Atheist Double-Standard Demands for (Empirical-Only) “Evidence”

Last updated on: July 24, 2017 at 12:59 pm By Dave Armstrong

Fractal image by “HypnoArt” (8-6-15) [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] ***** “Lark62” is an atheist. Her words will be in blue. Her comments can be found in their entire larger context in the combox for my paper, “Atheist Deconversion: Dialogue #2: Jonathan MS Pearce” (7-20-17). *** Lark62 [female: “frumpy, boring middle aged lady”] clearly came to his discussion with me already extremely hostile to Christianity. Checking out comments listed on her Disqus profile, anyone can readily observe that: The problem with... Read more

Not Many “Angry Atheists” Online? You be the Judge

Last updated on: July 24, 2017 at 1:04 am By Dave Armstrong

[Pexels.com / Pixabay / CC0 license] ***** Recently, I had the distinct blessing (Mt 5:11-12) of being the target of 21 out of [literally] 54 atheists who appeared in a combox of a post on the blog run by atheist Jonathan MS Pearce (and also a second one). It started out on the topic of my critiques of deconversion stories, and then quickly descended into an avalanche of complaining (and, well, lying) about my strict, zero-tolerance-of-insults moderation policy on my blog: then to... Read more

Atheist Anthony Toohey Defends His Deconversion (Pt. 1)

Last updated on: July 21, 2017 at 6:18 pm By Dave Armstrong

A change of vision by Erik Pevernagie, oil on canvas (3-24-11) [Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license] ***** I admire that. I critiqued his story, and he has stepped up to the plate and defended himself, and has done a pretty good job. His words will be in blue. ***** You call your story that I critiqued “a tightly distilled version of my (overlong) deconversion . . .” Duly noted. I didn’t know that you had a longer one in print. If I had known... Read more

Atheist Deconversion: Dialogue #2: Jonathan MS Pearce

Last updated on: July 20, 2017 at 3:24 pm By Dave Armstrong

Image by “mary1826” (January 2017) [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** Jonathan MS Pearce runs the blog called A Tippling Philosopher. He is co-editor of a book that collects deconversion stories, entitled, Beyond an Absence of Faith. He also hosts deconversion stories on his own site. Thus far, I have critiqued two of them, and plan on doing so for many more. He replied to my critique of Anthony Toohey’s account. His civil, substantive post is melodramatically called, “Patheos Catholic-Atheist War:... Read more

Atheist Deconversion: Dialogue #1 with Dr. Daniel Fincke

Last updated on: July 19, 2017 at 6:49 pm By Dave Armstrong

Photograph by “marcelabr” (11-8-16) [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** Dr. Daniel Fincke, a philosophy professor, who runs the Camels with Hammers blog, responded to my paper, “Reply to Daniel Fincke’s Analyses of His Deconversion” (7-15-17). His reply is called, “Have I Considered Catholicism Sufficiently?” (7-19-17), His words will be in blue. ***** Dave Armstrong at Biblical Evidence for Catholicism has written a very genial open letter to me, which he seems to hope might serve as the first volley in an exchange of... Read more

Deconversion: Mini-Debates with Several Zealous Atheists

Last updated on: July 19, 2017 at 1:57 pm By Dave Armstrong

Photograph by “stevepb” (7-12-16) [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] ***** Atheist Jonathan MS Pearce made a response to my critique of an atheist deconversion story that he hosted on his site. The combox then went wild in questioning me (with not a few of the usual obligatory rank insults). I spent many hours replying to lots of the comments (mostly late last night), but at length wrote: “Obviously, I can’t argue with 40 atheists about 120 topics at once (though it appears... Read more

Albert Einstein’s “Cosmic Religion”: In His Own Words

Last updated on: July 19, 2017 at 12:27 pm By Dave Armstrong

What do atheists think Einstein meant here when he used the word "believe"? Do they think he had an elaborate argument that ended in his conclusion: "I believe in Spinoza's God"? Read more

Were Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain Atheists?

Last updated on: July 18, 2017 at 1:00 pm By Dave Armstrong

Madame Tussaud’s Abraham Lincoln (photograph by Kevin Burkett: 12-21-12) [Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0 license] *** (11-16-06) ***** [along with fellow so-called atheists Jefferson, Paine, Voltaire, Hume, and Franklin?] *** Atheist “DagoodS” wrote in one of my comboxes (note: in context, he was speaking rhetorically, but this doesn’t imply that he doesn’t think Twain and Lincoln were atheists): Imagine I told you that I hold the atheists Abraham Lincoln and Mark Twain in high regard. Now THERE was a fine pair... Read more

Atheist Deconversion Story Series #2: Lorna

Last updated on: July 17, 2017 at 8:30 pm By Dave Armstrong

If I were in an abusive situation, I’d certainly want to break free, too. The question, however, is where to go (fractal image by “PublicDomainPictures”) [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** Introduction: “Deconversion” stories are accounts of an atheist or agnostic’s odyssey from some form of Christianity to atheism or agnosticism. Since these are public (else I wouldn’t know about them in the first place), it’s reasonable to assume that they are more than merely subjective / personal matters, that have... Read more

Atheist Deconversion Story Series #1: Anthony Toohey

Last updated on: July 17, 2017 at 5:43 pm By Dave Armstrong

Image by “Pexels” [Pixabay / CC0 public domain] *** Introduction: “Deconversion” stories are accounts of an atheist or agnostic’s odyssey from some form of Christianity to atheism or agnosticism. Since these are public (else I wouldn’t know about them in the first place), it’s reasonable to assume that they are more than merely subjective / personal matters, that have no bearing on anyone else. No; it is assumed (it seems to me) that these stories are thought to offer rationales of... Read more

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