A Question About My Book on the Beginning of the Universe

Dear Mr. Loftus,

I have just started your very informative book, “Why I am an Atheist.” I am trying to better understand your arguments. You said on page 83 that the big bang theory shows that “our universe began to exist.” Then, on page 85 you state, “Craig’s second premise is that the universe began to exist. It too has difficulties.” This seems to be a contradiction. Could you help me understand what you mean by these statements? Did our universe begin to exist or not? You seem to be saying that science proves the universe did begin to exist when refuting Thomas Aquinas, but that it did not begin to exist when refuting William Craig.

Glad to know people are reading my book and think it's informative and hopefully helpful. Thanks for your thoughtful question. I wrote the book over a decade. Some of the chapters began as handouts in classes which I later revised for the book and so you can see development in it. The chapter on prayer was originally written for a church study group. As my thinking changed I tried to harmonize everything with my later perspective, but was probably unsuccessful. The fact is that we cannot say time began. There was no cosmic singularity so we don't know what took place before. So while our universe began to exist we cannot say that it did not come from out of a previous black hole explosion or through tunneling from another universe. The point about the Kalam argument is that it does not show our universe had a beginning in time. To repeat. Our universe began to exist but we cannot say time began to exist with our universe. My argument against the Kalam is that it doesn't show time began to exist either.

Cheers.

A List of Former Team Members of Debunking Christianity

[Written by John W. Loftus]Someone recently asked me for a list of former Bloggers. I started DC in January of 2006, four years ago. Some Christians took notice and I was pummeled every single day by some of them, mostly by Calvinists, and in particular presuppositionalists. A Ph.D. student helped me argue with them, so I soon invited him on as a team member. His handle was exbeliever. Since this worked well I began inviting others as team members. Some of them didn’t work out too well, just wanting to post their deconversion story or promote their book and that was it. Others stayed for a few years. While I haven’t listed them all, team members here at one time included (in no particular order) Hector Avalos, Dan Barker, Farrell Till, Ed Babinski, Joe Holman, Jason Long, Valerie Tarico, Ken Pulliam (Former_Fundy) Marlene Winell, exapologist, Harlan Quinn, Harry McCall, DagoodS, Matthew Green, Spencer Lo, Kenneth Daniels, Bart Willruth, Darrin Rasberry, Dennis Diehl, Robert Bumbalough, Bill Curry, Craig Duckett, Paul Harrison, Glenn Kachmar, Troy Walker, Theresa, Glenn Dixon, Zac Taylor, Sharon Mooney, Scott Burgener, Anthony, Shygetz, Touchstone, Evan, WoundedEgo, Brother Crow, nsfl, and a few others who posted once or twice. A few of them already had their own Blogs while a few others moved on to Blog themselves. Others dropped out of Blogging for one reason or another. It became time consuming for me so I took it back in September of 2009. You can do a "Search This Blog" for their names to see what they wrote.

Former Baptist Pastor Became an Atheist

Which of Dinesh D'Souza's Arguments Won Him Our Debate?

Okay, we have beat to death the horse of who won our debate which can be seen here. And I already expressed what I learned from debating him, while Ken Pulliam offered some insightful observations on it. So here is the next question: Which arguments of D'Souza's do you think were so good that won him the debate? Forget for a moment that I didn't answer everything he regurgitated up. What did he say that was a good argument for his faith?

Dinesh D'Souza Comments On Our Debate

Link. The real debate takes place in our books. Read them. Go ahead. Do it.

Dr. Marlene Winell on Recovering From Religious Indoctrination

Dr. Valerie Tarico interviews Marlene in this 24 minute video below. When this blog was a team blog both of these scholars could be found here.

What I Learned From Debating Dinesh D'Souza

After looking at the debate myself I didn't do well. I did okay, but not well.

Mr. Deity and the Really Hard Time

Even though some of their episodes are not so good, this one is a keeper.

We Should Only Accept What Science Tells Us.

That's what I think. Since science tells us prayer doesn't work then it doesn't work. It tells us the universe is 13.7 billion years old. It tells us we evolved. It tells us there was no Israelite Exodus from Egypt. It tells us the Nativity stories in the Gospels could not be true. It tells us virgins do not have babies. It tells us that dead people do not bodily rise from the grave. Christians must denigrate science in order to believe. Science or Faith? Science has a track record. Faith flies planes into buildings. Science all the way, hands down. End of story.

The Video of My Debate With Dinesh D'Souza is Now Online

Click here to watch all 13 parts on YouTube. Cheers.

I'm Going to Be Taking a Much Needed Break

I've decided to take a break from Blogging. It may be for a day or a week or a month, I don't know. What I do know is that I spend too much time here and neglect to do other things, like earn some money. At the very least I'll not be posting as much. I have much more to say so it may be hard to stay away. In any case there is a lot to read in the archives. You should become a Follower or a Subscriber to this Blog if you don't want to miss anything. Keep in mind I'm still available for speaking engagements. An interview of me is going to appear on YouTube on the 26th. And in March I'll be debating the existence of God as announced here. Set the odds on when I'll post again if you want to! ;-) If you're a first time visitor check out the two important books of mine in the sidebar. Cheers.

The Audio of My Debate with Dinesh D'Souza is Now Online

Here is the link. As you listen this is what to look for. Enjoy. Here is my opening statement.

