Religious epistemology is one of the frequent targets of our secular friends. They might suggest that the way we come to learn our beliefs are not likely to produce true knowledge. This is a point that we should take to heart. As believers, we should do our epistemic duty. We should not believe things merely because we prefer to believe them. This is relevant to the notion that religious belief functions as a crutch for weak-minded people who cannot bear reality. Again, I think there is some truth to that.…
Category: Answering Atheists Questions
Explaining Theological Controversies To Our Atheist Friends
There are times when an employer would almost look unfavorably on a candidate who had direct experience in the industry. The candidate would have learned a certain way of doing things and it would be more difficult to unlearn that approach than it would be to train somebody else. The same general principle can be applied in theological controversies. Sometimes our atheist friends were brought up in Christian homes. When they try to criticize the Christian faith, they might overlook a few careful theological nuances. We might benefit from explaining…
Turning The Tables on The Moral Argument? (Answering An Atheist Objection)
Our lives are very much ethic-centric. We typically try to cut immoral people out of our lives. If we do something morally unjustified, we often find ways to justify ourselves or make amends lest we live in a tumultuous contradiction. That is why the moral argument is a favorite among Christian apologists. But in a recent debate with Kent Hovind, the atheist YouTuber Negation of P tried to turn the tables. He suggested that if Christianity is true, we would have no basis for our moral duties, and in fact,…
Assessing A Few Really Lame Alleged Bible Contradictions
I typically do not write about alleged Bible contradictions because there are more interesting things to talk about. There is also the fact that on many atheist blogs, anything that could pass as a contradiction at first glance will make the big list, and to try to respond to all of them would a herculean task. However, I am afraid it is largely a wasted effort, because there are other models of biblical inspiration that are perfectly compatible with Christianity. Some evangelical, orthodox Christians think that there are or could…
Is Christian Belief Just Wish-Fulfillment? Alvin Plantinga’s Assessment of Freud
Do you ever wonder why people believe the things that they do? If you do not share those beliefs, then you might be inclined to assign nefarious or otherwise unsavory reasons for these beliefs. The psychology of religious thinking is of particular interest. Most religious people never actually see a miracle or anything transcendent invading the physical world. All that we can see is nature. It would seem almost like common sense to believe only what our eyes and ears report. Yet there is this impending desire to believe that…
Assessing Graham Oppy’s Book, The Best Argument Against God
As Graham Oppy pointed out somewhere in The Best Argument Against God, there are thoughtful, reflective people on both sides of every argument. Unfortunately, most people (atheists and theists) are only familiar with shallow, popular level arguments and they often wield the deadly combination of arrogance and ignorance. This can lead to frustration on both sides, as both sides come to think that this is a problem exclusively with the other side. In truth, it is a problem with human beings, as most of us do not critically examine our…
How To Avoid Indoctrinating Children With Mathematics And Christianity
The term indoctrination has a very negative stigma. When people hear that phrase, they will think of parents telling their children what to believe and how to think. They think of religious zealots who are just creating more clones of themselves to perpetuate their religion for generations. When those children get older, they will teach their children how to be clones as well. But the problem will have more latitude than mere cloning (as disturbing as that seems to be). They will suggest that providing children with a religious education…
Why ‘Who Created God?’ Is My Example of A Thoughtless Question
There are some sophisticated atheists out there. Intellectuals with beards who write books, engage with the nuances of the Christian faith, understand Calvinism, trinitarian theology, the gospel and the different interpretations of soteriology. These sophisticated atheists will roll their eyes when hear somebody spouting a one-liner from The God Delusion. They will repudiate the movement that is often referred to as New Atheism. As I pointed out in my article The Case Against New Atheism, the New Atheists are not sophisticated. In their style of argumentation, ignorance and behavior, they…
Why Is What We Believe In The Privacy of Our Mind So Important?
Christians share the gospel. During Jesus’ public ministry, he told men to repent and believe the gospel, because the Kingdom of God was near. But repentance is about changing your attitude. When somebody repents, she will change her mind about sin and about Christ, submitting herself to the gospel. It is something that happens internally, in the blink of an eye, and it is the free gift of God. When Christians share the gospel, there is a sense in which we want men to change their mind, knowing that if…
Does The Old Testament Portray God As Evil?
