New Puzzles About the Divine Attributes by Moti Mizrahi

The first puzzle he presents about omniscience purportedly shows that the divine attribute of omniscience is incoherent. The second puzzle about omnibenevolence and omnipotence shows that these two divine attributes are logically incompatible. The third puzzle about perfect rationality and omnipotence shows that these two divine attributes are logically incompatible. See what you think:

What religion has contributed to the world this month - Episode 7

Reach an Audience Who Visits Here About 180,000 Times Per Month!

You can reach this huge audience with your product or service for just $75 a month here at DC. See the advertisement at the right for Reasonist Products? That's all they're paying. The ad doesn't have to be atheist oriented. It could be for an insurance agency, a financial agency, or an artist who wants to promote her work. Christian ads will cost more than that but I'll entertain them, I'm not scared. Contact me at johnwloftus@comcast.net. Serious inquiries only.

Tell Time Magazine to Stop Dismissing Secular Generosity

Ed Brayton just put up a post asking people to email the editors of Time magazine and urge them to do a full story about the growth of secular charities. Foundation Beyond Belief would really like to get the entire atheist blogosphere behind this effort. Time has had a reporter talking to some of the Oklahoma folks on the ground but they are vacillating on whether to actually do the story. We want to put some pressure on them to tell the full story of the incredible growth in secular service organizations. LINK. The email address for the Time editors is in the post. Help spread the word on this to others on your networks and to your readers. It's time that Time acknowledges the charitable work that the secular community does.

F**ked-up Heroes of the Bible: Samson (continued)

Recap: In Part 1, our hero has met a hot lady whom he wants to marry. He loses a riddle bet due some trickery by the aforementioned lady friend, and is forced to kill thirty guys so he can steal their clothes to pay the bet. He’s bummed, so he bunks out at his mom and dad’s, and while he’s gone, his disloyal fiancé marries the best man from the canceled wedding. Time for some good, old-fashioned revenge!

Exhibit 5:

Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.” Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.
Judges 15:3-5 (NLT)

Arson and animal cruelty. That’s two out of three of the psychopath indicators. Definitely not PETA-approved,and we have the deliberate destruction of private property.

Quote of the Day, by a Christian Named Tannert:

I have been trying to disprove the Bible for quite some time now.

He (?) is a first time commenter, the kind we get who thinks he can straighten us out, saying,

All religions, except for Christianity, conflict with scientific fact, and history. If you can show me one plausible conflict contained within the Bible, and explain to me how its writers predicted the future far before it happened in specific detail...Then I will move it to the list of my false gods, but I promise you won't be able too.

I threw out a few examples. Undeterred, he's the "answer man" and mindlessly spit out some answers. If he's truly interested in trying to disprove the Bible *cough* then I suggest he reads just two books, Why I Became an Atheist, and The Outsider Test for Faith: How to Know Which Religion is True. In fact, if any Christian claims to be doing this then I've suggested twelve books to read, one per month. You can start reading them any given month. I very much doubt he'll read any of them. So much then for disingenuously claiming what he did. It's empty rhetoric, an apologist's trick, claiming he's doing something he isn't doing in order to sound more believable. Typical Christian. It reminds me of so many Christians who are now claiming to have been atheists before becoming Christians, when in reality they weren't intellectual atheists but rather practical atheists. There is a big difference. For all I know, they are still practical atheists. ;-)

Refuting the"Fine Tuning" Argument for God (Sean Carroll)

Physicist Sean Carroll lays some of the problems with the popular "fine tuning" arguments for a god. 

You can check out Carroll's post-debate reflections on his blog here: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/02/24/post-debate-reflections/

Surely He Wasn't a "Real Christian"!

Pastor arrested, charged with sex crimes

SUMTER, S.C. —A Sumter pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting three female members of his church. Police said Friday that 58-year-old Larry Durant had been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He also faces four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Police say family members told them Durant coerced the victims into having sex with him starting in 2011. Police say the Word International Ministry pastor told the victims the activity was part of the "healing process" and "private prayer."

It wasn't known if Durant had an attorney. He is also charged with forgery after allegedly forging the name of one of the victim's grandmothers on property documents, which he then filed with Sumter County.

