Almost two years ago I wrote one of several posts about fallacies, and today I came across a prime example of “illegitimate totality transfer” and/or “one meaning”, and possibly a few more. Though the premise of the article is easily dismissed on its face, it’s always good to give specifics and know why something is (Continue reading…)
By That Logic…
January 24th, 2012Appeasement
January 20th, 2012This past year (I think) there was a viral video of a big Australian kid being picked on by a scrawny one. The latter had been tormenting the former all year, and finally the victim snapped, slamming his tormenter to the ground. Most comments were supportive of the big kid, because it finally put an (Continue reading…)
The Hamster Roars
January 15th, 2012Back in November I wrote The Hamster Wheel, wherein I ranted about the poor treatment some Christians give others for disagreeing with them, and this being one of the reasons I no longer join their message boards. In the comments at that article, a particularly obnoxious member using the pseudonym “nobdysfool” was mentioned. Today I (Continue reading…)
Defining Terms
January 3rd, 2012There’s a good and concise treatment of the issue of apostle regarding Junia here, including a list of all the other links in the series. I’ve written before that the essential meaning of apostle seems, from the examples we see in scripture, to be primarily that of what we now call a missionary, but more (Continue reading…)
Impostor
December 29th, 2011One thing I’ve learned from watching online conversations is that a lot of people are hungry for some kind of awakening to a new consciousness. They are disillusioned with the world’s leaders and long for someone to step up and fix things. They want to believe, but in someone or anyone but God. Many who (Continue reading…)
The Return of the King
December 25th, 2011Yes, that’s the title of one of the Lord of the Rings movies, but of course I’m referring to a real King and a real Return. Last year I wrote of the reason for the season (list of all my Christmas posts), and this past Easter I wrote about the “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13)— and (Continue reading…)
Lord Willing
December 17th, 2011This oft-uttered bit of Christian jargon comes primarily from James 4:13-17 about people being too self-assured. But it has become an excuse to go to the other extreme: we do nothing, we decide nothing, we control nothing, we are responsible for nothing. It’s the ultimate fatalism, bearing its most ripe and obvious fruit in the (Continue reading…)
Poor Logic Makes Poor Scientists
December 11th, 2011What do you call faith in a person or entity that no amount of contrary evidence can shake? Religious or blind, and certainly unscientific. Yet many, mostly atheists but including many professing Christians, have a blind faith that no matter what scientific evidence may be lacking for (or having evidence against) the Theory of Evolution (Continue reading…)
Say What?
December 6th, 2011I read this LinkedIn article today about unclear communication. It’s a great example of something George Orwell wrote about nearly 70 years ago: The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one’s real and one’s declared aims, one turns as it were instinctively to long words and exhausted idioms, (Continue reading…)
Grateful to Know
November 24th, 2011My previous post referred to my having left a certain message board. And as I often do after leaving such a place, I keep checking back for a while to see how debates in progress have turned out, as some kind of “closure” I suppose. And for the most part my decision to leave was (Continue reading…)
The Hamster Wheel
November 21st, 2011I just left my last “Christian” board, and I’m not the only one. People no longer know how to discuss anything of importance, follow a train of thought or argument, disagree with civility, or separate the argument from the person. The boards run rampant with double standards, gossip, and betrayal, not to mention heresy and (Continue reading…)
The Self-Delusion of Naturalist Philosophy
November 18th, 2011Here is an interesting one-hour documentary on self-awareness. But it makes a fundamental logical error; see if you can identify it. Did you identify the error? It is that if we can produce an experience by natural/physical means, then all such experiences are nothing more than natural/physical. That is, if we can explain how a (Continue reading…)
If I Were You
November 15th, 2011But I’m not you. And you’re not me. There’s a reason we all have different talents and personalities, and in Christ, spiritual gifts. If we were all supposed to be clones there’d be no need for most of us. But our differences force us to work together and learn to allow others to disagree without (Continue reading…)
Of Sheep And Goats
November 9th, 2011In Jesus’ teaching about the sheep and goat judgment (Mat. 25:31-46), he said he will say to people who had been doing all the right things in his name, “I never knew you”. These people were driving out demons and doing many righteous acts, yet Jesus did not know them. How is this possible? Because (Continue reading…)
Calvinism and Universalism: Separated At Birth?
November 4th, 2011Both C and U can scream all they like about “misrepresentation”, but I’ve written plenty about the details of both in this blog to support what I’ve summarized here. I have noted that their adherents often have not thought through to the logical conclusions of their beliefs, which accounts for much of the outrage. Continuing (Continue reading…)
Coveting the Right Translation
November 1st, 2011I have been reading snippets of Dr. Joel M. Hoffman’s book God Didn’t Say That and have been particularly focused on the discussion surrounding his treatment of the Ten Commandments (handy chart here comparing the two OT passages). He says that “covet” never meant to merely desire to take what doesn’t belong to us, but (Continue reading…)
More Judaic Than Thou
October 26th, 2011Rev. 2:9 and 3:9 speak of people “who claim to be Jews though they are not”, and there is much controversy over who these people were. But this phrase came to mind due to what seems to be a veritable tsunami of eagerness for Christians, most of whom were never Jewish, to immerse themselves into (Continue reading…)
Symbolism
October 25th, 2011In my previous article I wrote about the fact that altars and sacrifices, pulpits and preachers, etc. send the message that Jesus changed practically nothing in this life. But it raises another question related to the one we ask near every national holiday in the US about whether Christians should celebrate secular holidays based on (Continue reading…)
(no subject)
October 21st, 2011Typically seen in emails, this title merely reflects the need for me to post something with a tag in it so this can be linked to the Biblioblog Library. Feel free to ignore or comment about whatever. BRL-verify-8652
Altared States
October 19th, 2011Yep, I spelled that word wrong intentionally. But in my browsing this morning I came across some articles that mention “coming forward to the altar” at typical church services, and though I’ve written about this before, it bears repeating. Why do churches have altars? Jesus died on the cross and rose again, offering His literal, (Continue reading…)
