Category Archives: Apologetics

“Science is no substitute for religion”

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We’re up to chapter 5 of God or Godless, by John Loftus (atheist) and Randal Rauser (Christian).

Randal seeks to support his contention by pointing out that some scientists have a quasi-religious outlook on the cosmos.  The natural world is their God, and the scientific method their dogma.  But this religious impulse should be directed at the Creator, rather than the creation.

John, in his opening statement, pretty much reverses the original assertion by saying, in effect, “religion is no substitute for science.” …

‘The biblical God requires child sacrifices for his pleasure’

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This is the strange theory advanced by John Loftus in chapter 4 of God or Godless?.

I call it ‘strange’ because I had not come across it before.  I hastily looked up the passage he cites (Exodus 22:29-30) to see what I had been missing all these years.  We read:

‘You shall not delay to offer from the fulness of your harvest and from the outflow of your presses.  The first-born of your sons you shall give to me. 

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“If there is no God, then everything is permissible”

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This is the topic of debate in chapter 3 of God or Godless?

Randal Rouser opens by imagining the mind-set of someone who tortures and kills people for fun.  He imagines the character denying that what he does is evil, because (on the assumption that there is no God) morality is a purely subjective concept, with no objective basis for deciding whose morality is right and whose is wrong.

John Loftus, in his opener, says that the title of the chapter assumes that there is one God, whereas there are multiple concepts of God, with their own moralities. …

‘The biblical concept of God evolved from polytheism to monotheism’

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In chapter 2 of God or Godless? John Loftus asserts that the biblical concept of God evolved over time from polytheism to monotheism. He infers from this that there is no unified teaching about God in the Bible, and that the choice of one (Yahweh rather than Baal, say) is more or less a historical accident.

John’s argument is full of sweeping statements, right from the start.  When he says, “biblical scholars long ago acknowledged…”, he should have said, “Some biblical scholars think…”.…

“If there is no God, then life has no meaning”

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This is the first topic debated by Randal Rauser (a Christian) and John W. Loftus (an atheist) in their book God or Godless?

John Loftus concedes that if there is no God, then life has no intrinsic purpose and we have to either (a) muddle along in a purposeless existence, or (b) construct some kind of purpose for ourselves.

Yes, I agree with that.  If it were proven to me that God did not exist, life would either become meaningless for me, or I would have to construct some kind of meaning.…

God or Godless?

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This is the title of a recent (2013) book of written debates by John W. Loftus (an atheist) and Randal Rauser (a Christian).

Twenty topics are covered in all, half chosen by one protagonist and half by the other.  For each topic there is an opening statement of about 800 words from each person, rebuttals of about 150 words, and closing statements of 50 words.

It’s an interesting approach, although not without its weaknesses and limitations:-

  • The opening statements were written completely independently, and so sometimes do not focus on the same subject-matter.
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Hume and the question of miracles

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For many of today’s sceptics, David Hume clinched it: miracles don’t happen.  Miracles (if they occurred) would be violations of the laws of nature, and we know from experience that the laws of natures are not violated.

There are a number of problems with this argument, popular though it is.  For one thing, Hume was himself inconsistent regarding the ‘laws of nature’.  He argues elsewhere that even though we have observed the sun to rise every morning for thousands of years, we cannot infer that it will rise again tomorrow morning.…

Atheism: terrible, if true

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Some atheists are optimists.  They are so enchanted by the idea of giving up all belief in God, the supernatural, and fairies-at-the-bottom-of-your-garden that they imagine that the void that has been left is utterly benign.

Others, however, are not so sure.  They are inclined to be much more pessimistic about the implications of their unbelief.  They have the honesty and insight to face up to what a world-view without God really means.  Professor Dawkins, while he knows little about the Christian faith and still less about the Bible, rightly regards the cosmos with awe and understandably regards it as staring back at him with ‘blind, pitiless indifference’.…

The Gospels and eyewitness testimony – the use of names

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What follows is based on this lecture by Dr Peter J. Williams.

Recent studies into the use of Jewish names inside and outside the canonical Gospels have provided remarkable evidence that these accounts were based on eyewitness testimony.

Tradition and modern scholarship agree that most or all of the Gospels/Acts were written outside Palestine. So how familiar were they with the agriculture, architecture, botany, culture, economics, geography, language, law, personal names, politics, religion, social stratification, topography, and weather of the land they are talking about?…

Hume and the argument from design

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David Hume (1711-76) opposed the argument on the following grounds (a brief response is given in italics):-

1. It begs the question: ‘Who designed the Designer?’

This is a category error.  It is to confuse the Creator with his creation.  It is to assume naturalism, which for no good reason rules out of court any possibility of an uncreated, non-material Creator

2. It does not give us any reason to suppose that a Designer, if the existence of such could be demonstrated, is the God of the Bible. …