Over the past few years I have occasionally been asked by para-church, church and home-schooling groups to put together a critical thinking or “mini logic” course, with a focus on fallacy spotting, and teach it to their youth. I have done this from time to time and have often found as many adults in attendance as youth; the demand for this sort of thing seems to be fairly high … [Read more...]
A Neighborhood Sidewalk Logic Lesson
My family and I live in a interesting setting when it comes to our housing. Back in 2003, we literally landed in a townhouse community where the neighborhood has ever reflected a transitional nature. How does it change? Families in renting or leasing scenarios either change residences due to not being able to pay the rent, been evicted because of negligence or not following … [Read more...]
Are the Gospels Based on Eyewitness Testimony? The Test of Personal Names
Are the gospels based on credible eyewitness testimony? This is a question on which modern scholars line up on both sides of the divide. From my point of view, the cumulative case for the gospels being based on the testimony of eyewitnesses is clear and convincing. In his groundbreaking work, Jesus and the Eyewitnesses, Richard Bauckham (professor of New Testament studies at … [Read more...]
Undesigned Scriptural Coincidences: The Ring of Truth
What is an undesigned coincidence? An undesigned coincidence (so-named by J.J. Blunt and first discovered by William Paley) occurs when one account of an event leaves out a bit of information which is filled in, often quite incidentally, by a different account, which helps to answer some natural questions raised by the first. As an argument for the historical veracity of the … [Read more...]
Arguing for Deism?
One curious objection I have seen and heard to arguments for the existence of God is that these arguments apply to deism, not Christianity. For example, Michael, an atheist blogger, writes, “Note that these are effectively arguments for deism, not Christianity!” about the Moral Argument (here). The objection seems to be that an argument for the existence of God (such as the … [Read more...]
Atheists Are People, Too!
Richard Dawkins, Richard Carrier, Barry McGowan, Christopher Hitchens, Bertrand Russell, Madalyn Murray O'Hair -- they all had one thing in common -- they are or were people. They also happen to be or were well-known atheists. I was quite taken with Madalyn Murray O'Hair at one time. I never met her, but had the opportunity to talk with her more than 40 years ago when she was … [Read more...]