The Secular Frontier

For more on the religion and propaganda aspect of Trump, see: (2/2) No, Jesus Did Not Believe in the Inerrancy of the Bible: In Awe Of Jesus On The Cross My first name is John and I lived in Milton, so that means I'm supremely qualified to speak on this "John Milton" topic, lol. Suppose God Exists ... Should you worship him? Not if you have a moral compass. It's like the Donald Trump phenomenon. Should we treat Jedi Master Trump as a hero? Once again we look to Darth Harley for the answer. With all the criminal charges, there is a lot of noise being made right now that Trump is a criminal, but this focus neglects the fact that Trump has long pointed out that he could shoot someone without losing voters. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iTACH1eVIaA It's much the same with God. God is legally a criminal for such things as cancer and earthquakes, but his followers just don't care: In United States law, depraved-heart murder, also known as depraved-indifference murder, ... Read Article

FROM THE ARTICLE: Evangelical Christian leader Russell Moore revealed this week that many evangelical pastors have become alarmed that their Trump-loving congregants have become so militant that they are even rejecting the teachings of Jesus Christ. In an interview with NPR, Moore said that multiple pastors had told him disturbing stories about their congregants being upset when they read from the famous "Sermon on the Mount" in which Christ espoused the principles of forgiveness and mercy as central to Christian doctrine. "Multiple pastors tell me, essentially, the same story about quoting the Sermon on the Mount, parenthetically, in their preaching — 'turn the other cheek' — [and] to have someone come up after to say, 'Where did you get those liberal talking points?'" Moore revealed. "And what was alarming to me is that in most of these scenarios, when the pastor would say, 'I'm literally quoting Jesus Christ,' the response would not be, 'I apologize.' The response would be, 'Yes, but th ... Read Article

Previously: Dr. Kipp Davis with How (not) to read the Talmud: Reviewing Richard Carrier’s “On the Historicity of Jesus”, Part 1 Now, Here is the second video of Davis' critique of Richard Carrier's reading of ancient Jewish texts in On The Historicity of Jesus. Davis does not feel Carrier offers a reliable reading of early Judaism. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRkBREh9UuU&t One commenter added a problem with Carrier's methodology that: Carrier and Davis exchange: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdnJzGOYlh0 Vishanti and Kipp Davis react to Carrier's comments on stream: SOME REACTIONS to the exchange:Kipp Davis says: @RichardCCarrier has a bafflingly rudimentary grasp of the primary texts, but also the ongoing conversations about them taking place within the discipline. Simone, Listening for the Voice in the Silence says on re-watch while I have lunch, the disconnect between "cite the texts" and "I mentioned these scholars" is the most ex ... Read Article

https://www.patheos.com/blogs/keithgiles/2020/08/7-reasons-why-jesus-was-not-sacrificed-for-your-sins/ Keith Giles is a Christian who believes that sins can be forgiven because Jesus forgave our sins. Because God does not exist, and because Jesus was just a flawed, ignorant and superstitious human being, Jesus' forgiveness of anyone is of no significance. But Giles is right in pointing out that the common Christian belief that "Jesus died for our sins" is completely contradicted by the Bible. ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Part 5 of this series, I presented a clarified version of the argument by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli (in Chapter 8 of Handbook of Christian Apologetics; hereafter: HCA) that constitutes their Objection #3 against the Swoon Theory. In this current post, I will begin to critically evaluate that argument. THE CORE ARGUMENT OF OBJECTION #3 Typically, the core or heart of an argument is located in the final inference or final sub-argument of the overall argument. However, in the case of the argument for Objection #3, I see the core argument as located more in the middle of the reasoning, not at the end. The final inference or sub-argument of Objection #3 is straightforward and unproblematic. So, any potential problems with the argument are located further back in the chain of reasoning. Here is the diagram of what I take to be the core argument of Objection #3: STATED PREMISES 5a. Jesus' lungs had collapsed before his side was pierced with a spear, while Jesus was ... Read Article

Arguably never before has a crisis been so mired in the problem and so bereft of a solution. But here we are. A problem ensnared by itself as if talking about Trump and January 6th long enough will somehow do something. This alone is a lesson in critical thinking illiteracy (CTI). Perhaps a "fallacy of ignoratio elenchi" or the "irrelevant conclusion fallacy" whereby the secondary problem becomes the main discussion topic without ever offering a solution to the problem itself. ... Read Article

https://fb.watch/mde4HpZTeN/ The problem with Evangelical Christianity is NOT just that it has become politicized and become a political tool of the Republican Party (in the USA). The problem is that it is a false superstition that is based on unthinking acceptance of the authority of the Bible. The Bible is merely a product of flawed superstitious and ignorant human beings. In short, there is no such thing as a good or reasonable version of Evangelical Christianity. It is rotten to the core, having a foundation in falsehoods and superstitions. ... Read Article

Previously: (2/2) No, Jesus Did Not Believe in the Inerrancy of the Bible: In Awe Of Jesus On The Cross Now: Certain "Alpha-Male Trump strategists" have positioned his base as one of hyper masculinity stereotyping. A large part of this is he has to make a case, not only against Biden, but also his GOP running mates. In this way we get new avenues of propaganda against RINOs (acronym for Republican In Name Only), and Wokeism (the idea that you're "soft" if you are vocally alert to prejudice and discrimination). This particular propaganda strategy sometimes creates its own problems of making the content creator (such as with the photoshop image below) a bigot, as we see from the pro-Trump lampooning of GOP candidate for president Mike Pence: This is the environment that birthed the "Go Woke, Go Broke" movement that devastated companies like Budweiser. That we live in a world where being woke is considered by some to be a character failing teaches us that a lot of ... Read Article

