On Lowder's Stupid Atheist Meme #4: “Let’s Put an End to the Philosophy of Religion!”

Jeff Lowder again, with another so-called "Stupid Atheist Meme." One of the reasons I have publicly exposed Jeff Lowder's dishonesty and hypocrisy is because he has successfully convinced people into thinking he's a philosopher when he is not, which I consider his biggest con. He has a college degree in computer science and is well-read in the area of philosophy of religion, okay. But I have found him to be ignorant many times. His biggest ignorances have to do with taking positions against those I have taken, so it does matter that people see who he really is. For if he's considered a full credentialed philosopher with a Ph.D., then what he says is taken more seriously than what I say. His all white male philosophy student cheerleaders defend him because he has successfully conned them. They say there have been many philosophers in the past who didn't have Ph.D.'s, like Socrates, Aristotle, Descartes and Aquinas, which I know all too well. That is irrelevant. I'm arguing Lowder lacks the depth and breadth necessary to have earned a Ph.D. in philosophy.

What I'm writing is helpful. One person wrote:

I have been using the Internet Infidels for about 15 years now. The essays therein has helped me in my philosophical path from "angry antitheism" to a more moderate nontheism. And in all those time I have thought JJ Lowder is a philosopher. I don't know why I had that impression, but I did. Maybe subtle hints in his online writings made me believe that he is one. If you had not exposed his actual academic background, I would still think he is a PhD-toting analytic philosopher. LINK.

The various issues we disagree about are very important to me, and I presume they're important to Lowder too. But in his series of Atheist Meme's he's elevating our disagreements to claims of stupidity, that if I disagree then I am holding to a stupid position. Oh, he doesn't mention me by name. But he has a big audience and is convincing them against my arguments to the contrary.

I've written a lot about ending the philosophy of religion. If you really want to know what I'm calling for then click on the tag below. To see just one post on it read this one. This is a proposal endorsed by biblical scholar Hector Avalos, philosopher Peter Boghossian, scientist Jerry Coyne, and mathematician James Lindsay. It's based on Hector Avalos's call to end biblical studies as we know them, seen in his excellent book The End of Biblical Studies.So this proposal is most definitely not a stupid one.

Against this position Lowder has just one off-handed quote, from J. L. Schellenberg, a philosopher of note who did not read Avalos's book before commenting (he did not have time to do so), who also has a vested interest in the philosophy of religion. You would expect uninformed philosophers of religion would object to this proposal with a knee-jerk reaction. Lowder has also not read Avalos's book and doesn't think he needs to, because any expertise and relevance he might have is in dealing with evangelical philosophy of religion, a parochial fundamentalist version that very very few philosophers take seriously. This is not the level of depth one should have if one is a philosopher, you see.

Philosopher of note Graham Oppy has also objected to ending the philosophy of religion at the end of this wonderful essay of his, although he too does not understand what the proposal is, and he too has a vested interest in the philosophy of religion.

The precise nature of our call to end the philosophy of religion is "to end the philosophy of religion discipline in the secular universities." Our call follows the same strategy Dr. Hector Avalos advocates. Avalos argues that Religion professors and those teaching in Biblical Studies departments should tell their students the truth about the Bible even though it's considered sacred to many of them. Essentially his call is to debunk the Bible for the good of any future society we might have. So in the case of the philosophy of religion, professors should do likewise with the arguments to the existence of God. They should essentially try to put themselves out of a job by arguing against faith, even though their discipline is not going away anytime soon. But we also advocate eliminating this discipline if possible in the secular universities. In its place Philosophy proper can take over the relevant discussions, as well as science related classes and the Comparative Religion discipline (since the best way to treat faith-based claims is to treat them all the same).

That's it. It should never be considered stupid to tell students the truth. Scientists tell their students the truth. So should philosophers. There is no longer any debate about what that is either. Faith-based reasoning is not a virtue. Faith as a method is unreliable. It should never be tolerated as a justification for anything in the secular universities.

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Lowder just put a disclaimer on his "Stupid Atheist Meme's" series. Now we read:

Note: For the avoidance of doubt, in calling this and other memes” stupid” I’m not claiming–and don’t think–that anyone who agrees with any or all of these memes is a stupid person.

Here, boys and girls, is an example of someone stating the obvious, from all I can tell. Okay, so noted. Of course, smart people from time to time accept propositions that are stupid. There's no surprise in that. I'm arguing that best describes Lowder.