![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2019\/03\/ShatteredGlass.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
I have long noted as regards deconversion stories from Christian to atheist, that, very often, these accounts of an exodus out of Christianity have the following characteristics:<\/p>\n
1) an initial fundamentalist belief<\/strong>, which is thought to be the sum total of Christianity (as if there are no other more thoughtful and nuanced species of it).<\/p>\n
2) rejection of various straw men<\/strong>, which do not represent the most informed versions of Christianity; \u201cthrowing the baby out with the bathwater.\u201d<\/p>\n
3) highlighting of terrible, hypocritical Christians<\/strong>, rather than the best examples.<\/p>\n
4) acceptance of the notion that atheism is the only alternative<\/strong> to rejection of (what amounts to) straw men and lousy, inadequate versions of Christianity.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I have observed these motifs in these stories over and over and over, as I have critiqued a great number of them (word-search \u201cDeconversion\u201d on my Atheism web page<\/a>). As long as atheists keep writing their stories, and implying that they can offer profound and supposedly solid, unanswerable reasons for leaving Christianity, we Christians (especially apologists like me) can just as easily critique<\/em> them and show how and why the reasoning is fallacious and unsuccessful in establishing atheism or the falsity of Christianity.<\/p>\n
Goose and gander. Yet, I often meet with great hostility when I do so (atheist author and \u201cdebater\u201d John Loftus being the most outrageous<\/a> and hilarious<\/a> example): as if it were the rudest thing in the world and essentially improper and unethical to examine a public<\/em><\/strong> attack on Christianity.<\/p>\n
I ran across a deconversion story by one Don R., on the Patheos<\/em> website, Recovering from Religion: Ex-Communications<\/em><\/a>. It is entitled, \u201cMy Escape from the Belly of the Beast\u201d<\/a> (9-24-18). It exhibits all of these typical traits. Don\u2019s words will be in blue<\/span>. I will go right to examples of fallacious thinking, false dilemmas, needless exaggerations and category mistakes, false dichotomies, factual error, etc.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
[W]e were brought up in a very strict fundamental Christian household.<\/span><\/p>\n
As so very often in these stories . . . Fundamentalism is a small minority and fringe portion of evangelical Protestantism, which is one portion of Protestant Christianity, which is\u00a0 itself a minority of all Christians. Thus, to reject fundamentalism is not at all to reject all of Christianity (not even all of evangelicalism or Protestantism).<\/p>\n
It is a rejection of what is in many respects the very worst and insubstantial and least intellectually respectable form of Christianity. Yet we\u2019ll see that Don never seriously considers any other<\/em> form of Christianity before departing. Those of us who never grew up as fundamentalists never cease to marvel at these sorts of \u201ctunnel vision\u201d dynamics.<\/p>\n
You see, our father was a pedophile and was molesting my sister and I for years. Our stepmother had very little use for us, . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
I am very sorry to hear about this tragic situation. But this is the motif of the \u201clousy, hypocritical\u201d Christians: often (in these stories) subtly implying that a huge number or even a majority or most Christians are this way (not just pedophilia, but any serious sin), which is not true. Christianity has its \u201cbad apples\u201d just like any large social group does.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not fair to judge a religion based on its worst practitioners<\/em>, or in some cases: literal \u201cwolves in sheep\u2019s clothing\u201d: folks who never were Christians at all and only claimed<\/em> to be (the ones that Jesus condemned because they say \u201cLord, Lord\u201d but refuse to do what He commands them to do).<\/p>\n
Our stepmother remained very religious (to this day she is fanatical in her beliefs) . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Again, if this is true fanaticism, rather than what Don thinks is fanatical simply because it is Christian<\/em>, then it is an example of the extremes of Christianity. In other words, to reject true fanaticism is to reject a distortion and corruption of Christianity (which I have always done, myself), rather than the thing itself<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n
From early teens to mid-twenties, I still held a belief in god, but I just didn\u2019t want to be around any of his people.<\/span><\/p>\n
One can see why<\/em>. If he had actually met some good, loving, Christlike Christians, then things might very well have been much different, right? If the terrible Christians drive one away<\/em>, then it stands to reason that good examples of Christians would draw one in<\/em>. Don does talk about his increasing church involvement as being \u201crewarding and fulfilling\u201d<\/span> and states that he \u201creally loved the feeling of community.\u201d<\/span> So he must have found some<\/em> (good) Christians that he enjoyed being around. Glad to hear it!<\/p>\n
