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Thursday, March 26, 2015

Incinerating Presuppositionalism: Year Ten

Yes, folks, my blog Incinerating Presuppositionalism is turning TEN YEARS OLD today! That’s right, ten years ago today I posted the first entry on this blog, and I’m pleased to report that it’s been going strong ever since.

Swashbuckling away at Christianity’s defenses, exposing their fallacies and untruths, bringing to light their gimmicks and refuting their arguments… all this has been a most delightful undertaking for me these past years. It has brought me a most unique pleasure that must be experienced firsthand in order to be fully understood, and enjoyed. It is a gift that I give to myself first and foremost.

The past year has been very busy for me, given a very demanding work schedule, but I have managed to be productive even on my beloved blog. Not only have I reached the tenth anniversary mark for my blog, but also my 400th blog entry. This may not seem like a lot for ten years, but bear in mind that my blog does not have a “staff” of writers churning out trite posts about where to buy the best scones or how the weather affected the turnout at last Tuesday’s game. Rather, it’s just me writing here, and as any reader knows my blog entries are often many pages long and full of ample doses of research. It really is a labor of love.

This is not to detract from those readers and visitors who post comments. Really, the comments are what make it really interesting here at IP, and there is a loyal core who have been at the forefront of the commenting activity. So to you all (you know who you are), I tip my hat in gratitude! I’m sorry every time you have to wait for me to get around to publishing your comments, but those who have been reading my blog for the past couple years know why I was reluctantly pressed to turning on the moderating procedure, something I still don’t really care for myself.

So what happened this past year? Well, quite a bit now that I look back on it all. Over the past year I’ve interacted with a few apologists for the first time, some presuppositionalist in their bent, others more traditional. And this year I did finally get around to examining arguments by William Lane Craig. Some readers have emailed me here and there over the years asking for my take on WLC’s arguments and debates. Hopefully I have satisfied such curiosity.

To my own surprise, this year saw fifty new blog entries. Here they are:

352. Incinerating Presuppositionalism: Year Nine - March 26, 2014
 
357. Fumbling at the First Down - May 6, 2014
360. Dawson’s Razor - June 1, 2014
365. Dave’s McPresuppositions, Part V - June 12, 2014
366. A Response to Christian James - June 17, 2014
368. STB: Four Years and Counting - August 27, 2014
370. Deriving “Ought” from Dirt - October 4, 2014
379. Jason Petersen’s “Epistemology” -October 21 , 2014
383. Glossary of Terms - December 10, 2014
386. Petersen vs. the Universe - January 10, 2015
387. Lennox’s 10, Part I - January 31, 2015
388. Lennox’s 10, Part II - February 12, 2015
389. Lennox’s 10, Part III - February 13, 2015
390. Lennox’s 10, Part IV - February 21, 2015
391. Lennox’s 10, Part V - February 28, 2015
401. The Ending of the Gospel of Mark - March 24, 2015

As for moving forward, I have a lot of new ideas and planned blog entries, but I am going through a transition as well. I moved to Thailand back in May of 2011, and my work here is now finished. Soon I will be relocating back to the United States to start my next chapter in life. And while this has been a great growing experience, I do not know how long it will take me to resettle my life and devote my energies to writing for my blog. Given the many demands on my time, I’m a slow worker. But keep your eyes peeled. Maybe I’ll surprise you!

In the meantime, keep pursuing your values and hone your reasoning skills.

by Dawson Bethrick
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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

The Ending of the Gospel of Mark

The final chapter of the gospel of Mark, Mark 16, represents a sore spot for Christian apologetics. The more attention it gets, the more it starts to bleed and fester, like an abrasion on a fingertip that cannot heal because of regular wear and tear.

In every bible that I have seen (which is considerable, but far from universal), the final chapter of Mark has 20 verses. And yet, Christian apologists, when the topic presents itself (and it does), insist that verses 9 through 20 were interpolated by later scribes or copyists and therefore are not original to the gospel. The original gospel either ends at 16:8, or its original ending was lost (as some have argued).

What are the implications of either scenario? Let’s first consider the final 12 verses, the so-called “longer ending,” that are still found in today’s printed bibles.

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Monday, March 23, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part IX: “God can be personally known and experienced”

We come now to the last of William Lane Craig’s eight arguments for the existence of his god which were published in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of Philosophy Now. The previous seven arguments did not weather scrutiny well at all. Readers can take in the wreckage left behind in the following blog entries:
In the present argument, Craig seeks to defend the claim that “God can be personally known and experienced.” This is his final chance to salvage his god-belief from Given this, if Craig’s final attempt here to defend his theistic assertions proves to be a failure like the previous seven, then I think we can safely conclude that the door is sealed shut on his apologetic arsenal and, consequently, he should take a vow of silence.

So let’s take a look at Craig’s final case and see if he can still score a point.
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Saturday, March 21, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part VIII: “The very possibility of God’s existence implies that God exists”

We now come to William Lane Craig’s seventh argument. This comes from his set of arguments which were published in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of Philosophy Now (as opposed to some other time). I have already examined the previous six arguments which Craig published along with the one we’ll be looking at presently. The blog entries in which I interact with those previous six arguments can be found here:
In his seventh argument, Craig seeks to defend the claim that “The very possibility of God’s existence implies that God exists.” Now as absurd as this sounds, Craig is apparently wholly serious (after all, he’s got a reputation to keep as well as an audience to entertain), and he does put forward a case of sorts on its behalf.

