Reply to Atheists: Defining a [Biblical] “Contradiction”

Last updated on: December 12, 2018 at 3:50 pm By Dave Armstrong

This exchange with the atheist “Dagoods” (words in blue) occurred in the original Blogspot combox of Dialogue w Atheist: Joseph of Arimathea “Contradictions” (??) (Lousy Atheist Exegesis Example #5672). Later, a second atheist chimes in. ***** Commenter Robert wrote: DagoodS, Aristotle gave the standard definition of a contradiction. Two statements are contradictory if they cannot both be true and also they cannot both be false. (His explanation is a bit more involved, but this is sufficient). For instance “it rained yesterday... Read more

Dialogue w Atheist: Joseph of Arimathea “Contradictions” (??)

Last updated on: December 12, 2018 at 3:59 pm By Dave Armstrong

Lousy Atheist Exegesis Example #5672 ***** Words of “DagoodS” words will be in blue. * * * * * If I’ve seen this tendency in atheist “exegesis” once, I’ve seen it a hundred times. I have noted over and over in my critiques of atheism how our non-believing friends cannot for the life of them approach the Bible with fairness and objectivity. They will see the slightest difference in two texts and assert “contradiction.” They will blithely, with complete arbitrariness, assert... Read more

12 Disciples of Jesus: Alleged Contradictions Debunked

Last updated on: December 11, 2018 at 1:26 pm By Dave Armstrong

This is a favorite argument of atheists and skeptics, who relish opportunities to show how the Bible is so “obviously” contradictory and how Christians are such gullible fools for not seeing that this is the case: supposedly so clearly and often. But, as usual, the truth of the matter is not nearly as simple as the atheist would love it to be. Bible scholars have studied the question (as all matters in Bible interpretation) inside and out, up and down,... Read more

Exchange w Atheist on Premises, Evidence, & Methodology

Last updated on: December 11, 2018 at 12:45 pm By Dave Armstrong

This occurred on DagoodS’ blog. His words will be in blue. * * * * * However, I am not interested in “challenging his [i.e., my] first premise” for three reasons: 1) We approach “first premises” differently. Not that one of us approaches it correctly, and the other incorrectly. Just differently. (Welcome to human diversity!) He appears to claim predispositions prohibit a person being convinced by the evidence; I’ve explained this at least three times now; maybe four, but you don’t grasp it for some... Read more

Premature New-Pro-Life “Nya Nya’s” Re Kavanaugh

Last updated on: February 16, 2020 at 11:02 am By Dave Armstrong

New Pro-Lifers, Never Trumpers, non-conservative centrists, third-party types and liberals / leftists have been anxiously waiting to see how Justice Kavanaugh would rule: particularly on the pro-life issue, so they could do a hoped-for “I told you so!”. The Supreme Court has refused to hear a case related to Planned Parenthood and Medicaid. According to ABC News: The Supreme Court Monday dealt a blow to two states’ attempts to hamstring Planned Parenthood clinics by disqualifying them from public Medicaid funds. The Supreme... Read more

Dialogue w Atheists on Hell & Whether God is Just

Last updated on: December 10, 2018 at 5:19 pm By Dave Armstrong

This exchange took place on the Debunking Christianity blog, underneath a post by John W. Loftus, called No More Funerals! [which appears to now be a defunct link]. Words of “DagoodS” will be in blue; some others in various colors as indicated. Indentation (excepting Bible verses) indicates my own words being cited by my opponents. * * * * * She still exists. Hopefully, she went to the right place. I don’t know if she did or not. God is merciful and gracious. That would... Read more

Was Calvin a Supralapsarian? (Dialogue w Calvinist)

Last updated on: December 9, 2018 at 5:49 pm By Dave Armstrong

[David W. Ponter’s words will be in blue] ***** It’s absurd to say that Calvin was a supralapsarian, even in kernel form. It’s far less absurd than the claim that Augustine was a Reformed Protestant, in kernel form, or closer to Protestantism than to Catholicism. :-) Development takes place within Protestantism, and Calvin was too early for the most developed thought on that issue; yet things he wrote can certainly be harmonized with the notion, though speculative debate on his... Read more

Unbridled Sectarianism, Sola Scriptura, Luther, & Calvin

Last updated on: December 9, 2018 at 4:23 pm By Dave Armstrong

***** The Protestant Revolution, er (sorry; let me be PC: “Reformation”) started from Luther adopting a viewpoint of irrational, anti-traditional dissent against many aspects of received Catholic tradition (in large part, not totally, as I have carefully noted). Luther had, alas, departed from at least 50 Catholic teachings and longtime practices by 1520, even before he was excommunicated. One would think that such massive, radical departure from received Catholic precedent and tradition would have a solid rationale (to put it mildly), but it... Read more

John Calvin: Worship Instruments = Idols & Superstition

Last updated on: December 7, 2018 at 5:08 pm By Dave Armstrong

***** He believed that he was purifying the church from recent musical innovations in the western church. Musical instruments and complex hymnody were all part of the corruptions introduced by the Roman Church. . . . . . . We are not, indeed, forbidden to use, in private, musical instruments, but they are banished out of the churches by the plain command of the Holy Spirit, when Paul, in 1 Cor. 14:13, lays it down as an invariable rule, that... Read more

Secularization: Thoughts on its Many Historical Causes

Last updated on: December 7, 2018 at 2:48 pm By Dave Armstrong

***** Peter Berger, an eminent Lutheran sociologist, who specializes in the sociology of religion, discusses with great insight the crucial role which Protestantism played in the development of the radical secularization with which all serious Christians are plagued today, and from which society at large reels and staggers in moral turpitude: Protestantism may be described in terms of an immense shrinkage in the scope of the sacred in reality . . . The sacramental apparatus is reduced to a minimum and,... Read more