Category Apologetics

LOGICAL FALLACIES

2 main types: fallacies of distraction           fallacies of form

Fallacies of Distraction:

Ipse dixit:        “he said it himself”. Appeal to authority.  – Citing a source or person because they have some aspect of authority (education, position, etc) which has no bearing on their ability to speak to the issue at hand.

Ad populum:      “bandwagon” appeal to popular opinion or practice. Numbers do not make something right or wrong.

Ad baculum:        “to the stick” concede or suffer – Appealing to someone’s fear or vulnerability to influence their position.

Ad hominem:      “to the man” personal attack – Criticize the messenger instead of evaluating the message on its own merits...

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1. The nature of God’s word. God directed the writing of a very specific and detailed account of the genealogy of the universe. Why would God direct such precision of input for an analogous story? Either the statements are true, or they are of no value.

2. What could be the purpose of Gen 1:1 – 2:4, which is identified as a “genealogy of the heavens and the earth” when they were created, if it is in fact not an account of how the heavens and earth came into being?

3. Gen 1:3 identifies a separation of light from darkness, and defines both “day” and “night” by them respectively.

4. In Gen 1:3, after defining day and night, it is recorded “evening was and morning was, the first day...

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Jesus says we must worship God in Spirit and in Truth. (John 4:23.24) But what is truth? Again, Jesus says that God’s word is truth. (John 17:17) Both Paul and Timothy identify the Scriptures as God’s word (2 Timothy 3:16-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21). So if we want to know the truth about God, we must go to God’s word, the Bible, to learn what it is.

In order to worship God in truth, we must do so according to what He says about who He is. We cannot please Him by worshipping a false “God”. This is the most fundamental question to answer: who is God? The second is: what is the true gospel? To know the true gospel, we must know the true God.

The Bible tells us there is one God...

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Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.
– Newton’s First Law of Motion, translated from the Principia‘s Latin

“A body that is acted on by no net force moves at a constant velocity (which may be zero) and zero acceleration.”   http://physics.about.com/od/classicalmechanics/a/lawsofmotion_2.htm

1.     If the action of any body of matter is static in the absence of the introduction of an outside force, original matter would maintain stasis apart from a new force acting upon it, since only the original forces would also be present to act upon the original mass.

2...

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Beloved, doing all diligence to be writing to you concerning the common salvation, I have had necessity to write to you entreating to be contending for the faith once being given to the saints." Jude was pressed also, that urging them to “contend earnestly” for that faith was imperative.Read More

If none of the Bible can be read and understood as it is written, then it cannot be understood at all, and this is impossible. Only if the Bible means what it says, can it be understood, known, and useful for salvation and living a godly life, as Paul and Peter assured their readers that it would.Read More

1. Everything which has a beginning must have a capable and sufficient Cause. 
2. The First Cause, whatever it is, must be Self-Existent, or it must defy the known Natural Laws. 
3. A Self-Existent First Cause, by definition, defies natural laws; therefore the First Cause is necessarily Super-Natural. 
4. The self-existent First Cause, whatever it is, must be accepted by faith. There is no “proof” of any possible First Cause. (No other witnesses; no enduring, contemporaneous physical evidence.) 
5. Evidence exists that points to a probable First Cause. 
6. The true First Cause will be reasonably supported by the evidence. 
7. The evidence available to all parties is the same. The framework within which it is interpreted (worldview) is what differs. 
8. Valid interpretation must satisfy “is”, rather than “sup...

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The Law of Non-contradiction:

            Two opposing things cannot both be correct simultaneously.

            One question cannot correctly elicit two opposing answers at the same time under the same circumstances.

Truth:

            Truth, by definition, is not subjective. It does not change, or cease.

            A false beginning (premise) cannot be used to justify a conclusion.

Relativism:

Invocation of moral law requires a moral law setter. “Every man for himself” invalidates any objection to any individual’s behaviour based on wrongness.

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Kurt Godel presented a theory of mathematics that demonstrates that anything that can be measured, or contained, cannot be dependent upon itself for explanation or existence. The excerpts below from various sources give a summary of the implications of his theorem; for greater detail, the articles and book listed at the end are strongly recommended. (These statements were pulled from several sources; they are not my own material, other than the section on “Implications”)

“Any effectively generated theory capable of expressing elementary arithmetic cannot be both consistent and complete. In particular, for any consistent, effectively generated formal theory that proves certain basic arithmetic truths, there is an arithmetical statement that is true, but not provable in the theory.”

1. Ar...

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First Law of Thermodynamics:

            Matter and energy are relative. In a closed system, neither are created or lost. (A closed system is isolated from outside influence) “… the fundamental principle of physics that the total energy of an isolated system is constant despite internal changes”; energy changes form but does not increase or decrease qty.

ΔU = Q – W, where U = change in internal energy, Q = heat added to the system, and W = Work done by the system.

Second Law of Thermodynamics:

            In the absence of outside influence, everything falls into a state of increasing disorder (entropy; biodegradation, etc.)

Third Law of Thermodynamics:

            The entropy of a pure perfect crystal is zero at zero degrees Kelvin...

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