Seidensticker Folly #73: Philosophy & “Who Created God?”

Last updated on: July 12, 2021 at 11:17 am 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 #40: Manure-Comments on His Blog

Last updated on: July 10, 2021 at 3:37 pm By Dave Armstrong

Matthew 5:11-12 (RSV) Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. [12] Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. Luke 6:26 Woe to you, when all men speak well of you, for so their fathers did to the false prophets. John 15:18-20 If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. [19] If... Read more

Local Mesopotamian Flood: An Apologia

Last updated on: September 11, 2021 at 2:49 pm By Dave Armstrong

This is a follow-up to my article, Local Flood & Atheist Ignorance of Christian Thought (7-2-21), and it will deal with some elements of proposed local Flood models that are “difficulties” to work through. I’ll start by citing again (with some abridgement and slight modification of presentation) key parts of the previous post that have to do directly with what I will address here, so this article can be more coherent and complete on its own. Carol A. Hill, in her article, “The... Read more

Atheist Unwittingly (?) Confirms the Usual Atheist Worldview

Last updated on: July 6, 2021 at 7:17 pm By Dave Armstrong

Atheist PartialMitch offered a response to my paper, Reply to the Nonsense of “Atheists Have No Worldview” (2-13-21) in the combox underneath. His words will be in blue. My words that he cites from the older paper will be in green. ***** Before I start counter-responding, let me briefly reiterate what my argument was in this paper: Technically, “non-belief in God” is not a belief, but a rejection of another; I (and we) agree. However (and it’s a huge “however”), atheists do highly tend to hold... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #39: Ignoring Chiastic Literary Genre in Genesis

Last updated on: July 7, 2021 at 1:52 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.” His words will be in blue. ***** I am responding to portions of Pearce’s article, “Ruddy Flood Thing Again. And Armstrong.” (7-3-21). I recently explained the nature and widespread... Read more

Goliath’s Height: Six Feet 9 Inches, 7 Feet 8, or 9 Feet 9?

Last updated on: July 4, 2021 at 3:08 pm By Dave Armstrong

One (((J_Enigma23))): an interesting atheist who hangs around Jonathan Pearce blog, wrote there on 7-4-21: Funnily enough, the square-cube law is also why Goliath can’t be 10 feet tall. The Bible seems to run afoul this particular law quite often [he had also discussed Noah’s Ark in the comment], which makes sense: that wasn’t described until 1638 by Galileo and the the idea that the “ratio of two volumes being greater than their surfaces” isn’t something we can readily intuit. [my... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #38: Chiasmus & “Redundancy” in Flood Stories

Last updated on: July 5, 2021 at 4:48 pm By Dave Armstrong

Also, a Summary Statement on Catholics and the Documentary Hypothesis 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.” His words will be in blue. ***** Jonathan Pearce, in his concerted effort to absolutely avoid engaging in any... Read more

Local Flood & Atheist Ignorance of Christian Thought

Last updated on: July 4, 2021 at 7:21 pm By Dave Armstrong

One “eric”: a regular (and thoughtful, friendly, and articulate) commenter on atheist antitheist Jonathan Pearce’s blog, made an argument there having to do with the volume and water and other difficulties in a “universal flood” view: I vaguely recall an old Panda’s Thumb post where someone worked out the rain density/flow necessary to cover the Earth (up a few km from sea level) in 40 days. It worked out to be stronger than a firehose over every square inch of... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #37: Length of Noah’s Flood Redux

Last updated on: July 3, 2021 at 7:13 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.” His words will be in blue. ***** I am replying to Pearce’s paper, Armstrong, the Genesis Flood Contradictions and Multiple Sources (7-2-21), which in turn was a response to my... Read more

Pearce’s Potshots #36: Noah’s Flood: 40 or 150 Days or Neither?

Last updated on: July 1, 2021 at 1:02 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.” His words will be in blue. ***** I am replying to Pearce’s paper, The Flood Myth Contradictions Explained by the Documentary Hypothesis (6-29-21). For those uninitiated, the Pentateuch contains some... Read more