My examinations of Craig’s previous six arguments have not gone well for him at all. Will Craig finally score a point with his present case? Let’s dive in and find out.
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Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part VII: “God is the best explanation of objective moral values and duties”

We now come to the sixth of eight arguments for theism published by William Lane Craig in Philosophy Now. Craig's previous five arguments have each been refuted. They can be accessed in the following links:
As the title of this post indicates, I will be examining Craig’s sixth argument, which is supposed to be a defense of the claim that “God is the best explanation of objective moral values and duties.” The previous five arguments have all been found to be fatally problematic. But surely, with all the talk Christians spew about their god being the “standard” of morality, Craig might finally score a point here. No? Well, let’s buckle down and take a look-see.
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Monday, March 16, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part VI: “God is the best explanation of intentional states of consciousness”

We now come to the sixth installment in my series examining eight arguments for the existence of a god published by William Lane Craig in the Nov/Dec 2013 issue of Philosophy Now. The previous five installments in this series can be found here:
In the present installment, we will be looking at Craig’s defense of the claim that “God is the best explanation of intentional states of consciousness,” the fifth of his eight arguments. Craig’s previous arguments have all been shown to be utter failures. In spite of the dismal failures of Christian apologetics, Craig and other defenders of theism continue their futile efforts to argue from this world to a realm contradicting it while never coming to terms with the fact that, once we get to the conclusion of any of their arguments for the existence of a god, we still have no alternative but to imagine the god whose existence is said to be thereby proved.

But Craig thinks that his god is the “best explanation of intentional states of consciousness.” Will Craig finally be able to score a goal with this case? Let’s take a look and see.
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Friday, March 13, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part V: “God is the best explanation of the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life”

This is the fifth installment in a series of blog entries which I am posting in response to a set of theistic arguments published by Christian apologist William Lane Craig. The first four installments can be found here:
In the present installment, we will look at Craig’s defense of the so-called “fine-tuning” argument (I’m tempted to call it the “fine-tooning” or “fine-cartooning” argument, in honor of the cartoon universe premise of theism which it is intended to smuggle into intellectual circles). Craig’s case in the present installment is supposed to seal an affirmative verdict on behalf of the claim that “God is the best explanation of the fine-tuning of the universe for intelligent life.”
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Thursday, March 12, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part IV: “God is the best explanation of the applicability of mathematics to the physical world”

This is the fourth installment in a series of blog entries which I am posting in response to a set of theistic arguments published by Christian apologist William Lane Craig. The first three installments can be found here:
Craig’s third argument is intended to support his claim that “God is the best explanation of the applicability of mathematics to the physical world.” Craig’s first two arguments have already been shown to be complete failures. Let’s see if Craig’s third argument does any better.

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Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part III: “God is the best explanation for the origin of the universe”

This is the third installment in a series of blog entries which I am posting in response to a set of theistic arguments published by Christian apologist William Lane Craig. The first two installments can be found here:
See the Introduction for links to Craig's article (which can now be accessed only by subscribers to Philosophy Now).

Craig’s second argument is intended to support his claim that “God is the best explanation for the origin of the universe.” Although they have similarities, this argument is distinct from his first argument in that, in the present case, Craig seeks to draw on research from a group of secular scientists in order to support his theistic position. Craig’s first argument has already been shown to be a complete failure. Let’s see if Craig’s second argument does any better.
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Monday, March 09, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part II: “God is the best explanation why anything at all exists”

Over the years the self-appointed “professional philosopher” William Lane Craig has published many articles in which he has presented arguments for the existence of the god he claims to worship. One such article appeared in the online journal Philosophy Now in its November/December 2013 issue. Titled Does God Exist?, the article is now accessible in full only to subscribers. In its first month or so of publication, it was available to non-subscribers like myself, and as happenstance would have it, I had the presence of mind – not knowing that it would be pulled from the internet – to copy it to my hard-drive.

I am now posting my own criticisms of Craig's arguments through a series of entries on my blog. This is the second post in this series and it will deal with Craig's first argument. The first post in this series can be found here.

As I read through Craig’s article, I saw so many holes in his arguments that, were he not so arrogant and self-promoting, I’d almost feel embarrassed for him. But given the fact that he has essentially made a career of getting on stages before fawning audiences and bamboozling them with outright lies to continue in their religious delusions, I can only take delight in the fact that I have philosophically immunized myself from such contrivances.

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Sunday, March 08, 2015

Craig’s Eight Arguments for God, Part I: Introduction

William Lane Craig, known for his medieval thinking and performance debates over questions such as whether a god exists or whether Jesus was really resurrected from the dead, has been touted as “one of the world's leading philosophers of religion” (Biola University product advertisement, The Best of William Lane Craig: Debate Collection, Volumes 1-2), “a top theologian and philosopher” (Alex Murashko, Theologian William Lane Craig Looks Forward to Debate 'Philosophically Informed and Civil' Atheist Sean Carroll), and “the best debater – on any topic” (Luke Muehlhauser, William Lane Craig’s Debates (Reviews)). In his debates, Craig often refers to himself as “a professional philosopher,” and he is treated by many Christian apologists as a leading authority of sorts whom we should never question. One might as well suppose he wins his debates before he even takes his position at the podium.

With commendations such as these and no doubt many, many more, one cannot expect Christianity’s most celebrated show-dog to disappoint, especially when called to produce convincing proof, once and for all, that Christianity’s god, at the exclusion of all rivals, is real. Given Craig’s highly-praised academic credentials, one would expect flawless delivery of the ultimate case for Christian theism.
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