The Secular Frontier

I've talked a lot about how Trump has positioned himself for the argument that a vote against him is a vote against God. RFK Jr has just come out with an ad claiming that joining forces with Trump was a religious-based decision. He said: "For 19 years, I prayed every morning that God would put me in a position to end this calamity. This is a spiritual journey for me. I reached my decision through deep prayer." -@RobertKennedyJr It never ceases to amaze me how celebrating one's thoroughgoing superstitious approach to life is respected and celebrated in the modern world. ... Read Article

In Chapter 7 of the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I critically examine some objections against the Swoon Theory by various Christian apologists. The Swoon Theory claims (roughly) that Jesus survived his crucifixion and this led his disciples to mistakenly conclude that God had raised Jesus from the dead. One of the objections against the Swoon Theory that I examine in Chapter 7 of my book points to alleged ancient historical references to Jesus' death by crucifixion as evidence for the claim that Jesus died on the cross (which would mean the Swoon Theory is wrong). This objection is presented by the Christian apologists Norman Geisler and Frank Turek in their book I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist (see page 306). I call this objection: Objection #13: Non-Christian Writers. In this post, I will examine one of the examples given by Geisler and Turek of an alleged ancient historical reference to Jesus' ... Read Article

See the previous post in this 2 part mini-series on the Antichrist HERE. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQqqM5sr7g The presence of the antichrist spirit in the Christian narrative as the ultimate danger primarily means we are not considering an outside oppositional force but rather that Christianity contains within itself the loose thread of its own potential unraveling, the Jenga piece that once removed self-deconstructs the entire tower.  The Christ of faith is lost in the search for the Jesus of history, the antichrist lampooning the unhistorical Christ. We saw this last time with how Mark cleverly inserts narrative elements that contradict the crucifixion/resurrection salvation guiding theme of his gospel.  And, Mark playfully alerts the sophisticated reader to this right from the beginning having Jesus preach repentance and the kingdom of God, not himself and salvation through crucifixion/resurrection like what we see Paul emphasizes. We sometimes forget in our interpretations that focus o ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ga146HLIzN8 What is the "Again" MAGA wants us to return to? Trump says a big part of this is returning to God. Trump: "Our country is missing a lot of religion. I think it really was a much better place with religion…Without religion, there's no real guardrails. I'd love to see us get back to more religion in this country." (Because, you know, Trump's life is such a shining example of godliness, lol). ... Read Article

Donald Trump says he thinks God saved him from assassin's bullet to help fix country's problems. In other words, if you vote against Trump you're voting against God. See the video HERE! ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Chapter 7 of the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I argue that an objection by Gary Habermas and Michael Licona to the Swoon Theory FAILS. The Swoon Theory is, roughly, the skeptical view that Jesus survived his crucifixion and that this led to his disciples mistakenly believing that God had raised Jesus from the dead. One objection by Habermas and Licona asserts that the religious experience that resulted in Paul's conversion to Christianity raises a serious problem for the Swoon Theory. I refer to this as Objection #12 (Paul's Conversion). Here is a part of their argument for this objection: 2a. Paul claimed that his conversion to Christianity was the result of Paul clearly SEEING with his own eyes (on the road to Damascus sometime after the crucifixion of Jesus) the face and body of the risen Jesus who had a glorious (i.e. bright and radiant) appearance. A1. IF Paul claimed that his conv ... Read Article

(see Part 2 of this blog post HERE) (The Devil whispers to the Antichrist; detail from Sermons and Deeds of the Antichrist, Luca Signorelli, 1501, Orvieto Cathedral.  Wiki) The word "antichrist" is used only in the Epistles of John, although a similar idea of "pseudochrist" ("false messiah") is used by Jesus in  Matthew 24:24 and Mark 13:22.  In John’s epistles the term seems to alternate between a person antichrist and a group of people identified as antichrists. Church father Polycarp understood the word as a group.  2 Thessalonians, a letter that is in dispute as to whether it is Paul’s or a later follower, identifies a man of sin traditionally understood to be the antichrist who was a real existential threat to deceiving the believer because the time of the end was imminent in Paul’s mind (the resurrected Christ being the "first fruits" of the end time harvest of souls).  This figure is more fully explored in Revelation as the Beast of the Sea. The notion of � ... Read Article