The Trouble With Natural Theology

[Written by John W. Loftus] I love the way Dr. Jaco Gericke describes the reformed philosophy of Alvin Plantinga as fundamentalism on stilts. The stilts metaphor pictures Plantinga as rising above the mire of Biblical criticism without actually dealing with the basis of his faith.

William Lane Craig repeatedly says he does not intend on debating the reliability of the Bible. Of course not, because he can't. Recently he turned down a debate against Jaco Gericke on whether Yahweh of the Old Testament exists. Yep, that's right. He said it wasn't his specialty. But wait just a minute. He's going around debating whether or not God exists, right? Then that means he believes Yahweh exists. So why can't he defend the existence of his God? It's because he can't do it. It would require him to get down off his stilts and wallow in the mire of biblical criticism which completely undermines his faith.

Which brings me to Bill Craig's specialty, Natural Theology.

Temples, Temples They All Had Temples

The oldest temple in the world was just discovered in Turkey. Every civilization in the ancient world had some kind of a temple to some different kind of deity. It was the natural evolutionary process where humans came to wonder about why they existed and how to please the god or gods that put them here on earth. It's pure human imagination, all of them, from Egyptian to Mesopotamian to Canaanite to Israelite to Japaneses to Chinese to Mayan to Incan cultures and many others around the world.

The Historic Argument Against Organized Religion

I was raised a Catholic but it surely looks to an outsider like me that it is not a divine institution at all. The failings of the church down through history and now with recent sex scandals are strong indicators of this. And if this is so why should I believe ANYTHING that it teaches as divine truth? Why should I even accept the canon it chose? If any other institution did the horrendous wrongs as the Catholic church has done then Catholics would join me in condemning it. William Lobdell's book, Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America-and Found Unexpected Peace is a page turner. You see, it's not just the harm that some priests did to children. It's the massive cover-up that is so horrendous. The Catholic church even knowingly sent molesters to parishes in Alaska where nearly every boy was molested. That is, the church facilitated these molesters.

Morality Without God, by The Thinking Atheist

This video highlights the problems for any kind of credible Natural Theology:

Steven Pinker: A Brief History of Violence

There is actually less violence in modern society and Pinker tells us why.

There Are Two Yahweh's in the OT: Three Interpretations of the Evidence

Old Testament scholar Michael Heiser discussed the Biblical evidence for this in the fascinating video below. He argues against the rabbinic view that Yahweh appears in two modes, a younger one and an older one. He sees the evidence as supporting a Christological interpretation that the second Yahweh refers to Jesus. This, he claims, is why the early church could see no discrepancy in claiming Jesus was part of the Godhead. But there is a third interpretation. These people were polytheistic to the core for much of their history, my view. See what you think:

New Book: Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World

This book looks good, very good, and it's on my wish list. Why people cannot see the similarities with the Biblical narrative is beyond me. See especially Chapter 14. "Prophecy as a Form of Divination; Divination as a Form of Prophecy," and Chapter 16. "Prophecy and Omen Divination: Two Sides of the Same Coin." But there are so many things wrong with divination compared to the sciences I don't know where to begin. See the book right here, and on Amazon where the title to the 16th chapter is found.

Not All Atheists are Mythicists With Regard to the Historicity of Jesus

Tim Callahan, author of The Secret Origins of the Bible and book editor for the Skeptic Magazine, John Shook, myself, and recently Daniel Florien all think there was an original historical founder to the Jesus cult. I'm wondering if the major impetus for atheists to think otherwise came from the movie The God Who Wasn't There. It was handed out for free to people who took the Blasphemy Challenge which in turn catapulted this line of thought among atheists. In any case, this is a historical question that people disagree on, and that's it. What I find interesting is that people are so passionate about this one way or another. It's like church all over again where denominations have split over inconsequential issues. You see, we all have this tendency to want conformity, and THAT is something you shouldn't expect in the freethought society because we're, well, freethinkers. It's like trying to herd cats.

Agnosticism is the Most Reasonable Position

I think when you take a serious look at all of the claims being made about religious truths and the problems we address in philosophy about nearly everything, that everyone should be agnostics. It's the most reasonable position if we can just learn to think independently of the emotional and social need to accept what our particular culture has led us to believe. I became an atheist via agnosticism. I wonder how many other atheists were first agnostics? This is the reason I argue for agnosticism. It's the step in the right direction. It's easier to argue for. And it makes the greatest impact on the believer.

A Scale Depicting Extraordinary Claims

I'm toying with something and wondering what my readers think of it. I put together a scale that depicts extraordinary claims by different groups below. See what you think and of my explanation.

The First Look at the Cover of "The Christian Delusion"

It will be available on time at the end of April. I have put a lot of work into it. I hope it helps.

A Dog Risks His Life to Save Another Dog: Evidence of Altruism

Enough then of this talk that in order to care for one another we need God. We find evidence of this in other lower species of animals.

What is it with Catholic Priests? Catholic Sex Abuse in Germany

It happened in America. It happened in Ireland. Now, it seems that another major Catholic sex abuse scandal is about to break open - this time in Germany....this story has punched another hole in the Catholic church's flimsy pretext of being able to speak with moral authority to the rest of us. They are a whited sepulcher, whose ornate facade conceals only moral rot and corruption within, and a cabal of wicked old men more concerned with preserving their own power than with any harm they allowed to be inflicted on innocents. They do not deserve the continued allegiance or support of any thinking person. Link: Daylight Atheism