Tag Archives: Evidence

News

Cowardly Hedy Fry backs away from her challenge to debate pro-lifers

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From the Canadian Center for Bioethical Reform.

Excerpt:

Last month, Member of Parliament Dr. Hedy Fry was reported in a CBC article as saying she was ready to debate abortion with anyone. When one of her former patients, international pro-life speaker Stephanie Gray, took her up on her offer, Dr. Fry declined….

Here is the actual voice mail backing out of the debate:

The pro-lifer debater comments:

“It’s disappointing that a member of parliament who has been so vocal in support of abortion won’t publicly defend her views in a forum where they will be challenged,” said Gray, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform (CCBR). Gray pointed out that it’s not likely abortion will be debated in the House any time soon given the political hot potato the topic is. Gray continued: “If Dr. Fry is so confident that she’s correct, why not air her views against mine? Those on the side of truth should have nothing to fear. I don’t. I welcome the opportunity to engage her or any abortion advocate in examining the issue.”

Yeah, because the abortion position has nothing to do with reason – it has to do with selfishness. A man and a woman conspire to pursue pleasure and to then kill an innocent child in order to avoid being inconvenienced in their careers or finances. That’s what abortion is. It’s slavery, only worse, because you actually kill the innocent person for money, rather than just making them work.

Children are the natural consequence of having sex. If the man and the woman are BOTH not ready for a baby, then they should not be having sex. A baby has the best chance of surviving and thriving with two married parents who have kept a home for a couple of years. So grown-ups have the responsibility to take care of providing the environment for children who are the natural result of the sexual act. It’s no use complaining about unexpected babies – if you have sex, you need to be ready for a baby. And it’s no use caterwauling about how recycling makes you a good person if you cannot love the helpless innocent people that you create with your own selfish choices.

Imagine you were trimming your hedge and you noticed a baby bird with a broken wing on the ground. You don’t ignore the bird and you certainly don’t kill it. You take it to a vet, you pay to splint the bird’s wing, and you take it home and nurse it back to health. Because it’s small and it’s weak and it needs you and it’s on your property and it’s your responsibility and that’s all there is to it. There isn’t any decision to make once you find it – you just deal with it. Because you have moral character and you don’t care that much about being happy – you care a lot more about being good. You desire for happiness is irrelevant. You want to be good. Whatever it takes.

UPDATE: This story was picked up by Canada’s National Post, the best national newspaper in Canada.

Mentoring

Twenty ideas for doing apologetics from Apologetics 315

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The post is here.

Here are the ones I do from his list:

1. Give to an apologetics ministry
2. Get books into the hands of the right people (Love Your God with All Your Mind)
3. Organize apologetics conferences
5. Comment on blogs
6. Start your own blog (Blogger, WordPress)
7. Give people CDs and MP3s to listen to

That’s right – there’s a ton of them on there that I don’t do! But they are ALL do-able!

Leave a comment if you think of more. The one I thought of that isn’t on his list is to talk to your co-workers about your faith. But the first commenter mentions it. Here some links below. I recommend the co-workers one and the defend your faith in public one.

Mentoring

Apologetics advocacy

Polemics

How can you prefer a moral standard from one religion vs another?

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Here’s a reply to my extremely mean recent post about atheism’s difficulties making moral behavior rational.

Llama wrote:

Why is Christian morality correct? Why not Islamic morality?

And I replied like this:

Great question. You can’t settle it by comparing moral specifics. You have to appeal to some sort of testable claim.

For example, you mentioned Islam. Islam thinks that Jesus never actually died on a cross (Surah 4:157). Are the Muslims correct in saying this? It’s a historical claim, so to history we must go.

There is no credentialed historian of any stripe (atheist, agnostic, Jewish, etc.) who doubts the crucifixion. In fact, prominent atheist scholar E. P. Sanders of Duke University puts it on his list of almost indisputable facts about the historical Jesus.

E. P. Sanders, Jesus and Judaism (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985). Sanders lists eight “almost indisputable facts” which he takes as his starting point (p. 11):

1. Jesus was baptized by John the Baptist.

2. Jesus was a Galilean who preached and healed.

3. Jesus called disciples and spoke of there being twelve.

4. Jesus confined his activity to Israel.

5. Jesus engaged in a controversy about the temple.

6. Jesus was crucified outside of Jerusalem by the Roman authorities.

7. After his death Jesus’ followers continued as an identifiable movement.

8. At least some Jews persecuted at least parts of the new movement . . . .

See now also E. P. Sanders, The Historical Figure of Jesus (London: Penguin, 1993).

And prominent Jewish Professor of Religion Paula Fredriksen of Boston University says in this paper that “The single most solid fact we have about Jesus’ life is his death. Jesus was crucified. Thus Paul, the gospels, Josephus, Tacitus: the evidence does not get any better than this.”

Sanders and Fredriksen are probably two of the best scholars on the historical Jesus in the world, and they are NOT Christians – they have no axe to grind. So Islam is false as false can be. The Koran cannot contain any errors – Muslims claim it is inerrant and its moral authority is lost if any error is found. But we’ve found a BIG ONE.

Regarding Christianity, if Jesus did not rise from the dead, then Christian morality should not be taken seriously either. Even Paul says that if the resurrection did not happen then Christianity, and Christian morality, is WORTHLESS. See 1 Corinthians 15:17-19. 1 Corinthians is one of the most early and reliable books in the New Testament. It is authored by Paul in 55 AD – and no scholars denies that. It’s genuine Paul. The creed in 1 Cor 15:3-7 is dated within 1 to 5 years of the Cross. By ATHEIST scholars like James Crossley.

My advice is to watch some DEBATES between Christian and non-Christian scholars on the topic of the resurrection. You’ll find some linked in this post.

Or just look here:

Debates are a fun way to learn

Three debates where you can see this play out:

Or you can listen to my favorite debate on the resurrection.

Not that I don’t think you have to be an inerrantist in order to be a Christian, so long as your claims of error are on solid historical ground. (I am an inerrantist – you don’t have to be to be a Christian – you just have to accept the classical creeds of Christendom)

Hope this helps. Come on – I typed all this in. At least listen to the William Lane Craig versus James Crossley debate. Please?

Every religion makes truth claims about the word, and you can choose a religion by testing those claims. Wouldn’t it be neat if Christians learned to argue for their worldview using facts supplied by non-Christian experts? That’s how I try to argue.