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Brief Review of What Works: Gender Equality by Design
What Works: Gender Equality by Design by Iris BohnetMy rating: 4 of 5 stars I read a lot of books and journal articles about bias and inequality. It's pretty common for those sources to offer a lot of recommendations for overcoming bias that sound like...
Is the Enneagram Legitimate for Spiritual Growth?
This article is the paper I read at the Evangelical Theological Society annual conference in 2021. It's pretty long but is organized with lots of headings. If you want shorter content, here's an article I wrote on the accuracy of the enneagram and another...
Why isn’t Apologetics More Effective?
Have you ever had a religious or political discussion with someone where you stated your disagreement in a carefully worded, factual, and well-reasoned response? How did it go? I'm guessing the other person didn't say, "Oh, you're right! Thank you so much." In fact, I...
Complex Simplicity: How Psychology Suggests Atheists Are Wrong about Christianity
Complex Simplicity: How Psychology Suggests Atheists Are Wrong about Christianity by Lucian Gideon Conway IIIMy rating: 5 of 5 stars This book was a wonderful breath of fresh air in its genre. I've been reading and listening to apologetics materials for a long...
What is Psychological Apologetics?
I've been explicitly focusing on psychological apologetics for a few years now, but it just dawned on me that I've never clearly defined it, at least not in writing. While I'm not strictly the only person doing psychological apologetics, I am doing it more actively...
Psychological Apologetics Resources
Psychological apologetics is a unique field that focuses on using and applying psychological sciences (which really includes all social and cognitive sciences) for apologetics. Very few people do work that could be considered psychological apologetics, especially if...
Marketing the Messiah
As I was getting in bed a couple nights ago, a friend texted me to ask about the documentary Marketing the Messiah, so I decided to stay up and watch it. The documentary purports to tell "the 'true' story of early Christianity," and from a filmmaking...
One Last Lesson from Ravi
Until recently, Ravi Zacharias was a hero of the Christian faith. If you happen to be in the dark about him, he was the world's most well-known apologist, but recent investigations have revealed that he engaged in unknown numbers of immoral and illegal sexual sins...
The WEIRDest Apologetic in the World
The WEIRDest People in the World: How the West Became Psychologically Peculiar and Particularly Prosperous by Joseph HenrichMy rating: 5 of 5 stars Ten years ago, the author of this book, Joseph Henrich, wrote a journal article with the same title as...
List of Biases for Apologetics
(...and everything else, too) In one of the apologetics presentations I give, I ask the audience to shout out as many logical fallacies as they can in 15 seconds and they usually list about seven. I then ask them to shout out all the psychological biases that they can...
The Complexity of Politics
I'm working on my Ph.D. in psychology and in a recent class of mine, we were discussing the trolley problem in the context of moral development. My professor ended by saying, thankfully, we don’t actually have to make these difficult choices in real life because doing...
Prosperity from Apologetics
1Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming on you. 2Your wealth has rotted, and moths have eaten your clothes. 3Your gold and silver are corroded. Their corrosion will testify against you and eat your flesh like fire....
Why I am (and am NOT) a Christian
It's been a while since I've written a classical apologetics article that gives evidence for Christianity so I thought I'd get back into it, but with a little twist. Rather than just present arguments and explain the reasons why I believe Christianity is true, I'll...
Five Views on Psychology and Christianity
Psychology and Christianity: Five Views When I tell people that I work in the field of psychology, they almost always ask how I can still be a Christian in that field or they wonder whether I really am a Christian. Many psychologists are opposed to religion,...
Engineering Psychology for Apologetics
Apologists tend to think like engineers in the sense that we're very analytical and logical, which also means that we often misunderstand people who don't think this way. Nearly every apologist goes through a phase where we think, if I just show people the evidence,...
The Coddling of the Righteous Mind
I've been meaning to read Jonathan Haidt's books, The Righteous Mind and The Coddling of the American Mind for quite a while. In fact, I considered applying to work with him for my PhD because his research is so relevant for apologetics. Alas, I...
The Giraffe’s Neck: Evidence for Evolution or Design?
