One of the biggest problems for Christian apologetics is what to do with the problem of evil. God is supposedly all-good, all-wise, all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. What’s more, He is also supposed to be the only truly self-existent Being. Everything else that exists was either created directly by God, or by a chain of cause-and-effect …
Monthly Archive: November 2011
Nov 18 2011
Gospel Disproof #12: The FISH Symbol
One of the oldest symbols of the Christian faith is the fish, chosen both for its simplicity of design and for the fact that its Greek name happens to make a handy acronym for the Greek phrase meaning “Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior.” I think it’s time we re-purposed both the symbol and the …
Nov 17 2011
Sunset
“So why don’t you believe in God?” “I just don’t see any evidence for it.” “What are you looking for? What would it take to convince you that God was real?” “I dunno. What would it take to convince you that the sun sets in the north?” “The sun sets in the west.” “I know. …
Nov 16 2011
Investigating the Marian apparition at Zeitoun
[Originally published Feb. 9, 2009] [A commenter named] Jayman brings up a fascinating subject in a comment on my post about the frequency of divine intervention. Starting in 1968, and continuing over a 2-3 year period, an apparition of the Virgin Mary appeared over the Coptic Church of Saint Mary in Zeitoun, Egypt. It was …
Nov 15 2011
Contextual gullibility
Following up on yesterday’s “Rabbit Math,” post, let’s look at the interesting question of why people revert to using rabbit math when they have a far superior math at their disposal. Granted, it’s harder than rabbit math, but still, you can do a lot better than rabbit math without getting into theoretical physics. People can …
Nov 14 2011
Gospel Disproof #11: Rabbit math
In the world of Watership Down, the largest number in rabbit language is five, because rabbits can only count to four and thus anything more than that is “five.” The author doesn’t go into rabbit math in detail, but if we think about it, this is really a pretty simple mathematical system. The sum of …
Nov 12 2011
Why evangelicals believe weird things
There’s an awesome article over at scienceandreligiontoday.com, with the irresistible title of “Why Evangelicals Believe Weird Things.” Lay evangelicals evaluate the arguments made by “experts” in a manner different from many non-evangelicals. The latter will often ask: How prestigious is her academic pedigree? Is she representing the consensus of similarly credentialed experts? Insofar as I …
Nov 11 2011
Christian bigots unhappy over bad publicity
Writing for The New American, Dave Bohon seems unhappy about the negative publicity a certain Baptist university has been receiving lately. A Baptist university in Georgia is receiving abundant media attention for a “Personal Lifestyle Statement“ it recently updated, that requires faculty and staff to adhere to a set of biblical standards that include shunning …
Nov 10 2011
The Dawkins/Lewis debate
Looks like the fine folks at “Truthbomb Apologetics” have set up an impromptu “debate” of their own between Richard Dawkins and C. S. Lewis. It has this in its favor: it’s short. Richard Dawkins: “The universe we observe has precisely the properties we should expect if there is, at bottom, no design, no purpose, no …
Nov 09 2011
The First and Second Amendments
Slate magazine is sponsoring a debate over the question, “Would the world be better off without religion?” That’s an interesting topic in and of itself, but I had a brief bout of Free Association Syndrome that launched me off on an intriguing tangent. I look at the question “Would the world be better off without …
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