"The Most Impressive Thing Loftus Brings to the Table"

I'm curious when I see my name mentioned on a forum to read what they're saying about my work. Let me say that it's no fun getting shot at from both sides in this debate, but that's what I see. Let me tell you also that I know what I'm doing. I know the evangelical mindset very well. I know how to speak to them. I said in my book that skeptics won't all appreciate why I argue the way I do, and that's true. But I am interested in changing peole's minds. And while Christians will assail me for it from time to time I know how to speak their language. I AM NOT INTERESTED IN PREACHING TO THE CHOIR! For a case in point over at the Rational Response Squad forum there has been a discussion about an argument I made and my work. They don't even list my book on the sidebar as an important one.

I have no clue who these people are, but one person said this:

I think the most impressive thing Loftus brings to the table is his apparent credentials in the scholarly-believers/apologists circles. He's the only 'new atheist' I know of who's gotten significant positive blurbs from apologists such as Norman Geisler.

I'm reading his book right now, and while it is not particularly thought-provoking to me, his real target audience is educated believers, and he takes the time to address them thoroughly, as opposed to say Dawkins, Dennett, Hitchens, or Harris. He approaches it from their perspective, moreso than not.

To put it one way, he 'takes the ridiculous seriously'. In other words, he takes likely arguments theists might make and takes the time to thoroughly debunk them. Whereas other 'new atheists' would basically just blow off the ridiculous arguments with a brisk "... but that's an obvious non-sequitur".

I think Loftus makes a good bridge from atheist language to apologist language. For instance, his arguments do not go into depth into logic, but instead use argument from authority and other informal fallacies which -- like it or not -- actually do hold weight with believers.

Another useful thing Loftus brings to the table is how he repackages old atheist rejoinders into full-fledged arguments against theism. Probably his strongest example of this is his Outsider Test (chapter 4; 10 pages). Whereas an atheist will respond to theist arguments with something like: "Well if you believe in biblical miracles, why don't you believe Mohammed flew on a horse to heaven?" or "The burden of proof is on he who claims". Instead, Loftus takes the time to spell out all the gory details about why these rejoinders make sense. He makes a thorough case for why theists have an intellectual responsibility to examine their own beliefs as if they were outsiders from the belief. Christians should look at Christianity from the perspective of non-Christians, etc. Loftus uses his own personal deconversion story to add emotional/anecdotal weight to his argument.

In short, while I agree his arguments are not as strong as other 'new atheists', he brings a valuable angle to the table that other 'new atheists' do not, probably because it doesn't occur to them that they need to take the time to explicitly detail what 'should be obvious to anyone who knows anything about logic'.

I'm quite excited actually, that Loftus can start a new phase in the conversation that Sam Harris said he was trying to start with The End of Faith. I hope Loftus inspires other hardcore-theists-turned-rationalist-atheists to pick up the baton and run with it. The goal after all is to actually convince people, remember. If it takes a little anecdotal reasoning to get people to start to question, it can't hurt. There is no one way. It takes all kinds.

Now I dispute some of the things he said, but you can read through that thread beginning here with his post. (scroll up to start reading).

I wish I could convince more skeptics that I know what I'm doing and why I argue the way I do. If they could just get behind my work we could make a bigger impact. Ahhhhh, but after all, we're freethinkers, and you cannot corral freethinkers like you can believers. ;-)