Darrin Rasberry, A Former Team Member at DC Now Claims to Be A Christian

[Written by John W. Loftus]
Yep, so long as this is not a ruse. Darrin was never an atheist in the first place though. ;-) I wish him well. That's the power of the delusion. It has a pull on some of us to return to the fold. He writes about it here. When I first invited him to DC Darrin wrote this Greetings. Darrin and I traveled together to the 2008 EPS Apologetics Conference which I wrote about here. Hey, people believe and disbelieve for a wide variety of reasons, and that's it. There is no need to discredit his conversion. Why do Christians try to discredit our deconversions?
-----------
Edit: If you see the smiley face after the second sentence above I'm being sarcastic. I'm saying about Darrin what Christians ignorantly say about people like me who leave the faith. Unlike them I don't mean this seriously.

Christian, Are You Praying for the Return of Jesus?

So I was talking to a Christian mother whose daughter is an atheist and sure to go to hell. I asked her if she's praying for Jesus to return to earth soon. She says yes, every day, and she thinks he'll come back soon too.

Duh. Where is the compassion when it comes to faith? Wouldn't the reasonable thing to do is pray that Jesus does NOT return soon so her daughter might come to repentance and be saved? Are believers brain dead or something?

Baha'i Practice as a View to Early Christianity

For two years I worshipped with and studied the Baha'is. They are a group who believe that they originated from direct revelation by god. However their guardian, Shogghi Effendi, acknowledges, "A handful of students, belonging to the Shaykhi school, sprung from the Ithna-'Ashariyyih sect of Shi`ah Islam."

NOVA The Fabric of the Cosmos: Universe or Multiverse?

If you want a great primer on the existence of a multiverse watch this PBS program. Take particular note of how cutting edge science works.

Watch The Fabric of the Cosmos: Universe or Multiverse? on PBS. See more from NOVA.

Suffering as Evidence of God's Failure

This is a weak argument concerning theodicy that is meant to address the premises of an ontological argument for god. It requires one to look at the attributes of god before they are assumed for the ontological argument itself. It focuses on "capability" rather than omnipotence:

"God or Godless" Nears Completion

My co-written debate book with Dr. Randal Rauser will be finished in a few days. It was a rewarding exchange of ideas. Randal announces it right here. This will be a must have book, great for discussions in colleges and reading groups! Now I have the copy-edits to do for the revised edition of WIBA. Then I will be able to blog more.

Tommy G. Baker Died But Speaks From the Grave

I sadly learned that a team member here at DC has died. I feel a great sorrow for this since Tommy G. Baker had so much more to share. There are six posts of his that I have yet to release and will do so one at a time this week. So he will speak from the grave. But first I'll share what he told me when I asked him to join DC and also link to his previous posts:

Greta Christina: Why Are You Atheists So Angry?

A Smorgasbord of Links for Your Enjoyment

Bruce Gerencser on Who Determines What the Bible Says?

Stephen Uhl, a former Catholic priest, is interviewed (with his wife Diane) by Tucson TV about their "Out of the Closet" billboards.

Harry McCall sent me this link on Biblical Illiteracy at Bob Jones University

Jerry Wilson sent me a link of his debate with a Christian apologist.

Articulett shared a link where a former believer named Anthony mentioned me as a major factor in his deconversion.

Brian sent me a link to a Nova documentary made a few years back on the creationism vs evolution trial in Dover. It's really good.

I'm Too Busy to Blog Much Right Now

I'm doing the copy-edits for the revised book, Why I Became an Atheist, and also co-writing the book with Dr. Randal Rauser. Use the comments section below to provide some interesting links. Cheers.

Mike Licona Responds to Norman Geisler

Link. I am so glad I don't have split hairs like they do. It's all so delusional.

Slavery, Abolitionism and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship: Reflections about Ethical Deflections

Dr. Avalos reflects on how ethics is practiced by modern biblical scholars, and on why Christian academic scholars can't seem to unchain themselves from viewing Jesus as perfect. Link

The Famous Thomas More / William Tyndale Polemic.

They debated each other for 2000 pages. Both were also executed. Harsh words, harsh times. Link. Parts of this are a fascinating read!

