Almost five years ago, I published my "20+ Questions for Theists." They say hindsight is 20/20. After reading the numerous comments in the combox, I can see that I was not as clear as I would have liked to have been. So I'd like to offer a clarification before reposting the list of questions, which has now grown to 25 (or so).Many people incorrectly assumed that the list was supposed to function as a list of "gotcha!" questions. Even our own Keith Parsons commented, "Any Bible-believing … [Read more...]
Video of Lowder’s Debate with Frank Turek on Naturalism vs. Theism
January 1, 2017 by Leave a Comment
Topic: "What Better Explains Reality? Naturalism or Theism"Link: https://youtu.be/ENZYEPpR2JcLinks to Specific Elements of Debate:Moderator's Introduction: https://youtu.be/ENZYEPpR2Jc Lowder's Opening Statement (20 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENZYEPpR2Jc#t=02m23s Turek's Opening Statement (20 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENZYEPpR2Jc#t=20m55s Lowder's First Rebuttal (10 minutes): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ENZYEPpR2Jc#t=44m55s Turek's Firs … [Read more...]
The VICTIMs of Christian Apologetics
October 1, 2016 by Leave a Comment
My latest video, "The VICTIMs of Christian Apologetics: The Things Apologists Falsely Say Depend on God, But, if God Exists, God Depends on Them," is now available on YouTube. It is a narration of some of the many hundreds of PowerPoint slides I created in preparation for my recent debate with Frank Turek on naturalism vs. theism.This video presentation is a (roughly) 2 hour 30 minute critique of Frank Turek's latest book, Stealing from God: Why Atheists Need God to Make Their Case. T … [Read more...]
25 Lines of Evidence Against Theism
June 26, 2016 by Leave a Comment
Refutation of Anna Marie Perez Previous | Index | Next First Paragraph Here is Perez's first paragraph: Atheism is a religion. Atheists act like Dracula confronting a cross when faced with the fact that their beliefs rely solely on faith. They hate the word faith, even though it’s all they’ve got. They try to make the claim that their religion is based on science, although actual science doesn’t support their claims any more than science can prove the existence of God. When they a … [Read more...]
Paul Draper, the Fallacy of Understated Evidence, Theism, and Naturalism
February 14, 2016 by Leave a Comment
(Redated post originally published on 23 November 2011)Paul Draper has usefully identified a fallacy of inductive reasoning he calls the "fallacy of understated evidence." According to Draper, in the context of arguments for theism and against naturalism, proponents of a theistic argument are guilty of this fallacy if they "successfully identify some general fact F about a topic X that is antecedently more likely on theism than on naturalism, but ignore other more specific facts about X, … [Read more...]
Here’s One Way to Resist Naturalistic Arguments: Lack Belief that Matter Exists!
February 12, 2016 by Leave a Comment
A Christian apologist writing under the pseudonym 'InvestigativeApologetics' stated the usual objection to atheism, namely, that it's impossible to prove or give evidence for the non-existence of God. The fact is that atheists who yell that “there is no evidence for God (or Christianity)” are protesting too much, so to speak, and they are, in fact, projecting the weakness of atheism onto theism. For truth be told, it is atheism, at least when in its wide and positive sense, that is the view for … [Read more...]
Naturalistic vs. Supernatural Explanations
August 26, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Take any 'odd' or surprising fact to be explained (e.g., cosmic fine-tuning, origin of life, consciousness, etc.).I continue to be suprised that anyone thinks "God caused/designed/did X for an unknown reason using a mysterious mechanism" is a better explanation than "X has an unknown naturalistic explanation, i.e., X is the result of an impersonal, unknown mechanism" The first option, call it a "personal supernaturalist" (PS) explanation, involves both an unknown reason and an unknown … [Read more...]
G&T Rebuttal, Part 4: Chapter 5
March 18, 2015 by Leave a Comment
Chapter 5. The First Life: Natural Law or Divine Awe? In this chapter, G&T defend a design argument focused on the first life. They also present a variety of objections to scientism and materialism.I will provide a very brief summary of their points, before providing my critique.(i) Argument to Design of the First Life: G&T argue that the origin of the first life is evidence favoring theism over naturalism. They emphasize the following points: (1) all life, including … [Read more...]
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