Dr. Gericke on How He Got Over the Difficulty of Losing His Faith

Previously today I posted his well-written deconversion story here. Now he wishes to explain how he came through that dark period in his life.

Dr. Jaco Gericke's Deconversion Story: "Autobiography of a 'Died-Again Christian'"

This is an appendix to his Ph.D. dissertation written in 2003, which he has granted me permission to share. Dr. Gericke is also writing a chapter for my work in progress. Listen up Christian, does this sound like a person who wanted to reject God? No way in hell! It is the story of us all. We wanted the gospel to be true. We put our whole lives into serving God. It is quite literally life shattering to find out we were wrong. What you'll read below also describes why it's so damned hard to help Christians see their faith for the delusion it is. It's because you want it to be true. It's because it would be life-shattering for you to admit you're wrong.

A New Book I'm Working On: The End of Christianity

To see the website I just made for it click here.

Very Interesting Lists You'll Want to Check Out

Luke over at Common Sense Atheism says he's a list freak. Here's an index of his lists:

* Best Atheism Books of the Decade, 2000-2009
* Top 20 Evil Bible Stories
* Top 10 Atheism Blogs
* 6 Responses to Religious Diversity
* Top 10 Atheist Songs
* 100+ Living Philosophers of Religion and Their Best Work
* 50+ Christian vs. Muslim Debates
* 90+ Free Audiobooks About Religion
* 400+ Atheism vs. Theism Debates

Become Informed: The History of Christmas

In a history of the holidays video, learn about the origins of Christmas. Although many of us only associate the birth of Christ with the holiday, most of us do not realize that many aspects of Christmas come from different winter celebrations. See this link to several "History Channel" videos

There's more out there but this is a start.

On the Unreported Accomplishments of President Obama

Richard Carrier weighs in on them right here.

The Basis for the Uniformity of Regular Laws of Nature

It is said that if metaphysical naturalism is true there is no ultimate meaning, ultimate morality, nor is there a basis for the uniformity of regular laws of nature. It's correct there is no ultimate meaning nor is there any ultimate morality, even if there is meaning and there is morality. Meaning and morality do not depend on anything ultimate. I should still love my wife for consequentialist reasons even if there are no ultimate reasons. I even find the notion of "ultimate" to be a bit meaningless. Based on this and as a non-scientist let me throw out one suggestion about the uniformity of nature to see the reaction. In the same way there is no ultimate uniformity of nature either. There is uniformity which we can rely on for science. But there is no ultimate uniformity, whatever that is, because of the quagmire of quantum mechanics. On a microscopic level it's a bizarre world.

Anyone With Knowledge and Passion Want to Take Over the Debunking Creationism Blog?

If so, here it is. Just let me know. You already have some contributors and followers.

Hector Avalos on the Bible and Astronomy

Link

Richard Carrier On the Use of Ridicule (via email)

By and large the minds of the ridiculous can't be changed. It's their flock we're talking to. But even the ridiculous change under ridicule some respond by getting more ridiculous (and those are the ones who could never be swayed even by the politest methods), but others accumulate shame until they see the error of their ways (I've met many ex-evangelicals who have told me exactly that). Thus, ridicule converts the convertible and marginalizes the untouchable. There is no more effective strategy in a culture war.

I like what he said.

D.M. Bennett: The Truth Seeker, to Be Released Shortly

This new one-hour HD (High Definition) video chronicles the life of D.M. Bennett, the nineteenth century’s most controversial publisher and American free-speech martyr. Link

Rick Reynolds on Religion

This is funny!

Dinesh D'Souza vs Peter Singer Debate

Since I'll be debating D'Souza on February 10th at the University of Illinois I'm studying his debates. Check this out. The other parts can be found there as well.

The Power of the Internet on the Younger Generation

Parents beware! The younger generation is rejecting the faith of their fathers and the rise of the internet is making a great impact on them. Today's music, movies, and video games are also making an impact.

Join the War on Christmas: Court Rules No Religious Christmas Songs in the Schools.

Get over it Christian. Your reign is over. This is a more diverse population. Be happy that your child isn't forced to sing Jewish Hanaka songs. And since you so often want to ignorantly claim that atheism is a religion then be happy your child doesn't have to sing songs written by Dan Barker.

Where Does the Soul Fit?

Check out this article that demonstrates the incoherence of the idea of the soul at QuIRP.

Abstract: The concepts of the "Soul" and "Free Will" are tightly coupled and are misunderstandings of emergent properties of complex biological systems due to fallacious causal oversimplifications and are, in effect, a phenomena analogous to a rainbow. In the case of a soul that is separate from the self it would be judged by God for actions it did not condone. In the case of the soul as the self, the soul is locked into the body every night during REM sleep and is catastrophically impaired by malfunctions of the body it resides in. While religions are divided on whether animals have souls and/or spirits, with or without them, animals have some of the same types of cognitive abilities as humans and they get along well within their biological limitations. The philosophical soulless zombie as the null hypothesis for souls fits with established knowledge better than the "soul" described in unauthenticated bronze age "divinely revealed" texts.

Read more >>

What's So Great About Dinesh D'Souza, by Advocate Atheist

Dinesh D’Souza in his book What’s so Great About Christianity takes great effort to misrepresent Darwinian theory and atheism nearly every chance he gets. In this critique I’m going to reveal D’Souza’s bag of tricks, expose his rhetoric, and show how he does a great job of running in circles, shifting the blame, and avoiding having to offer any real tangible answers to the atheist’s inquiries concerning religion. Link

Too True to Be Funny

Re-posted favorite cartoon...

Skeptics and the Question of Audience: Who Are We Writing To?

So far I have not been able to get the attention of many skeptics, including Richard Dawkins, and PZ Myers. Yes, I have tried, several times. Sure, they are very busy. But I just learned why I probably haven’t, which is what I had suspected. For the record I have purposely not criticized Richard Dawkins or the other New Atheists, either in my book or on this blog. In fact, I recently defended Dawkins and the other New Atheists, including Bill Maher for his movie Religulous, in a talk I did at the Society of Biblical Literature against a few scholars who thought their arguments lacked substance. You can read what I said here. I also defended Dawkins in a long series of email exchanges that took place last year between skeptic James Lazarus and me, which were copied to Jeffrey Lowder, Steve Hays, David Wood and some others. It got heated since I did not back down in my defense of Dawkins.

"The Best Way to Combat Christianity is...From Within"

So says the Sexy Atheist, who thinks I know something about doing this:

An Explanation and Critique of Substance Dualism

Substance dualism is defended by Christian apologist J.P. Moreland. Watch this:

Special Investigation: 20th Century Killers, Stalin, Pol Pot and Hitler.

You've got to watch the video below until the end. Brilliant!

Headline: John Loftus Pleads Guilty to Third Degree Murder and Sentenced to 25 to 50 Years in Prison

Wow! Some theists will go to extreme lengths in order to malign me. They'll even kill in my name. Link. Now I know what God must feel like when believers kill in his name...right? ;-)

The First Endorsement For My Upcoming Debate with Dinesh D'Souza

John W. Loftus, author of Why I Became an Atheist and a previous visitor to this forum will be debating Dinesh D'Souza at the University of Illinois on February 10. The topic will be "Does the Christian God Exist."

DC's First Time on the Biblioblogger List Made it Into the Top Ten!

Link. That's pretty good in a list of mostly Bible believing Blogs.