Andy Rooney on Atheism

Andy Rooney spoke briefly (beginning at 1:12) on his atheism and his views on all the faith talk coming from presidential candidates. Rooney, who died on November 4, 2011, was best known for his reporting on CBS’ 60 Minutes. Link

Robert Gundry Was the First Scholar Norman Geisler Outted

In 1982 he published Matthew: A Commentary on His Literary and Theological Art analyzing the Gospel of Matthew. Gundry used redaction criticism in his work. He thus argued that Matthew adapted the story of Jesus to appeal to the intended audience. Especially problematic was Gundry's assertion that Matthew made ahistorical additions to the infancy story in Matthew 1 and 2.

This sparked a major controversy in the Evangelical Theological Society. Gundry contended his work did not question the inerrancy of Matthew. Rather he argued that inerrancy must be considered in light of authorial intent. Matthew, Gundry claims, "treats us to history mixed with elements that cannot be called historical in a modern sense." Thus, the book of Matthew should not be measured against the standards of the genre of modern historical writing in order to be called inerrant. On the other hand, "Luke states a historical purpose along lines that run closer to modern history writing…" Gundry's view was supported by a significant portion of the ETS. The Society's executive looked into the matter and at first cleared Gundry. However a campaign against Gundry was launched, spearheaded by Norman Geisler. This campaign succeeded and in December 1983 Gundry resigned from the ETS. Link

Michael Licona Loses His Teaching Position Over Matthew 27

Jeff Lowder comments:

The incident casts doubt on the ability of Evangelical scholars, qua Evangelicals, to follow the evidence wherever it may lead. To his credit, Licona apparently questioned the literal historicity of Matthew 27, without letting the perceived implications of his commitment to Biblical inerrancy get in the way. At the same time, however, I can't help but be struck by the fact that apparently many Christian scholars were unwilling to publicly defend Licona, presumably because they were afraid they might lose their jobs, too. It is precisely because of this sort of mentality that I have previously questioned whether evangelical Christians can consistently affirm the ethics of belief required by freethought. Link

Quotes of the Day

Here are a few salient quotes in context for further discussion:

The more often Christians have to resort to background beliefs—the more often they have to resort to their overall religious worldview to defend a particular tenet of faith—then the less likely their faith is true. Link

Christians must be convinced that their faith is nearly impossible before they will ever consider it to be improbable, which is an utterly unreasonable standard. Link.

When Christians criticize each other I think they're all right. Link.

Morality 3: Of objectivity and oughtness

Hector Avalos’s New Book is a tour de force, Part 3

This is the final part of my review of Dr. Avalos's new book, Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship, which I began writing about right here. You'll just have to get it at some point and read it for yourselves. But it is really really good, just what the doctor ordered! ;-)

My Bookstore

To help me keep blogging I'd appreciate my readers buying books on Amazon from one of these links below (or anything else for that matter). I get about 7 cents on the dollar from what you purchase at no extra cost to you. Thanks so much in advance! And thanks too for any donations you can send me. Blogging is a very time consuming activity that takes away from my ability to earn some more needed money.

Avalos: Secular vs. Religious Harm

Dr. Avalos explains why modern wars don't prove that secularism has done more harm than religion. Enjoy. By the way, have I said recently that Hector is one of my main intellectual heroes? He is!

Hector Avalos's New Book is a tour de force, a Classic Text, Pt. 2

I began my review of Dr. Avalos's book, Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship, in a previous post you can read right here. His book is divided into two main parts. Chapters 2-6 discusses the various strategies used by biblical scholars to mitigate the negative ethical implications of slavery in the Bible, while in chapters 7-16 he illustrates how the Bible was used to sustain slavery, arguing that "the Bible's stance on slavery posed an enormous, and sometimes insuperable, challenge for abolitionists." (p. 17) I'll not review part two of his book except to say that it is devastating to the apologist claims that the abolitionist movement was inspired by the Bible. We can see this in part one of Avalos's book alone, for in it he discusses the most important biblical passages on slavery in the Bible since that's what the abolitionists had to work with. Hint: they were backed up against the wall. Their movement went against the thrust of the passages found in the Bible.

The Barna Group On Six Reasons Young People Are Leaving the Church

Reason number one: "...unprecedented access to ideas and worldviews as well as their prodigious consumption of popular culture." But we knew that already. Josh McDowell said it before, and *ahem* yours truly. If you want to know the latest before the information brokers do, see me. ;-)

Guess What? My Newest Book Will Be in Christian Bookstores!

