A Friendly Chat With An Atheist

/ C. L. Bolt

Chris:  Are you a believer?

Atheist:  nope

an atheist

Chris:  Ah.

Well it’s nice to have one of those around every now and then.

We have to get Christians from somewhere after all. 😀

So I presume you have heard the Christian Gospel?

Atheist:  yup

Go to mass… et cetera 😉

Chris:  I’m guessing that you’re joking. 🙂

Atheist:  I am

Chris:  So why are you an atheist?

Atheist:  I don’t think that any spirits exist

be they gods, ghosts or anything else

Chris:  That’s the definition of your position then.

Why do you hold it?

Atheist:  I don’t see …

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You’re Only Christian Because…

/ McFormtist / 2 Comments

So you’ve played a couple hands with your atheist friend by now. When he plays his 3 tens, you reveal a Full House. Suddenly, on the next hand he has a 2 of hearts, and Jack of spades, a Wild card, and a Level 57 Charizard. You pause, look at him sideways, and he grins back at you, basking in your inability to respond to his awesome play. He’s revealed, so he thinks, a deus ex machina (he seems to have lots of those). It’s a play sure to throw anybody off who isn’t prepared or knowledgeable about the game. …

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The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (3 of 10)

/ C. L. Bolt / 18 Comments

Covenantal apologetics have virtually no place in the academy.

It’s not that they shouldn’t have a place in the academy. It’s just that they don’t.

But why would we expect anything different? Covenantal apologetics are firmly grounded in the Christian worldview and are used to cast down every thought exemplifying its antithesis. It is not merely that non-Christians will misunderstand or reject covenantal apologetics in an intellectual sense, but rather that they will not even like them. So we should not expect to see covenantal apologetics pulling up a chair next to Naturalistic Atheism or Thomistic Christianity in the …

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One Less God?

/ RazorsKiss

With the recent controversy over McFormtist’s recent post, I figured this video might be a good reminder that this subject is nothing new, nor does it lack a prior context. Ignoring this context does nothing to advance the discussion, nor does a simple mention of Roman references to Christians as “atheists” get to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter is that the claim being expressed is, at base, an appeal to neutrality which we both do not and cannot accept – an insistence on the equal footing of all “gods” where the atheist is rejecting …

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Answering the Evidentialist Objection

/ C. L. Bolt

Introduction

Oversimplification. The unbeliever, and the New Atheist in particular, thrive on it. The situation is no different when it comes to the strong demands for “evidence” in the context of apologetic debate. “Not enough evidence, God, not enough evidence” was the plea Bertrand Russell planned to use when he came face to face with God. I suspect it did not go over well.

Yet the loudest non-Christian voices among us continue to parrot Russell’s silly sentiment. It has even been given a name. The “evidentialist objection.” It is quite frequently captured in the contention that Christians should immediately provide …

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Dear Atheists: Please Get Better Objections

/ C. L. Bolt / 4 Comments

Joe is an atheist who takes issue with my asking another commenter about supporting evidence for his claims. When I asked the other visitor, “what’s your evidence that only evidence matters?” Joe responded, “Sir, you may not be stupid, but this phrase is nonsense. YOU use evidence to support everything.”

Apparently Joe buys into the idea that only evidence matters, that everyone uses evidence to support everything, and even that every claim must be supported with evidence. But if every claim must be supported by evidence, then the claim, “every claim must be supported with evidence” must also be supported …

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The Recent Rise of Covenantal Apologetics (2 of 10)

/ C. L. Bolt / 2 Comments

Douglas Wilson contends that there are, “…two tenets (of modern feminism): 1. men are jerks, and 2. women should strive by all means to become like them.” So who is this Doug Wilson? He is the witty guy who made the similar claim that, “There are two tenets of atheism: One, there is no God. Two, I hate him.” Wilson holds undergraduate degrees in Classical Studies and Philosophy and a Master’s degree in Philosophy from the University of Idaho. He serves in Idaho as the pastor of Christ Church and is a professor at New Saint Andrews College (which he …

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Kinism – Essentially Human After All (not a Daft Punk song)

/ defectivebit / 14 Comments

There is an aberration in Presbyterianism that seems to rear its head now and again by a few individuals that jump into our chat channel. This aberration is called Kinism. It is not a view held by many within Presbyterianism and those that do hold it seem to follow from the Rushdoony line of thought. This post and those in this series will be asking questions for clarification and or addressing issues delineated at the so-called Christian Kinism blog.

Accessed 06/24/2012 01:00 UTC:

2. That all people are essentially humans, created by the hands of Almighty God and therefore they

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Theistic Arguments and the Necessity of God

/ C. L. Bolt

There are many different types of necessity.

Logical Necessity and the Ontological Argument

A logically necessary entity exists in every possible world. (A “possible world” is just a logically possible state of affairs.) That is, there is no logically possible state of affairs in which a logically necessary entity does not exist.

The ontological argument seeks to demonstrate, among other things, that God is a logically necessary entity. Since God is the greatest possible being, there is no logically possible state of affairs in which God does not exist. It is greater for God to exist in every possible …

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