TEKTONICS.ORG: EXPOSED!

A Collection of Essays and Debates Highlighting the Depraved Apologetics of J.P. Holding, a.k.a. Robert Turkel

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Last Update: January 13, 2008

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1.1 Brian Holtz

1.1.1 “Turkel and the Trilemma”

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1.1.2 Turkel Rebutted on Trilemma

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1.1.3 “The Not-So-Impossible Faith” ¹

--Article which rebuts Turkel’s attempt to “explain why Christianity succeeded where it should have clearly failed or died out.” (The Richard Carrier article, below, also addresses Turkel’s “Impossible Faith” article.)

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1.1.4 The "No Unique Advantages" Faith

--A rebuttal to Turkel’s strained efforts to defend his article The Impossible Faith

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1.1.5 Correspondence with Turkel

--Brian Holtz: “Robert Turkel (at tektonics.org) would be a formidable advocate for inerrantist Christianity if he didn't have a clear record of boorishness and regularly failing to answer, correctly represent, and link to his opponent's arguments. His record is quantified here in ‘State of the Debate,’ and see here for his clumsy effort to return the favor. In our correspondence he offers a feeble defense of the justness of hell, and evades my (still unanswered) detailed questions to him about heaven.”

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1.2 G. A. Wells

1.2.1 “A Reply to J.P. Holding’s ‘Shattering’ of My Views on Jesus and an Examination of the Early Pagan and Jewish References to Jesus (2000)”

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1.3 Richard Packham

1.3.1 Response to “Packham Refuted”

--Covers a refutation of John Warwick Montgomery's presentation of the legal evidence for Christianity

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1.4 Earl Doherty

1.4.1 “The Jesus Puzzle: Was There No Historical Jesus? // Postscript: Including a Response to J.P. Holding’s rebuttal essay to The Sound of Silence”

--Turkel’s rebuttal essay

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1.4.2 “The Jesus Puzzle: Was There No Historical Jesus?” by Earl Doherty “Reader Feedback and Author’s Response”

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1.5 Acharya S.

1.5.1 “Concerning ‘J.P. Holding’”

--An author’s view of Turkel following an encounter

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1.6 Cygnus

1.6.1 “Released From the Holding Cell: A Response to the Apologist, J.P. Holding”

--Cygnus: “(J.P. Holding) did what all ‘good’ apologists do; he attacked, he belittled, he used ad hominem arguments, he ignored the issue at hand, and he was largely dishonest.”

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1.7 Brooks

1.7.1 “Christianity: Bogus Beyond Belief” Review of Tektonics Ministries and J.P. Holding

Includes a large assortment of links.

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1.7.2 Tektonics Ministry

A new site that features a page of fascinating quotes from Turkel and page about his dishonesty.

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1.8 Keith Parsons

1.8.1 Parsons replies to J.P. Holding

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1.9 Allan Glenn

1.9.1 A Reply to J.P. Holding’s “Allan Glenn’s Questionnaire, Filled Out Where We Specialize.”

--Turkel supplies “answers” to this young atheist’s set of questions.

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1:10 Adam Marczyk (“Ebon Musings”)

1.10.1 A Reply to J.P.Holding Parts I and II “Contradictions in the Old Testament”

--A well-spoken atheist responds to Turkel’s drivel that the OT does not contain contradictory passages.

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1.11 Kenneth Richard Smith Quinnell, Jr.

1.11.1 Debate with James Patrick Holding

--Not really a “debate,” but more of a reply to one of Turkel’s typical acid-filled essays written in response to one of Mr. Quinnell’s articles.

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1.12 Farrell Till

1.12.1 “James Patrick Holding,” the Want-to-Be Apologist

--Farrell Till reveals to the readers of Internet Infidels the person of Robert Turkel, showing both sides of his split personality: the “old” and the “new.”

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1.12.2 “The Chicken Challenge: Or Turkel Looks Bad In Yellow”

--Farrell Till accepts Turkel’s “Chicken Challenge” and dares Turkel to join his errancy

discussion list. To date (and true to form) Turkel has not joined the list of informed skeptics.

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1.12.3 “The Turkey Challenge”

--Farrell Till responds to Turkel’s evasion of the above article, “The Chicken Challenge.”

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1.12.4 “The Skeptical Review Online: Debate Index”

Look for the Turkel Debates.

--Includes discussion of Abraham’s land promise. Covers biblical books Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy, Joshua, and Leviticus.

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1.12.5 “Reply to Robert Turkel”

--Farrell Till Roasts Turkel’s attempted apologetic regarding the Jehu contradiction.

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1.12.6 Robert Turkel and His “Commentators of All Stripes”

--In this little known pair of articles, Farrell Till takes a look at references Turkel used in their Jehu debate (above, 1.12.5).

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1.12.7 “Give Us This Day Our Daily Dodge: A Reply to ‘Trick or Treat, Got Some Bread?’”

--Covers verses from the Gospel of Mark and 1 Samuel, regarding Jesus’ (inaccurate) account of David’s meeting with Ahimelech/Abiathar.

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1.12.8 “Yes, Why Didn’t They Know?” : A Reply to “Why Didn’t They Know?”

