Really, how honest?
John Loftus, over at his blog Debunking Christianity, has written a post entitled, “People Believe and Defend That Which They Prefer to be True”. In it he says, “The ONLY responses I have gotten from believers are these two: 1) The Ad Hominem Tu Quoque Fallacy which does nothing to address the point… and 2) “No this does not apply to me when I assess the truth claims of Christianity because I am the exception to the rule.”
As I pointed out to him in the comments, I had previously commented on his blog and encouraged him: “John, if your concern is for truth — rather than recognition — and believe yourself to speak on the side of truth, then you haven’t ‘wasted’ your time”. I know a strange thing to do — why would I encourage someone I disagree with? In any case, others began commenting on the wording … (Read more)
Book Review: Between Allah and Jesus by Peter Kreeft
Pages: 188
Publisher: Intervarsity Press
Year: 2010
Author: Peter Kreeft
Between Allah and Jesus: What Christians Can Learn from Muslims (hereafter BAJ) is a novelized dialogue between a Muslim and Christians, featuring some characters that will be familiar to those who have read Kreeft’s previous work. ‘Isa Ben Adams makes his return as the protagonist, along with Libby Rawls, “a sarcastic, sassy Black feminist ‘liberal’” (p. 13; both originally seen in A Refutation of Moral Relativism). Fr. (Father) Fesser is another familiar character from Socrates Meets Jesus, while the rest of the characters appear to be original to this book - Evan Jellema, “a very straight dutch Calvinist”, Father Heerema, “‘Isa’s kindly, wise, old-fashioned Jesuit philosophy professor at Boston College” and ‘Mother’, “a large, hospitable, bread-baking lady who wears bright dresses, has a parrot on her shoulder and holds continents of common sense in her brain”.
BAJ noticeably … (Read more)
God and Deception
While watching a video Ed Babinski referred me to (here), I again encountered the ‘deception objection’, as I’ve come to call it. It states that God would not operate in ‘X’ manner because to do so would be deceptive. This is an objection I’ve been giving thought to for the last couple of months, and I don’t think I can agree with it. The issue I take with it is that deception requires the intent to deceive, or the desire to give a false impression — intentionality. Such that God, when performing a certain act of creation, did ‘X’ with the intention to deceive. The problem is that we possess preconceived notions and conceptions that we bring into varying circumstances. It is one thing to approach a situation from a specific angle and think, “Well if God did it this way, then He would have acted … (Read more)
James on Teachers
This morning I had James 1:19 come to mind:
This you know, my beloved brethren. But everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak and slow to anger;
The reason James 1:19 came to mind was because over the past few days, I have been digging through online debates between Christians and atheists (or agnostics, but mostly atheists), and have been extremely disappointed with the character and tone of those debates by the professed Christian side. To be sure, there is a definite and noticeable zeal for truth, though this zeal — a desire to defend the faith, or win, or defeat an opponent, I’m not sure — is overshadowed by the fact that it is overly forceful. I imagine it’s very off-putting to would be observers and participants, at least it is in my case. That is what brings me to James.
In James 3:1 we read, “Not many of you … (Read more)
Amnesia, the bible and the Iliad
It’s the weekend, which means… Rest. Or, intended rest. Earlier this afternoon I came across a comment which I’ve heard a few times, but never really gave serious thought to. The comment goes something like this:
If tomorrow we all woke up with amnesia, we would place the bible alongside the Iliad as great fictions of history.
I don’t really have much to do today, so a brief reflection.
I find the most damning criticism is the implication that religious believers are not critical in their faith — they have not rationally examined their beliefs, considering what they believe and why they believe. That upon waking with amnesia, we will — for some reason — all be metaphysical naturalists and itinerant skeptics. And having examined the bible we will find it to be false, just as we will consider the Iliad to be some very old, well written fiction.
To … (Read more)
Searching for wisdom…
Outside of books — very old books — I’m having a difficult time finding wise people. All I can seem to find are people filled with knowledge, and they think this makes them wise. Socrates lesson has been forgotten.… (Read more)
Snap-shot Beliefs
Sensationalism is undeniably one of the marks of our culture. It would appear that not only do we all want attention, but we want to make it seem as if the things we are getting attention for, are extraordinary. Reading Pascal last night:
Vanity is so anchored in the human heart that a soldier, a cadet, a cook, a kitchen porter boasts, and wants to have admirers, and even philosophers want them, and those who write against them want the prestige of having written well, and those who read them want the prestige of having read them, and I, writing this, perhaps have this desire, and those who will read this…1
“And those who will read this…” will want recognition for having read and quoted Pascal. I suspect that in my case, this is where vanity ends.
I came across this thought thinking over book titles such as The God Delusion… (Read more)
Semi-Coherent thoughts
I find it both curious and amazing that for many, belief — such a fundamental and basic thing — is so fragile. It only takes one idea: a question, an objection or an appeal to the emotions, and the seed of doubt has been planted, and a confused and frenzied descent has begun. It is as if questioning were the antithesis to belief, and I suspect for uncritical people (which are many in this ‘day and age’) it is. An appeal to the emotions, the “passions” — this seems to me the most likely cause of peoples lack or rejection of faith, rather than arguments. Many of us hide behind calculated thoughts — logic and “rational thinking” — but we only point out with logic what the emotions which to express. Emotions cannot handle the idea of an eternal hell, or punishment from a “loving” and “just” God anymore than … (Read more)
And John Loftus’ Assessment…
Of The Infidel Delusion, apparently he isn’t all that impressed either. Read here.
Update: Apparently they’re quite keen at shooting back at each other. Triablogue here, and Loftus, again, here.
I’m not entirely sure what to think of their correspondence over this book (or these books). It appears childish and vitriolic on both parts.… (Read more)
“The Christian Delusion”
First it was Dawkins’ The God Delusion, now it is John F. Loftus’ (general editor; you know, the guy who’s always complaining that William Lane Craig won’t debate him) The Christian Delusion. Another book written with the express interest of destroying Christian theism in 500 pages or less. Reading the blurbs for the book, you’d think more people would be impressed. Not the guys at Triablogue, who have written an almost 200 page critique of The Christian Delusion, calling it — perhaps unoriginally — The Infidel Delusion.… (Read more)
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