Daniel Bonevac’s Bayesian Argument for Miracles

I was privileged to be able to sit in on some of a private virtual Q&A with Christian philosopher Daniel Bonevac regarding his peer-reviewed paper “The Argument from Miracles,” Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Religion 3 (2011), pp. 16-40. Many...

Christianity Is a Conspiracy Theory

There is a much overlooked late-20th century polemical satire of Christian apologetics by the Russian writer Kirill Eskov called the Gospel of Afranius. Award-winning and popular in the slavic world, from Russia, Poland, the Baltics, and Ukraine (even once having...

Justin Brierley and the Folly of Christianity

This is the final entry in my series on Justin Brierley’s book Unbelievable? Why After Ten Years of Talking with Atheists, I’m Still a Christian. You can read my general summary of this book; where also at the bottom is a TOC linking to all the follow-ups, in...

Crank Bayesianism: William Lane Craig Edition

A patron asked me to evaluate a video by TMM titled “WLC Misunderstands Hume’s Rejection of Miracles,” in which the host critiques William Lane Craig’s “rebuttal” to David Hume’s argument against miracles—because...

Pearce’s New Take-Down of Resurrection Apologetics Is a Must-Have

This book is the definitive starting point for anyone intent on questioning or defending the resurrection of Jesus. Introductory and aimed at a broad audience, but thoroughly researched, all the key works are here cited and arguments addressed, and with sound...

Murray’s Primer on Atheism

I’ll shortly announce the addition of my popular class on Christian and Islamic counter-apologetics to my monthly online course offerings. Which means it’s time to discuss the few issues I do have with my preferred course text for that: Malcolm Murray’s...

Theism & Atheism: Science

Part 3 of my series on the new Macmillan reference Theism & Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy: my discussion of the Argument from Science, which holds that the collective consequence of the advance of the sciences is the substantial reduction in the...

Theism & Atheism: Miracles

Part 2 of my series on the new Macmillan reference Theism & Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy: my discussion of the Argument from Miracles, which turns that argument on its head. Far from being evidence for theism, the collective evidence regarding miracle...

Theism & Atheism: Doxastic Foundations

This year Macmillan produced a peer reviewed collection of position papers between atheists and theists titled Theism and Atheism: Opposing Arguments in Philosophy (2019), in which I contributed several chapters. Like most academic monographs these days it’s...

From Raised to Revenants in the Ancient World

In honor of Halloween, here is a fun and informative sample of some weird things said and believed about the risen dead in the ancient world. Rising from the Dead? Always Creepy Tons of heroes, superheroes, gods, and lucky lads rose from the dead in ancient pagan...

How Not to Be a Doofus about Bayes’ Theorem

I’ve been dealing with a bunch of doofuses lately. And I can’t tell if they are alone in their quackery, or if their disease is afflicting anyone else. So here’s a primer on how not to be a total doofus about Bayes’ Theorem. I define a doofus...

The Argument from Specified Complexity against Supernaturalism

Creationists may have bitten their own head off with their idea of specified complexity. Because there is a case to be made that if specified complexity can exist, the supernatural cannot. The creationist William Dembski famously contrived the concept of...

Defining the Supernatural vs. Logical Positivism

In working slowly through a gigantic backlog of blog comments, I met with one that goes back to an old school question, about my project to demarcate the natural and the supernatural. The comment by Enlightenment Liberal is here. He is asking questions about the...

Some Good Reads on Ancient History vs. the Gospels

I blogged a while ago about Matthew Ferguson’s brilliant takedown of the 10/42 apologetic. That’s the argument that springs off the ridiculously false claim that we have better sources for Jesus than for Emperor Tiberius…why 42 against 10 even! Not....