Throughout their poetry, the psalmists would contemplate the character of God. They would marvel about his wisdom, strength, glory, and his righteousness. Even in times of turmoil, they would write what we find in Psalm 145:17. “The LORD is righteous in all His ways And kind in all His deeds.” Psalm 89:14 says, “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne; Lovingkindness and truth go before You.” God is constantly contrasted against wicked men. While men will deceive us, betray our trust, persecute us without cause, the psalmists believed…
Answering Dexter’s Questions About Christianity
In the Showtime hit Dexter, the lead character by the same name suffered from a sociopathic personality. With that came the urge to express his inner-rage against other people. It was described throughout the series as something like an addiction. He felt a need to kill in the same way that people feel the need to smoke cigarettes. With the help of his father, Dexter developed a code that would help him to avoid getting caught by the police or bringing people to harm who did not deserve it. This…
Is God A Good Explanation For Anything? A Response To Matt Dillahunty
In defending the Christian faith, apologists will use arguments leading to conclusions that have theistic significance. Typically, they will lead to something like, “God.” God is thought to be the best explanation for a wide range of phenomenon. However, if the concept of God has no explanatory power, then the apologetic arguments would be undermined and unjustified. In answering the question, “Why are supernatural explanations inferior?” Matt Dillahunty made a case against the explanatory resources within a theistic system. Mr. Dillahunty believes that we cannot appeal to God to explain…
How Do You Know That The Bible Is God’s Word?
There are certain aspects of the Christian worldview that many people find objectionable. The man with the unregenerate heart will not enjoy hearing that Jesus Christ is the only way to salvation. The individual who aspires for moral autonomy will posit a form of relativism, suggesting that you cannot impose your morals upon them. The doctrine of Hell, the depravity of man and the need for forgiveness repel us. This has led the people of this generation to challenge the foundation for all of it. If you can compromise the…
5 Reasons Santa Probably Does Not Exist
The Christmas tradition that we see today did not just pop into being in its’ fullest form. People did not wake up one day and place a pine tree in their living room and convoke the big man in a red suit. It is similar to many other social customs and holidays. It evolved over a long period of times with minor variations and mutations, eventually becoming what we know as Christmas. However the Christmas tradition would seem bland and lame without the towering and beloved figure known as Santa…
If God Designed The Universe, Why Is There Poor Design?
The concept of unintelligent design is a response to the creationist movement and philosophy of intelligent design. It proposes that there are too many flaws in the universe to have been created by an intelligent agent. If this argument is successful, it leads to the conclusion that an omniscient and omnipotent and omnibenevolent creator is not the cause of these things. Yet it does raise an interesting point. As we render our argument that the universe is designed, how can we explain that there are some things that are designed…
In Defense Of The Moral Argument: A Response To Dan Linford
Dan Linford recently published an article about the moral argument, stating that it was guilty of the is/ought fallacy. While I was interested in the topic, I did not respond directly to Linford because I was more interested in rendering a general response to the argument. So I did some research on this objection and composed an independent article. Thinking that it was a response directly to him, Linford made a point to take time and respond to my article and demonstrate that despite my objections, the moral argument is…
Is The Moral Argument Guilty Of The ‘Is/Ought’ Fallacy?
It is often said by Christian apologists that the atheist cannot live consistently within the framework of their worldview. They will adhere to their ethical convictions and act as though they really were binding. They will object to the evil in the world and labor to make the world a better place. As such, atheists and non-believers are often good and moral people. That is not contended. The contention of the Christian apologist is rather that atheists have no right to make ethical claims. So the argument goes, if one…
Does Free Will Solve The Problem Of Evil?
Does free will solve the problem of evil? Burdened by the issue of the evil in the world, many Christians will turn to free will. God allows men to make immoral decisions, even when it brings about suffering, because he wanted us to have free will. He wanted us to turn to him freely in love, and in general, he just wanted us to have the gift of libertarian freedom as we inhabit the earth. But since men are free to choose either good or evil, some will inevitably choose…
Would A Loving God Send Anyone To Hell?
As Christians present the gospel, they are often confronted by difficult philosophical quagmires that they cannot find their way to wriggle out of. Not the least of these is the issue of Hell. Would a loving God send anyone to Hell? So the skeptic will ask. For the Christian, when presenting the gospel message will emphasize two things: God’s love. He loves you so much that he sent his Son to be the sacrifice for your sins. Yet out of the other side of their mouth, they will emphasize that…
5 Answers To The Question, “Why Doesn’t God Heal Amputees?”
Sometimes religious people will claim that they were healed of cancer, or some other illness. They will have great joy that this sickness has departed their body. Then the atheist, almost in an attempt to steal that joy and put other people down, will come in and say, “ah, so God healed you. But why doesn’t God heal amputees?” The implication is that what the Christian will call a miracle, is not really a miracle. Why doesn’t God heal amputees, and show a real miracle that we can all see…