“My father says those who want power and get it live in terror of losing it. That’s why we have to give power to those who don’t want it.” _________________________________________________________________________ Divergent, the first book in the amazingly popular YA trilogy by Veronica Roth, spent months on bestseller lists and was voted "Favorite Book of 2011" in the … [Read more...]
Fallacy Friday: Division and Composition
Today I want to look at two fallacies, the fallacy of composition and the fallacy of division. These two fallacies are related in that they both mistakenly confuse what is true of the parts with what is true of the whole. The Fallacy of Composition The fallacy of composition involves mistakenly reasoning that what is true of all the parts of something is therefore true of the … [Read more...]
The Dinesh D’Souza Controversy
What can be said in light the Dinesh D’Souza controversy (accusation) (response) (King’s College Resignation)? At the very least, Dinesh began a relationship which led to engagement with Denise Joseph while separated from his wife, Dixie. His filing for divorce was registered with the court on October 4, but he had started the process, which takes time, two weeks before that. … [Read more...]
Apologetics seasoned with grace
I don't know about you but when I'm chatting to someone about Christianity or Philosophy I always appreciate and enjoy the conversations where the person I'm speaking to seems to take a genuine interest in what I'm saying, listens to my points, doesn't constantly interrupt me and takes my point of view seriously even if they disagree with what I'm saying. As human beings there … [Read more...]
Is One Lost Soul More Valuable Than Another?
Over the past few years, I've had increasing numbers of friends and acquaintances becoming involved in foreign missions. I find great blessing in offering practical and prayerful support to their assignments; I greatly admire their obedience to God in answering the call to be fishers of men in poor, often dangerous areas of the world--places where false religion abounds and the … [Read more...]
The Main Problem with the Parable of the Blind Men and the Elephant
The parable of the blind men and the elephant "has crossed between many religious traditions and is part of Jain, Buddhist, Sufi and Hindu lore." One version goes like this: "A number of blind men came to an elephant. Somebody told them that it was an elephant. The blind men asked, ‘What is the elephant like?’ and they began to touch its body. One of them said: 'It is like a … [Read more...]
Resolving Euthyphro's Dilemma
The dialogue known as Euthyphro is recorded by Plato and took place between Euthyphro and Socrates, as Socrates was nearing the time of his trial and execution in 399 B.C.. The famous Euthyphro Dilemma at 10a is only part of this dialogue. We need to distinguish between the dialogue (Euthyphro), which starts out asking for the definition of the Good (a matter of epistemology), … [Read more...]
Know-it-all Syndrome
Here's an all-too-typical story from the front lines of Apologetics. I was once doing some evangelism with a friend on my college campus. We engaged a guy in conversation about God, and things quickly became heated. He was an international student, not at all Christian, and had a more or less pluralist view of religion. He had thought about it just enough that the conversation … [Read more...]
Was Jesus Married? A survey of responses (Updated)
Update 10/16: The gospel of Jesus' wife: a very modern fake by Andrew Brown of The Guardian. There has been a bit of an uproar about a 4th Century Coptic Manuscript which purportedly provides evidence that Jesus had a wife. Well, here are some great responses to the discovery. Reality Check: The "Jesus' Wife" Coptic Fragment- Daniel Wallace, an influential NT scholar, … [Read more...]
An Encounter with Jehovah's Witnesses
It was a bright and cold December morning and I was up to my elbows in bread dough when my doorbell rang. The dog barked at full volume, and my preschool daughter zipped past me as I brushed the flour from my hands and followed her to the door. There waited a tall, professionally dressed, blond young woman, smiling confidently as if she were arriving for a job interview. She … [Read more...]