{"id":4698,"date":"2015-11-19T18:18:18","date_gmt":"2015-11-19T22:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=4698"},"modified":"2017-04-25T13:37:32","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T17:37:32","slug":"exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html","title":{"rendered":"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Supernova\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Image of a small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, which marks the edge of a bubble-like, expanding blast wave from a colossal stellar explosion, occurring about 15,000 years ago. NASA photo by J. J. Hester: 1 January 1993<\/span> [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons<\/a>]\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

These exchanges occurred in the combox of my post,\u00a0Theist & Atheist Burdens of Proof<\/a>. The various atheists\u2019 words will be color-coded.<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

Well_Read<\/a>: depends on what the rules of evidence are. if you have no rules of evidence or they are very broad, then the sky being blue may be enough for you to believe. If your rules are more narrow you may need to see something that god has done that cannot be explained any other way. Most of our gaps in knowledge about how we got here have more plausible explanations in science, but then I don\u2019t need for there to be a god to be happy or feel safe.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Okay, please tell me how you think the universe got here without God. I\u2019m curious how that reasoning proceeds. <\/span> We think God is the reasonable explanation. But if one doesn\u2019t allow a God or even non-material spirits from the outset, obviously the option is ruled out.<\/span> \u00a0 If we don\u2019t \u201cknow\u201d then we should be open (and humble) enough to admit that we don\u2019t know that there could not<\/em>\u00a0have been a God Who brought about the universe, rather than rule Him out.<\/span><\/p>\n

[she put up a little video entitled, \u201cEvolution from Bacteria to Humans.\u201d]<\/span><\/p>\n

This doesn\u2019t deal with the question of how bacteria came to be, and life from non-life, and the universe as a whole from nothing or who knows what . . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

just because we haven\u2019t discovered everything is no reason to say god did it. we are smarter than that now aren\u2019t we?<\/span><\/p>\n

amino acids have been found in comets here, it\u2019s the building block of all life. time will tell.<\/span><\/p>\n

the big bang has been proven to people who don\u2019t need the bible for a science book. planets and stars are still being formed right in front of us, we can watch it happen in real time.<\/span><\/p>\n

the people who wrote the bible didn\u2019t know what bacteria was, thought the earth was flat, and didn\u2019t know where the sun went at night.<\/span><\/p>\n

it doesn\u2019t affect me at all if you get your science from them.<\/span><\/p>\n

1. An open-minded thinker will not rule out the possibility of a God Who is the Designer of the Universe<\/a>. Many atheists are not \u201chard atheists.\u201d They say they have not seen convincing evidence that God exists, but would be open to such, and to His possible existence.<\/span><\/p>\n

Therefore, it is not so extraordinary that some of us have been convinced that God exists. It\u2019s not merely<\/em>\u00a0\u201cgod of the gaps\u201d or the explanation for everything that we can\u2019t personally figure out. I hate to take away one of the favorite atheist polemics, but it is a dumb and stupid one and should be put out to pasture.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. No intelligent Christian will say the Bible is a \u201cscience book.\u201d But you can always find backwoods fundamentalists (which many atheists once were) to say so, and pretend like this is mainstream Christianity.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. The Big Bang Theory was initiated in 1927 by a Catholic priest-scientist, Fr. Georges Lema\u00eetre<\/a>, while\u00a0most atheists (indeed, most astronomers and physicists, period) had believed in the steady state \/ eternal universe<\/a>\u00a0(which was decisively refuted in 1965 by\u00a0the discovery of the\u00a0<\/span>cosmic microwave background radiation<\/a>).\u00a0<\/span> The Bible had stated\u00a03,000 years ago, that the universe began out of nothing.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

4. The Bible does not<\/em> teach a flat-earth cosmology<\/a>; nor have virtually any thinking Christians believed in that, these past 2,000 years (as I have documented in several papers about the history of scientific opinions among Christian thinkers).<\/span>\u00a0If you weren\u2019t so ignorant of what the Bible teaches, you would already know that.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. You also don\u2019t know one blasted thing about where I \u201cget\u201d my science. I get it from scientists, just as you do, not from the Bible.<\/span><\/p>\n

[stated to someone else in the thread but amply applies to this person]:\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The fact that many scientists today disallow any talk of non-materialism whatever is no proof that materialism is Unalterable Dogma.<\/span> I understand that scientism<\/a> is likely your religion: as is the case with many atheists. So y\u2019all are particularly sensitive to any critique of the sheep-like behavior and erroneous opinions of materialistic scientists. Not much I can do about that. Religious folk often have a thin skin and don\u2019t take kindly to any criticism of their dogmas.<\/span><\/p>\n