WHERE WE ARE In Chapter 6 of the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory), I argue that William Craig's objections to the Swoon Theory FAIL. One of Craig's objections asserts that Jewish Thought in the first century would have prevented Jesus' disciples from mistakenly believing that a Jesus who had survived crucifixion had been raised from the dead by God. I refer to this as Objection #10 (Jewish Thought). Here is a part of Craig's argument for this objection: 3a. Seeing Jesus alive after his crucifixion (around 30 CE) would lead the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus to believe that Jesus had not died on the cross, not that Jesus was…gloriously risen from the dead. A. According to non-conspiratorial versions of the Swoon Theory, the eleven remaining disciples of Jesus came to believe that Jesus was gloriously risen from the dead as a result of the eleven remaining disciples seeing Jesus alive after his cru ... Read Article

In the book I'm currently working on (Thinking Critically about the Resurrection of Jesus: The Resuscitation of the Swoon Theory) I examine several objections to the Swoon Theory (roughly the skeptical view that Jesus was crucified but survived his crucifixion and that this led to the belief that God raised Jesus from the dead). One of those objections is Objection #11 "Deceptive Jesus". According to this objection presented by the Christian apologist William Craig, the Swoon Theory implies that Jesus was a deceiver and a charlatan. A key premise of this argument is this: Jesus was a deeply religious person. This premise is used to argue against the idea that Jesus was a deceiver or charlatan. Contrary to the thinking involved in Objection #11, I argue (in Chapter 6 of my book) that even deeply religious persons can be deceivers. In this post, I will consider one likely response to my critique of Objection #11. DOESN’T THE BIBLE TEACH THAT DISHONESTY AND DECEPTION ARE WRONG? It might be obje ... Read Article

Former President Donald Trump tells NBC News Correspondent Dasha Burns that Florida's six-week abortion law is "too short: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ot95upckLY That was yesterday. Today, he came out as a critic of the Florida abortion expansion proposal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OZag7Scq28 So what is going on with this? Trump is trying to keep the pro life wing of his party satisfied but while still promoting reproductive rights because he is polling so poorly among women. Unfortunately for Trump this isn't an issue that he can a play on both sides simultaneously, so in the end he seems to have committed to a position on pro choice abortion beyond the six week limit, but we'll see. We've seen the movie, lol https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AALREbJZEZk ... Read Article

In a previous post I noted Trump abandoned conservative evangelicals on the abortion issue. Clearly, he is hoping they are not one-issue voters, and certainly conservative evangelicals are going to vote Republican regardless, but why did Trump make this move? And the other day, he also positioned himself as the IVF support candidate. New polling out may be a clue. Harris has a small overall lead over Trump, despite being badly beaten by Trump among male voters. However, and this seems to be key, Trump is being slaughtered by Harris among female voters. This makes perfect sense as to why Trump has abandoned his narrative of overturning Roe and so wants to position himself as the Reproductive Rights candidate to draw the female vote toward his ticket. The problem is that since Trump caused the abortion issue to go back to the states, there is no federal abortion rights mandate and so Trump could simply flip flop on the issue again if the voting demographics change or for whatever other political flight ... Read Article

Yesterday I talked about Trump basically throwing his anti-abortion evangelical supporters under the bust by proposing a reproductive rights platform, obviously hoping to appeal to a wider moderate base while still maintaining as many evangelicals as possible who are not one-issue voters. Today, Trump did the same thing with the military. Trump has long been antagonistic toward the military, doing such things as making fun of prisoners of war like John McCain. Today, he flipflopped paid respect to fallen soldiers at Arlington: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR9SsJ9x5C8 The Vote Vets organization noted: He called them suckers and losers. He refused to visit their fellow fallen, in Europe. But today, with an election coming up, Donald Trump pretends to care about all those who died in service to America. NEVER FORGET! It's not just his disrespect for the Medal of Honor. Trump calls our war dead 'suckers' and 'losers.' ... Read Article

So today, Trump's second in command JD Vance has dialed back on one of the key issues for Evangelicals supporting Trump: the abortion ban. See the Meet The Press interview starting at 7:12-9:49 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zETjconbCRs What seems clear is that Trump sang the evangelical song as long as it suited him, but now he needs to appeal to a bigger, more moderate audience. Yesterday, Trump posted that his presidency would be great for “reproductive rights” (abortion). UPDATE: See the Fox News article HERE ... Read Article

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQZdbzjnZyc ... Read Article

Elon Musk recently did what he calls a "conversation" with Donald Trump which broke records with over a billion views. Conservative network Fox News chose this as the initial banner takeaway: THE MIRACLE': Trump reflects on how his faith in God has grown in the wake of the attempted assassination on his life last month. Five key takeaways from the former president's interview with Elon Musk. https://trib.al/VXBWxfx (FOX NEWS) The conservative evangelical right wants you to think God saved Trump because he is God's chosen president. You can't make this stuff up, lol. ... Read Article