apologetics ⁽⁴¹⁾

My Mormon interlocutor, Linda, was not persuaded by my remarks. See her response on the discussion group’s page. My response to her response may be found on Yahoo! Groups and, in improved form, below. (My tracking of discussions outside this site, whether on Yahoo! or elsewhere, is occasional at best. I therefore urge persons wishing to discuss these remarks to comment here, or at least to note here that they’ve commented on…

I’ve made a new post to the evangelicals-Mormons discussion group. Find the original, complete with any typos I’ve corrected below (but without added links), here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evangelicals_and_lds/message/3815. Sorry for the long delay in responding. Though the discussion has probably moved on without me, I thought I’d take a moment to respond anyway. Rather than try to address each point made by you [a Mormon group participant named Linda] and others who responded to…

On 01/06/2013, I posted the following question to a Yahoo discussion group for Mormon-Evangelical discussion. This group, by the way, is moderated by Christian apologist, Rob Bowman. Though I've not yet had the opportunity to read any of Rob's books (no book funds), I did take an online class from him at one point, and I've been favorably impressed with most of his answers (those that I've so far read) in this…

I just (Fri Jan 4, 2013, 11:47 pm) posted the message below to a Yahoo! discussion group hosted by apologist Rob Bowman, at this URL: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/evangelicals_and_jws/message/40327. One thing I learned that will not be evident from the message below or the original post, is that a “curly” apostrophe, though it will be accepted if you paste it into the Yahoo! Groups editor and though it will display correctly in the online version of your post,…

Ken Ham, founder of Answers in Genesis and one of Pious Eye's heroes, responds to Bill Nye, "The Science Guy," who claims (among other things) that teaching evolution to kids is important because we need engineers. Apparently, Nye believes that teaching children evolutionary stories about the past will make them better equipped to learn engineering in the present. Ham doesn't buy it. Sharing a video: Ken Ham Responds to Bill Nye "The…

Peter Kreeft, commenting on Pascal's Wager, notes how inevitable death makes choice between Christian belief and unbelief unavoidable. We are “condemned to freedom” (to use Sartre’s formula). “There is no choice”, says Pascal; that is, we cannot choose whether or not we must choose. We must choose, though we are free to choose unbelief or belief. Why can’t we choose not to choose? Why can’t we choose agnosticism? Because we are “already…

Tim Chaffey and Jason Lisle explain how and why Scripture must take precedence over (theories about) nature in Christian scientific work. ...since the Bible has never been wrong about anything, and since it is the very Word of the One who knows everything, we must place our confidence in the Bible above all other sources of information. Many old-earth creationists do not accept this principle. Instead, they have a tendency to put…

Nancy M. Darrall, in her contribution to In Six Days, illustrates how random variation without intelligence-originated new information cannot yield evolution. DNA...is analogous to...paper and ink....Anyone who has sat down in front of a blank piece of paper in an examination will be aware of the need for something more than paper and ink in order to pass. We need ideas, concepts, plans, purpose, memory...—in other words, information....An accidental spillage of ink…

Greg L. Bahnsen, in his Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated and Defended, offers insight on the properly pious Christian approach to apologetics. In Scripture, God requires Christian believers to subject every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. This is not done if the apologist attempts to use unbiased premises and non-committed logic to persuade his opponent....If every thought is to be subjected to Christ’s authority, then we must not attempt to set forth…

Originally written for a course at Luther Rice University & Seminary in August 2011, under the title “Zen & The Art of Gospel-Evasion: An Interview with Commentary.” On Thursday, 4 August 2011, the writer interviewed a priest and assistant instructor at a Zen center in San Diego County, California, where the writer resides. Because the interviewee shared some information the writer deems private, he has not included the interviewee's name or the…

Originally written for a course at Luther Rice University & Seminary in August 2011, under the title “Zen: Accepting Reality As It Isn't.” This post, please note, in not yet “complete”: Some revisions, such as introduction of relevant links, remain pending. This paper will survey central metaphysical and epistemological tenets of Zen philosophy and examine two Zen practices growing out of these tenets. The philosophy, and practices based upon it, will be…

In the 1984 Baker edition of The Biblical Basis For Modern Science, author Henry M. Morris refutes the argument that earth’s being an open system makes the law of entropy irrelevant to the creation-evolution debate. He writes: Of course, the application of scientific reasoning required here presupposes things about the trustworthiness and reliability of human faculties (sense, perception, reason) that those who reject the rational and trustworthy God of the Bible seem…