September 28, 2024

Reasonable People Cannot Believe!

Let's grant that every miracle in the Bible took place as reported. That supposed fact doesn't mean we should believe those miracles actually took place. The rest of us need sufficient evidence before we can believe they did, and 2nd 3rd 4th handed uncorroborated hearsay just doesn't cut it.

September 27, 2024

When Theology Collides with Science and History

Deities and miracles vanish


For thousands of years, humans have been imagining and inventing gods. Once ideas about gods have been locked into human brains, fierce loyalties and certainties develop. People who claim privileged knowledge of the gods emerge—the priestly classes—and they do their best to enforce “correct” beliefs and behaviors. Today we call them clergy, and there are thousands of different brands, all of whom are confident of the “truths” they advocate. 
 
Just how many gods have been imagined?

September 25, 2024

Seth Andrews VS. God: Who is the Better Intelligent Designer?

This is really good stuff as usual! At about 39:17 Seth Andrews recommends my book, "God and Horrendous Suffering." He recommends Dr. Abby Hafer's book too!



Buy my book here!

September 20, 2024

Horrendous Suffering Reduces the Probability of a Loving God to Zero

The desperate scramble of theologians to rescue their deity 

In the classic American play, Inherit the Wind (by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee), about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, we find this exchange between the characters based on William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow:
 
Bryan: “I do not think about things I do not think about.”
Darrow: “Do you ever think about things that you do think about?”

September 18, 2024

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE!

Thanks to several of you for your warm wishes on my birthday today. I appreciate them all!

Now I have a personal request. I want everyone to watch this YouTube video linked below.
The lesson is clear and absolutely important:

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE!
You see, my wife and I are also poll workers. It's terrible that Trump incites political violence. But he does. Election workers should never be targeted for doing our job! I hope you agree and spread this same message. LINK

September 13, 2024

The Desperate Embrace of Abusive Religion by the Devout

Clint Heacock’s new book shines a bright light on this reality



The Preface to this book is a grabber. Twelve-year old Clint had arrived home from soccer practice, looking forward to the family dinner. But there was no one home; instead of the usual buzz of activity, nothing. Clint went into a panic: had the Rapture happened, and he was left behind? He wouldn’t get to meet Jesus and go to heaven? I won’t offer a plot spoiler here—where the family actually was—but this incident is a stunning example of abusive religion. Here was a kid who had been told by people he trusted, from his days as a toddler, that Jesus would one day return to collect a select group of true believers for their trip to heaven. And woe to those who weren’t among those selected.

September 06, 2024

Why Religion Is Being Held Strictly, Bluntly Accountable

Critical thinking skills have kicked in 

There is perhaps nothing more stunning, more shocking, than clergy who have realized that their religion is false—and decided to tell this truth to the world. There’s the famous cartoon by John Billette depicting a priest getting into costume for worship, and confiding to his assistant: “Every Sunday I’m tempted to tell the congregation that it’s all bullshit, but I’m in too deep now.” John W. Loftus, Dan Barker, and Tim Sledge come to mind: clergy who were in really deep, and found the courage to describe their realization that the Christian religion has far too many flaws. It just doesn’t make sense, and cannot be taken seriously. The three ex-clergy just mentioned have written many books about the shortcoming of their abandoned faiths, but there are others who have published their stories, e.g., Jerry Dewitt, John Compere, Drew Bekius, Kenneth Daniels, Bob Ripley, David Ramsey.  

I describe my own loss of faith in an article I published here last May, How Christianity Disintegrated Right in Front of Me.