Yep, it's the one co-written with Dr. Randal Rauser, as introduced here. We have until January 1st to finish it. So if I'm not making much noise until then you'll understand. During this same time I'll be working on a revision to WIBA. If you don't want to miss a thing become a follower of DC.

Ten Ways How To Resist Preaching to the Choir

[Written by John W. Loftus] I have extensively read both atheist and Christian literature, their blogs, journals and books, along with listening to their videos and podcasts. What I have discovered is that most people are preaching to the choir. They do not step inside each others shoes to understand where they are coming from. They do not meet on common ground, assume common assumptions, and common understandings. They are talking past one another like ships that proverbially pass each other in the night. Instead, they are speaking to people on their own side more than anything else, who seek to confirm what they have already come to accept. There is a time and a place for this, I admit. But I see it almost everywhere I look. More often than not each side speaks from a position without trying to really understand the position of the people they are trying to reach. I’ve thought a lot about this, so in the interest of starting up this conversation let me offer ten ways how to resist preaching to the choir, with specific reference to how skeptics/atheists can do this.

Twelve Reasons I Don’t Believe in Supernatural Claims

This is a real good summary of the reasons. Link.

My Book WIBA is "Not Just a Refutation" But "An Evisceration"

So says one kind recent reviewer. If that's what he thinks then wait till he gets a look at the revised book. I'm chomping at the bit to begin the editing process this coming week for a February publication.

Hector Avalos's New Book is a tour de force; Sure to Be A Classic

I'm very grateful that Hector send me a copy of his new book, Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship. You can see the table of contents and purchase it if you follow the link. I cannot recommend this book more highly than to say that anyone who wants to deal with the issue of slavery in the future must deal with it. It is so well-informed and argued that Biblical scholars and Christian apologists might hope to ignore it if they could get away with it. ;-) This is a wonderful and extremely needed work. In this first post I'll just introduce it.

5 Logical Fallacies That Make You Wrong More Than You Think

Everyone should understand these 5 fallacies. They apply to our debates at DC:

#1. Facts Don't Change Our Minds

#2. We're Hard-Wired to Have a Double Standard

#3. We Think Everyone's Out to Get Us

#4. Our Brains Don't Understand Probability

#5. We're Not Programmed to Seek "Truth," We're Programmed to "Win"

Can Christianity Survive Pop Culture?

I doubt it, not the way it's going. Evangelical Christians are being forced to retreat from our culture. Many of them prefer home-schooling. And given the entertainment industry I doubt they can watch many TV programs that make the rest of us laugh. I have mixed feelings about this since some of the stuff is getting pretty raunchy, like the CBS sitcom "Two and a Half Men" (linked below). But if pop culture continues headed in this direction then evangelicals might as well become Amish in their way of life to maintain their moral purity. Or, if they are watching, then their morals will continue changing and with it so will their theology.

On Secular Blogging: “If something is worth doing, it’s worth doing badly”

[Written by John W. Loftus] I've liked this quote by GK Chesterton from the day I read it. Doing something badly is at least doing something productive, if what you're doing is the right thing to do. It's better than not attempting something at all. At least you will learn from your efforts. All of the most important things we learned to do we started out doing them badly, like walking, talking, singing, dancing and riding a bicycle. You improve as you go. You cannot improve until you start. You begin by starting out badly. You have to be willing to fail, sometimes often, to achieve what you want to. So if you decide to do something, anything, be prepared to start out by doing it badly. If you wait until you can do something perfectly you'll do nothing at all.

An Illustrated Guide to Dr. Hector Avalos's Book, "Fighting Words"

In Fighting Words: The Origins of Religious Violence, Dr. Avalos did a careful analysis of the fundamental texts of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam and shows how four 'scarce' resources have figured repeatedly in creating religious violence: sacred space (churches, temples, holy cities); the creation of holy scriptures (exclusive revelations); group privilege (chosen people, the predestined select few); and salvation (only some are saved). If you want to see his thesis illustrated in the city of Jerusalem you need only look as far as Simon Sebag Montefiore's new book Jerusalem: A Biography. One reviewer wrote of his book:

The amount of murder, massacre etc for 2,000 years is appalling. Religious madness is the theme. Christians murdering Jews and being murdered and both murdering Muslims and being murdered in their turn. WHY? Because Christ was crucified here, Abraham was willing to sacrifice Isaac here and Mohammed road a horse with a human face aerially around the city, receiving insights as he went. So the murders and massacres are about the places where religious events are believed to have taken place.