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matt. 19: 26)

F**ked-up Heroes of the Bible: Samson

With as irate as fundamentalist Christians get about sex and violence in movies (well, sex at least- they are pretty okay with violence), it is surprising the kind Bible stories that get passed off as appropriate for the kiddies. Sunday School lessons are populated with all sorts of unsavory characters plucked from the pages of the Good Book, sanitized and shined up to be presented to impressionable children. Christians are so desensitized to the nature of what is really going on in the stories that they fail to see that maybe - just maybe - these Hall of Shame members are not the best role models for kids to look up to.

Today’s example: Samson, who even has been immortalized as an children's action figure.

Samson’s sordid saga is detailed in Judges, chapters 13 through 16. It is like one long and violent soap opera. For the sake of brevity, we’ll just hit the low-lights as I present evidence that this hero of the faith (Hebrews 11:32) was just a scoundrel living the thug life.

Luiz Fernando Zadra on the Matrix Possibility

We know we are not in the Matrix because there's no Morpheus around asking us to take red pills, and traveling with us to a different realm of experience from where he can show us that our past life is an machine created illusion. After taking the red pill, your belief in the Matrix will become justified. Until there, it is not. Pretty simple. I don't know why people get so confused about it.

Quintessential Articulett

I'd say that anything that leads you to believe that you know which immeasurable beings are real and which ones are myth/false/superstition is irrational. It's a poor epistemology-- you can see this when it comes to people who believe in fairies or that they are the reincarnated spirit of Buddha or that demons are possessing you-- Heck, they may believe YOU are the anti-christ... but that doesn't mean that they are using the same process that you use to believe that you are NOT the anti-christ. The reason the Scientologist believes Scientology is not the same reasoning you use to believe that Scientology's teaching are bullshit. You are confusing belief in supernatural/far fetched thingies with the dismissal of these ideas-- all believers in magic like to classify skepticism of their claims as beliefs and pretend (as you do) that this means there's a 50-50 probability that their magical beliefs are the truth. (they confuse 2 options with the idea that both options are equally likely.)

Mathematician Dr. James Lindsay Explains How Math Originated

In the beginning, people like you had a rock. The idea of "one" was invented to describe the number of things you had. Then later, you found another rock, and the idea of "two" was invented to describe the situation for when you had one rock and added another rock to your pile. It was realized that the same applies not just to rocks, and numbers were given abstract meaning of their own. Arbitrary symbols, though not arbitrary like "A+A=B" (really, you embarrass yourself) for these numbers were eventually assigned.

Quote of the Day, by Papalinton ;-)

The rise and rise of Debunking Christianity as a forum for measured discussion continues. And just as a heading-lock gyro in a helicopter keeps it tracking true, no matter the direction the wind is blowing, so too does DC track straight and true. It is the place I start the morning, first thing, with a coffee, orientating my day. Increasingly DC is becoming a point of first referral at many sites across the blogosphere, its status and standing as a platform for reasoned discussion continues to consolidate, forensically clipping the remaining bedraggled and time-worn strands to a by-gone worldview, challenging head-on the recalcitrant nature of supernatural superstition.

Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand

After over 300 comments on how I know E=mc2 I'm transferring the discussion/debate here. I do find it interesting, so in a way I thank Steve for raising it. Now he has brought up a different example. In his own words:

My Podcast Interview With Reasonable Doubts

It's Episode 116 (my part begins around 31:30). Unlike almost all others this 30 minute interview was done in a studio. It's about my two recent books.

How Do I Know E=mc2

Since I demand sufficient objective evidence for what I think is true, here is the question:

I assume, from reading your book the OTF, that you believe that E=mc2. (Perhaps you would say that you do not "believe" that E=mc2; rather, you "know" that E=mc2. Either way; I won't quibble. At least not for now.) The initial question that I have for you is: How do you believe (or, if you insist, know) that E=mc2? Not why, but how? What is the process by which you John Loftus have arrived at the belief (knowledge) that E=mc2?

*Sheesh* Right now I have other things to do than waste it on this drivel. Maybe others can help me out here. [FYI: I did a master's degree research paper on the theory of general relativity.] Here we see another science denier for Jesus.

Use of Classical Greek Etymologies as an Apologetic Defense for New Testament Hellenistic Greek: A Two Edged Sword

I received two comments telling me that I was wrong on the use of the word the church (τη εκκλησια) in Matthew 18: 17. The first was more technical by a Daniel and is quoted in full below.

A Biblical Lie (The Exodus) Exposes Jesus Christ as a Fraud

Sadly for all Christians, their Holy Savior Jesus Christ (as a good Jew) swallowed this baseless Jewish myth hook-line and sinker! What we now find exposed is the fact that this all-knowing Son of God was little more than a wandering ignorant Jewish bigot (if he ever existed).

