Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been reading and discussing Christian Smith’s 2019 book Atheist Overreach. In part of this book, he describes what he considers scientists’ overreach into religious matters. And he does so using a tactic the skept-o-sphere has called the Courtier’s Reply. Today, I’ll show you what that is and why it doesn’t […]
Christian Apologetics
Posted inReligion
‘Atheist Overreach’ and the Problem of Wingnuts
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been looking at the 2019 book Atheist Overreach by Christian Smith. It examines the question of religion’s necessity to modern societies. Shockingly, a Christian writer lands on religion being super-duper necessary OMG y’all. One thing I’ve been noticing as I read this book is that it illustrates perfectly the Problem of Wingnuts: how […]
Posted inScience
Avoiding the Burden of Proof in ‘Atheist Overreach’
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been reviewing Christian Smith’s 2019 book Atheist Overreach. In it, he seeks to persuade his audience of two things: first, atheists need to quit talking about religion, and second, that everyone actually needs religion to continue to be a dominant force in the world. One section of the book deals […]
Posted inReligion
‘Atheist Overreach’ Blames the Wrong People
Hi and welcome back! Yesterday, we checked out the 2019 book Atheist Overreach: What Atheism Can’t Deliver by Christian Smith. Amazingly, we didn’t even get past the title of the book. Today, we dive into the book’s introduction — where we discover that yes, indeed, we can judge a book by its cover. Let me show you how […]
Posted inReligion
‘Atheist Overreach’ and the Law of Conservation of Worship
Hello and welcome back! Recently, I got a little book with a title I’d consider clickbait in a blog post: Atheist Overreach. Its author, Christian Smith, says he wrote it to help normies achieve ‘greater insight and perhaps, dare I say, enlightenment.’ Oof. I wanted to show it to you because it’s a relatively new book that […]
Posted inGaming, Religion
How Ray Comfort’s Parachute Analogy Fails
Hi and welcome back! I recently ran across a news article on a Christian site about Todd White, one of the trendy hip pastors lately in evangelicalism. In it, Todd White preached about how he’d realized he was Jesus-ing all wrong. And he’d figured this error out with the help of none other than Ray Comfort! […]
Posted inReligion
Unchurched: My Actual ‘Sticking Points’ Don’t Look Like These
Hi and welcome back! Lately, we’ve been talking about Lee Strobel’s 1993 Christian book, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary. In this book, Strobel offers his evangelical followers a peek into the minds of those outside their church bubbles. Ostensibly, he offers these insights along with strategies for recruiting those folks — though the insights […]
Posted inReligion
Unchurched: Lee Strobel’s Action Plan (Doesn’t Work)
In Unchurched, Lee Strobel sought to teach his tribe about those strange space aliens who weren’t part of church culture. More than that, even, he claimed to offer the tribe an ‘action plan’ for persuading those space aliens to join their churches. Today, let’s see exactly what this ‘action plan’ involves — and then consider its effectiveness.
Posted inReligion
Unchurched: Evangelical Endorsements Reveal a Pattern
Lately, we’ve been examining Lee Strobel’s book, Inside the Mind of Unchurched Harry and Mary. In it, Strobel sold evangelicals a bill of goods about those outside their bubble. And they loved him for pandering to their very worst qualities. Their endorsements and praise reveal a solid pattern, and today, I’ll show you what that pattern looks like.
Posted inUncategorized
Lee Strobel’s Martyrbation List (#13-15)
In this last installment, Lee Strobel stops selling evangelicals on seeker-sensitive churches to remind them that only they understand how to Jesus correctly. Moreover, he warns them that if anybody criticizes their Jesus-osity, it’s literally only because of their blazing-bright Jesus Auras. Today, let me show you how Lee Strobel models martyrbation for his readers.