I've been blogging about Trump propaganda depicting him as a hero and even sometimes figure of worship here: (2/2) No, Jesus Did Not Believe in the Inerrancy of the Bible: In Awe Of Jesus On The Cross For example, here is Trump as a modern day founding father: And now, the LEFT strikes back: 'Nuff said ... Read Article

THE OMNISCIENCE ARGUMENT There are many good reasons to believe that Jesus is NOT God. One such good reason is that Jesus was NOT eternally omniscient (all-knowing): 1. Something is God ONLY IF it is eternally omniscient. 2. Jesus was NOT eternally omniscient. THEREFORE: 3. Jesus was NOT God. PREMISE (1) IS TRUE Premise (1) is based on a definition of "God" that would be acceptable to most Christian philosophers and theologians: X is God IF AND ONLY IF: X is the creator of the universe, and X is a bodiless person, and X is eternally omnipotent, and X is eternally omniscient, and X is eternally perfectly good. There is a strong motivation for Christians to believe that God is eternally omniscient. Christians believe their eternal salvation depends on God's forgiving their sins, and forgiving those sins for all eternity, not just temporarily. If God were less than eternally omniscient, then God could not guarantee eternal and unchanging forgiveness of a perso ... Read Article

EDITED 8/3/23 4:51pm Atlantic Canada Time by John MacDonald Previously on Trump propaganda, see: (2/2) No, Jesus Did Not Believe in the Inerrancy of the Bible: In Awe Of Jesus On The Cross Now, the conclusion: Trump on his indictments: “I’m doing it for our country to show how evil and sinister a place it has become.” The Trump indictments have actually been opportunistically hijacked by Trump to label the DOJ and Liberals as Evil, although none of this is really about Trump in the grand scheme of the Trump Game Plan. It's about the voters. The game plan is to get the voters to see Trump as a victim and see themselves vicariously in Trump in whatever way they feel unjustly persecuted in their own lives. You saw today the GOP jump to Trump's defence with this newest indictment citing such things as timing of the charges and free speech, but this support is probably less a result of righteous anger (you can't plead free speech to protect your hiring of a hitman, for ins ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Chapter 8 of the Handbook of Christian Apologetics (hereafter: HCA) Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli attempt to prove that God raised Jesus from the dead. A key premise in their case for the resurrection is their claim to have refuted the Swoon Theory. Through a series of blog posts here at The Secular Frontier, I will carefully evaluate each of their nine objections against the Swoon Theory to show that they have FAILED to refute the Swoon Theory and thus FAILED to prove that God raised Jesus from the dead. For clarification about what the Swoon Theory implies, see my post "Careful Argument Analysis of Objections to the Swoon Theory". In Part 2 of this series, I presented a clarified version of Objection #2 by Kreeft and Tacelli. In Part 3 of this series, I argued that premise (C) in the core argument for Objection #2 is FALSE, and thus that the argument was UNSOUND and thus that Objection #2 against the Swoon Theory FAILS. In Part 4 of this series, I completed my careful e ... Read Article

In 1958, Peter Stoner published a book called Science Speaks (I will be referring to the Online Edition of this book). Chapter 3 of his book was titled "The Christ of Prophecy". Stoner argues that Jesus fulfilled eight specific Old Testament predictions about the Messiah, the coming King of the Jews. On page 50, Stoner draws this conclusion: Because Jesus (allegedly) fulfilled these eight predictions about the Messiah, Stoner infers that it is nearly certain that those predictions were inspired by God, and that Jesus was the promised Messiah of the Jews and the Savior of mankind. OT PASSAGE #1: MICAH 5:2 Let's take a look at the first Old Testament passage that Peter Stoner claims to be a messianic prophecy fulfilled by Jesus (Science Speaks, p.47): Does this passage predict that the messiah is to be born in the town of Bethlehem? While this is the most common interpretation of this passage, it is not clear that this interpretation is correct. It is NOT clear that "Bethlehem Eph ... Read Article

"Best Friends" Dr. Martin Luther King jr and Trump Black voters have traditionally gone Democrat, and the Trump machine has made serious efforts to win them over. In 2020, Trump stumped for Black support that election season, gaining endorsements from rappers like Lil Wayne and partnering with entertainer Ice Cube to create an investment plan for Black America dubbed the Platinum Plan. Trump is the BUDDY JESUS of political propaganda: For My Scriptures Study Index SEE ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Chapter 8 of the Handbook of Christian Apologetics (hereafter: HCA) Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli attempt to prove that God raised Jesus from the dead. A key premise in their case for the resurrection is their claim to have refuted the Swoon Theory. Through a series of blog posts here at The Secular Frontier, I will carefully evaluate each of their nine objections against the Swoon Theory to show that they have FAILED to refute the Swoon Theory and thus FAILED to prove that God raised Jesus from the dead. (For clarification about what the Swoon Theory implies, see my post "Careful Argument Analysis of Objections to the Swoon Theory". ) In Part 2 of this series, I presented a clarified version of Objection #2 by Kreeft and Tacelli. In Part 3 of this series, I argued that premise (C) in the core argument for Objection #2 is FALSE, and thus that the argument was UNSOUND and thus that Objection #2 against the Swoon Theory FAILS. In this post, I will continue my careful evaluati ... Read Article