--Covers verses from the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke/Acts, and John as well as Romans and 1 Corinthians, regarding how everyone else in the New Testament seemed to know that Jesus would rise on the third day except his disciples.

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1.12.9 “Huffing and Puffing, but Blowing No Houses Down: A Reply to Turkel’s Abiathar Quibble”

--Was Abiathar or Ahimelech “high priest” in the day David asked about the bread? (see 1.12.7)

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1.12.10 “The Humpty Dumpty of Apologetics”: A Reply to Turkel’s “Olivet Discourse”

--Turkel is a “preterist”. He believes the “prophecies” of the New Testament were fulfilled in 70 CE. This article exposes this belief along with Turkel’s tendency to create new definitions for words that otherwise are unambiguous to the normal reader or professional Bible translator.

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1.12.11 The Mary Magdalene Problem: A Reply to “Tomb Visitor Checklist: Do the Gospels Contradict

Over Who Went to Jesus’ Tomb?”

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1.12.12 It Doesn’t Matter? Turkel Tries Another Twist: A Reply to “Precisely the Opposite: On Gospel

Details and Precision in Narratives.”

--In this article, Till shows Turkel’s excuse for dismissing discrepancies in the gospel narratives

as something that “wouldn’t bother” ancient readers is simply not believable.

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1.12.13 “Drooling for Dollars”

--Till shows Turkel’s false analogy in trying to compare his requests for donations with the

Freedom from Religion’s membership dues.

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1.12.14 Where Are The Links? Or Turkel Hides Again.

--Turkel promised to at least link to all the articles Till wrote while debating various subjects. In the

beginning, Turkel followed through with his commitment. As time wore on, and Turkel began to

look more and more ridiculous and as he devolved into his usual vicious personal attacks, the links

stopped. In this article, Till examines Turkel’s hypocrisy.

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1:12:15 The Paper Shortage

--Turkel argues that the Bible writers ran out of paper and so they were forced to leave out

information and explanations. Till examines this idea.

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1.12.16 “E-mail” regarding Turkel’s continuing refusal to debate Farrell Till.

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1.12.17 Turkel's "Solution" to the Mary-Magdalene Problem

--Till examines the inconsistent depictions of Mary Magdalene in different Gospels and Turkel’s efforts to explain them.

1.12.18 Bobby Wants an Apology?

--Till exposes a large number of mistakes, errors and contradictions in Turkel’s apologetics.

1:13 Doug Krueger

1.13.1 The Great Divorce Debate

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1.14 ¹Richard Carrier

1.14.1 Was Christianity Too Improbable to be False? (2004)

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1.14.2 Rubicon Analogy (2006)

--“James Holding claims that we have as much evidence that Jesus rose from his grave as we have that Julius Caesar crossed the Rubicon ("Julie's River Run: On Comparing the Rubicon to the Resurrection"). There are numerous errors in his argument. This rebuttal responds briefly to the most important issues.”

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1:15 Ed Babinski

1.15.1 Critique of a Holding article regarding Genesis

1.15.2 Comments about Robert Turkel’s theology

An e-mail to Steve Locks regarding his discussion with Turkel.

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1.16 Cliff Walker

1.16.1 “E-mail” in which Cliff Walker, webmaster of “Positive Atheism,” describes his discovery

of Turkel’s site.

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1.17 John P. Kesler

1.17.1 Ishbosheth and the House of Saul

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1.17.2 Jesus Had Two Asses

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1.17.3 Animals of the Ark

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1.18 Russell C. McGregor

1.18.1 The Anti-Mormon Attackers

--Mormon Russell C. McGregor of Brigham Young University reviews Turkel’s book, “The Mormon Defenders.” Obviously unaware of Turkel’s style on his website, McGregor nonetheless correctly detects Turkel’s hypocritical and stuffed-shirt antics.

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1.19 David Richards

1.19.1 Irrational Faith

-- Skeptic David Richards comments on Turkel’s article, “Fallacious Faith.” A wonderfully written piece that examines Turkel’s definition of the Christian faith.

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1.20 Kyle Gerkin

1.20.1 Holding Overruled!

--This is a response to a review by Turkel of a piece by Mr. Gerkin entitled “Objections Sustained,” a critique of Lee Strobel’s book, The Case for Faith.

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1.21 Joe Wallack

1.21.1 Apologies and the Apologists Who Tell Them

--The following comes from a post found on the Internet Infidel’s Forum

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1.22 PTET

1.22.1 PTET Answers Tektonics

--Evidently, Turkel tried to embarrass this fellow some time back and he has penned a response.

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1.23 Brett Palmer

1.23.1 Playing The Numbers Game

--As part of a larger discussion on the population of Israelites that participated in the Exodus,

Turkel’s ludicrous defense of 3 million souls expanding from a tribe of 70 is systematically demolished.

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1:24 J.J.

1:24:1 Apologetics (or Mother Goose Apologetics)

--The creator of TEKTONICS.ORG: EXPOSED! uses the same type of ridiculous doublespeak that Turkel uses to argue that, indeed, the cow DID jump over the moon. Highly recommended.

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1:24:2 Turkel’s Software Blunder

--Holding made up an explanation for a repeated word in a Bible verse. As it turned out, the word was not repeated.

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1:25 Matthew Green