God's Wonderful World!

Taks a look below!

Hey, Would Someone Please Do Me A Favor on YouTube?

Given the ubiquitousness of animal suffering and pain inflicted upon each other and by human beings, would someone please put some of these images to Louis Armstrong's What a Wonderful World? Or how about from Disney's The Circle of Life? I think it would have its effect. There is no excuse for this world if there exists a perfectly good creator.

More On How Can We Know Who is Wrong

Here's the discussion continued from How Can We Decide Who is Wrong?

Face it John, chapters 2 & 3 in The Christian Delusion are just as true about atheists as they are about Christians. You see what you want to see and believe what you want to believe. It’s not about science. It’s about your conscious & subconscious choices. When you wrote this:

I really think that given the way you are forced to argue your case above (very lame) that you are blind. The reason we cannot agree is because you are not willing to be consistent nor can you allow yourself to even consider that you are living in a cult group surrounded on every side by many other Moonies...

...you could just as easily be talking about atheists as well as Christians. I say you’re blind, you say I’m blind. I say you’re inconsistent, you say I’m inconsistent. I say your sources are weak, you say my sources are weak. I’m willing to say it’s an intellectual stalemate, but you believe you have intellectual superiority. If the answers were as obvious as either of us thinks they are, this issue would have been settled during the Enlightenment.

My response:

How Can We Decide Who Is Wrong?

Here's an email exchange I recently had with a Christian. It's typical of many others. I said:

Although both of us could be wrong, at least one of us is wrong. How do you propose deciding which one of us is right, if one of us is?

His response:

I agree that at least one of us is wrong. Unless one of sees evidence or has an experience to convince us otherwise, neither of us will change our minds. No matter how much you and others want to paint it otherwise, atheism is not a purely scientific conclusion.

My response:

It's the method of science that shows your faith to be wrong. There is no other way but to assume a natural explanation for everything. That method has no need of a god. Historians cannot approach the past any other way, nor can scientists. If we cannot know something by the method of naturalism as applied in science and history then we cannot know something at all.

The Case For "The Case Against The Case For Christ"

Bob Price's new book The Case Against The Case For Christ: A New Testament Scholar Refutes the Reverend Lee Strobel, incinerates Lee Strobel's book The Case for Christ, along with the evangelical apologists he interviews, including Craig L. Blomberg, Gregory Boyd, Ben Witherington III, D.A. Carson, William Lane Craig, Gary Habermas, J.P. Moreland, and others. However, I doubt many of the people who read Strobel's book will read Price's book, not the least of which because understanding Price might demand a better understanding of the issues than the cream puff book Strobel wrote for the average person in the pew, but also because Price seems so disgusted with evangelical apologists at this point in his career he can't hide it.

My Interview on "Conversations From the Pale Blue Dot"

Luke interviewed me about my book The Christian Delusion. Hope you enjoy it.

Matt McCormick debated Russell DiSilvestro on the Resurrection

See what you think. I liked his opening statement.

"You Can't Trust Science!"

Christians accept the results of science in a vast number of areas. That is, except for just a few that contradict their holy ancient superstitious book. This video below is a nice summary of the results of science. How does religion stack up with science? Let's see, that book says there was a universal flood (so say many Christians). Science shows that this did not happen. What to do, what to do? How do I decide? Let's see, science says virgins don't have babies. Science shows this could not happen. What to do, what to do? How do I decide? That's easy for me. You?

Ken Pulliam Answers Two Important Questions in Genesis

Does Genesis Teach the Big Bang?, and Have Jews Always Believed in Creation ex nihilo? His answer in both cases is a big fat NO!

Do Fish Feel Pain?

Yes, argues biologist Victoria Braithwaite in her new book, Do Fish Feel Pain? These important findings reinforce my chapter on The Darwinian Problem of Evil for The Christian Delusion. What did animals do to deserve their pain? I argue that it doesn't matter one whit whether humans inflict this pain on them or whether God did. There can be no moral justification for it at all, none. I also consider whether these animals, all of them, will be compensated in heaven for their sufferings, as some Christians have affirmed. All you need to do is imagine what a heaven would be like with fish in it, for example, and you can see the silliness of the whole concept. Besides, merely compensating creatures for their sufferings cannot morally justify their sufferings, otherwise we could justify torturing any sentient being by simply compensating them afterward.

