Anne was clearly angry. She relayed how her former husband had been abusive, had beaten her and sexually violated her. Despite this, however, he had never – as far as she knew – had an affair. Did this mean she had sinned before God for leaving her marriage? Was she now required to remain celibate […]
Entries from February 28th, 2011
Contra Mundum: “Till Death do us Part” Christ’s Teachings on Abuse, Divorce and Remarriage
February 28th, 2011 46 Comments
Tags: Adultery · David Instone Brewer · Divorce · Hermeneutics · Marriage · Remarriage · Spousal Abuse
Hearing the Voice of God: Tragedy and its Aftershocks
February 28th, 2011 25 Comments
The “big one” has hit Christchurch. Few in the entire country will be untouched or unaffected, since we in New Zealand are a little village. To a man each will have relatives, friends, colleagues and mates in Christchurch. In that sense it is a national disaster. The meaning and significance of such disasters are always […]
Tags: Christchurch Earthquake
Fallacy Friday Podcast on Apologetics 315: Introduction & What is an Argument?
February 27th, 2011 Comments Off on Fallacy Friday Podcast on Apologetics 315: Introduction & What is an Argument?
Apologetics 315 are producing an audio version of Matt’s Fallacy Friday series. The Fallacy Friday Podcasts will be released every Friday on Apologetics 315. You can subscribe using: • RSS Feed • Via iTunes • one-click to your feed-reader The Mp3 of the introduction to the series is here; the first episode: What is an Argument? is here. […]
Fallacy Friday: Tu Quoque (But you did it too!)
February 25th, 2011 25 Comments
Last week I looked at the Straw Man Fallacy, today I want to explore the tu quoque fallacy. In latin tu quoque (too kwo-kwee) means “you too”; in fact, the phrase “you did it too” is a good, succinct account of this fallacy. A tu quoque occurs when one rebuts a particular criticism of one’s own position by […]
Tags: Fallacy Friday · Osama Bin Laden · Tu Quoque
Hoist with one’s own petard
February 24th, 2011 28 Comments
When a Christian says that all other religions are false, he is deemed narrow minded. When an atheist says that all religions are false, she is deemed open minded.
Tags: Atheism · Bad Reasoning
The Presumption of Theism
February 23rd, 2011 87 Comments
Modern analytic philosophy of religion, so it seems, is largely dominated by purely theoretical and evidential considerations. That is, the question of whether or not theistic belief is rational is decided purely on the balance of total available public evidence as opposed to existential and pragmatic considerations. The addition of the term “public” to the […]
Tags: Atheism · Happiness · The Presumption of Theism · Theism · Worldview analysis
Prayers for the victims of the Christchurch Earthquake
February 22nd, 2011 9 Comments
We are devastated for our countrymen who were struck by a very shallow, yet very destructive, 6.3 magnitude earthquake in Christchurch, New Zealand this afternoon. While it may have been smaller than September’s 7.1 magnitude earthquake, all reports show that this one was far worse in terms of its violence and impact. Today many people have […]
Tags: Christchurch Earthquake