If you've done any investigation into the debate between evolution and intelligent design (or creation), you've probably heard about the giraffe's neck. Not only do both sides claim it in favor of their position, but they often tout it as irrefutable proof that they...
Romans 1:4
I learned a valuable lesson from this verse, completely unrelated to what the verse actually says! It's also a lesson I already knew and should have been more careful to pay attention to. When I first set out to memorize this verse, I read several translations and the...
Review: Awkward: The Science of Why We’re Socially Awkward and Why That’s Awesome
Awkward: The Science of Why We're Socially Awkward and Why That's Awesome by Ty TashiroMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I stumbled on this book on Amazon and thought it might be interesting and it certainly was, although I'm not sure everyone will think so. The...
The apologist’s super-secret weapon
You have to meet people where they areor they'll never get to where you are. Part I of this article discussed paraphrasing as a secret weapon that anyone can use in apologetics or evangelism. All you have to do is repeat what the other person said in your own words....
The apologist’s secret weapon
I'm currently reading the new edition of Tactics, which is a must-read if you want to learn how to have better conversations with unbelievers. The books Relational Apologetics and Influence: Science and Practice (non-Christian book) are also great for evangelism and...
What you don’t know about biological sex
Sexuality, biological sex, and gender are the hot topics of the day, and unfortunately, nearly everyone has an over-simplified view of each topic. For this article, I'm only going to focus on biological sex, and for 99% of people reading this, my guess is that there's...
What pets can teach us about apologetics & evangelism
When my wife, Lindsey, and I decided to go to seminary, we had to get rid of our cat so we could live on campus. This saved us a ton of money, and even though cats are pretty easy to care for, it simplified our lives. After we found a home for our cat, I swore I would...
Review: When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World
When Prophecy Fails: A Social and Psychological Study of a Modern Group that Predicted the Destruction of the World by Leon FestingerMy rating: 3 of 5 stars In 1954, a group of social psychologists heard about a small cult group who believed aliens were...
Are Christians Dumb?
While working on my previous article, Are you a Stupid Christian?, I realized I should probably address the actual scientific evidence regarding intelligence and belief. This was made all the more apparent when I came across some anti-scientific statements by several...
Are You a Stupid Christian?
This is what we're up against. Christians have a reputation for being stupid. Anyone engaged in apologetics has probably been told (usually by someone in complete shock) that they're the first intelligent Christian they've met. The charge that Christians are stupid...
Do We Need a Christian Psychology?
Recently I've been bombarded with various notions a Christain psychology. This can mean a variety of different things, but I am using the term very broadly to refer to Christian specific practices or approaches to psychology. This seems like an obvious approach to...
Is Sleep Deprivation a Sin?
I only got about five hours of sleep last night and six the night before. I need a shade over eight to maintain peak cognitive functioning. Have I sinned? I suspect that most people are inclined to say no without careful consideration, but once we think about it, the...
Virtue Apologetics
A recent article in Psychology Today has been making the rounds on my social media. The article discusses a peer-reviewed paper from 2015 that showed that Christian children are less generous than non-religious children. The original paper was touted as...
A Reasonable Faith in Science?
One of my favorite things I get to do as an apologist is answer questions on behalf of Reasonable Faith. I recently received a question that I've been thinking about in greater detail since I answered it. The person was wondering if it is reasonable to have faith in...
Talking to Strangers Review
Talking to Strangers: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm GladwellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I wanted to read this book because Malcolm Gladwell is such a great conversationalist and writer that I was sure what he had to say about...
12 Rules for Life Book Review
12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos by Jordan B. PetersonMy rating: 5 of 5 stars Jordan Peterson came to fame rather suddenly a few years ago because of a political controversy, but he's more than just a pop-sensation. He's a legitimate clinical...
Logic’s End: An Apologetics Fiction Book Review
Logic's End by Keith A. RobinsonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars This book is an apologetics fiction book and I was super excited to read it, but at the same time, I didn't have very high expectations. Overall, I'm a bit torn on my thoughts about this book...
