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2026-06-05T23:57:49-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Gospel of Matthew Bashing Refuted Point-by-Point
Last updated on: June 5, 2026 at 11:57 pm By Dave Armstrong
“The Gospel According to Saint Matthew” was written by atheist Vexen Crabtree in 2016. I will examine his “anti-biblical” arguments to see if they can withstand criticism. Vexen’s words will be in blue. ***** The Gospel of Matthew is a later copy of the Gospel of Mark, using 92% of its text. It’s grossly inaccurate to call Matthew simply a “copy” of Mark. Sure, it draws heavily from Mark, as almost all Christians would agree (though likely not it only), but it’s a... Read more
2021-02-10T12:00:16-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Why Do I Defend the Bible Against Atheist Attacks?
Last updated on: February 10, 2021 at 12:00 pm By Dave Armstrong
The Purposes and Goals of Contra-Atheist Christian Apologetics “Sporkfighter” is a friendly and fair-minded atheist who asked me some good questions underneath my article, Groundless Gospel of Mark Bashing Systematically Refuted (2-9-21). Here are my replies, with a short second round as well. It became an excellent opportunity to explain the wider goals and motivations of apologetics. His words will be in blue. ***** Question: Who are you writing for? 1) Christians: for their existing faith to be strengthened by seeing... Read more
2021-02-09T19:06:02-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Mandatory COVID Vaccines & Facebook Fascist Censorship
Last updated on: February 9, 2021 at 7:06 pm By Dave Armstrong
Apparently now it is liberal dogma that no one can possibly decide to not receive a particular vaccine. To not do so is to automatically be a wild-eyed conspiratorialist; perhaps even a “domestic terrorist”! Facebook Big Fascist Brother, in its infinite wisdom, deemed that a post of mine from five days ago, entitled, “Two Separate Thoughts About COVID Vaccines” didn’t “follow” their “community standards.” Presumably, my warning had to do their notice on the [leftist] “Standards” page: COVID-19: Community Standards Updates... Read more
Political & Ethical & Moral Issues
baby parts used in vaccine research
conscientious objection to vaccines
holistic objection to vaccines
2026-06-05T23:57:49-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Groundless Gospel of Mark Bashing Systematically Refuted
Last updated on: June 5, 2026 at 11:57 pm By Dave Armstrong
I just finished yesterday an exhaustive (over 8,000-word) point-by-point refutation of a wholesale attack on the Gospel of Mark, written by atheist Steven Carr: Pearce’s Potshots #15: Gospel of Matthew vs. Gospel of Mark?. That piece was actually part of a longer diatribe, entitled The Gospel According to Saint Mark: written by another atheist: Vexen Crabtree in 2006. Now I will examine his piece, too, to see if it is any more worthy of belief than Carr’s relentlessly erroneous analysis. Vexen’s words will... Read more
Jews & Judaism & Old Testament
2021-02-07T12:45:35-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Pearce’s Potshots #15: Gospel of Matthew vs. Gospel of Mark?
Last updated on: February 7, 2021 at 12:45 pm By Dave Armstrong
Atheist anti-theist Jonathan M. S. Pearce is the main writer on the blog, A Tippling Philosopher. His “About” page states: “Pearce is a philosopher, author, blogger, public speaker and teacher from Hampshire in the UK. He specialises in philosophy of religion, but likes to turn his hand to science, psychology, politics and anything involved in investigating reality.” . ***** I am replying to the post on Jonathan’s site: Gospel of Mark’s Poor Jewish Knowledge (3-3-21), written mostly by Steven Carr, and extracted from another page. Steven... Read more
Jews & Judaism & Old Testament
2021-02-05T13:09:28-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Christian Apologetics Methodology: Similarities with Science
Last updated on: February 5, 2021 at 1:09 pm By Dave Armstrong
Christian apologetics is neither dishonest, a “stacked deck”, nor an “evidence-free” methodology, simply because the apologist assumes the truthfulness of Christian beliefs before he or she starts. The fact is that both philosophy and science (as well as mathematics) start from axioms or unproven premises and move on from there. Modern science (especially since Darwin) commences with unproven or incompletely proven hypotheses and then seeks to disprove them (philosopher of science Karl Popper is notable for having stressed this idea of falsifiability).... Read more
Christian apologetics & science
2026-06-05T23:57:29-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
“Difficulty” in Understanding the Bible: Hebrew Cultural Factors
Last updated on: June 5, 2026 at 11:57 pm By Dave Armstrong
It’s a very common motif in anti-theist atheist polemics, to say that the Bible appears to be very complicated and inscrutable (and, they wrongly think, ubiquitously contradictory). This shouldn’t be the case — so they argue — if indeed it is a divinely inspired document from an omniscient God, meant to communicate to all human being at all times. One atheist, Eric [see our closely related dialogue immediately prior to this], stated it this way in an atheist combox, in... Read more
Jews & Judaism & Old Testament
2021-02-04T13:39:06-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Pearce’s Potshots #14: Resurrection “Contradictions” #2
Last updated on: February 4, 2021 at 1:39 pm By Dave Armstrong
Atheist anti-theist Jonathan M. S. Pearce is the main writer on the blog, A Tippling Philosopher. His “About” page states: “Pearce is a philosopher, author, blogger, public speaker and teacher from Hampshire in the UK. He specialises in philosophy of religion, but likes to turn his hand to science, psychology, politics and anything involved in investigating reality.” . ***** I am replying to the post on Jonathan’s site, “Contradictions in the Resurrection of Jesus Accounts” (1-31-21): a guest-post written by one David Austin. This is my second... Read more
alleged Resurrection contradictions
Non-Contradictory Biblical Numbers
2021-02-05T12:45:41-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Atheists, Biblical “Contradictions” & the Plausibility Issue
Last updated on: February 5, 2021 at 12:45 pm By Dave Armstrong
This exchange with atheist Eric came about after he analyzed my recent post, Pearce’s Potshots #13: Resurrection “Contradictions” (?), in which I responded to a “laundry list of 18 alleged contradictions in the biblical accounts, in a neat little chart.” He responded in a combox on the web page of Jonathan M. S. Pearce, called A Tippling Philosopher. His words will be in blue. I will add further exchanges here if they take place in that venue. ***** Allow me to... Read more
Biblical "Contradictions" & plausibility
2025-05-17T16:28:20-04:00
Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.
Seidensticker Folly #71: “Magic” Spirits & 68% Dark Energy
Last updated on: May 17, 2025 at 4:28 pm By Dave Armstrong
Atheist and anti-theist Bob Seidensticker runs the influential Cross Examined blog. He asked me there, on 8-11-18: “I’ve got 1000+ posts here attacking your worldview. You just going to let that stand? Or could you present a helpful new perspective that I’ve ignored on one or two of those posts?” He added in June 2017 in a combox: “If I’ve misunderstood the Christian position or Christian arguments, point that out. Show me where I’ve mischaracterized them.” Delighted to oblige his wishes . . . Bob (for the record) virtually begged and pleaded with me... Read more
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