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Showing posts with the label history

The Devious Motte-and-Bailey Fallacy

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Way back in 1066 AD, William the First took a notion to extend his power from Normandy and conquer England. People who have been invaded are not too fond of the idea. Bill knew this, and acted quickly to keep control, so he built a passel of strongholds. These castles could be built rather quickly with available wood. (Later, castles would be made of stone.) The wide area that was protected which was known as the bailey . The nearby hill, existing or manufactured, had the top leveled off for the greater stronghold, the motte . This is where the keep , often a tower, was built. Windsor Castle with motte and bailey, Flickr / Mike McBey ( CC BY 2.0 ) The basic idea of a motte and bailey was successful , since attackers would have to get through the outer defenses first, then they would have to fight the greater defenses going uphill. When the attack was thwarted or abandoned, the people would leave the motte and return to bailey life. This layout has been applied to a particularly deviou

Great Baals of Fire at the Commonwealth Games!

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen  Something flew under my radar that I would have missed except for a post from WHYOutreach . So anyway, while there are some folks who imagine occult symbolism and conspiracies everywhere they turn (such as the CERN collider causing the end of the world ), this imagery is blatantly obvious. People who know their Bibles and biblical history are aware of the demon known as Baal. How do you pronounce it? On Stargate SG-1  and other places, it's pronounced ball , like bouncy. Some say bail , like what you do when the boat is filling with water (I use this one). Others insert a gap, Ba'al, making it buh-ALL . However it is pronounced, it is a generic way of saying lord. Then it became a proper name. Since I can't find a legal image, here's the Palmyra Temple of Baal-Shamin, WikiComm / Dosseman  ( CC BY-SA 4.0 ) So who was this sidewinder, anyhow? Basically a fertility deity for Canaan and Phoenicia — better yet, read " Who was Baal? " Differ

Benjamin Franklin and Religion

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen Here in the United States, and to some extent in other parts of the world, there has been considerable debate about the religion of the Founding Fathers. While the majority of them could be considered fundamentalist or evangelical Christians by today's standards, a few were Deists. Secularists who attempt to rewrite history somehow try to make it seem that the appearance of these Deists negated the fact that America was clearly founded on Christian principles .  There are different stripes of Christians, Buddhists, Mohammedans, atheists, and other religions. Indeed, even within certain sects and denominations, you will find variations. This includes Deists. I've encountered deists who want to join in with misotheists in slapping leather with Christians, and others who are more moderate. Like other groups, there is no "one size fits all" for Deists. Benjamin Franklin / Joseph Wright, 1782 Benjamin Franklin was unarguably one of the m

Fake Science: Canaanites and the Bible

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When it comes to sensationalistic fake news that denigrates the Bible, the secular science industry is relentless. Ever see those documentaries that crop up around Christmas and Easter where producers round up unasinous liberal scholars to malign the Bible? Not only do they ignore conservative scholars and focus on the odd ones, but stories like the tomb of Jesus and so on are discredited or forgotten. This bit of disingenuous journalism is of the same pathetic caliber. But I forgot, lying is in the nature of secularist leftists. Mostly made at Image Chef Those of us who actually believe the Bible and know about how it has been supported time and again through history, science, and archaeology have to endure the constant attacks on the Word of God. It's one thing to disbelieve and offer arguments or evidence as to why not, but it's another to act like an evolutionary scientist that makes up his or her own "facts", and ignores pertinent data. What really takes t

Shooting Down Christmas

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by Cowboy Bob Sorensen One thing that really burns my prairie schooner is when people attack Christmas. Atheists will pass along false information about Christmas having pagan origins, and legalistic Christians who are in touch with their inner Pharisee join in the condemnation of those of us who choose to celebrate. Their claims are easily refuted, see the links at " What About Christians and Christmas? " Assembled with elements from Clker clipart Now, I want to emphasize that some professing Christians choose to celebrate Christmas, and a few do not. They are acting according to their consciences, and I don't want to talk them into celebrating. Those folks  respect our choice to celebrate God the Son taking on human form to redeem fallen humanity, and we let them go on about their business; that's what knowledgeable, Bible-believing Christians are supposed to do, you savvy? Then we have the other group, which seems to be more strident every yea

Video: Refuting Attacks on the Historicity of Jesus

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People should know better by now. Do they really want to display their ignorance of history, archaeology, ancient literature and so on by pretending that Jesus himself never existed? Dr. Phil Fernandes easily refutes that silliness. Get comfy, it's over an hour. But well worth it.

Foolishness of Atheists Denying the Existence of Jesus

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I unfortunately get quoted as someone who thinks that Jesus didn't exist, which I think is very strange because I've written an entire book on what Jesus said and for him to say or do anything, he had to exist. I don't think there is any serious historian who doubts the existence of Jesus. — Bart Ehrman It's one thing to deny that Jesus was God in the flesh who is the only way to salvation (John 14.6, Col. 1.16-17). But to deny that Jesus never existed? May as well deny all of ancient history, then. [ 1 ] Some critics object to using the Bible as a historical document because it is attempting to prove something. Well, that's what books do, Derwood! The Bible is one of the best historical documents in existence. [ 2 , 3 , 4 ] There are almost no serious scholars who deny his existence. To me, it is the height of desperation and misotheism to find some fringe scholar to support such arrogant, foolish views. Serious scholars do know that Jesus did exist, and there