Branch Davidian Compound Visit
Today was my wife's birthday, and while it may sound odd, I took her to the Branch Davidian Compound where David Koresh and several of his followers died in a standoff with the authorities in 1993. The site is interesting to my wife because her primary interest in...
Memory, the Gospels, and Darth Vader
Memory, the Gospels, and Darth Vader The image on the right is a picture of a puzzle that my wife and I tried to put together about a year ago. We were about halfway done and decided to give up because it was taking too long and...
Review: Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary War to Influence and Persuade
Pre-Suasion: A Revolutionary Way to Influence and Persuade by Robert B. CialdiniMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I'm often asked for recommendations for books on apologetic and evangelism methods. There are some good books out there, but none that really focus...
Review: So the Next Generation Will Know: Preparing Young Christians for a Challenging World
So the Next Generation Will Know: Preparing Young Christians for a Challenging World by Sean McDowellMy rating: 5 of 5 stars I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I decided to read this book, but after reading it, I'm glad I did. It's a must-read book...
Should Christians Get Therapy?
The role of therapy is by far the most controversial topic for Christians in regards to the field of psychology. There are mounds of books devoted to the integration of therapy into Christian theology and the different views on it. Thankfully, I think there's a way to...
Sleeping for Christ
A few weeks ago, a friend of mine asked me what spiritual disciplines I was participating in. If I asked you the same question, what would you say? One of my answers was sleep, which seemed a bit odd to my friend until I explained the way sleep affects our lives. Most...
Vaccines and Apologetics
I've been meaning to write about vaccines for a while now but just haven't gotten around to it. However, in the past year or so, I've heard several Christians question their safety (mostly about autism), there have been several outbreaks, and there is a proposed bill...
Review: The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country’s Foremost Relationship Expert
The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work: A Practical Guide from the Country's Foremost Relationship Expert by John M. GottmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars The author, John Gottman, is well known for his scientific research on marriages. Because of this, I have cited...
Answered Prayer or Apophenia?
Generally speaking, humans are control freaks. We like to feel like we have control over everything, which means randomness and uncertainty make us uncomfortable. There are several ways our brains try to overcome this. Compensatory control explains our tendency to...
Preventing Abortion
How many people have you convinced not to have an abortion? How many people have you convinced to become pro-life, and if you have, did it prevent them from having an abortion? With the exception of a small handful of people, my guess is that the answer to all of...
The Science of Sex as an Apologetic
Let's just jump right in and start talking about sex. Christians believe that God is good, designed us, and gave us moral instructions, including sexual instructions, presumably based on the way He designed us. Therefore, the moral laws in the Bible will probably lead...
Preventing Pop-Psychology in Apologetics
Apologists, as a group and as individuals, are the most well-informed people I know. This is likely because the discipline demands knowledge on a wide variety of subjects, apologists are intellectually curious, and there are well-known apologists with legitimate...
The Apologist’s Dilemma
What's your goal as an apologist?For probably every apologist I know, their goal is to reach unbelievers with the gospel and/or to train others to do evangelism and apologetics. This is also reflected in the mission statement of the major apologetics ministries (RZIM,...
How Superhero Movies can Help our Apologetic
The 'good' pictures are the serious ones, the artistic ones; the ones with good shots. The 'bad' are simply escapist, romantic, only for entertainment. But if we examine them with care we will notice that the 'good' pictures are actually the worst pictures. The...
Persuasive Apologetics Principle 7: Bonus Tips
The previous articles in this series each focused on a specific principle from the book Influence: Science and Practice. Because of the narrow focus, the practical tips were limited to things that fit squarely into a single category; however, many of practical aspects...
Persuasive Apologetics Principle 6: Authority
In 1963 Dr. Stanley Milgram published the results of one of the most famous psychological studies of all time. In this experiment, Milgram was able to convince regular people to administer what they thought was a potentially fatal shock to another participant for...
Instant Family: Movie Review
To celebrate the digital release of Instant Family, I thought I would write a brief review of it. As someone who has adopted from foster care, this movie is dear to my heart and is no doubt my favorite movie. Don't just rent it, but buy it, and then lend it out...