Shane Egan<\/a>:\u00a0The \u2018answer\u2019 because \u2018god did it\u2019 has no real explanatory power. It equates to \u2018magic\u2019. How is that a sufficient answer to ANY question?<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Theism is not \u201cmagic\u201d: it\u2019s a detailed philosophy \/ religion, which has been developed all through human history.<\/span><\/p>\n

It has no explanatory power if you disallow it from the outset, due to your arbitrary restrictions of category.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nor does \u201cmatter has all these extraordinary capabilities allowing it to create everything in the universe\u201d have any real explanatory power, since it is never explained how these processes work at their origins or how these remarkable powers came to be<\/a>.<\/span> \u00a0 It requires even more faith to believe in these things without a Higher Intelligence, than to believe in God.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s fashionable to resort to multiverses because of lack of answers about origins, but of course that solves nothing; explains nothing. It simply pushes the questions of origin further back in time, or before time, or whatever. They still have to be accounted for.<\/span> \u00a0 So that hasn\u2019t been explained at all on atheist \/ materialist assumptions, whereas the theist offers a serious, solid philosophical argument: the cosmological argument<\/a> (which incorporates empirical elements within itself), that gives a cogent, plausible explanation of origins: as good as any other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Octavo<\/a>:\u00a0<\/span> I think the burden of proof is probably going to depend on the common beliefs of the people arguing.<\/span> \u00a0 Scenario 1<\/span> \u00a0 If Person A believes in the physical world (as understood by modern science), and Person B believes in the physical world (as understood by modern science) + the spiritual world (as described by a particular religion), then Person B is going to have the burden of proving why Person A should add the beliefs they don\u2019t commonly share with Person B.<\/span> [went on to describe two other scenarios that described religious persons who think a lot differently than I do]<\/span><\/p>\n

That\u2019s good; this is something constructive to work with. Thanks!<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, I go with scenario 1, and say that at the point of origins and irreducible complexity, science has no cogent answers (if any at all). A thinker is then justified in positing (within philosophical paradigms) a Higher Intelligence or Being to explain origin. Even David Hume <\/a>did that (in a deistic sense). Albert Einstein<\/a> did, too, but in a much vaguer pantheistic way.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cosmological and teleological arguments . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

Scientists routinely make lots of unproven (and non-demonstrable or non-demonstrated) assumptions about how things came to be.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Image of a small portion of the Cygnus Loop supernova remnant, which marks the edge of a bubble-like, expanding blast wave from a colossal stellar explosion, occurring about 15,000 years ago. NASA photo by J. J. Hester: 1 January 1993 [public domain \/ Wikimedia Commons]\u00a0 These exchanges occurred in the combox of my post,\u00a0Theist & […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":4700,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[124,112],"tags":[1048,258,1246,1241,662,1499,1498,1047],"class_list":["post-4698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-atheism-agnosticism","category-philosophy-science","tag-argument-from-design","tag-atheism","tag-big-bang","tag-cosmological-argument","tag-intelligent-design","tag-origin-of-life","tag-origin-of-the-universe","tag-teleological-argument"],"yoast_head":"\nExchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"If we don't "know" then we should be open enough to admit that we don't know that there could not have been a God Who brought about the universe.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If we don't "know" then we should be open enough to admit that we don't know that there could not have been a God Who brought about the universe.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-11-19T22:18:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-04-25T17:37:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/11\/Supernova.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"597\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"600\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dave Armstrong\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dave Armstrong\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html\",\"name\":\"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-11-19T22:18:18+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-04-25T17:37:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\"},\"description\":\"If we don't \\\"know\\\" then we should be open enough to admit that we don't know that there could not have been a God Who brought about the universe.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/\",\"name\":\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\",\"description\":\"Catholic biblical apologetics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\",\"name\":\"Dave Armstrong\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Armstrong\"},\"description\":\"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and 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. 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\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe","description":"If we don't \"know\" then we should be open enough to admit that we don't know that there could not have been a God Who brought about the universe.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe","og_description":"If we don't \"know\" then we should be open enough to admit that we don't know that there could not have been a God Who brought about the universe.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html","og_site_name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","article_published_time":"2015-11-19T22:18:18+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-04-25T17:37:32+00:00","og_image":[{"width":597,"height":600,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2015\/11\/Supernova.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dave Armstrong","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Armstrong","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html","name":"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-11-19T22:18:18+00:00","dateModified":"2017-04-25T17:37:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e"},"description":"If we don't \"know\" then we should be open enough to admit that we don't know that there could not have been a God Who brought about the universe.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2015\/11\/exchanges-w-atheists-on-ultimate-origins.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Exchanges with Atheists on the Ultimate Origin of the Universe"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/","name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","description":"Catholic biblical apologetics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e","name":"Dave Armstrong","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dave Armstrong"},"description":"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and 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. 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\/4698","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=4698"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4698\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4700"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}