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Playing Columbo
Critical thinking Challenges

A friend of the CADRE, the Dawn Treader, has been posting some interesting encounters with skeptics and asking his readers to determine what, if any, questions could be asked to expose the intellectual poverty of the skeptic's underlying world view. In essense, he is asking you to play Columbo (based on Stand to Reason's label for the art of asking incisive questions). It really is worth the time to take a look:


Enjoy some critical thinking.
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Where did Jesus say "It is better to give than receive?"

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You are correct in noting that this saying of Jesus quoted by Paul is not found anywhere in the four Gospels. My own study Bible says "This is a rare instance of a saying of Jesus not found in the canonical Gospels."

Does the fact that it isn't stated in the Gospels mean that it isn't reliably from the lips of Jesus? I don't think so. The Apolstle John said at the end of his Gospel (John 21:25): "Jesus did many other things as well.If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." Obviously, this is exaggeration for the sake of making a point, but it means that Jesus di…
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How Many Children in Bethlehem Did Herod Kill?

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In response to the post, Peter Kirby asked a few questions. He has patiently waited my response, continuously delayed by work, family, and the completion of my Acts article. Two of the questions had to do with how the amount of 20 was determined. Others with the omission of the account by Luke and the reliability of the tradition recounted by Macrobius. Peter also mentioned that there were other reasons to doubt the story's historicity beyond just the silence of other sources. I h…
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Martin Luther King, Jr., Jesus, Jonah and U2’s Pride in the Name of Love

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A certain man from Cyrene, Simon, the father of Alexander and Rufus, was passing by on his way in from the country and they forced him to carry the cross.
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As they led him away, they seized a man, Simon of Cyrene, who was coming from the country, and they laid the cross on him, and made him carry it behind Jesus.
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As they went out, they came upon a man from Cyrene named Simon; they compelled this man to carry his cross.
Matt 27:32.

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