Really Religious Violence
A splinter group of the Pakistani Taliban targeted a crowd of Christian children celebrating Easter: http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/27/asia/pakistan-lahore-deadly-blast/ In the comments section of my last post on religious violence we had a lively discussion about the causes of religious violence and to what extent they were genuinely religiously motivated. Such attacks as this one (which, alas, are not … Really Religious Violence
Aquinas’ Argument for the Existence of God – Part 4
NOTE: I began to reconstruct Aquinas’ argument for the existence of God in the post I Don’t Care – Part 4, and continued that effort in I Don’t Care – Part 5, and I Don’t Care – Part 6. I am changing the title of this series to better reflect the content, so I … Aquinas’ Argument for the Existence of God – Part 4
Hope for a Brighter Future
A recent studv (based on surveys conducted between 1972 and 2014 that produced responses from over 58,000 Americans) shows that belief in God has declined significantly in recent decades. =============== The findings show that from the early 1980s to 2014: • Those who identified their religion as “none” increased from 7 percent to 21 percent. • Those … Hope for a Brighter Future
How to Think about Historical Evidence about Anything, Part 1: The Credibility of Testimony
Note: So far as I know, no one working in New Testament scholarship, apologetics, counter-apologetics, or ancient history is applying the concepts in this blog post. As will soon become obvious, most of the ideas in this blog post are not mine, but if other people find these techniques useful, I would appreciate being given credit for the … How to Think about Historical Evidence about Anything, Part 1: The Credibility of Testimony
Religious Violence: The Question that Will not go Away
Every time there is yet another terrorist attack by jihadists, you can count on some immediate responses: The media will devote obsessive attention, national leaders will condemn and decry, bigots will blame the innocent, and presidential candidates (some of whom are bigots) will issue calls to “get tough.” And scores of liberal pundits and academics … Religious Violence: The Question that Will not go Away
Why Nobody Should Believe that Jesus Rose from the Dead
First of all, extradordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but there is only weak evidence that Jesus rose from the dead: THEREFORE: 5. It is unreasonable to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. Nobody should believe that Jesus rose from the dead, because there is insufficient evidence for the claim that Jesus rose from the dead. … Why Nobody Should Believe that Jesus Rose from the Dead
Texas AG Hires Anti-Gay and anti-Church/State Separation Activist
Texas Attorney General (and indicted securities fraud suspect) Ken Paxton has hired fundamentalist activist Jeff Mateer as his top assistant: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/150years/article/Paxton-hire-draws-ire-for-fighting-gay-marriage-6925133.php In Texas it is just business as usual to hire zealots and ideologues and put them in positions where they are supposed to be working for the people, all the people (an not just the ones, … Texas AG Hires Anti-Gay and anti-Church/State Separation Activist
Off-Topic: America Needs to Have Just Two Time Zones and the World Should Follow Suit
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William Lane Craig’s Logic Lesson – Part 4
In the March Reasonable Faith Newsletter William Craig asserted this FALSE principle about valid deductive arguments that have premises that are probable: … in a deductive argument the probability of the premises establishes only a minimum probability of the conclusion: even if the premises are only 51% probable, that doesn’t imply that the conclusion is only … William Lane Craig’s Logic Lesson – Part 4
William Lane Craig’s Logic Lesson – Part 3
I had planned to discuss counterexamples (to Craig’s principle) that were based on dependencies existing between the premises in some valid deductive arguments. But I am putting that off for a later post, in order to present a brief analysis of some key concepts. It seems to me that an important part of understanding the relationship … William Lane Craig’s Logic Lesson – Part 3