When people would come to me with their hard questions, I would share my process with them and help them come to \u201ccorrect\u201d answers, always based on the infallibility of the bible and the pure goodness of god. And every time I did that, there was a little voice saying \u201cthat doesn\u2019t make sense\u201d, which I ignored\u2026 because it felt so good to know that I was helping people be stronger in their faith.<\/span><\/p>\n
This is rather subjective. We could simply reply that he wasn\u2019t very good at apologetics and didn\u2019t provide (or find in research) the best answer that could<\/em> be given; therefore, he felt a nagging doubt. It doesn\u2019t prove that there were no<\/em> solid, plausible answers to be had.<\/p>\n
I remember when I realized that even the people I believed were fully dedicated to god had their own doubts.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Everyone<\/em> has doubts and befuddlement about various doctrines and beliefs: whether concerning Christianity or anything else. The question is whether they add up to outright unbelief, or are simply areas that require further thought and study.<\/p>\n
Eddie (not his real name) was every bit as passionate about god as I was, and we had many nights of great discussions. I knew that he was fully committed and sought god with all his heart. So, when I found out that he believed in theistic evolution (the theory that god used evolution to create the earth), I was stunned. <\/span><\/p>\n
Why? There have been Christians who were theistic evolutionists right from the beginning of Darwin\u2019s theory in 1859; for example, the botanist Asa Gray<\/a>. Darwin wrote to Gray in 1881, \u201cthere is hardly any one in the world whose approbation I value more highly than I do yours.\u201d\u00a0Darwin conceded to Gray that his theories were \u201cnot at all necessarily atheistical.\u201d This was also the position of Darwin\u2019s good friend Thomas Henry Huxley: himself an agnostic, but without insisting that the only form of evolutionism must be materialistic (i.e., atheistic). Darwin, after all, had developed his theory while he was still a Christian or at least theist. That is beyond question.<\/p>\n
You see, I believed in a literal interpretation of the bible, and to hear that someone who was as fully devoted as I was could believe in evolution was really difficult. <\/span><\/p>\n
Exactly. This is fundamentalism. But an informed, educated approach to the Bible understands that the Bible has many literary genres<\/em> and modes of expression<\/em>, and is not always to be taken literally (though many times it is). To hold that it must always<\/em> be interpreted literally is simply \u201cBible ignorance.\u201d<\/p>\n
I had just assumed that god made everything clear to those who diligently sought him, so how could we believe two very different things about the creation of the world?<\/span><\/p>\n
They could and did because Christianity has enough latitude to\u00a0 allow different views on the particulars of scientific matters. The Bible isn;t a scientific textbook. Good, orthodox Christians believed that the creation story was not necessarily literal (literally, six 24-hour days) at least as far back as St. Augustine (354-430).<\/p>\n
This was the first of several times that my beliefs were shaken by things like this.<\/span><\/p>\n
There was no need for such a crisis at all, if he had simply realized that he was in a fundamentalist fish tank and couldn\u2019t imagine any other Christian paradigm. So because of that he gets \u201cshaken\u201d<\/span> and this is included in his story of why he eventually forsook Christianity. It\u2019s not<\/em> an adequate reason at all<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Earlier in his story he noted how \u201cMany evenings I would read Christian authors and study apologetics. I had 2 large bookcases filled with religious books and had read every page.\u201d<\/span> So we\u2019re to believe that he had never encountered a good Christian or Christian book who believed (or which explained) that God used evolution as His method of creation? That\u2019s hard to believe. What: did he only read fundamentalist<\/em> apologetics?<\/p>\n
There would be two writers that I deeply respected who held opposite beliefs on the role of women in the church. There were very different views on the \u201conce saved always saved\u201d or can you lose your salvation issue.<\/span><\/p>\n
Yes, Christians differ on many issues. But disagreement doesn\u2019t prove that no one<\/em> got it right, or that there is no one correct<\/em> position. If, for example, one person believes that the earth is flat and a second believes it is shaped like an egg, this doesn\u2019t disprove<\/em> that it is actually a sphere. All it proves (by strict logic) is that they can\u2019t both<\/em> be right. But they may both be wrong<\/em>, with the actual truth found elsewhere.<\/p>\n
But we can<\/em> say concerning the \u201closing salvation\u201d issue, that the vast majority of Christians (Catholics, Orthodox, Lutherans, Methodists, Anglicans, many Arminian denominations, pentecostals, a good proportion of Baptists, etc.), have believed that one can<\/em> lose salvation or fall from grace or the Christian faith.\u00a0 It\u2019s mostly Calvinists \/ Presbyterians and fundamentalists who disagree.<\/p>\n
