"Respect" Muslim-Christian Dialogue

If you live near the Oklahoma City area, please consider attending!

http://www.facebook.com/events/241491839282459

Incommunicado

Going out of the country.
That's why I'm not talking to anyone, in case you're wondering.

Sorry I've been out

After what was to me a prolific explosion of creative power in blogging through late March - early May, I've sort of petered out recently.  Partly it's because I'm very busy these days and partly I just haven't had any ideas.  But I have been engaging in some threads on some other blogs, so I link them here.

Brennon's Thoughts - Bossmanham's blogpost entitled "Where Many of the Insufferable Atheists Congregate", in which I riff a bit off of Bossmanham's freewill theodicy and engage a denizen of the WeAreSmrt forum in a discussion on the compatibility of the existence of the God of the Bible with the existence of evil.

The Catholic Champion blog - "James White/Robert Price Debate: Price Narrowly Wins the Battle for the Bible", in which I expose some of Matthew Bellisario's biases, which leads him and others on his blog to be the brittle people they are, in which I tweak said brittle people, as I sometimes do, and in which he and others reveal themselves to have approximately zero understanding of sarcasm and how they look to outsiders.

Catholic Nick's blogpost - "Sola Scriptura is Unscriptural", in which I demonstrate how ~½ of his post is nonsensical and urge him to remove or at least rework those parts, and in which he refuses for no good reason and simply tries to get me to answer the other ½, which I don't consider particularly strong.  But of course, like always, let the reader judge.

JohnMark's blogpost - "Faith Alone and World Religions", in which I interact with a knee-jerk Romanist named Jae about sola fide.

You are not nearly as cool as you think you are

Ed Young Jr, that would be you.

This is beyond ridiculous. The worst thing is that ISTM that he just barely didn't make it over the top enough to make me think he meant this to be a joke.

1 Timothy 3:1 It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. 2 An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, prudent, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not addicted to wine or pugnacious, but gentle, peaceable, free from the love of money...7 And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into reproach and the snare of the devil.

Titus 1:5 For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, 6 namely, if any man is above reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of dissipation or rebellion. 7 For the overseer must be above reproach as God’s steward, not self-willed, not quick-tempered, not addicted to wine, not pugnacious, not fond of sordid gain, 8 but hospitable, loving what is good, sensible, just, devout, self-controlled, 9 holding fast the faithful word which is in accordance with the teaching, so that he will be able both to exhort in sound doctrine and to refute those who contradict.

Oh, you mean like refute heretics like the Oneness Pentecostal TD Jakes? The Word of Faith wolf Brian Houston? The always-smiling "This is my Bible. I hold it up at the beginning of my sermon and then never mention it afterwards" moron Joel Osteen?

You know, that's funny. This reminds me of a question I heard earlier about how we figure out who is approved...

Some advice on how to get started in apologetics

A Facebook acquaintance asked me how I might advise them to get started into the realm of apologetics, and this is a person with two small children and who isn't flush with cash. Here's what I told them.


There are several different angles you can take it from. Here's a book that would describe my favored approach well: http://www.monergismbooks.com/Always-Ready-Directions-for-Defending-the-Faith-p-17156.html

Basically there are two veins you can take - 1) the data gopher, memorise a bunch of stuff and regurgitate as necessary (which is most apologetics you hear today); 2) recalibrate your mind to always look at the presuppositions behind what the other person is saying, and what what they are saying says about what they really believe. The latter is my general approach, and I believe it to be the approach most often taken by our biblical exemplars.

I know how it'd be tough to work your way thru a book like that with two young boys, so there are other ways to bone up.
Make it a routine when you sit down to read on the Internet to check up on a few apologetics sites.
My favorite two are:
aomin.org
triablogue.blogspot.com

I advise you, BTW, to find the groove that suits you in terms of tone, and not to pass judgment too quickly (if at all) on the way certain believers conduct themselves in apologetics. Save your condemnatory attitude for when you've spent some time dealing with and contending for the faith in the face of the worst that the Internet (which is the very worldwide community) has to offer, and see how they're targeting the internal contradictions and faulty assumptions that the unbelievers make.

