On Assessing McIntosh's Sophisticated Defense of Miracles

Do you want to read a sophisticated defense of miracles and an equally sophisticated rebuttal?

The defense of miracles was written by Don McIntosh: LINK

The rebuttal was just published today, written by me! LINK.

Why Won't William Lane Craig Debate Me? (Plus Further Comments On Horrendous Suffering).

In this episode I started watching and I commented. Phil Harper was there!!! Then unexpectedly Derek Lambert sent me a link to be in the show. That was nice! I think it went well, starting early on with the question why William Lane Craig won't debate me. 

 

  

 

I had mentioned my novel approach to the problem of evil, calling it the minimal facts approach, LINK. Get my book on horrendous suffering, LINK. Derek Lambert's show is most excellent! Check out his other amazing videos!

Dr. Richard Carrier Highly Endorses My Book!

Thank you Richard Carrier for this enthusiastic endorsement of my book, "The Outsider Test For Faith"! Thanks also for accurately applying the outsider test to areas outside the philosophy of religion! LINK

.

A Minimal Facts Approach the the Problem of Evil

I just uploaded a major paper at "Academia.edu" titled, "A Minimal Facts Approach to the Problem of Evil." Hat tip to Gary Habermas and Michael Licona for the concept! Enjoy, and if you enjoy it please share! Get the book here: LINK. After reading it Frank Zindler said: "You can never have too much Loftus!" I like it! [Look him up!]

Visit My Page at The Secular Web!

Avid readers will pardon me for reminding others of my page at The Secular Web. I've published on some key issues there. They cover major faith responses to those of us who value reason and science. Consider the recommendation of Frank Zindler, who recently said, "You can never have too much Loftus!" I like it! [Look him up!]

The first one you'll see is a link to an offsite paper, linked directly here: Atheist Morality Without God.

This essay is a response to James Sterba's "An Ethics without God that is Compatible with Darwinian Evolution" and thoroughly provides a secular morality in that it argues that the most reasonable ethics are secular systems that don't require a God, gods, or goddesses. Loftus further goes on to defend an atheist morality by appealing to polls that show that there is a common neighborly morality that matters to most people based in facts about who we are as a species, which includes facts about the prehistoric world. Finally, Loftus argues that 'Sterbaian ethics' succeeds in that it is useful for human flourishing.

My most recent paper is Assessing McIntosh's Sophisticated Defense of Miracles. Here's the abstract:

In a previous paper Don McIntosh showed an exceptional awareness of the major objections to belief in miracles. In his attempt at a comprehensive rebuttal to them, his first goal was to argue that there are no fixed, exceptionless laws of nature, and thus nothing to prevent reasonable people from accepting miracle reports from reliable witnesses. His second goal was to argue that miracles are best understood as divine activity that merely defies our expectations and so miracles are akin to “signs” and “wonders.” His final goal was to offer a positive case for miracles that doesn’t lean on human testimony, which is generally considered weak as part of a defense of belief in miracles. Here McIntosh defended three categories: (1) miracles of cosmology; (2) miracles of prophecy; and (3) miracles of experience. 

In this reply John W. Loftus offers a comprehensive rebuttal to McIntosh. Loftus argues that there are regularities of nature on a mega scale that can be described by many essential equations, and that this should be good enough. To deny the existence of the laws of nature raises twin problems. On the one hand, such a denial would open the flood gates to include false miracle claims in the absence of any way to check them against laws of nature. On the other hand, such denial would undercut the basis for belief in biblical miracles since it would concede that biblical authors didn’t require solid evidence for their occurrence. Loftus goes on to argue that this is exactly what we find in the Bible—unevidenced, superstitious miracle stories. Finally, he concludes that McIntosh’s miracles of cosmology are based on a kind of ignorance, as are the alleged Hebrew Bible prophecies of the promised land, and McIntosh’s conclusions from his own personal testimony.

There are others.

The Christian Faith Makes No Sense. This one hasn't had too much promotion but it's really good!

In this paper I canvass a variety of ideas throughout the Christian Bible that make no sense at all. These include God's unembodiment, timelessness, foreknowledge, and human characteristics like longing and tribalism, as well as the idea of divine inspiration, the Trinity, the existence of Satan, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Resurrection, the Ascension, Heaven and Hell, punishment for sin, the task of evangelism, and the need for apologetics. These epitomize what Jeremy Bentham famously called nonsense upon stilts.

