It’s a familiar charge: Christian apologists are accused of being dishonest, of spinning the facts to suit their purposes. While I find no evidence that apologists for Christianity are on the whole any more likely to spin the facts than apologists for atheism, or naturalism, or the Republican Party, or any other topic, that hardly […]
truth
Does William Lane Craig care about the truth of Christianity?
Editor’s Note: Since this article was posted, Jeff Lowder sent me the following note via email: “I never thought that Craig doesn’t care about the truth. I was careless and sloppy when I said I agreed with Rumraket on everything except for his tally of his debates. I simply didn’t read his comment carefully, and […]
14. Is Allah the god of the Bible?
In this episode of the 59 Second Apologist we address the question of whether Allah is the god of the Bible. I begin by pointing out that this question is ambiguous. Next, I briefly summarize the significance of two possible interpretations: linguistic reference and salvation.
72. You’re not as Crazy as I Think
Have you ever noticed how many crazy people there are out there? I’m not talking about folks who sport wild hair and a sandwich board that declares “The end is near”. I’m talking about those people who, for some inexplicable reason, fail to share your views on religion or politics or sports or the weather or … you name it. […]
1. The 59-Second Apologist: What is truth?
A Look at Fraternite’s Thesis
My essay “Is ‘God’s not Dead’ a modern classic?” elicited some interesting replies. Perhaps the most interesting (certainly the most robust) came from Fraternite. The core of his response is what I call “Fraternite’s Thesis” (FT): (FT): Objective facts are claims about the physical properties of objects; i.e. they are correspondently true independent of the human […]
Must you set aside your beliefs when addressing problems with them?
Yesterday in “Let’s talk about violence: Discussions on the Bible” I noted an upcoming church engagement I have addressing the problem of violence in the church and I noted more widely the importance of encouraging churches to engage in honest and open discussions about biblical violence. The Atheist Missionary commented: “Kudos to you for not […]
Loftus admits Boghossian doesn’t care about truth. I call that bogusian!
In the discussion thread to “John W. Loftus defends Peter Boghossian” Mr. Loftus provided yet another “defense” of A Manual for Creating Atheists. He writes: “Boghossian does indeed use rhetoric to his advantage. I like it because I agree with him that Christianity is baseless. He’s writing to motivate those of us who agree with […]
Do churches really care about truth?
“2 As was his custom, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and proving that the Messiah had to suffer and rise from the dead. “This Jesus I am proclaiming to you is the Messiah,” he said. 4 Some of the Jews were persuaded and joined […]
Is Edward Snowden a traitor?
Is Edward Snowden a traitor to the United States? The United States government thinks so. Today Secretary of State John Kerry labelled him a “traitor to his country.” Really? Consider Jan. She is best friends with Susie. Now Susie has started dating Troy. Susie thinks everything is fine with their relationship. What she doesn’t know […]
Do naturalists have more to lose? If not, why are they crucifying Thomas Nagel?
Matt DeStefano wrote a response to my article “Do atheists simply want to know the truth? Does anybody?” titled “Do Christians have more to lose?” Matt starts out agreeing with my observation that academics can become emotionally and personally invested in positions they defend and as a result, the pursuit of a particular thesis and […]
How can Christianity be the only true religion?
I was asked to share my thoughts on this question today, though as you can probably guess I’ve heard this one before. People often leap to the task of answering a question like this without first taking a breath and examining the question itself. But what does it even mean to ask if Christianity is […]
33,000 denominations, Oy vey!
The 30,000 (or 33,000) Christian denominations often comes up in conversation with atheists as it did in the thread for “God or Godless and a Tippling Philosopher (Part 2)” when John Grove wrote: “The fact that Christendom is divided into some 33,000+ denominations and debate every doctrine and fundamental of the faith merely shows me that […]
Dumb lies
The other day my friend lied to me. As far as lies go it was pretty banal, but it bothered him enough that he let me know later. The following exchange provides a parallel of the kind of lie committed by my friend. Fred: “Hey Bill, how much did you pay for your new motorbike?” […]
