Dave Armstrong

A collection of 25 posts

Biblical Exegesis

Christian apologetics and defending Matthew's guards

There's something meta going on when a Christian apologist takes aim at a biblical account of mine with some typical apologetics, claiming I am making stuff up out of whole cloth when I myself accused the Gospel writers (or apologists) of making stuff up out of whole cloth

Dave Armstrong

God, Floods, Miracles and Evidence

I have been dipping my toes into the calm waters of the flood again - Noah's Flood. TL;DR - it didn't happen. It's an argument about physical evidence, and, of course, there is no physical evidence for it - whether global or regional.

Biblical Exegesis

Chiasms, Multiple Sources, Armstrong, and Chasms in Rationality

Welcome to another episode of "Brandolini's Law Exemplified", your friendly programming that has to put in all the effort where others don't. I wrote an article on the issues with the Genesis flood account that did three things: 1) it showed how it was

biblical contradictions

Armstrong, the Genesis Flood Contradictions and Multiple Sources

Oh, David Armstrong. David, David David. I will try to be as cordial as possible here but please excuse me if I let off some rhetorical steam at times. I recently posted a piece on the documentary hypothesis as exemplified by the Genesis account of the flood, although I should

Biblical Exegesis

Apologies for Calling Armstrong "Disingenuous"***

Dave Armstrong very kindly retracted some of the rhetorical flourishes in one of his recent pieces. We are both surely victim to such, and it is something I must shy away from. He recently commented: You cited me: Atheist anti-theist polemicist Jonathan MS Pearce wrote in his screed… As long

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: Pitch - You Wouldn't Let It Lie!

https://youtu.be/0vECGh9hY68?t=20 Ah, dag nam it. You wouldn't let it lie, Armstrong. You wouldn't let it lie! ;) Okay, I'll spare you all the previous, readers. Here are the links: * Debunking the Exodus V: Moses’ Birth * Exodus Sidebar: Refuting Armstrong’s

ancient history

Exodus Sidebar: The Final Pitch Battle

As part of my debunking the Exodus series, I've been involved in a prolonged debate with Dave Armstrong, in particular, regarding…pretty much everything I have stated. Let me give you a super-quick synopsis of where we are at. One of my arguments was that the Moses birth

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: More on Moses and Sargon

I think that Dave Armstrong believes that the purpose of my existence is merely to answer his articles that he writes against me. I hate to burst his bubble, but I have other things to do with my life that take something of a priority over responding to him. On

archaeology

Exodus Sidebar: Refuting Armstrong's "Refutation" on Pitch (but Oddly Not Sargon...)

Oh David, David, David. David "I love science as much as any atheist" Armstrong likes to see himself as the white knight, tackling my "screeds" articles and refuting them. Except, this is rarely what actually happens. He recently claimed to have refuted me on camels but

classical theism

Debating the Unequal Evidence Problem Again (IV): Concluding Remarks

A very quick synopsis so far in this debate initially with Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong and then carried on by Catholic Paul Hoffer. Please read the previous pieces for context. This will be the last one. There are quite a few previously: * The Double Standards Involved with Doubting Thomas * Doubting

Dave Armstrong

Do We All Have "Sufficient" Evidence to Believe?

This piece will in some sense be a linguistic piece, and in other senses will have quite a big theological impact. I have been having an ongoing argument over whether or  not God is unfair in unequally distributing evidence over time and place in the world, thus giving people unequal

Aquinas

Debating the Unequal Evidence Problem Again (Doubting Thomas Revisited)

Some of you may remember the recent spat I had with Dave Armstrong and others concerning Doubting Thomas and the fact that, if that account is true and there is an unequal distribution of evidence, God is unfair. For context, see: * The Double Standards Involved with Doubting Thomas * Doubting Thomas:

Dave Armstrong

The Uneven Evidence Debate: Responding to Paul Hoffer

As I am sure you are aware by now, I have been embroiled in a debate with myself Dave Armstrong about the uneven apportioning of evidence to humanity over time and place. It moved more into the philosophical domain, so Armstrong invoked a comment from, one presumes, a more philosophical

Biblical Exegesis

It Turns out the Whole Unfairness of Evidence Apportioning Boils down to "Free Will"

Who knew. The background: Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong and I have been arguing about the unfair distribution of evidence for God in the world and over time. This has been a somewhat protracted argument due to too much time spent erecting straw men and not enough time doing the legwork.

