Video: Calvinism and the Problem of Evil:

Video 1: My livestream on Calvinism and the problem of evil.

I did a livestream reaction-video today on the problem of evil. There are some sound issues with this video, but my sound seems to have been mostly recorded, it is just quiet. The reason for its quietness is that there was a lot of background noise: cars passing, heavy rain, renovations—or, in the American dialect: remodelling—and so I had to have the gain on my cardioid Blue Yeti mic down really low, so as to exclude most of this background noise. The heat and the humidity, here in Ireland—as I am sure that my friend from North of the Border, Ignorant Amos, might confirm—is quite severe today, and so I had to have my windows open despite all of the background noise going on. However, I did not stand close enough to the microphone, and so the sound of my voice is really low. It was my first stream using OBS, and I think that it was ok for a first attempt.

Sound issues aside, one of the points that I keep returning to is that I consider Systematic Theology to be a System of Lies. In my view, “Systematic Theology” is merely an attempt by theologians to force the Biblical Text into its being univocal … when it is anything but.

I refer to Captain Cassidy McGillicudy, quite a lot, as I particularly like her style of counterapologetic. I don’ think that Captain Cassidy has much of a presence on YouTube which is why I particularly like to discuss her ideas on YouTube. I have binge-read most of what she has written over a period of more than a decade. Captain Cassidy, as I read her, is much more interested in persuading her readers that Christianity is harmful, rather than persuading her readers that Christianity is false. That Christianity is false, really should be a given, in this day and age. A religion invented to swindle mostly illiterate Mediterranean peasants, 2,000 years ago, really should not be swindling and fooling people today, in the age of the internet and Artificial Intelligence. As John Loftus puts it:

‘2,000 years is enough!’

. Pondering, though, the ways in which Christianity may be harmful, to my lights, is a much more interesting discussion, than pondering the myriad ways in which Christianity is false. Cassidy excels at this. To this end, allow me to recommend 24 Reasons to Abandon Christianity (2022) by Charles Bufe. From what I remember from this book, and I read it but recently, Bufe mostly argues from Christianity’s being harmful rather than arguing from Christianity’s being false.

As John Loftus writes in a chapter in one of his anthologies—I just looked up my Kindle edition of God and Horrendous Suffering (2021), and it does not appear to be this one—the harm caused by Christianity is itself an argument from evil against the existence of an all-powerful, all-seeing and omnibenevolent god. Another humerous quip of Loftus’s is:

‘God’s hiring practices are abysmal!’

I structured this video much like one of Pine Creek Doug’s old videos. Pine Creek just used to react to Preachers and Apologists saying some wild things—and minus the constant interruption of callers—and these livestreams used to be golden. When Pine Creek Doug began to take callers with his ‘The Atheist Inexperience’ livestream, this, for me, began his transition from being Pine Creek 1.0 to Pine Creek 2.0. I prefer Pine Creek 1.0. Digital Gnosis has also discussed the transformation of Pine Creek Doug’s channel. For me it is not a question of my agreeing or disagreeing with Pine Creek Doug’s politics: Pine Creek was a brilliant counterapologist. I think that Pine Creek Doug was a much better counterapologist than he now is as a mostly political pundit. Just personally, I wish that he would go back to livestreams in which he would critique apologists and preachers, like back in the good old days. He seems to have received a lot more superchats, doing that. However, as Doug himself says: he is independently wealthy as an analytical chemist/Spreadsheet engineer, and is not motivated by money. Perhaps if Doug were more motivated by money—ironically, I am arguing like a Doug-ian capitalist, here!—then he might return to making the content that he used to make.

. Further, I would like to welcome Valerie Tarico as a fellow contributor to this site. I have read much of her material, and she too discusses how Christianity can be harmful, especially from a psychological perspective. I had reason to link to one of her articles in the comments’ section under another of this website’s blogposts. Also, I would like to mention her being interviewed on The Fall of Roe podcast. When I deconverted from Preconciliar Roman Catholicism, about ten years ago, I did not immediately become pro-choice. My being pro-life was a hangover from my being a Christian. Valerie Tarico basically cured me of this hangover! It was the overturning of Roe versus Wade that made me pro-choice. In particular it was the Fall of Roe podcast that made me pro-choice, and, even more so in particular it was Valerie Tarico’s interview on the Fall of Roe podcast that made me pro-choice. From what I remember of Tarico’s interview—and it has been a number of years since I listened to it—Tarico explains that abortion is a natural process that is merely augmented by surgical and chemical techniques. The screening and termination of dangerous or ill-advised pregnancies is already a natural part of a woman’s biology. The abortion provider merely augments this imperfect natural process with surgical and chemical techniques. I think that Tarico further argues that surgical abortion is almost an obsolete technology at this stage. Ironically, it is the pro-life movement that often makes later surgical abortions necessary. To erect barriers to abortion—something which pro-lifers are constantly trying to do—is to necessitate more late-term surgical abortions than what there would otherwise be. This was an ‘Aha!’ moment for me that put an end to my pro-life stances.

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For what it is worth, here is my ‘Deconstructing the Bible’ playlist and my ‘On Calvinist Extremism’ playlist. These playlists both contain, exclusively, my own videos.

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Ciarán Aodh Mac Ardghail (Ciarán Mc Ardle) is a digital creator from Ireland. Here is his linktree. Here is his YouTube Channel. Here is his LinkedIn. Here is his Instagram.