Mandatory COVID Vaccines & Facebook Fascist Censorship

Last updated on: February 9, 2021 at 7:06 pm By Dave Armstrong

Apparently now it is liberal dogma that no one can possibly decide to not receive a particular vaccine. To not do so is to automatically be a wild-eyed conspiratorialist; perhaps even a “domestic terrorist”! Facebook Big Fascist Brother, in its infinite wisdom, deemed that a post of mine from five days ago, entitled, “Two Separate Thoughts About COVID Vaccines” didn’t “follow” their “community standards.” Presumably, my warning had to do their notice on the [leftist] “Standards” page: COVID-19: Community Standards Updates... Read more

Groundless Gospel of Mark Bashing Systematically Refuted

Last updated on: February 9, 2021 at 11:23 am By Dave Armstrong

I just finished yesterday an exhaustive (over 8,000-word) point-by-point refutation of a wholesale attack on the Gospel of Mark, written by atheist Steven Carr: Pearce’s Potshots #15: Gospel of Matthew vs. Gospel of Mark?. That piece was actually part of a longer diatribe, entitled The Gospel According to Saint Mark: written by another atheist: Vexen Crabtree in 2006. Now I will examine his piece, too, to see if it is any more worthy of belief than Carr’s relentlessly erroneous analysis. Vexen’s words will... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #15: Gospel of Matthew vs. Gospel of Mark?

Last updated on: February 7, 2021 at 12:45 pm By Dave Armstrong

Atheist anti-theist Jonathan M. S. Pearce is the main writer on the blog, A Tippling Philosopher. His “About” page states: “Pearce is a philosopher, author, blogger, public speaker and teacher from Hampshire in the UK. He specialises in philosophy of religion, but likes to turn his hand to science, psychology, politics and anything involved in investigating reality.” . ***** I am replying to the post on Jonathan’s site: Gospel of Mark’s Poor Jewish Knowledge (3-3-21), written mostly by Steven Carr, and extracted from another page. Steven... Read more

Christian Apologetics Methodology: Similarities with Science

Last updated on: February 5, 2021 at 1:09 pm By Dave Armstrong

Christian apologetics is neither dishonest, a “stacked deck”, nor an “evidence-free” methodology, simply because the apologist assumes the truthfulness of Christian beliefs before he or she starts. The fact is that both philosophy and science (as well as mathematics) start from axioms or unproven premises and move on from there. Modern science (especially since Darwin) commences with unproven or incompletely proven hypotheses and then seeks to disprove them (philosopher of science Karl Popper is notable for having stressed this idea of falsifiability).... Read more

“Difficulty” in Understanding the Bible: Hebrew Cultural Factors

Last updated on: February 5, 2021 at 12:33 pm By Dave Armstrong

It’s a very common motif in anti-theist atheist polemics, to say that the Bible appears to be very complicated and inscrutable (and, they wrongly think, ubiquitously contradictory). This shouldn’t be the case — so they argue — if indeed it is a divinely inspired document from an omniscient God, meant to communicate to all human being at all times. One atheist, Eric [see our closely related dialogue immediately prior to this], stated it this way in an atheist combox, in... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #14: Resurrection “Contradictions” #2

Last updated on: February 4, 2021 at 1:39 pm By Dave Armstrong

Atheist anti-theist Jonathan M. S. Pearce is the main writer on the blog, A Tippling Philosopher. His “About” page states: “Pearce is a philosopher, author, blogger, public speaker and teacher from Hampshire in the UK. He specialises in philosophy of religion, but likes to turn his hand to science, psychology, politics and anything involved in investigating reality.” . ***** I am replying to the post on Jonathan’s site, “Contradictions in the Resurrection of Jesus Accounts” (1-31-21): a guest-post written by one David Austin. This is my second... Read more

Atheists, Biblical “Contradictions” & the Plausibility Issue

Last updated on: February 5, 2021 at 12:45 pm By Dave Armstrong

This exchange with atheist Eric came about after he analyzed my recent post, Pearce’s Potshots #13: Resurrection “Contradictions” (?), in which I responded to a “laundry list of 18 alleged contradictions in the biblical accounts, in a neat little chart.” He responded in a combox on the web page of Jonathan M. S. Pearce, called A Tippling Philosopher. His words will be in blue. I will add further exchanges here if they take place in that venue. ***** Allow me to... Read more

Seidensticker Folly #71: “Magic” Spirits & 68% Dark Energy

Last updated on: May 17, 2025 at 4:28 pm By Dave Armstrong

Atheist and anti-theist Bob Seidensticker runs the influential Cross Examined blog. He asked me there, on 8-11-18: “I’ve got 1000+ posts here attacking your worldview. You just going to let that stand? Or could you present a helpful new perspective that I’ve ignored on one or two of those posts?” He added in June 2017 in a combox: “If I’ve misunderstood the Christian position or Christian arguments, point that out. Show me where I’ve mischaracterized them.” Delighted to oblige his wishes . . . Bob (for the record) virtually begged and pleaded with me... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #13: Resurrection “Contradictions” (?)

Last updated on: February 2, 2021 at 12:23 pm By Dave Armstrong

Atheist anti-theist Jonathan M. S. Pearce is the main writer on the blog, A Tippling Philosopher. His “About” page states: “Pearce is a philosopher, author, blogger, public speaker and teacher from Hampshire in the UK. He specialises in philosophy of religion, but likes to turn his hand to science, psychology, politics and anything involved in investigating reality.” . ***** I am replying to Jonathan’s paper, “Contradictions in the Resurrection of Jesus Accounts” (1-31-21), which is apparently actually written by one David Austin, but in any... Read more

Dialogue w a Woman on Abortion, Female Priests, Menstruation, Etc.

Last updated on: February 1, 2021 at 3:26 pm By Dave Armstrong

Former Catholic feminist Nica (not sure if she still believes in God or not), commented underneath my post, Only Spiritual Revival Will Stop Abortion (1-25-21), and dialogue commenced (albeit after a very shaky start!). Her words will be in blue. I have edited the exchange, to maintain topical continuity and for relative brevity’s sake. The complete back-and-forth can be read in the combox. ***** Honey, only if and when you have a womb, you have the right to pontificate on pregnancy.... Read more

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

In Colossians, Paul says that Christ is the head of what?

Select your answer to see how you score.