Apologetics to the Glory of God

Category: Authors

  • The New Atheism: Logical Positivism for the Masses

    Over the course of the last year or so I have become increasingly convinced that the so-called New Atheism is merely a popular form of the now thoroughly rebutted, outdated and extinct radical empiricist philosophy of logical positivism.

    In the last several weeks I have happened upon a few atheist sites that make the connection explicit.

    Some time ago I left a comment on Triablogue in which I claimed, “As classical foundationalists and naive evidentialists, fundamentalist atheists are the flat-earthers of philosophy.” (Dustin Segers later used the “flat-earthers of philosophy” phrase in one of his exchanges.)

    The same is …

  • Forty Arabic Words

    وَقَوْلِهِمْ إِنَّا قَتَلْنَا الْمَسِيحَ عِيسَى ابْنَ مَرْيَمَ رَسُولَ اللَّهِ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ وَمَا صَلَبُوهُ وَلَٰكِنْ شُبِّهَ لَهُمْ ۚ وَإِنَّ الَّذِينَ اخْتَلَفُوا فِيهِ لَفِي شَكٍّ مِنْهُ ۚ مَا لَهُمْ بِهِ مِنْ عِلْمٍ إِلَّا اتِّبَاعَ الظَّنِّ ۚ وَمَا قَتَلُوهُ يَقِينًا – Surah 4:157

    ζω δε ουκετι εγω ζη δε εν εμοι χριστος ο δε νυν ζω εν σαρκι εν πιστει ζω τη του υιου του θεου του αγαπησαντος με και παραδοντος εαυτον υπερ εμου – Gal 2:20

    As this video reminds us; there a billion people on this planet who denied that Christ ever died – due to 40 Arabic words.

    That they

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  • Finally an articulate, enlightened comment from a non-Christian blogger…

    [Chris Bolt] is probably trying to find a space in his bible that would accept him writing in his answers in crayon. Sadly those Pre-schooler crayons are so large at the tip they don’t quite look the same as the print in the actual bible… Hey I got an idea, he can grab one of those Children’s Bibles that you used to see on late night infomercials… that always seemed to bother me, why would they market a product for kids to insomniacs and drug addicts? Or are Christian children predisposed to insomnia (due to fear of God coming out

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  • Admitting the Possibility

    (4:50) “Please pray for us? It seems to me as though Joshua’s prayer leading up to this debate, and my prayer, are a bit different. I’ll let you follow his posts so that you can check that out. My prayer for the upcoming debate is not that what I think is the truth will in fact be made out to be true. Because I quite frankly admit the possibility that I might be wrong about this; I don’t think that I am, and I think that the Scripture is clearly in support of the position that I’ll be advancing. But

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  • The FAQ Section: A Reminder

    This is just a friendly reminder to new site commenters as well as visitors to our chat channel. As it says in the comment section, please make sure you have read through the FAQ section before making a comment, or asking a question in the chat channel. Obviously, we haven’t addressed every objection there is – but we do have at least a general context given there for most objections, and their general categories, which should inform our mutual discussion.

    This section can be visited by clicking the “FAQ” tab up top – if there is a subject that you’d …

  • While I’m feeling cranky…

    Let me note that the norm from here on out on my posts will be for the comments to be closed. If you don’t like that, or want to address something that I write, then you can get your own blog (they are actually available for free on the Internet) or contact the site through some other means. I find that most people are skimming the posts and then writing on something that has already been addressed or they are writing about something totally unrelated to the post. Most comments are far too long and far too unhelpful for me …

  • In the Vein of “Everything you ever learned was wrong”

    There are the Jehovah’s Witness claims that the entire Christian church has always been wrong about, well, almost everything. Except for those few ECFs they could massage into some sort of superficial agreement, of course. Mormonism likewise asserts that all churches ceased to be true churches rather quickly following Christ’s ascension. Islam, with it’s idea of scriptural supercessionism and their revisionist version of what the Scriptures actually are, or taught, have a similar view of Christianity as a whole. It’s much the same with any other warmed-over historical error – be they large, as the wholesale replacement religions seen above …

  • Life and Death, Blessing and Curse

    The case being made by the annihilationists we have interacted with has certain presuppositional commitments which affect how they read Scripture. The first entails that we view death as an atheist would – empirically. The second entails that we read Scripture as if these descriptions it gives are meant to describe empirical processes or events. The third is that these descriptions are of the process, not describing the nature of the one who punishes. The fourth is that the nature of God is to be understood immanentistically.

    As we dealt with the commentary concerning “Think of how an atheist views …

  • Summer Reading Suggestions

    Here are some books I have found helpful for various reasons. They are not covenantal or presuppositional books per se, nor will you agree with everything in them. Far from it. But they will help you think deeply and critically about theology, philosophy, and apologetics even though most of them are written on an introductory level.

    A Shot of Faith to the Head – http://www.amazon.com/Shot-Faith-Head-Confident-Believer/dp/1595554343/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338582505&sr=1-1

    Where the Conflict Really Lies – http://www.amazon.com/Where-Conflict-Really-Lies-Naturalism/dp/0199812098/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338582587&sr=1-1

    Our Idea of God – http://www.amazon.com/Our-Idea-God-Thomas-Morris/dp/1573831018/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1338582547&sr=1-1

    Divinity and Humanity – http://www.amazon.com/Divinity-Humanity-Incarnation-Reconsidered-Theology/dp/052169535X…

  • Moral and Cultural Apologetics

    Note the following research:

    http://stackblog.wordpress.com/2012/05/27/its-just-not-true-american-evangelicals-do-not-in-fact-behave-as-badly-as-everyone-else/

    HT: Steve Hays

    But note also an apologetic work premised on the same sort of argument:

    http://www.amazon.com/Moral-Apologetics-Contemporary-Christians-Religious/dp/0805464204/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338579716&sr=8-1

    It seems to me that an apologetic which points out the moral and cultural failings of unbelievers coupled with the moral and cultural solidity of Christians is precisely the type of apologetic which will do the most damage to the so-called New Atheism. I’m not talking about an air-tight argument, nor do I think that the argument can or should stand on its own, but let’s face it: non-Christians don’t have much going for them in terms of …