13Apr 2026 by Post

Arguing from the Extremes

1. Does Truth Exist?, Apologetics, Argumentation, Christianity, fallacy, FreeThinkingMinistries.com, Gospel, logic, Phil Kallberg, “arguing from extremes”
There is a very common type of fallacious reasoning that I have termed arguing from the extremes. Once you see this, you’ll notice that it’s everywhere in our society and especially political discourse. Roughly speaking it’s the idea that one or an extremely small number of counter examples disproves a whole theory. This is simply not how to do good reasoning. If you see x follow y 1,000 times you will rightly conclude that there is some type of causal link between x and y. If on try 1,001, x does not follow y, that should give you pause, but it shouldn’t prompt you to conclude that your established theory (x follows y) needs to be completely thrown out.[1] That would be stupid. But a lot of people do reason like this. So, for example, it has…
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02Mar 2026 by Post

What a Straw Man Argument is and What is Not.

Apologetics, Calvinism, Christianity, determinism, free will, FreeThinkingMinistries.com, Gospel, logic, Molinism, Phil Kallberg, Straw Man Fallacy, Theology and Christian Apologetics
[Editor’s Note: in November 2025, at the Evangelical Philosophical Society meeting in Boston Massachusetts, Tim Stratton and Phil Kallberg presented a coauthored essay, “Is Divine Determinism a Different Gospel?”. You can see it here or listen to here. The provocative essay – critiquing a major brand of historic Christian thought: Calvinism – evoked some controversy. Phil responds here to one of the critiques.] I’m inspired to write this both for the accusations of “straw manning” that came from Tim’s and my essay at the 2025 EPS, and due to examples that I have seen. While no one accused me of this directly (all the interactions I had with people in relation to the essay were positive, even when they were pushing back), I heard through the grapevine that some people…
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25Feb 2026 by Post

5 Ways to Know You Are Judging Rightly

Amy Davison, Apologetics, Christianity, cultural apologetics, Discernment, Gospel, Legislating Morality, Culture & Politics, logic, MamaBearApologetics.com, Parenting, reason
It was the only way I knew how to explain my love of Fixer Upper to my bewildered husband. Since the show aired, I would plunk myself down, yell in frustration (who picks a midcentury modern over a classic Victorian, I mean, come on!?), and bask in the beauty of the big reveal. Yes, I loved the shiplap, but like other Christian fans, what I enjoyed most was having a show featuring a Christian couple who truly loved each other. What Christian fans weren’t expecting was to watch the designing duo green-light the normalization of homosexuality when they partnered with HBO for the newest reality, Back to the Frontier. The fallout gave fans everywhere a front row seat to a Christian accountability meeting, and they had a lot to say. “Christians shouldn’t judge (Matthew 7:1)!” “…All…
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30Jan 2026 by Post

For “Convergent Evolution,” Darwinists Offer Awkward Explanatory Tinkering

animals, Arabidopsis, biology, circuits, co-evolution, common ancestor, convergent evolution, Darwin on Trial, Drosophila, Evolution, hair trigger, immune response, immune systems, Intelligent Design, kingdoms, Life Sciences, logic, natural selection, nematode, NLR-o-gram, pathogens, Phillip Johnson, plants, proteins, robustness, Science (journal)
How clever of separate kingdoms of organisms to have figured all this out independently! Source
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03Jan 2026 by Post

Free Will vs. the Totalitarian Temptation

Alain Aspect, Anton Zeilinger, atheists, Benjamin Libet, Determined: A Science of Life Without Free Will, ethics, free will, J.D. Vance, John F. Clauser, logic, meat puppets, Michael Egnor, Minority Report, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, neuroscientists, physics, readiness potential, Robert Sapolsky, Sam Harris, Soviet Union, Stanford University, The Immortal Mind, totalitarianism, United States, Wilder Penfield, Yuval Noah Harari
If our thoughts and choices really are wholly determined, well then what follows? Source
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22Sep 2025 by Post

In Science, the Rising Power of Private Truth

Carole Hooven, Clarence Darrow, Colin Wright, common descent, Darwinists, Edward Larson, Evidence, Evolution, evolutionary biology, folk beliefs, fundamentalism, gravity, Human Origins, Jerry Coyne, logic, New York Times, Parting Shot, private truth, public truth, reason, Richard Dawkins, scientific reasoning, Scopes Monkey Trial, Summer for the Gods, Tennessee, The Story of Testosterone, University of Chicago, William Jennings Bryan
Many people experience a vast liberation when they are freed from the constraints of logic, reason, and evidence. Source
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18Aug 2025 by Post

Materialism Is Sounding Super Tired Lately

"survival of the fittest", cattle, coyote, Evolution, existential problems, fairy tale, food, human life, human mind, Imperfection (book), irrationality, logic, luck, materialism, Nautilus, pop psychology, rationality, reproduction, scientific reasoning, Serendipity (book), Telmo Pievani, Templeton Foundation, threats, __featured3
This sort of cross between a fairy tale and pop psychology helps pop science readers pass the time while listening to the latest announcement of a flight delay. Source
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09Jun 2025 by Post

How Can We Conceive of Perfection When We Never Experience it?

abstract thought, Aristotle, brain processes, brain state, circle, Concepts, Denyse O'Leary, human exceptionalism, immateriality, Intellect, Intelligent Design, line, logic, materialism, matter, neuroscience, Neuroscience & Mind, Perfection, soul, The Immortal Mind, triangle, truth
There are two ways we can think of a triangle. One way is to form a mental image, likely based on a triangle we have seen on a piece of paper. Source
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18Apr 2025 by Post

High Bird Intelligence Is Consistent with Design, Not Evolution

abstractions, animal intelligence, birds, brains, chickadees, cockatoos, common sense, crows, Evolution, evolutionary biology, Germany, Giacomo Gattoni, human exceptionalism, humans, intelligence, Intelligent Design, logic, mammals, Maria Antonietta Tosches, Neuroscience & Mind, Niklas Kempynck, Onur Güntürkün, problems, ravens, Ruhr University Bochum, Science (journal), vertebrates, Yasemin Saplakoglu, zoology
A discussion of animal intelligence that refuses to acknowledge human exceptionalism becomes a script for suppressing discussions we need to have. Source
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