Victor Reppert Again. I Swear Christians Have Stunted Imaginations

It's as if they cannot even conceive of anything different than what they believe. I showed this with regard to Richard Swinburne in The End of Christianity.[By the way, that is a damned good book even if I say so myself]. Victor is defending the "truth" but also the ridiculousness of the three-tiered world that is required in order to believe Jesus ascended into heaven (i.e. the sky). How does he do it? He rhetorically asks: "And if God is going to show first-century people that he went to heaven, how would you suggest he go about doing it?" My response:

Vic, this is easy. Jesus could have predicted he will disappear into the spiritual realm from whence he came. He could have said he will disappear at high noon the next day from off Mt. Olives. Then the next day when the crowd arrived, he would say goodbye and then *poof* he's gone.

Again, you can't make this shit up. No wonder we reserve the right to ridicule his beliefs along with how he defends them. His brain is made stupid by his faith, I'm sorry to say.

PZ Myers Takes Down Yet Another Attempt to Save Genesis from Refutation

PZ is best when he writes about science, his expertise. He has just written a devastating critique of Daniel Friedmann's attempt to defend concordism, the view that the six days of creation in Genesis represent an unspecified literal chronological order in Genesis. I highly recommend it. All such attempts fail, all of them. If you want to read a book length treatment of other attempts to harmonize the Bible with itself and science get Robert Price and Edwin A. Suominen's excellent book, Evolving out of Eden: Christian Responses to Evolution.

Randal Rauser: "Theology is the Queen of the Sciences"

Randal was interviewed not long ago on the "Apologetics 315" podcast. The 315 refers to 1 Peter 3:15 where we read, "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." Randal was raised to believe, which is typical. He is a generalist, just like me. But he affirms the antiquated view, long ago rejected, that "theology is the queen of the sciences." How is theology a science? What evidence does it deal with? What is the method of faith? This all baffles me to no end. You can't make this shit up! LINK. I do appreciate that Randal is willing to revise his theology by reinventing the origins of Christianity when needed. And I appreciate that he doesn't think atheists are necessarily irrational. But come on Randal, you know better than this, don't you? To Brian Auten of "Apologetics 315" I say, why don't you open up your interviews to atheists like me? Do what Justin Brierley of Unbelievable does. Invite a real dialogue not a monologue. Your site would be better. Unlike Justin, you couldn't even link to my blog.

Christian Philosopher Victor Reppert: "Ridiculousness and truth are not incompatible."

Here is the major defender of the argument from reason to God speaking, mind you. Either he is deliberately trying to be provocative in order to get hits or, well, you decide. He said:.

I can listen to someone mock my beliefs, in fact I can even mock them myself, and not find any reason whatsoever in the mockery for rejecting that belief. I enjoy this kind of mockery. In fact, I hold that there are certain beliefs that are on the one hand completely ridiculous, and on the other hand, completely true. Ridiculousness and truth are not incompatible.

The definition of Ridiculousness: "Deserving or inspiring ridicule; absurd, preposterous, or silly. See Synonyms at foolish." I would never say that of the things I think are probably true, since probabilities are all that matter here. Faith makes you say stupid things Vic. Your Brain is Made Stupid By Faith. I'm serious folks. You can't make this shit up!

An Interview With Joe Nickell, Author of "The Science of Miracles"

Prometheus Books just released an interview with Joe Nickell about his new book, The Science of Miracles: Investigating the Incredible.It's a book I wrote a blurb for and recommend highly. Here is their interview:

Is Atheism a Set of Beliefs?

One of the most annoying and persistent accusations made against atheists is that we have a set of beliefs. Let me try, probably in vain, to disabuse believers of their ignorance on this. They utterly fail to understand what we think. It's as if they close their eyes and stop their ears and shout while we try to explain it. Randal Rauser claims he's trying to understand us. Is he? There is a distinction to be made. Can he make it? Let's see.

Justin Brierley Interviews Randal Rauser and Myself On "Unbelievable"

Unbelievable is a top notch Christian online radio show in the UK. We were scheduled to be interviewed at 7 AM that day but Justin called at 5 AM instead (citing a time zone error). So we scrambled together to do it at 5:30 AM. I was not completely awake, nor did I have enough energy for it, but here ya go. LINK.