’s a Thought: Why Don’t We Not Strawman Each Other?
In my experience, atheists and Christians commonly strawman each other. For example, the atheist criticizing Christianity assumes Christianity includes a narrow exclusivism with eternal conscious torment so that, for example, the 10-year-old Jewish girl who dies in Auschwitz goes straight to hell. Such a view has nothing, per se, to do with Christianity. To be […]
On Strawmen and Steelmen
A few weeks ago, I read the following tweet from an atheist: Dear child, I love you unconditionally. Sincerely, God P.S. If you don’t return my love, I will set you on fire forever. Love you! It would be one thing if folks all recognized this as a trolling caricature. Just a bit of naughty […]
On Keeping a Closed Mind: Lessons from The Friendly Atheist
A couple days ago The Friendly Atheist posted an article titled “Christian Textbook Urges Readers To ‘Keep a Closed Mind’.” The short article features a screenshot from a page out of a textbook for Christian young people. (Before this I’d never heard of the book, What’s on Your Mind? Discover the Power of Biblical Thinking, or […]
Knocking Down the Strawman Theist
In my last article I made some positive comments about Julian Baggini’s book Atheism: A Very Short Introduction. The book is pithy, clear, and presents a very useful explication of how atheism relates to naturalism. Unfortunately, it is also brutal when it comes to engaging theistic philosophy of religion. This becomes readily apparent in chapter […]
Was the Bible written by God or men? And other false dichotomies
This morning I read an article by Shulem Deen titled “This is how I lost my faith: Science helped, yes — but finally I accepted the holy texts were written by man.” Deen is writing about the Hebrew Bible, but his observations would apply equally well to the Christian Bible. He begins by noting the […]
John W. Loftus defends Peter Boghossian
John Loftus has a lot riding on Peter Boghossian’s book. He gushes that “Dr. Peter Boghossian Seeks to Revolutionize Our Academic Institutions” and “Peter Boghossian is taking the world by storm” and Boghossian’s book will change our nomenclature” and “Boghossian is Very Serious; He’s a Crusader, a Radical, and I Like It!” At this […]
Theism, naturalism, and strawmen
Since Antony Flew wrote his little parable of the invisible gardener sixty years ago, countless atheists have claimed that theism is discredited by the advance of science, to wit, as science keeps advancing so God keeps retreating. The story begins by assuming the most facile possible conception of theistic supernaturalism, viz. one in which God is the […]
