Bill Pratt | June 29, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In this fourth post of the series, we will examine a final reason why the maxim that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence fails as a paradigm for determining burden of proof. Mike Licona argues that even if we accept this maxim at face value, it still has intractable problems. Let us suppose that [...]
Bill Pratt | April 20, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Recall that in part 2, we looked at a couple skeptics’ views on testimony. The first skeptic’s view appeared to be self-defeating, but the second skeptic singled out testimony about supernatural events, thus avoiding the self-defeating approach of the first skeptic. However, the second skeptic has a different sort of problem, which [...]
Bill Pratt | April 18, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt In the previous post, we talked about the role of testimony in our everyday lives. There are some, however, who cast serious doubts on the reliability of testimony. Here is a typical quote from a skeptic who commented on this blog: As we all should know, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable. There are [...]
Bill Pratt | April 16, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt There are 3 ways that a person can gain knowledge: experience, reason, and testimony. Experience simply means that we observe something directly with one of our five senses for ourselves (e.g., “There is a computer screen in front of me”). Reason means that we make rational and logical inferences from knowledge we [...]
Bill Pratt | January 16, 2012
Post Author: Bill Pratt Let’s briefly cover some historical background. The Roman emperor Vespasian ruled from A.D. 69 -79; his reign ended with his death. Writing about Vespasian some 25 years later, the Roman historian Tacitus reported a famous incident where Vespasian is said to have miraculously healed two men – one blind and one lame. This miracle [...]
Bill Pratt | December 22, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt Very few skeptics with whom I’ve interacted have actually investigated the historical evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ (there are some exceptions, but they are few in number). The typical response is to dismiss all miracle accounts as either impossible or so improbable as to not be worth researching – [...]
Bill Pratt | June 22, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt This is a familiar theme for long-time readers of the blog. I am deeply interested in where the scientific method can shed light and where its light begins to fade. For mankind, to know everything is to know all that really exists. If you think of everything that exists as falling [...]
Bill Pratt | June 3, 2011
Post Author: Bill Pratt We’re back to the recurring question of the role of faith, the will, and evidence. Those who believe in miracles frequently will point to evidence of specific miracles and say, “This is why I believe.” Those who disbelieve miracles will claim that there is no evidence and that they won’t believe [...]
Bill Pratt | November 22, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt Between AD 1258 and 1264, Thomas Aquinas wrote Summa contra Gentiles, a book at least partially aimed at arguing for the truth of Christianity against the falsehood of Islam. Recall that Islam was founded and spread in the seventh century, about 600 years before Thomas wrote. In an interesting section of [...]
Bill Pratt | September 27, 2010
Post Author: Bill Pratt A study has just been released where researchers have shown how wind could have parted the Red Sea. Researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado have found a location in the Nile River’s ancient delta where an east wind — blowing at 63 mph for [...]
