Apologetics to the Glory of God

Tag: bad arguments

  • Christianity Hinders Scientific Progress

    It’s truly a tired mantra. Under the pretense that they own a corner on the Market of Reality while ignoring the fact that they are merely presuming upon the efforts of their relatively recent philosophical parents (many of whose principles are derived from the truths of Christianity), the New Atheists, evangelizing from their Holy Bible of Naturalistic Science and Witless Retorts written by their own venerated prophets, proclaim loudly and often, “Christianity hinders scientific progress.” And of course, as is commonly the hazard of religious discourse, there’s a good bit of nuance to hack through.

    First, what is meant by …

  • Overly Pious Apologetic Practitioners

    Often people argue that conversions do not come about through argument. The idea is that faith in the Gospel alone is what saves. We cannot argue anyone into the kingdom. So we should just preach the Gospel.

    The suggestion is superficially insightful. It sounds pious to preach the Gospel. And it is. But imagine preaching the Gospel to those who vocally reject its most basic tenets. Once the Gospel has been preached, and the unbeliever persists in his or her statements to the effect that God does not exist, sin is a psychological trick to get children to behave, Jesus …

  • Models, Frameworks, Circularity, and Blind Faith

    Introduction

    A number of my debate opponents have spoken of “models” or “frameworks.” A model or framework is posited as the basis of knowledge.

    For example, one model or framework claims that we may only come to know things through evidence available to the five senses. But the claim that we may only come to know things through evidence available to the five senses is not itself accepted upon the basis of evidence available to the five senses!

    Assumption

    Some will respond that a model or framework does not have to follow its own rules. A model or framework is …

  • Jamin Hubner Reviews “Biblical Apologetics” By Clifford McManis

    http://www.realapologetics.org/blog/2012/11/20/review-of-clifford-mcmaniss-biblical-apologetics/

  • A Response to Jeremiah Bannister (paleocrat)

    I will be responding to this post  – http://jeremiahbannister.com/?p=154 – which is written in response to my post here – https://choosinghats.org/2012/11/canon-and-roman-catholicism.

    Justin Scheiber of Reasonable Doubts recently linked to one of my posts on the canon of Scripture. I do not really have a way of following Justin, although I did notice an announcement that he is available for speaking engagements and debates. Perhaps one day he will debate me, but I am not holding my breath. In any event, Justin linked to me, and Jeremiah Bannister followed that link. Bannister is better known as “paleocrat.”

    Some of you …

  • An Atheist Explanation of Thanksgiving

    I do wonder sometimes what is going on in an atheist’s head.

    Take this article for example:

    An Atheist at the Thanksgiving table

    First, who is this fellow’s target audience? Was somebody arguing that atheists do not have anything to be thankful for? I have never heard such an argument. And yet the bulk of this article is apparently aimed at showing that, “Atheists have plenty to be thankful for — without the need to include anything supernatural or non-existent on our lists.” Okay. Yeah. Atheists do have plenty to be thankful for. Glad we have established that!

    Second, …

  • 30,000 Protestant Denominations

    The next time a Roman Catholic gives you an astronomical number of Protestant denominations, ask him or her to name them for you.

    RC: Presbyterian, Baptist, Pentecostal, 7th Day, Mormon, JW, Lutheran… and 29,983 others! Simple!

    Chris: You missed two out of seven of those; how likely is it that you will get the other 29,983 right?

    RC: Quaker, Assembly of God, Church of Nazarene, Evangelical.

    Oh come now… whether you call those two groups Christian or not doesn’t make them NOT Christian. Their followers call themselves Christians just as you call yourself a Christian….

    However… their addition to the …

  • Canon and Roman Catholicism

    RC: I’m still waiting for James White to explain which Canon of Scripture I’m allowed to use when if I take up sola scriptura.

    Chris: Canon is a function of Scripture. Those things which I have written are in the canon of my works. Similarly those things which God has breathed out constitute the canon of Scripture.

    RC: Chris… what I meant… am I permitted to use the Scripture comprised of 73 books, or the one comprised of only 66 books? Of course both versions are God breathed, inherent, and authoritative.

    Obviously this is all hypothetical as I do not… …

  • It’s Circular Because It’s Circular

    The charge that presuppositionalism is “circular” must be one of the dumbest objections I have ever heard.

    No really. Think about it for just a moment.

    You hear the accusation again and again that presuppositional apologetics are “circular.” The implication is that the charge of circularity in view here constitutes an objection against presuppositional apologetics. A fatal objection, even. So a logical point is being made. A fallacy is in view.

    Presuppositional Apologetics Can’t Be Circular

    But it should be noted right away that “presuppositional apologetics” can never be circular. Neither the label “presuppositional apologetics” nor the discipline the label …

  • Application and Practicality

    There seems to be, at least in my experience, a common objection to Covenantal apologetics that goes something like this. Emphasizing all of these arcane and/or obscure concepts, focusing on theology proper; it just doesn’t address the real world practically. There is no application to be made – it’s all theoretical. There are a few variants, and I’ll bring up a couple. First, the objection is made that we are being “obscure” – Bahnsen, as you may know, addresses this in “Always Ready,” along with an admonishment against “obscurantist arrogance.” Here’s an excerpt.

    “In the last study we heard three