Why I Abandoned Christianity, Part 2

Two more compelling reasons that are hard to refute

[The link to Part 1 is here.]

 

3. The Bible is a mess: flaws, contradictions, and too much bad theology.

 

How can I say such a thing? From the time they were toddlers, the devout have been taught that the Bible is the revealed word of their god. A gleaming version of it is commonly on church altars. Witnesses in court—and presidents at their inaugurations—place their hands on the Bible to verify that they are taking a sacred oath. But does this reputation prevail when the devout actually read and study the Bible? Determination to read it cover-to-cover often fades once that journey has begun; the first five books, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, provide plenty of tedious texts to discourage modern, educated readers.

I Highly Recommend the book, "The Ancient Moon Goddess: Crushed by Patriarchy Buried by Judaism Hidden in Christianity"

 

Dale W. O'Neal and Arthur Waters have written a masterpiece. My readers have met O'Neal before in the last chapter of my book God and Horrendous Suffering. He is former evangelical minister with an MDiv., degree from Talbot School of Theology where his father was the dean. Talbot presented him with their “Preacher of the Year” award. The winner two years earlier was John MacArthur Jr., and the winner the previous year was Josh McDowell. He is currently a clinical psychologist. 

 

 

This is a highly educational book filled with facts and solid conjectures about the earliest religions based on the moon goddess, who was believed by ancient pre-scientific peoples to have an earthly corresponding female menstruating cycle of blood. Thirteen months a year it filled up with blood then poured its blood into female wombs, sometimes creating a baby. Fascinating stuff! 

 

O'Neal convincingly shows that they believed menstrual blood was moon blood, and that this concept was the seed of religion. He goes on to show how patriarchal religions borrowed, stole, and eventually undermined goddess worship. For most of us this book could be the single most authoritative source to understand religion before the Bible, which also shows up in the Bible. 

 

Probably the highest praise for it comes from Dr. Jonathan Young, founding curator of "Joseph Campbell and Marija Gimbutas Archives." From his Forward Young says of their book, that "it deepens our understanding of key teachings from the Bible, radically shifting the meanings of familiar spiritual narratives." He calls it "a major advance in perspective, taking us beyond the contributions of Joseaph Campbell, Marija Gimbutas, and Riane Eisler." LINK.

God Failed as a Parent!

Just consider what good parents do. They raise their children to be good people, sometimes despite bad circumstances. Bad parents don't. Why is it a heavenly father couldn't do that with us, especially since he allegedly had the means to do so? God failed as a parent! Discuss.

A Comprehensive Paper Defending Miracles

Dr. Don McIntosh recently wrote a comprehensive article defending miracles, and mentioned me specifically. Here is his article: LINK.

My response will be posted at the end of May on the Secular Web. I've already written it, as seen in the pic. I wrote a comprehensive rebuttal. :-) 

Why I Abandoned Christianity, Part 1

Two compelling reasons that are hard to refute

1.     The Arrogance of Theology

I grew up on the very flat prairie of northern Indiana: the land was level to the horizon in all directions. Which meant that we had, on clear nights, a spectacular view of the night sky—with very little light pollution from Chicago, some eighty miles to the north. When I was a teenager in the 1950s, my parents bought me a telescope, about the since of a baseball bat. I was able to locate Saturn with its rings—what a thrill that was! But I came to appreciate that the rotation of the earth is a reality, because while I was viewing the moon, I had to keep moving the telescope because I was on the surface of a rotating planet. When I attended college, I took astronomy courses, because my curiosity was intense: what is out there, who may be out there?

Does Prayer Work? by Tim Callahan, for Skeptic

Does Prayer Work? by Tim Callahan, for Skeptic, LINK.

A Toast/Tribute to Dr. David Madison

Here was a toast to David Madison when he completed  his 300th post here at Debunking Christianity.

Now after achieving 500 posts we offer him this toast: "May David live long and prosper in our shared goals to convince people of faith based on truth and grounded in solid evidence." Let him know below how he's helped you in your search for truth, and/or desire to convince others still in bondage to indoctrination and enculturation.

