{"id":50411,"date":"2020-08-16T10:59:43","date_gmt":"2020-08-16T14:59:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=50411"},"modified":"2020-08-17T10:23:30","modified_gmt":"2020-08-17T14:23:30","slug":"face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html","title":{"rendered":"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-50414\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2020\/08\/FaceMasks.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"300\"><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">[originally a Facebook post from 7-10-20]<\/p>\n<p>As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that \u201c<em>all<\/em> scientists\u201d and \u201ceveryone\u201d believe that all must wear masks in the current situation (except for small numbers outdoors, in one\u2019s home, etc.).<\/p>\n<p>In the interest of fair and honest debate, that I have always tried to foster and encourage, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rcreader.com\/commentary\/masks-dont-work-covid-a-review-of-science-relevant-to-covide-19-social-policy\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">I ran across an article<\/a> that presents significant medical \/ scientific data arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.<\/p>\n<p>Someone may say these are simply fringe \/ extreme folks. It would be very difficult to argue that the following peer-reviewed, respectable medical journals whose studies were cited in the article are all \u201cextreme\u201d and \u201cfringe\u201d:<\/p>\n<p><em>American Journal of Infection Control<\/em><br>\n<em>Epidemiology and Infection<\/em><br>\n<em>Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses<\/em><br>\n<em>CMAJ (Canadian Medical Association Journal)<\/em><br>\n<em>Clinical Infectious Diseases<\/em><br>\n<em>JAMA (Journal of the American Medical Association)<\/em><br>\n<em>J Evid Based Med<\/em><br>\n<em>Journal of Virology<\/em><br>\n<em>BMC Infect Dis<\/em><br>\n<em>BMC Med<\/em><br>\n<em>Emerg Infect Dis.<\/em><br>\n<em>Reviews of Infectious Diseases<\/em><br>\n<em>Risk Analysis<\/em><br>\n<em>Nature Medicine<\/em><br>\n<em>PLoS Pathog<\/em><br>\n<em>Lancet<\/em><br>\n<em>BMC Public Health<\/em><br>\n<em>Food Environ Virol<\/em><\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m <em><strong>not<\/strong><\/em> saying there are no studies that offer <em>different<\/em> conclusions, or even that this is necessarily my <em>own<\/em> position (I would say \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d for sure). I\u2019m saying that the usual liberal mantra of universal agreement among scientists is not true, and that discussion is able to be had on this topic, just like virtually every other one; and that intelligent, inquiring, fair minds will want to take into consideration all relevant scientific \/ medical data and not only what media and governments say.<\/p>\n<p>Nor am I saying that any state or local laws regarding this ought to be disobeyed. That\u2019s a different issue as well. Just for the record, I have followed all the mandated rules myself: wearing a mask whenever some place said it was required, and maintaining social distancing and doing the hand sanitizer and all the rest.<\/p>\n<p>At my sister\u2019s funeral just two days ago we all followed all these rules and people didn\u2019t even touch each other. I\u2019m naturally a hugger, so I certainly followed the expected rules, refraining from that.<\/p>\n<p>I shouldn\u2019t even have to make these disclaimers, but in the groupthink \/ increasingly clonish society we now inhabit, it\u2019s necessary.<\/p>\n<p>It may even be thought that the author of the article, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Denis_Rancourt\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Dr. Denis Rancourt<\/a>, is an American conservative, Trump operative, or perhaps (also) a Southern American. He\u2019s <em>none<\/em> of these. He\u2019s Canadian, and was formerly a tenured professor of physics at the University of Ottawa. Nor is he, apparently, even a political conservative. In the Wikipedia article about him he was described as \u201cleft-wing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>So whatever else might be said about him, he clearly thinks for himself: sadly, an increasingly rare trait these days.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>[additional comment from the original combox]<\/p>\n<p>If the evidence is insufficient to establish universal mask-wearing as a supposed cure-all, then it\u2019s not improper to question (or at least have <em>some<\/em>\u00a0questions about) the prevailing tendency now.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019d rather go with solid scientific evidence. But a lot of this comes down to individual temperament, too. Worriers and those inclined to go with the flow will obviously tend to be big mask proponents.<\/p>\n<p>Those of us who are non-worriers and nonconformists (yours truly) will tend to be the opposite. But like I said, I want to follow <strong><em>all<\/em><\/strong> the evidence, not what is spoon-fed to me by an agenda-driven liberal media and Democrat Party in an election year, where they have a clear vested interest to make everyone as miserable as possible so Crazy Uncle Joe can actually be elected.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Note<\/strong>: see also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\/posts\/3573844412650518\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">very extensive discussion<\/a> on my Facebook page.