On most issues we can look to determine whether a large majority<\/em> of the sum of all Christians accepts a thing, while a much smaller minority does not. And that should tell us something. But internal Christian disagreement is no compelling reason to become an atheist. All it proves is that Christians disagree and often are shortsighted (and too often, plain stupid), just as any group of people do.<\/p>\n
Science is largely the same as theology in this \u201csociological\u201d respect. Fifty years ago, things like the Big Bang Theory or plate tectonics were not as firmly established as they are today, with the vast majority of scientists agreeing. Some still<\/em> disagree, but the likelihood or plausibility is that a view taken by almost all scientists will turn out to be the actual fact of the matter.<\/p>\n
But I couldn\u2019t understand why the deeply faithful would come to opposite decisions about the biggies. . . .\u00a0I just couldn\u2019t ever fathom why there would be such discord among the \u201ctrue believers\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n
For the same reason that scientists and philosophers have massive disagreements amongst themselves, and especially through time: over hundreds of years. There can be many reasons (good and bad) for why folks disagree with and contradict each other. But to add these up and conclude, \u201cI reject the entire system <\/em>as rubbish\u201d is quite a jump and a stretch, and exceedingly difficult on an epistemological level.<\/p>\n
One week, he began a 4 part series on the story of Noah and the flood. He came at it from a totally different perspective than I had ever heard or thought of before, and I was enthralled. On the 4th Sunday, he mentioned that there were different interpretations of the story within the church, and he brought up the fact that the flood story actually appeared in earlier writings that were not biblical at all. I was stunned. Could it be true that the bible borrowed the flood story from earlier secular writings (hint: Epic of Gilgamesh)? It was just a fable?<\/span><\/p>\n
Huh<\/em>? The reasoning here is very convoluted. How is it that simply because another culture<\/em> also had a story of a massive Flood, therefore, somehow it becomes a \u201cfable\u201d<\/span>? Isn\u2019t it much more likely and plausible that an event of such shattering magnitude would be recorded by someone besides<\/em> the Hebrews? Therefore, the mere presence of a similar story elsewhere is no disproof of the biblical account at all.<\/p>\n
Pagan or heathen parallels or precursors do not necessarily \u201cdisprove\u201d the biblical account. Thus, The Catholic Encyclopedia<\/em><\/a> (1913) notes how such parallel stories of the Flood, confirm<\/em>, rather than disconfirm, the historicity and trustworthiness of the Bible:<\/p>\n
The historicity of the Biblical Flood account is confirmed by the tradition existing in all places and at all times as to the occurrence of a similar catastrophe. F. von Schwarz . . .\u00a0 enumerates sixty-three such Flood stories which are in his opinion independent of the Biblical account. R. Andree . . .\u00a0 discusses eighty-eight different Flood stories, and considers sixty-two of them as independent of the Chaldee and Hebrew tradition. Moreover, these stories extend through all the races of the earth excepting the African; these are excepted, not because it is\u00a0certain\u00a0that they do not possess any Flood traditions, but because their traditions have not as yet been sufficiently investigated. Lenormant pronounces the Flood story as the most universal tradition in the history of primitive man, and Franz Delitzsch was of opinion that we might as well consider the history of Alexander the Great a myth, as to call the Flood tradition a fable. It would, indeed, be a greater\u00a0miracle\u00a0than that of the Deluge itself, if the various and different conditions surrounding the several nations of the earth had produced among them a tradition substantially identical. Opposite causes would have produced the same effect.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
I was deeply shaken to realize that the bible was not the historically accurate document I was always told and completely believed it was.<\/span><\/p>\n
I don\u2019t know why<\/em>. It certainly wasn\u2019t because of the above things mentioned, because that conclusion simply doesn\u2019t follow.<\/p>\n
How much was allegory? How much was literal? How much was parable? How could you tell which was which?<\/span><\/p>\n
Obviously by searching related cross-references, studying biblical commentaries, and especially by researching biblical genre, literary types, the nature of different books (Psalms and Proverbs are poetry, etc.), and ancient near eastern culture and ways of thinking. Apparently, it never occurred to Don to do that (tons of books about these things) \u2014 otherwise he wouldn\u2019t have asked this rhetorical question \u2014 , and this is usually the case in a fundamentalist paradigm.<\/p>\n
Is god a god of confusion?<\/span><\/p>\n
No, but human beings<\/em> often bring about confusion by ignorance, stubbornness, pride, self-interest, etc. So we wind up with lots of disagreements. Catholicism offers one self-consistent, historically continuous view of Christianity, which is why I am a Catholic. No form of Protestantism possesses these traits.<\/p>\n
