Increasing Learning
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

John Adams was not a "Theistic Rationalist" - Part 2

1/7/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
As I mentioned in part 1, I am reading through Gregg Frazer’s book The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders and responding to his erroneous quotations from and conclusions about the founders of our nation.  Frazer claims that the most important founders were not Christians but rather followers of a hybrid belief system that he refers to as “Theistic Rationalism.”  I’m currently in the chapter on John Adams, and Frazer’s second error follows immediately after his first.  According to Frazer:



Read More
0 Comments

John Adams was not a "Theistic Rationalist" - Part 1

1/6/2017

0 Comments

 
Picture
It’s been nearly four years since I purchase my copy of The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders in which Gregg Frazer claims that America’s founders were not Christians but were actually followers of a hybrid religion that Frazer termed “Theistic Rationalism.”  I previously wrote about the theological errors of Frazer’s claim, and my goal at the time was to present a detailed analysis of his quotations from and his conclusions about our nation’s founders.  Unfortunately, life forced me to put off that goal for a few years, but now that I have a bit more time available for research, I’ve decided to return to Frazer’s book and respond to as much of it as I can.



Read More
0 Comments

How to Debate a Secularist on the American Revolution

9/3/2014

0 Comments

 
Picture
I recently received a request from a friend informing me that he was preparing for a public debate with a secularist on the topic of the Christian nature of the American Revolution.  My friend wanted me to put together some suggestions to guide his study, so I quickly gathered up some of my notes and started jotting down a quick reply... Five pages later, I decided that I should probably stop before I completely overwhelmed him.  I sent those five pages off to my friend a few days ago, and now I would like to share them here for the benefit of my readers.  Here is the text of that letter:


Read More
0 Comments

Fortenberry on the Deeper Waters Podcast

7/14/2014

1 Comment

 
Picture
In recognition of the Fourth of July, I was invited to discuss the faith of our founders on the Deeper Waters podcast.  The audio from the podcast is now available online, and I would like to invite all my readers to listen to it.  It was a two hour broadcast, so we were able to cover a lot of topics.  I've included a mostly accurate rundown of topics below if you want to jump to a few in particular.


Read More
1 Comment

John Adams on the Authority of the Sermon on the Mount

2/12/2014

2 Comments

 
Picture
In the book The Faiths of the Founding Fathers, Christian historian David Holmes made the following statement about John Adams:

Like many of his contemporaries, he brought the religion in which he was raised into the court of his reason and common sense and judged it by what he found ... "Let the human mind loose," Adams once wrote in an outburst of Enlightenment passion.  "It must be loosed; it will be loose.  Superstition and despotism cannot confine it."  He followed these words with the assertion that Christianity would surely triumph if the human mind were loosed.  This statement indicates that Adams belongs somewhere in the category of Unitarian Christian or Christian Deist.




Read More
2 Comments

Richard Carrier - Wrong About History Again

1/29/2014

5 Comments

 
Picture
Yesterday, as I sat at home enjoying a day off because of the snow, a friend of mine sent me a link to an article by Richard Carrier entitled “Christianity Was Not Responsible for American Democracy.”  This article was intended to be included in the 2010 book The Christian Delusion edited by John Loftus, but was instead published on the book’s accompanying website.  Carrier’s claims sparked a lot of interest among atheists, and he was asked to give a speech on this topic at the 2013 convention of the National Atheist Party.  Carrier later published the transcript of that speech on his blog under the title of “That Christian Nation Nonsense (Gods Bless Our Pagan Nation).”  And it is rumored that he will be publishing similar material in Loftus’ next book Christianity is not Great which is slated to be published at the end of this year.  I will eventually be writing a point-by-point critique of Carrier’s claims, but I would like to take just a moment to point out some of the more obvious flaws in his position which show that he is just as wrong in this area of historical research as he is in denying the existence of Jesus.



Read More
5 Comments
Forward>>
    Picture
    Bill Fortenberry is a Christian philosopher and historian in Birmingham, AL.  Bill's work has been cited in several legal journals, and he has appeared as a guest on shows including The Dr. Gina Show, The Michael Hart Show, and Real Science Radio.

    Contact Us if you would like to schedule Bill to speak to your church, group, or club.

    "Give instruction to a wise man, and he will be yet wiser: teach a just man, and he will increase in learning." (Proverbs 9:9)

    Search


    Topics

    All
    Abortion
    American History
    Apologetics
    Archaeology
    Atonement
    Benjamin Franklin
    Bible
    Bible Contradiction
    Buddhism
    Calvinism
    Children
    Citizenship
    Coaching
    Context
    Creation
    Debate
    Doctrine
    Evolution
    Geography
    Government
    Homosexuality
    Immigration
    Islam
    James Wilson
    John Adams
    Marriage
    Meditation
    Morality
    Mormonism
    Parenting
    Politics
    Sacrifice
    Sam Harris
    Science
    Self-Defense
    Slavery
    Solon
    Soteriology
    Strategy
    Tactical Faith
    Textual Criticism
    Video

    Archives

    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    February 2019
    November 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    April 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014

    RSS Feed

  • Home
  • Blog
  • Books
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us