Robert M. Price on Myth and Method

Nothing in Hume or Troeltsch or Bultmann, that I can see, bids us reject miracle claims without weighing the evidence. It is just that, given the limitations imposed upon us (until we invent the time machine, that is), we cannot detect “probable miracles” even if they happened! Historical inquiry cannot touch them, even if time travel would show them to have been real!...Faith claims to be able to do an end-run around the data and to obtain certainty about an ostensible miracle via some other way. But what way is that? It is, I think, nothing more than the will to believe.

Hume already allows us to accept a miracle report, provided any naturalistic explanation would sound even more far-fetched than a supernatural one. In appealing to the universal facts of human experience, Hume is being neither deductive nor circular. He is merely appealing to what everyone knows: the frequent reports of the extraordinary we hear from UFO abductees, Loch Ness Monster fans, people who see ghosts or who claim psychic powers, always seem to turn out to be bunk upon examination. From The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, pp. 276-277.

"The Invention of Lying" is a Funny Movie

Here's a great clip in which Ricky Gervais tells lies in order to give people hope for a life after death. It's hilarious.

Hector Avalos: "In Praise of Biblical Illiteracy"

It was a featured article seen on The Bible and Interpretation.

Bible Contradiction Quiz Show

This is some funny stuff and includes a few extra brilliant jabs in the middle. Enjoy.

Christopher Hitchens vs Dinesh D'Souza Debate

Check it out:

Has Noah's Ark Been Found?

Nope, I don't think so. Even despite this new claim, and even though it was reported by Fox News (Oh my!). Why? Because of what I wrote here, and because of what Ed Babinski wrote here. Any other questions?

NBC's Dateline: "What Were You Thinking?"

We human beings are woefully inadequate at rational thinking, as this excellent program shows starring one of my skeptical heroes, Michael Shermer. This report offers overwhelming evidence for my Outsider Test for Faith, since it shows we are gullible social creatures who conform our actions and beliefs to our social grouping. Enjoy.

Christians, Pray For the Death of President Obama. Why Not?

Hell, 24% of Republicans think President Obama is the Anti-Christ, so why wouldn't Christians pray for his death? And true to form over one million of them are doing so, according to this Facebook page. Christian, why haven't you joined in yet? You think it's not biblical? Think again. Ever hear of the imprecatory Psalms in the Bible? Doing so is Biblical, you see. So choose: either follow the Bible and pray for his death, or reject the Bible. Oh, I know, these Christians are just idiots--more than a million of them--right? No, the Bible is barbaric and your God was a poor communicator if he wanted them to think differently. Calling for prayers like this could inspire some idiot to try to kill him. Christians who do this ought to be ashamed of themselves, especially if this happens. But these Christians really want him to die, don't they?

Is it Time for a Strictly Atheist University?

What do you think? See below:

Twisted Faith: A Case Study in Why Skepticism is a Virtue

Here is an interesting NBC Dateline story about the dangers of faith based reasoning and the virtues of skepticism. Faith can be twisted by feeble human minds into believing what they want to believe against their own consciences. It's a tragic but important story. Think you are immune believer? Think twice if you have the faith these believers had.

Why Should Believers Take the OTF? Because Control Beliefs Control.

Richard Dawkins provides a great example of how control beliefs control how believers see the evidence. They are indoctrinated (or brainwashed) to believe from birth and that's it. Watch him below:

The "Look Inside the Book" Feature For TCD is Now Activated

Check it out by following this link: The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails. Use this feature as an online index for the book itself. Just type a word, a name, or a phrase in the "search inside the book" box to find the pages where they are used in the text.

The Smear Campaign Has Begun

Yep, that's what some Christians do with a book they cannot legitimately answer. They will try to negatively smear it or it's authors. And the campaign has begun against The Christian Delusion.

A Brief Review Of "The Loftus Delusion" Book

I’m honored that some college professors use my book Why I Became an Atheist (WIBA) in their college classes, like Dan Lambert at John Brown University, and Richard Knopp at Lincoln Christian University, as I mentioned earlier. I’m also honored that David Reuben Stone has decided to write a book against WIBA, called The Loftus Delusion. While I do not like the title of the book, which is misleading for a few reasons, including the fact that Stone does not deal at all with my most recent book, The Christian Delusion (TCD), Stone's book is a respectfully written one. But anyone who reads Jason Long’s chapter in TCD will see quite plainly what Stone is doing. He’s doing his best to gerrymander around my arguments in typical political redistricting fashion in order to maintain his faith. It’s a wonderful case study in cognitive dissonance reduction. Let me explain by briefly commenting on his book, which he graciously sent me.

More About "The Christian Delusion" Book

In case you want to know more about TCD check this review out.