Dave Armstrong

Putting the Doubting Thomas Episode to Bed, and Opening a Can of Worms

This is a long piece, but we get onto some good stuff, so stay on target. Catholic Dave Armstrong, over at his own Patheos Catholic channel blog, has been attempting to refute my recent pieces both on Doubting Thomas and on picking apart his own responses. Unfortunately, Dave is pretty

Biblical Exegesis

Doubting Thomas: A Response to Catholic Dave Armstrong

Yesterday, I wrote a very short piece concerning the episode of doubting Thomas in John 20: 24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, who was called e]">[e]Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen

conservatism

(Religious) Conservatives Aren't Really Conservatives?

Words aren't set in stone and can mean whatever we want them to mean. As long as we correctly convey the intended message, right? Sure. But often we get issues. And one of those issues is about "conservatism", the basis of the issue possibly being wrapped

Biblical Exegesis

Jesus the "Nazarene": More Prophecy Debate

I recently wrote an article about the Matthean prophecy, a prophecy that looks like this (Matt 2): Then after being warned by God in a dream, he left for the regions of Galilee, 23 and came and lived in a city called Nazareth. This was to fulfil what was spoken

biblical contradictions

Rebutting Armstrong's Double Reference Prophecy Defence

I am having to defend my claims of biblical contradictions and issues with the infancy narratives against Dave Armstrong, fellow Patheos writer, but for the Catholic channel. I have previously taken him to task over his attack on my Herod and census piece, and found his position seriously wanting. Now

Biblical Exegesis

Responding to Criticism on the Herod/Census Problem

This is my second rebuttal to the efforts Dave Armstrong is putting in to trying to debunk my claims of contradictions in the Bible. The first rebuttal, completed yesterday, looked at his criticisms of my case that there are contradictions involved in the accounts of Jesus alighting on the shore

biblical contradictions

The Demons! The Demons! Replying to Armstrong on Biblical Contradictions

As you no doubt know by now, Dave Armstrong and myself are having a new religious war. Or something. Putting the deconversion accounts to one side, let's see what he makes of my claimed biblical contradictions. We shall start with my claims about the demoniacs and the where

Dave Armstrong

Toohey Responds to Dave Armstrong Concerning His Deconversion

I recently ran a piece that responded to Dave Armstrong's criticism of a deconversion account I ran here at ATP. The account was Anthony Toohey's, so I let Anthony know and he wrote his own response. With his kind permission, it is here for your delectation.

biblical contradictions

The War Continues! Armstrong Tackles My Infancy Narrative Criticisms, and More

As many of you will know, Dave Armstrong, fellow Patheoser (of a Catholic persuasion) has been attempting to take me to task. It started off with criticising Anthony Toohey's deconversion account, and then, springing from this, he looked at tackling claims that a detailed in my book The

blogging

To Ban or Not To Ban, That Is the Question

I recently wrote a post answering a critique by fellow Patheos (albeit Catholic channel) blogger Dave Armstrong. Fairly quickly, a number of atheist commenters, some of whom were regular commenters here (and some not), came on to make it known that they had been banned by Armstrong. Many, if not

biblical contradictions

Patheos Catholic-Atheist War: It's On! Respectfully Speaking...

The other day, David Armstrong from Biblical Evidence for Catholicism with Dave Armstrong, a blog on the Catholic channel here at Patheos, posted a rebuttal to one of my most recent deconversion accounts. My deconversion series has been running for some time and was the basis, originally, for one of