On October 26, 2012, a post appeared on a blog titled “The Dead Author’s Club” by “Christine” (her last name does not appear on the post) titled “Fetal personhood and criminalizing abortion: a prosecutor’s perspective.” The blog had nothing to do with dead authors, and to Christine’s credit she explained this from the outset. Instead, she wanted to express her thoughts about … [Read more...]
Hilary Clinton, Human Rights, Gay Rights, and God
Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, is evidently not a moral-relativist or a multi-culturalist. She has stated that “gay rights are human rights, and human rights are gay rights,” and she’s so sure about this that she’s imposing this equation on the rest of the world. This means that human rights - moral absolutes – ought to take precedence over the laws and traditions of the … [Read more...]
What Caused God?
Adam: Chris, earlier in our conversation you said that physical reality must've been caused by something—either by God or by something like God. Right? Chris: Yeah, that’s right. Adam: That’s all very well. But then what caused God? Chris: I’m not entirely sure I understand your question. Can you elaborate a bit? Adam: Well, take the so-called argument for a … [Read more...]
On the statement that "we are all atheists"
"We are all atheists to other religions, we [atheists] just take it one step further." The phrase initially has some kind of shock value, and then it gets you thinking. As a Christian, it may have you thinking, "Wow, I never thought of it that way... maybe there is something to this 'atheism' thing." As an atheist, it may have you saying "Yeah, you Christians are just as … [Read more...]
"If You Don't Want God, You'd Better Have a Multiverse"
Late in 2008 Discover Magazine published an article that contains one of the clearest reasons any scientist has ever stated for favoring multiverse theory. I encourage you to follow this through to the end for the key statement, and then ask yourself: is he reasoning from science or from theology? Discover Magazine tackled the fine-tuning problem in a December 2008 article … [Read more...]
Conspiracy Theory
Many today are obsessed with conspiracy theories. They believe that hidden from view those with great power and influence manipulate everything for their personal gain. Behind wars, economic disasters, disease lies the guiding hand of an unseen group of politicians and bankers who really rule the world. They think there is a double-game; a powerful group of kingmakers and … [Read more...]
The Discrepancies of Bart Ehrman Examined
In his debate against William Lane Craig on “Is There Historical Evidence for the Resurrection of Jesus?” Bart Ehrman gives a laundry list of alleged discrepancies in the Gospel accounts of the Resurrection (transcript here). Ehrman argues that the Gospels are not reliable as history because of these discrepancies. Detailed examination, however, will show that Ehrman’s alleged … [Read more...]
The Devil’s Delusion by David Berlinski – A Book Review
Bias. In order to undercut an unpleasant argument, just claim that prejudicial self-interest blinds another person from seeing the error of their ways. So what to make of Dr. Berlinksi, with a Ph.D. from Princeton and time spent as a postdoctoral fellow in mathematics and molecular biology at Columbia University, who opens his critique of the New Atheists by claiming: Here it … [Read more...]
Fallacy Friday: Petitio Principii (Begging the Question)
For the last few Fridays I have been publishing a blog series on logical fallacies. This begs the question, what fallacy will I discuss today? The above sentence illustrates how the phrase “begs the question” is commonly misused. To test how pervasive this misuse is I typed “this begs the question” into Google and limited it to New Zealand; every single result on the first … [Read more...]
"Insurgent": Wars, Factions, and Forgiveness
“You said you were waiting?” says Caleb. “What were you waiting for, exactly?” “For the world to fall apart,” Edward says, “And now it has.” _________________________________________________________________________ Veronica Roth’s Divergent introduced us to a utopia gone terribly wrong. Society has been divided into factions, each focusing on a particular character quality or … [Read more...]