A Reformed Baptist (Calvinist) argued that if Christ in fact died for all men, rather than the elect only (as Calvinists hold), this would result in His interceding in heaven as high priest for those He knows (in His omniscience and perfect foreknowledge) will reject Him and go to hell. It would then follow that His intercession failed, or (if there is any difference) was unanswered — an unthinkable state of affairs for God. The reply to this is, I... Read more
We have a 14 year-old son presently in confirmation classes (and a 16 year-old who went through it a few years back). I would never dream of making this optional, at his age (i.e., for frivolous teenager-type reasons: it’s “boring” or “uncool” or too time-consuming, and suchlike). My opinion is, “this is what Catholic teenagers do, as fundamental in the process of faith formation. And so my teenage children will do it (assuming that they accept the faith), and have... Read more
I believe these were originally notes jumbled together from various sources, so there is a lot of repetition. But that’s a good teaching tool, so I will leave it as it is. ***** The Incarnation is the Great Exception to the timelessness and immateriality of the Triune God, since in it God enters human time and takes on human flesh. It’s in time and isn’t eternal. God can interact with the temporal order without being subject to it. But God the Son... Read more
This is from a private Facebook thread, so I can’t cite others (too bad), but I wrote a lot there, and so would like to preserve it on my blog. It may be regarded as follow-up comments to my article, “David French’s Hit-Piece on Franklin Graham & Trump” (4-28-19). ***** I’m only describing what we see every day, and only one aspect of the Never Trumper: how they view Trump. It’s pretty much 100% negativity. That’s not judging the whole... Read more
Google Analytics Blows That Out of the Water Popular online atheist and anti-theist polemicist Bob Seidensticker and one of his clone-sycophants claimed that I was trying to use his site merely to drum up traffic on mine. Their words will be in green and blue, respectively. ***** This is the guy that I banned, and explained why in great detail (because he’s a big shot atheist online). Three days later I saw this nonsense. There was a huge flatulent fuss... Read more
See: “Franklin Graham and the High Cost of the Lost Evangelical Witness” (4-25-19). I don’t see that French succeeds in making his point of supposed rank hypocrisy on Graham’s part. Graham is not condoning sin. He wrote about the Stormy Daniels thing, as reported by an NBC article: President Trump I don’t think has admitted to having an affair with this person, and so this is just a news story, and I don’t even know if it’s accurate. That’s... Read more
“cowalker” wrote on my blog: I was raised Catholic, and went through what I think is the standard, messy de-conversion process. It started with intellectual rejection of what sophisticated theologians would say was not “real” Christianity. For example, Christians aren’t obliged to believe a man actually lived inside a fish for three days. That’s just metaphorical writing. But … it’s not clear where metaphor leaves off and literal description begins. For example some Christians accept the doctrine of the Transubstantiation,... Read more
From the combox of the post: A Conversation About Deconversion, And Why People Share Their Stories (Luciano Gonzalez, 7-23-17). ***** Bravo Sierra: The question that matters to me with regard to Dave Armstrong is: Why would a person go to such trouble to pick apart a deconversion story if they know that a deconversion story is a personal narrative which is not meant to apply to all followers of Christianity ™ and will convince no one who is not already... Read more
This occurred on my blog. One “Robotczar” (safely anonymous, with no further access information known) commented on my 2006 paper, Were Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain Atheists? His words will be in blue. ***** Your comment is remarkable in its utter non-interaction with anything in the post. But that is a fashionable thing to do in these days of lack of rationality and rational dialogue. A couple of points: First, the religious try hard to make atheism have a very... Read more
I think these exchanges are models of what is indeed possible, if both sides will listen a bit and stop the incessant suspicion and insults; just talk to each other. This occurred on my blog. ***** “Illithid” I don’t usually read your blog, though some of the articles seem interesting and I may start. You seem thoughtful and polite. Casual recollection of many atheist deconversion stories makes me suspect that I disagree with your point here, at least partially. I have... Read more
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