I doubt there’s much disagreement that it’s the number one argument in play today. In debating the issue of same-sex marriage, and homosexual behavior in general, a very common line of reasoning used by our culture to defend homosexuality is that people are born with their sexual orientation. In Christianity, those espousing a pro-gay theology oftentimes declare, “God made me … [Read more...]
The Establishment Clause, Religious Expression and a "Christian Nation"
I personally do not care for the term “Christian Nation” because it implies a Church-State union that is contrary to the Establishment Clause of the United States Constitution. History teaches us that whenever religion has become politicized, it has been abused. We see this phenomenon in the history of Christianity and in many Islamic nations today. However, I also believe that … [Read more...]
Philosophy in the Abortion Issue, Part III
Now we’ve seen what goes into an argument, and how to possibly respond to an argument. We’ve also seen some arguments that commit logical fallacies, which is simply an error in reasoning. Now we’ll look at some arguments that are simply bad arguments, from both sides of the abortion fence. … [Read more...]
Apologetics: Fighting Last Year's Battles, Last Year's Way
I was privileged to lead the True Reason project earlier this year, which I undertook because I thought it would be good to show how weak New Atheist leaders are in reasoning, even as they try to feature it as their great strength. I think the book has probably done a lot of good. I hope so, anyway. But I am coming to see that it's a skirmish being fought on an old … [Read more...]
Year of Biblical Mockery
Lately, Rachel Held Evans has released "A Year of Biblical Womanhood." What are we to make of this book? Let's talk about it. This book has been quite the talk lately and I’ve had an interest in it particularly since on Chick-Fil-A day, Evans came out with a post urging Christians to not participate and feeling like she was on the edge of apostasy because of this. This is an … [Read more...]
The Issue at the Heart of the Abortion Debate
I'm going to make what may initially seem to be contentious statements, so read the post to contextualize: If the unborn is not a person, then abortion is morally permissible, and it doesn't matter what you do with the unborn. If the unborn is a person, then abortion is morally impermissible, and the unborn must be protected. … [Read more...]
Philosophy in the Abortion Issue, Part II
Now that we’ve learned what goes into making an argument, let’s talk about how to respond to an argument. First, a bit about why philosophy is necessary. … [Read more...]
Philosophy in the Abortion Issue, Part I
Science can be a wonderful tool in the pro-life advocate’s arsenal. However, science can’t dictate morality, it can only inform morality. Science can tell us that something we are harming or killing is human; science can’t tell us that it’s wrong to kill that human. So while we can demonstrate scientifically that the unborn are living human organisms from fertilization, we must … [Read more...]
Secularism's Ongoing Debt to Christianity
In his post in the online journal American Thinker called “Secularism Ongoing Debt to Christianity,” Secular Atheist and author John D. Steinrucken made quite a surprising admission. One only need to read the title of the article to see that what followed was a drastic departure from the normal anti-religious rhetoric coming from more prominent Atheists and Secularists. And … [Read more...]
Melancholia: Hollow People, Hollow Worlds
"The human race is just chemical scum on a moderate size planet, orbiting round a very average star in the outer suburb of one among a billion galaxies." - Stephen Hawking, 1995, in "Reality on the Rocks: Beyond our Ken." I saw the movie version of Hawking's perspective yesterday. Melancholia, a highly praised film from Lars Von Trier, follows the imploding lives of the … [Read more...]