The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy & Christianity

So this article has been in my head for awhile. Let me preface this by saying that I hadn't heard of the "No True Scotsman" Fallacy until recently, however, I was aware of it in practice, er usage rather. Anyway, I first heard about this fallacy from a man on a podcast I frequently listen to, he mentioned this fallacy as it applies to Christianity (in passing, the actual context was Feminism) and well long story short, here we are to disprove how The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy can't apply to Christianity. Now for the uninitiated, allow me to explain what The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy is:

PERSON A: No Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.
PERSON B: Well, I'm a Scotsman and I put sugar in my porridge.
PERSON A: Well, no true Scotsman puts sugar in his porridge.

That's a simple rendition of The "No True Scotsman" Fallacy. The fallacy is establishing an absolute and reinforcing that absolute despite being confronted with evidence to the contrary. That's a simple definition. Now that we have it defined, let's dig in.

How To Read The Bible

So you wanna read The Bible, eh? Well good for you, you should wanna read The Bible because (whether you believe it or not) it's The Word Of God, so kudos to you. However, more often than not individuals read The Bible and are unfortunately unaware of what it is they're reading and how one should go about reading it. This statement is true for unbelievers and unfortunately people who profess to be Christians...and then there are the extremely unfortunate lot who while professing to be Christian look at The Bible as nothing more than a collection of moral tales to live by that didn't actually occur at any point in time.

Certainly anyone can crack open a Bible and read it, but can they read it in context? It's an unfortunate reality that there are some people out there who's minds are blown when they discover The Bible isn't written in chronological order (with some books taking place at the same time as others) and there are some who's minds are blown when they discover that some authors of certain books in The Bible are unknown (that revelation causes some people to lose their faith oddly enough, which is weird because any study Bible will tell you that point blank). So in order to help unbelievers and believers alike, I've crafted this nifty little guide to help you navigate The Bible and get as much out of it as you possibly can. We're gonna go through the entire Bible from start to finish, so strap yourselves in, it's gonna be a long one.

Why Won't God Heal Amputees ?

This was one of the first questions I've ever been (indirectly) asked that made me think about my faith. A long time ago, back when I was in High school, I came across a website titled "God Is Imaginary" and I looked at their long lists of proofs and reasons why God does not exist and this question "Why won't God heal amputees?" was one of the main questions. Since I've discovered that website, I've grown and learned much about my faith and I think I'm mature enough in my faith to answer this question, so let's dive in.

Jesus, Republicans & The Bible...Seriously (Re-post)

DISCLAIMER: This is article previously published Feb. 26th, 2012. I had to republish it due to the high amounts of spam the previous article got, this way I could stop getting spam by altering the URL. Enjoy.

I really have to do this again don't I ? Okay, let's get started point by point.

And now we have..."Black Jesus"

I'm going to address this from 3 perspectives (as an entertainment geek, as an African American and as a Christian) and the reason why I'm doing this article that way is so I can counteract much of the criticism of my criticism right away. I'm going to preamble this by saying that I am a fan of "The Boondocks" and I find the many caricatures of African American culture within the series to be in equal parts hilarious and unfortunately accurate from the self-hating African American (ie, Uncle Ruckus), self-aggrandizing Afrocentric (ie, Huey) and the uneducated thug (ie, Riley). "The Boondocks" portrays real African American idiosyncratic personalities and enhance them to absurdity for comedic purposes in the same fashion any sit-com in the past has done from "Martin" to "Frasier". I understand that "The Boondocks" is profane in many aspects (specifically language) but if I didn't watch anything that had profane language in it, I wouldn't watch or listen to anything...that includes the news. While you'll get no argument from me of the profanity found in any TV show, film or any form of entertainment causes you to disregard it, please understand that I am not advocating their use of it, but am simply recognizing that avoiding it would be improbable. That being said, moving right along.

GAME OVER!

So awhile ago I was listening to The Ben Shapiro Show and he was talking RNC something or other Raffi Williams about how to make The Republican Party appeal to Young People and Minorities. Of course, Ben being in his early 30s and having dealt with Liberals, Leftists and even wrote a book on it, would understand what appeals to Young People and Minorities more so than Raffi Williams. Rightfully so, Ben challenged Raffi's plans and questioned his optimism on the effectiveness of his plans. Needless to say, Ben was unfortunately correct and The RNC came out with a commercial featuring a hipster complaining about something or other and the commercial was just as bland, lame and mock-worthy as your Grandfather bringing up Kanye West in general conversation. The sad fact is, Ben and Raffi aren't close enough to ground zero to see exactly HOW screwed The RNC is, but luckily I'm here to help explain exactly how screwed The RNC are and just how deep the rabbit hole goes. Get ready for a Red Pill.

Interesting...

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Philosophy, Ideology, Religion & Knowing The Difference

Once again, this is an article that's been rattling around in the ol'computer for awhile and I finally managed to take sometime outta my day to down and actually outline this puppy, write it out and post it for your consumption. The origins of this articles dates back to a few years ago when I made the argument that Scientology IS NOT a religion. I understand that in some countries (aside from Germany, well done) consider Scientology a religion but I took immediate issue with this because "religion", the very definition of the word carries with several things that Scientology does not have. Also many Scientologists claim that Scientology is compatible with all religions. THIS IS FALSE! But we're not here to talk about Scientology, exactly, we're here to discuss religion, philosophy and ideologies and knowing the difference between them. So let's dive in!