Today we have a quick detour because of an important meeting that evangelical leaders are having soon. They want to discuss a growing problem in their ranks: their completely tainted brand and how it’s affecting recruitment and retention rates. Here I’ll show you their struggle to get on top of the problem–and why they absolutely cannot fix it. Strap in, because this whole situation promises to be magically delicious.
A recent incursion of Toxic Christians on this blog reveals a very sore spot for them: false experts. Christian thought leaders claim great expertise in apologetics and other fields, and yet often lack the formal training in these fields that would help them avoid very elementary mistakes and errors. And despite all their mistakes, the flocks themselves neither know nor care that their PROOF YES PROOF is laughably inept and erroneous. Christians adore their false experts, and here’s why–and what essential function they serve as the religion declines.
The recent incursion of Christian trolls we’ve seen around here highlights the failure of evangelism even more effectively than if they’d never shown up at all. But we needn’t look so close to home to see that Christians are flailing for lack of effective marketing and sales techniques. Today I’ll show you the religion’s newest failure: incarnational evangelism.
Last time we met up, we looked at Lydia McGrew’s take on it. She wrote a sort of Argument from Jesus’ Resurrection Totally Happened So Christianity Itself Is Totally True. Among its many flaws, her essay revealed a huge shortcoming in Christians’ thinking. I’ll show you what that shortcoming is–and why it’s such a dealbreaker.
I recently ran across an essay by Lydia McGrew. She claims to be making a no-fail argument for Christianity’s validity. As we’ll see shortly, however, it is neither unique nor successful. Today I’ll show you her weird take on the logical fallacy called the Argument from Miracles, and also how it fails on an almost comical scale.
Today we’re starting off with a refresher course on Arguments from X, since that’s the gist of the particular attempt we’ll be working with. Here’s what they are, how they work, and why they fail. Learn this concept, and you’re halfway done with defending yourself against most homegrown and professional apologists.
I don’t know what fundagelicals would even do with themselves if they weren’t panicking about the end of the world. A new date has been set–April 18th–but it’s not getting a whole lot of attention. Today Lord Snow presides over an increasingly backfired fundagelical tradition: Rapture predictions!
Christians love to claim that their god works miracles in their lives, and this claim comes from their nearly-universal belief in the possibility of divine miracles. We settled that idea last time. Now we find ourselves moving inexorably toward the second and third steps of our pushback: If miracles really did happen, and could be demonstrated to have come only from the Christian god, Christians would still not be any closer to establishing that their god was actually a good divinity who deserved our worship.
Today, almost five years after Miracle Maxin’ debuted, we look back at why miracles are still at once one of evangelists’ most treasured persuasion tools–and yet one of the most damning pieces of evidence contradicting their claims. Today I’ll show you why so many Christians cling to the idea of divine aid and why they can’t look away from the idea of miracles–and even why they get so touchy about people who refuse to buy into their claims.
The assault had a horrific effect on her emotionally, of course. She sought help afterward from the church’s associate pastor. It isn’t her fault she believed what trusted adults told her about themselves.