Misuse of Truth

Wednesday, March 9th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Christian Living | Comments Off

Many people who fall away from the Church have a number of reasons for doing so. While a number of the more outspoken of them tend to claim that they left the Church due to intellectual reasons. However, it seems that when one hears their "un-testimony" it becomes clear that they are more likely emotional reasons. In most of these cases, someone at the church did something or said something that caused them to leave. Perhaps ...

The Rhetoric of Philisophical Naturalism

Tuesday, March 1st, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | Comments Off

It is no secret that rhetoric can be very powerful when used the right way. It can be a very effective tool to persuade people to your point of view without ever offering any sort of argument or evidence to back them up. There have been so many times that I have heard this tactic used to make Christianity, or even theism in general, seem ridiculous. However, when it is used in the way I've heard ...

Assuming Evolution

Tuesday, February 22nd, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | Comments Off

It seems to be taking me an obscenely long time to read through Richard Dawkins’ The God Delusion. One reason for this is the fact that shortly after starting the book, I began to realize how utterly ridiculous Dawkins’ arguments were against theism. They were riddled with double-standards and self-refuting ideas. There is one particular thing that I would like to draw attention to that is in his book. It is also an argument that I ...

Inconsistent Skepticism

Tuesday, February 15th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Belief | Comments Off

It seems that the more I read or listen to many of the common arguments from non-believers, there is a very narrow range of types of objections to Christianity or any sort of theism. One such argument has to do with the level of skepticism they have regarding any claims of a divine being. What I have found, however, is that this argument tends to be every bit as inconsistent as many others. For example, one ...

Since It’s Gross…We Can Admit It’s Bad

Tuesday, February 8th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Political Issues | 2 Comments »

Recently, I read a news article about the now famous (or infamous) abortion doctor, Kermit Gosnell who was recently charged with eight counts of murder for abortions he performed. The story is not for the faint of heart, so if you're going to read the entire article, please be prepared. There were a number of things that concerned me while reading through this. And that's in addition to the gruesome details of the things this man ...

Judging Inconsistencies

Thursday, February 3rd, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Society & Culture | Comments Off

Recently, I've been listening to the Unbelievable? podcast, available on iTunes. In my usual, borderline OCD manner I had to start listening beginning with the oldest podcast available, so I started listening to episodes from the end of 2007. On one such episode, they had a guest on the show who was a Reiki healer named Beverly. While there were a number of things that she said that I took issue with theologically, one of the ...

Some Just Refuse to Believe

Tuesday, January 25th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | Comments Off

There was a podcast that I used to listen to called The Atheist Experience. One of the hosts, Matt Dillahunty, was once a Christian and was planning to go into seminary until he eventually lost his faith because he felt it was not reasonable to be believe any more. On one particular show, I remember him talking about the evidence that it would take to believe. He was asked if he would believe if his grandmother, ...

The Most Dangerous Book in the World

Wednesday, January 19th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Bible & Scripture, Christian Living | Comments Off

As a Christian, you might expect me to say that I believe that the Bible is the greatest book in the history of the world.  The doctrines taught in the Bible have, arguably, led to more philanthropy, selfless action and other beneficial things such as schools, hospitals, etc. than any other book, religion, worldview or ideal. Many critics of Christianity might also point out the number of people who have died as a result of the ...

Indoctrination of Children

Wednesday, January 12th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Apologetics | 1 Comment »

Perhaps the most outspoken person against the idea of religious indoctrination of children is Richard Dawkins. When writing about it in The God Delusion or talking about it in interviews and such, he becomes quite venomous toward those who would teach their children their own system of beliefs. What I find interesting is that he doesn't seem to even realize that he is begging the question. While Dawkins is a renowned biologist, one thing that those ...

Relating to Pain

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011 by Dan Carrington posted in Christian Living, Sin | Comments Off

For some time now, there have been many responses to the concept of what is known as the "Problem of Evil." Sometimes this is also called the "Problem of Pain" or the "Problem of Suffering." It is an argument offered to challenge the idea that there exists a God who is all powerful and simultaneously all loving. This seems to come up occasionally in my writing as I have already written previous posts on different aspects ...