Tag Archives: Christian Apologetics

Upcoming apologetics events in Dallas, Atlanta and Calgary

Calgary, Alberta

First, the Faith Beyond Belief team is doing a Calgary event with Canadian scholar Craig Evans.

Details:

September 24-26, 2010

Various events in local churches and colleges with Dr. Craig Evans

The event schedule is here.

If you would like to donate, you can donate at the web site. The Faith Beyond Belief team informs me that they could really use your support, and please tell them that WK (me) sent you.

Craig Evans is first-rate scholar who is respected across the ideological spectrum. He has been doing stuff with John Ankerberg, participating in debates with John Dominic Crossan, and debating against Bart Ehrman. Canadians should be thrilled to get someone of his caliber in their country. The fact that the organizers have not neglected to schedule academic outreach events is significant. Calgary is the best city in Canada, and located next to the Rocky Mountains.

Dallas, Texas

Then, this one in Dallas.

Details:

November 5-6, 2010

2010 On Guard Christian Apologetics Conference

Denton Bible Church in Denton, Texas.

The event schedule is here.

I am a huge fan of Denton Bible Church, and I would love to live on the north side of Dallas, if anyone can find me a good computer science job there as a Java programmer. Denton Bible Church rocks – I believe they did a debate with William Lane Craig and Keith Parsons before, which you can listen to on the comprehensive William Lane Craig Debate page.

Atlanta, Georgia

Then, this one in Atlanta.

Details:

November 18-20, 2010

2010 Evangelical Philosophical Society Apologetics Conference

Here is the event schedule.

Johnson Ferry Baptist Church in Marietta, Georgia.

I’m going to see if I can go to the one in Atlanta to meet a whole bunch of my blog friends. I would say that the odds are very, very good that I will be there. The north suburbs is another place I would like to live – Rep. Tom Price’s district is super conservative.

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November 5th and 6th, 2010

Friday: 7:30pm to 9:30pm

Saturday: 8:30am to 4:00pm

Tawapologetics asks “Why do bad things happen to good people?”

The post is here. (H/T Wes Widner)

Excerpt:

We all struggle to understand why God allows horrible things to happen to people who do not deserve it. This afternoon, my desire is to ponder this issue together. I will argue that we can come to a better understanding of why bad things happen to good people by identifying the who, the why, the what, and the how of evil and suffering. Who causes evil? Why does Almighty God allow evil? What does God do about evil? And How are we to respond to evil? As we search out an understanding of the who, why, what, and how of evil, I pray that God will illuminate our hearts and minds.

Before we delve into the who, why, what, and how of evil, we need to establish two preliminary facts. First, if Christianity is true, then there are no truly ‘good’ people. Second, if there is no God, then there are no truly ‘bad’ things to happen to people. We could spend an entire week talking about both of these fundamental truths, but we simply do not have the time. Thus, I am going to just touch on them briefly and then move on.

You have to read the rest to get the full effect, but there is a lot of wisdom even in the excerpt.

Here’s my best post on the problem of evil, if you want more.

Triablogue guys write massive response to “The Christian Delusion”

Apparently a bunch of less-moderate atheists like Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier and Robert Price decided to write a book attacking Christianity. These guys are internet infidel types. Dan Barker gives the foreword, and I don’t think he is a very even-keeled person.

The Triablogue post is here. Their e-book is free to download.

Excerpt:

The book contains chapters written by a wide range of modern atheists, including Hector Avalos, Richard Carrier, and Edward T. Babinski[*]. (If those names sound familiar it’s because we’ve engaged with each of them many times on Triablogue.) Of his contribution to the book, Carrier slapped both of his chapters with a “tour de force” label and confidently assured us, “I doubt I’ll ever have to write another [refutation of the resurrection].” He says: “My debunking of [Christian claims on science] is so decisive in this chapter, you won’t need to refer anyone anywhere else.”

But such hubris vastly overreaches reality, and Triablogue is here to demonstrate it with The Infidel Delusion.

The Infidel Delusion was written (in alphabetical order) by Patrick Chan, Jason Engwer, Steve Hays, and Paul Manata. This is a true tour de force. By the time I got to Manata’s debunking of Valerie Tarico’s naturalistic reductionism in chapter two, the perfect metaphor had formed in my head: Collectively, these Triabloggian authors were firing intellectual howitzer shells point-blank into a cardboard shanty town.

You can watch the Craig vs Avalos debate, or the Craig vs Carrier debate or the Craig vs Price debate if you want to see how well their ideas stand up in a real contest.

You can find the debates here.

Thanks to Jason Engwer for giving me the heads-up about Triablogue’s rebuttal. Triablogue is a serious apologetics blog.

In all fairness, there are much better non-Christians out there who are not crazy, like Austin Dacey and Paul Draper. Although Price sounded good in his recent debate on the Bible and slavery.