 

This month marks his 500th post! He sent me this note: 

Profound Ignorance about Christianity Fuels Its Success

“We trust our clergy”—and that’s enough 

In fact, one of the primary roles of the clergy is to divert attention from blunt realities. They don’t want the devout folks under their care to become aware of basic facts that undermine the Christian faith. For example, the turmoil that Jesus studies have been in for decades, based on the very embarrassing truth that the gospels do not qualify as history. Not a single episode in the gospels, not a single Jesus saying, can be verified by the techniques that historians use to write authentic history. The clergy continue to get away with quoting feel-good Bible verses from the pulpit.

 

The true origins of the faith are never mentioned—and this is of vital importance. In the ancient world in which Christianity arose, there were other major religions that worshipped dying-and-rising gods—and promised eternal life. But it would take serious research and study on the part of laypeople to discover the painful truth that the early Jesus sect borrowed this idea and attached it to Jesus. As Richard Carrier has said in a major article on the context in which Christianity was born: “Jesus is just a late comer to the party.”

My Article Appeared in "Free Inquiry" Recently.

My article was published on how to change the minds of believers. You can see the pic here, and follow this link to read it: How to Change the Minds of Believers.

Does the Splintered, Bickering Church Represent Gospel Jesus?

Tough question, since there are major disagreements about gospel Jesus

In the article I posted here on 27 March 2026, I commented on the book by Karl and Laura Forehand, Out Into the Desert: Thriving Outside Organized Religion. This devout, evangelical couple had been very active in the churches they served (Karl as pastor), but arrived at the conclusion that the church was wearing them out. So they made their exit, and this book was written to explain the reasons for doing so.

 

A few days ago, 8 April 2026, Jim Palmer published a long essay titled, Christianity Has a Jesus Problem. He begins the essay with this blunt observation:

The Best Cure for Christianity Is Reading the Bible, Essay Number 9

The gospels don’t show a holy hero who was a superior moral

teacher

Mark Twain is commonly credited with saying that the best cure for Christianity is reading the Bible, but no matter who said it, the devout should be warned that their faith is jeopardized by a careful reading of their scripture. Cherry-picking of feel-good texts by the clergy is done on purpose, to divert attention from Jesus-script that is mediocre and alarming. In my article posted here on 30 January 2026, I discussed ten such supposed “quotes”—today let’s look at ten more.

Here is a Visual of the Book "God and Horrendous Suffering"

In case you need a visual this is a very B.I.G. book! 600+ pages! Just released! You’ll  get your money's worth. Get it. Review it. Laud it. Praise it. Love it. Hate it. It should challenge most readers to consider what we say. Can you deal with it? Try. How much will you agree? FAFO! :-) LINK

 

The World’s Most Dangerous Cult Continues to Thrive

The Catholic church qualifies for this title

Is it really fair to call Catholicism a cult? Or does this reflect my growing up in a mostly Protestant small town in rural northern Indiana in the 1940s-1950s?  We were good friends with the Catholics in town, but we were put off by their claims to be superior Christians—and the excessive pageantry their church is famous for. There are quite a few cults in the broad sweep of Christian brands, e.g., the mega-churches pastored by Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland. But there are well over a billion Catholics in the world. 

 

Let me make the case that their church is a cult—and a dangerous one at that.

Leaving the Church: A Welcome Relief or Trauma?

It can be a mixture of both

By the time I finished my PhD in Biblical Studies in 1975 (Boston University), I had become an atheist. Primarily because questions raised in the course of those years were not given credible answers, e.g., where can we find verifiable information about god(s)? Moreover, from my teenage years, growing up on the northern Indiana prairie, I had been fascinated by the night sky. I studied astronomy in college, and had come to appreciate that there are billions of galaxies and trillions of planets. Yet our theology was not aware at all of what other thinking creatures out there might have discovered about god(s). The faculty theologians were not at all bothered by this. In our profound isolation, how could we be so sure about what god was like? I had served as pastor of two congregations, and had been disappointed by the realities of church rivalries and politics. I gave up my ordination, and made my escape. It took a while—and it was a bumpy road—but I managed to make the change to a secular career.

A New Paper On Miracles Forthcoming!

I have published more than a dozen books on key issues relating to Christianity, beginning with my magnum opus "Why I Became an Atheist" [see the first comment below on it].

In the last few years I focused on the twin problems of horrendous suffering and miracles. 

Here is a bad boy I just finished on miracles (see pic). It just might be my best work on it. I respond to the respectful and sophisticated prompting of philosopher Don McIntosh, to be published next month at the Secular Web. It will join other key papers of mine. LINK