Others to consider are:
carm.org
tektonics.org (neither are blogs, more like a resource site)
defendingcontending.com
turretinfan.blogspot.com
atheismisdead.blogspot.com
beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com (my other blog, obviously aimed at Roman Catholicism mostly and also Eastern Orthodoxy)


Also, podcasts are a great way to get your mind thinking about that stuff even in the midst of multitasking around the house or whatever.
aomin.org has a free one (not on iTunes though, he just blogs it as he records them, usually biweekly), and many, many useful debates for sale for cheap.
The Narrow Mind podcast on iTunes, or tnma.blogspot.com
The CARM podcast
Fighting for the Faith podcast - deals mostly with decay WITHIN the church, heresy, and bad theology

Finally, a good way to get real-world experience is to get familiar with an argument or two and then go use it, on blogs or bulletin boards/forums, like the ones at carm.org. I gained a lot of useful experience with the Roman church when I spent a significant amount of time at a Roman Catho forum some years ago. In that context, you'll also hear alot of things you've never heard before - don't let it bother you, take the thing, research it, ask others as necessary, and come back stronger. How many 100s of times have I been challenged with sthg I had no idea about? Just find about it, and this is the most important - ask the challenge its own questions, challenge it with its own challenges and see how good an account of itself it can give. That's what I spend most of my time doing - turning the question back on the questioner.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Intelligent Designs shop is now open!

Mi amigo Mariano at Atheism is Dead has just opened an online shop - Intelligent Designs.
Take a look, grab some merchandise if you like what you see. I don't know about the thong, but I do like the Born Jewish bumper sticker.

Outta the country

Just stopping by to explain my absence. I've been prepping for my upcoming 2-week mission trip to evangelise francophone Muslims, being a francophone (but not a Muslim) myself.
So I'll be overseas for a time. Talk to you when I get over the jetlag afterwards.

2 great sites for debates

You may have noticed that I enjoy a good debate. I have recently come across two very impressive compendia of debates and would like to share them with you.

Common Sense Atheism's 400+ Atheist Debates
Apologetics 315's The Ultimate Apologetics MP3 Audio Page

Enjoy!

My cultist duty

Just a quick announcement that my wife, whom I very rarely permit outside the kitchen, let alone the house, has contributed another member to my subset of the populace (at 2:41 am no less!). He is tiny but he will be mighty, and the cult to which I belong has already rewarded me with promises of yet more abundant power and grandeur in The Age To Come, which Our Great Leader is pretty sure will come into being before 2196 (which adds up to 18, which divided into 3 is 666 - you do the math). Anyway, I will be taking a break for the next week or so. Sorry to all who want a crack at me. Patience is a virtue.

What I learned from The Secret

ChooseDoubt is on vacation, so we won't hear from him for awhile.
But I wanted to talk about how I have been irrevocably altered.
I borrowed The Secret (the book, not the DVD) from a coworker and my life was changed! Topsy-turvied! Bouleversée!

No, I didn't waste a ton of time reading it but less than an hour was sufficient.


Here's what I learned:

I never studied science or physics at school, and yet when I read complex books on quantum physics I understood them perfectly because I wanted to understand them (p. 156).

Everything is energy (p. 156, emph. original).

The true essence of You, the pure energy of You, has always been and always will be. You can never not be...You are eternal energy (p. 158, emph. original).

Be happy now. Feel good now. That's the only thing you have to do (p. 179, emph. original).

You are the master of the Universe. You are the heir to the kingdom. You are the perfection of Life. And now you know The Secret (p. 183).

And my personal favorite:

You are God in a physical body. You are Spirit in the flesh. You are Eternal Life expressing itself as You. You are a cosmic being. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all power. You are all wisdom. You are all intelligence. You are perfection. You are magnificence (p. 164).

It's Benny Hinn w/o the big hair, slayings in the Spirit, the constant appealing to "Holy Spirit power", and any mention of Jesus. But go ahead and keep the sweet Gulfstream jets, the 7-figure salary, and fraudulent bizarre claims.

Public Service Announcement

We interrupt these very important heresy-hunts for this public service announcement. Please remain calm.



In honor of our time in Japan, I wish all of you a good weekend.