Showing posts with label "Avalos". Show all posts
Showing posts with label "Avalos". Show all posts

Craig versus McCullagh: A Response to Travis James Campbell

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                  It is not often that I express pleasure at reading critiques of my work. That is because criticisms of my work by Christian apologists are seldom devoid of ad hominem and vitriolic comments.
                 So it was, indeed, a pleasure to read the critique from Travis James Campbell in a chapter titled “Avalos Contra Craig: A Historical, Theological, and Philosophical Assessment,” in a book titled Defending the Resurrection. I henceforth abbreviate Campbell’s chapter as ACC.
                Defending the Resurrection is edited by James Patrick Holding, and published in 2010 by Xulon press, which describes itself as a “Christian self-publishing company.” See Xulon Press.  See also: Google book version.

Obama and Atheists

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I am glad to see President Barack Obama re-elected.  He certainly has sought to include open atheists, such as myself, in his campaign from the beginning. I served on his Iowa Latino outreach committee in 2007, when this photo was taken in Des Moines, Iowa.  But he still has much more work to do to ensure that open atheists can feel more accepted in political office.


¿Se puede saber si Dios existe? es EL libro ateo para personas de habla hispana

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A pesar de un aumento enorme de recursos para ateos, existe todavía una escasez de recursos ateos para personas de habla hispana, y los cuales consisten de cerca de 500 millones de personas.

¿Se puede saber si Dios existe? (Prometheus, 2003), un libro escrito por el Dr. Héctor Ávalos, es, según lo que yo entiendo, el único libro escrito originalmente en español por un erudito bíblico ateo de habla hispana.

Dr. Hector Avalos vs Keith Darrel: "Is The Bible the Source of Absolute Moral Rules for Today?"

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The debate was held on April 12, 2012, at Iowa State University. Q & A below:

Is Richard Dawkins the Liar?: “Doctor” Jim West’s Dishonesty Revealed

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Psychoanalysis is a common method for delegitimizing atheists. For example, Paul Vitz's Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism (2000) tries to show that atheism correlates with absent fathers. Jim Spiegel, a professor at Taylor University, gives us his psychoanalytic theory of atheism in the title of his book, The Making of An Atheist: How Immorality Leads to Unbelief (2010). Aside from offering poor and arbitrary evidence, this type of psychoanalysis also deflects attention from the merits of any case that atheists themselves express for their views. So, instead of actually listening to reasons atheists give, it is enough for such theists to couch their explanations for atheism in psychoanalytic jargon that features anger, bitterness, and immorality.

Dr. Avalos challenges the claim that our country was founded as a "Christian nation."

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Dr. Avalos has a guest editorial in politically-influential The Des Moines Register that challenges this claim put forth by a previous letter. Read Hector's response right here. He's right! But even if he is wrong, which he is not, there is no going back in time. Many Christians themselves support a secular government, and for good reasons.

Dr. Avalos on the Minnesota Atheists Radio Show

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Dr. Avalos talks about biblical slavery and ethics with Minnesota Atheists Talk in anticipation of his forthcoming book, Slavery, Abolitionism, and the Ethics of Biblical Scholarship.

Dr. Avalos vs. Dr. Weikart: The Rematch

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Dr. Avalos debates Dr.Richard Weikart on whether Darwinism or Christian anti-Judaism better explains the Nazi Holocaust. Enjoy.

Underhanded Biblical Interpretation: Deuteronomy 25:11-12 in Context

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How Dr. Copan Explains Away Biblical Violence

Flannagan Versus Westbrook: Understanding the Problem

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Why Dr. Flannagan is still Wrong

Why Dr. Flannagan Fails History, Dr. Hector Avalos Responds

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Dr. Flannagan's use of sources shows some careless scholarship.

Dr. Matt Flannagan, of the MandM blog, has directed a few criticism at my chapters (“Yahweh is A Moral Monster” and “Atheism was not the Cause of the Holocaust”) in The Christian Delusion. Those criticisms rest not only on a basic misunderstanding and misreading of my arguments, but also on a very selective and uncritical reading of the sources Flannagan cites for support.

Dr. Avalos Predicts No Rapture On May 21: Why An Atheist Biblical Scholar Will Be Proven Right.

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Dr. Hector Avalos Interviewed by Robert Price for CFI's Point of Inquiry

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Dr. Hector Avalos on "What’s Not so Secular about Introductions to the Bible?"

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This is a slightly edited version of his paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Ideological Criticism Section, on November 20, 2010. Link

Triablogue Caught in a Web of Deception

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How to Fight Cyber-Bullies and Win

Six Anti-Secularist Themes: Deconstructing Religionist Rhetorical Weaponry by Dr. Hector Avalos

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          Spirited debates in scholarly fields usually involve a mixture of substantive argumentation and rhetorical weaponry. Rhetorical weaponry is intended to detract from the real substance of arguments, as well as to appeal to the emotional side of the audience. Rhetorical weaponry and substantive arguments are not always easily distinguished, and participants may sometimes be unaware of the difference.    
          Here, I concentrate on the rhetorical weapons that are being deployed by religionist biblical scholars against efforts to reform the field of biblical studies so that it might function like all other fields in modern academia---a completely secular enterprise with methodological naturalism at its core.
          These rhetorical weapons may be seen as literary tropes or themes, insofar as they depict fictional, rather than actual, villainy on the part of secularists. The purpose of these tropes and themes is to marginalize secularists rather than to address real arguments.  They represent creative versions of the ad hominem fallacy.

Dr. Hector Avalos Interviewed by the Iowa State Daily News

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While growing up, Avalos' zealous belief in God ignited an intense study of the Bible. "Most adults, up until recently, usually end up in the religion they were raised in," Avalos said. "It's not because they came to that religion through a long period of study or research, but they were just raised that way. To me that was not satisfactory. I wanted to know whether it was true or not." "I started by trying to defeat the arguments of the other side," Avalos said, "and in the process I realized that my own arguments were not very good." "One thing led to another, and I realized that I did not believe in Christianity or that the Bible was the word of God, or that the Bible had any kind of divine origin." Link

Dr. Avalos' Radio Interview

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Dr. Avalos comments on his chapters in The Christian Delusion and much more in an interview with the Minnesota Atheists. Dr. Avalos podcast

Dr. Avalos on the NYC Mosque

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Dr. Avalos addresses the hypocritical arguments of Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin against the mosque. Read Dr. Avalos' column here

Amateur Hour at Triablogue

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Triablogue’s amateurs have compiled a supposed refutation of The Christian Delusion. Some uninformed bloggers are already hailing it as a “massive” and definitive refutation. Yet, even the most superficial look at Triablogue’s efforts reveals yet another instance of amateurs who don’t know enough to know that they don’t know enough about the topics they discuss.

Being merciful to DC’s readers, I will not provide an exhaustive catalog of Triablogue’s factual errors, illogical arguments, or misreadings of my chapters. I will provide a few samples within these categories:

A. The Credentials Card
B. Ill-read Reviewers
C. Misrepresented arguments
D. Misunderstood Arguments
E. The Ridiculous and the Mundane