I began to look for what set Christianity apart from all the other false religions in the world. I knew that they all had holy books, and the bible was very suspect at this point, so that wasn\u2019t it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Again, nothing presented in this<\/em> account proves that the Bible isn\u2019t what it claims to be.<\/p>\n
There were several times in my life where I KNEW that god had spoken to me. Times of deep struggle and fear that he had comforted me. Surely that must be unique to the Christian religion. Nope. People all over the world had their own profound experiences that proved their god to them.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
Why must Christian religious experience be unique<\/em>? The Apostle Paul Romans 2 teaches that people can possibly be saved, who have never even heard the Christian message. Jesus talked to a pagan Roman centurion and concluded that He had rarely seen such faith in Israel. So this man had religious faith, yet wasn\u2019t an observant Jew. Truth is truth, and God can reach men in many different ways, including religious experiences.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s simply silly and shallow thought, to think that because non-Christians have also<\/em> had spiritual experiences, therefore our own personal spiritual experiences that we\u00a0\u201cKNEW\u201d<\/span> actually happened, somehow get nullified as pipe dreams and self-delusion. That doesn\u2019t follow<\/em>. It\u2019s lousy \u201creasoning.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nor does atheism at all follow from this: \u201clots of people have had spiritual experiences; therefore there is no God\u201d? What<\/em>?! How does that follow<\/em>? I must confess to being mystified as to how that \u201clogical chain\u201d works. If atheists think it does, then they must explain it to me.<\/p>\n
I begged god for some kind of sign that he was real, and I really expected him to answer, because he would know that my very faith was at stake. Nothing\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n
Very often, God will not comply with such a request, because He knows it is a cop-out: \u201cshow me some huge miraculous sign to prove that you exist!\u201d People know enough to believe God exists, simply by looking at His creation (as it states in Romans 1).<\/p>\n
I had to learn I was not the complete piece of trash that my religion had taught me I was . . .\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n
That\u2019s what fundamentalists and Calvinists believe (total depravity and a completely fallen, corrupt human nature), but not what the vast majority of Christians have believed (fallen, subject to concupiscence, but still capable of good and freely receiving God\u2019s grace). So once again, Don rejected a straw man that only a tiny number of Christians believe.<\/p>\n
If he truly wants to see a worldview that results in human \u201ctrash,\u201d<\/span> he has to look at hundreds of millions of aborted babies: killed by Christians who no longer follow the historic teachings of their own group, secularists, atheists, and all who have started to believe that an innocent, helpless human being can be utterly worthless, so as to be torn to shreds and murdered (all the way up to full term at nine months, and now even after<\/em> birth) for the \u201csin\u201d of existing because of someone else\u2019s actions.<\/p>\n
That<\/em><\/strong> is a<\/span> \u201ccomplete piece of trash\u201d: not the biblical and Christian teaching on original sin, as taught by the great majority of Christians.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
Photo credit:<\/span><\/strong>\u00a0||read||<\/a>\u00a0(5-28-09)<\/span> [Flickr<\/a> \/ CC BY 2.0<\/a> license]<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I have long noted as regards deconversion stories from Christian to atheist, that, very often, these accounts of an exodus out of Christianity have the following characteristics: 1) an initial fundamentalist belief, which is thought to be the sum total of Christianity (as if there are no other more thoughtful and nuanced species of it). […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":31297,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124],"tags":[745,151,258,645,335,648,744,254,742,743,6135,8230,1456],"class_list":["post-31294","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-agnosticism","tag-anti-theists","tag-apostasy","tag-atheism","tag-atheist-deconversion-stories","tag-atheists","tag-debunking-christianity","tag-ex-christians","tag-faith-and-reason","tag-falling-away-from-faith","tag-former-christians","tag-freethinker","tag-recovering-from-religion","tag-science-christianity"],"yoast_head":"\n
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defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. 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Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31294","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31294"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31294\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31297"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31294"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31294"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31294"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}