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #008000;\"><strong>Photo credit:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\">Alex Borland (image cropped)<\/span> [public domain \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/www.publicdomainpictures.net\/en\/view-image.php?image=320558&amp;picture=coronavirus-covid-19-face-masks\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">PublicDomainPictures.Net<\/a>]<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[originally a Facebook post from 7-10-20] As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that \u201call scientists\u201d and \u201ceveryone\u201d believe that all must wear masks in the current situation (except for small numbers outdoors, in one\u2019s home, etc.). In the interest of fair and honest debate, that I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":50414,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[112,289],"tags":[10479,10452,10569,11693,10488,10470,10455,11696,10578,10461,10464,10458,10467,11702,11699,10473,10566],"class_list":["post-50411","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-philosophy-science","category-political-ethical-moral-issues","tag-contagious-disease","tag-coronavirus","tag-covid-19","tag-covid-19-masks","tag-disease","tag-disease-control","tag-epidemic","tag-face-masks","tag-leftism-coronavirus","tag-mass-hysteria","tag-mass-panic","tag-pandemic","tag-quarantine","tag-social-distancing","tag-surgical-masks","tag-virus","tag-virus-trends"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous? Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that &quot;all scientists&quot; and &quot;everyone&quot; believe that all must wear masks in the I ran across an article that presents significant medical \/ scientific data, arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.\" \/>\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\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous? Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that &quot;all scientists&quot; and &quot;everyone&quot; believe that all must wear masks in the I ran across an article that presents significant medical \/ scientific data, arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.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=\"2020-08-16T14:59:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-08-17T14:23:30+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2020\/08\/FaceMasks.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"300\" \/>\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=\"3 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\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html\",\"name\":\"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous? Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-08-16T14:59:43+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-08-17T14:23:30+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\"},\"description\":\"As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that \\\"all scientists\\\" and \\\"everyone\\\" believe that all must wear masks in the I ran across an article that presents significant medical \/ scientific data, arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?\"}]},{\"@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":"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous? Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?","description":"As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that \"all scientists\" and \"everyone\" believe that all must wear masks in the I ran across an article that presents significant medical \/ scientific data, arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.","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\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous? Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?","og_description":"As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that \"all scientists\" and \"everyone\" believe that all must wear masks in the I ran across an article that presents significant medical \/ scientific data, arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html","og_site_name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","article_published_time":"2020-08-16T14:59:43+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-08-17T14:23:30+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":300,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2020\/08\/FaceMasks.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Dave Armstrong","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Armstrong","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html","name":"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous? Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-08-16T14:59:43+00:00","dateModified":"2020-08-17T14:23:30+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e"},"description":"As usual, we are being told (it seems to be part and parcel of liberalism) that \"all scientists\" and \"everyone\" believe that all must wear masks in the I ran across an article that presents significant medical \/ scientific data, arguing that face masks have little or no overall effect on a pandemic or transmission of contagious diseases.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/08\/face-masks-is-scientific-evidence-unanimous.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Face Masks: Is Scientific Evidence Unanimous?"}]},{"@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\/50411","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=50411"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50411\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/50414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50411"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50411"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50411"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}