The Plight of Women Under Religion and Their Courage

Just watch what man made religion does to women and their courage in the face of this adversity! My hat's off to them. Such courage! I wish we were all that courageous. Just watch this CBS report, and then this closing segment.

Evangelicals Offer Self-Congratulatory Bluster

On a pretty impressive site that aims at having a balanced view of religions called Patheos, there is a page for Evangelicalism that offers little more than self-congratulatory bluster for its philosophical and apologetical achievements in the last few decades.

Every Feminist Should be an Atheist (and Every Atheist a Feminist)

Daylight Atheism makes this case for me right here. A major reason why I debunk Christianity is because I'm a feminist.

The Planned Islamic Center Near Ground Zero and a History Lesson

Politicians, pundits and conservative Christians are aghast that Muslims would want to build an Islamic Center near where nine Muslims in the name of Allah flew planes into buildings on 9/11. No one seems to question their legal right to build this center. They have that right. What is questioned is whether it should be built. The argument is that building this center would be offensive to the people who lost loved ones on that day and should not be built.

The Bible Says Women Are Foolish and Flighty

Such tomfoolery should be ignored. Why on earth would enlightened people in our age take seriously the Bible if it is wrong about women? It's wrong about almost everything important.

There's One Life and It's This Life. And It’s Beautiful.

Video and lyrics below:

My Love Affair is Over

I found this beautifully written story on exchristian.net:

"Biblical Christianity Is Bankrupt"

That's right, so argues Michael Dowd, a liberal author of the book Thank God for Evolution. I agree with his criticisms most emphatically. Check him out. When Christians are done tearing into each other all I have to say is that I agree with them all. And I agree with the non-Christian religions too. What's left after these religions tear into one another? Atheism. Get the point.

Christian, Do You Really Believe in Divine Protection?

Really, do you? Then why is it that God's divine protection is indistinguishable from chance? And why do you act as if there is none?

How To Be a Biblical Scholar

Well, it requires years of studying and learning several languages, that's for sure, but you can begin with something very simple and fairly easy to do. All you need to do at minimum is to recognize something very basic but very very important about the canonized Biblical texts, and then proceed to read some ancient contextual literature you probably have not read before.

For Discussion: What is a “New Atheist”?

At the annual meeting of the SBL Hector Avalos argued the distinguishing characteristic of the New Atheist was a secular apocalyptic, that is, a focus on the dangers of religion in an age of weapons of mass destruction. Tom Flynn, editor of Free Inquiry and The New Encyclopedia of Unbelief recently argued there is nothing new with the New Atheism. Then (believe this or not) some people think my Outsider Test for Faith (OTF) is "Not quite new, but not old either…Just atheist." But I'm here to tell everyone that what may really distinguish a so-called New Atheist from an Old Atheist is the moral perspective found in Sam Harris's book The Moral Landscape, which Richard Carrier shares in the last chapter for the forthcoming anthology, The End of Christianity. In any case, what do you think?

Thom Stark on Paul Copan's Apologetics

So that Christians are better prepared to defend the Bible, I would like to offer a lesson on biblical apologetics. Over the summer, I have been reading biblical apologists incessantly, feeding off their every word. Along the way, I’ve learned a trick or two on how to defend the Bible. Today’s lesson is brought to you courtesy of Paul Copan, professor of philosophy and ethics at Palm Beach Atlantic University and author of When God Goes To Starbucks: A Guide To Everyday Apologetics.

Copan shows us how to defeat accusations that Yahweh is a moral monster with a few simple moves. The Copan motto is: selectivity spells success. All you have to do to defend the Bible and defeat your opponents is to use the evidence selectively. Selective readings of the evidence are the quickest and simplest way to defend the truth of God’s Word and beat down any of God’s hostile accusers. Enjoy reading more.

Thom Stark: "I think every Christian should be paying attention to Loftus..."

That's pretty cool for him to say that, I think. He goes on to say: "...even, if not especially, when we don’t like the way he talks and what he has to say." You see, a problem originated when I highly recommended Stark's forthcoming book, The Human Faces of God. I had written:

The only reason evangelicals still exist is because most of them simply do not read. Those who do read don't read works like his. The few who do read works like his don't do so to learn anything. They already have their blinders on from a few years of indoctrination in an evangelical college of their choice. In my opinion when it comes to understanding biblical scholarship the phrase "educated evangelical" is an oxymoron.

Is this rhetoric? Nope. I meant it. It's now the quote of the day!

The Jesus in the Gospels Never Existed!

[Written by John W. Loftus] Yep, that's right. It comes from something that mythicist Steven Carr recently wrote:

There's a New Kid On the Block, Thom Stark, So Watch Out Now

Look at the advanced praise for Thom Stark's book, The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (forthcoming with Wipf & Stock Publishers). This is some very good stuff, reminiscient of James Barr's book Beyond Fundamentalism. The only reason evangelicals still exist is because most of them simply do not read. Those who do read don't read works like his. The few who do read works like his don't do so to learn anything. They already have their blinders on from a few years of indoctrination in an evangelical college of their choice. In my opinion when it comes to understanding biblical scholarship the phrase "educated evangelical" is an oxymoron.

Atheism is at the Heart of Science

Hendy, who comments at DC, is struggling with what to believe. Anyone care to help him out? He's welcoming your advice. For me agnosticism is the default position and that's where he seems to be right now. I could wish we would all be as intellectually honest with the evidence. But once we admit no supernatural beings exist and that no supernatural explanations are reasonable, such an agnostic (non-knower) is actually an atheist (non-theist), and that's all anyone needs to be, for at that point he trusts the sciences rather than faith to tell him what to think. David Eller makes the case that atheism is at the heart of science. Good luck Hendy.

Why Are There Natural Explanations For Everything?

Perhaps you Christians can suggest reasons why a God like yours created the universe and man in such a way that there are natural explanations for why we exist, how we think, who we are, and why we behave as we do. As far as I know there are natural explanations for everything you claim a supernatural deity did. You don't think these explanations are good ones, okay, but they exist and they persuade many if not most scientists working in those fields.

Why then is it that your God created this world as he did and revealed himself as he has done that are indistinguishable from him not creating the universe or revealing himself at all? This is what I want to know. In fact, why does reasonable nonbelief exist at all?

Extreme Tourists Encounter Extreme Superstition

Bart Willruth, a former team member at DC (look him up), sent me an essay to publish below. Looks like he's read my book. Enjoy

Quote of the Day by Chuck O'Connor

This goes into the humor department, lol.

With Thinking Skills Like These No Wonder You Believe

In a recent post I had written this sentence: "Joe, my goal is to change the minds of one person at a time, alone as they read my book." Then a Christian named Neal responded: "Man, your opinion of yourself is quite deluded. The idea that after Hume, Nietzsche, Comte, Marx, Engels, Popper, Russell, Sartre, Schopenhauer, Ayer, Chomski, and the list could be multiplied on and on now suddenly a second-rate atheologian like John Loftus has the arguments that will demolish Christianity once and for all is more than just hubris, it is outright self-deluded narcissism. Your estimation of your own abilities is quite exaggerated."

Does anyone know what a non-sequitur is? Neal's response is one.

Peter Phua, Writing for CFI About My Magnum Opus

You've got to admit that had someone written such a glowing review of your book you'd be popping your buttons too--to hell with humility, that's a Christian virtue ;-). See below:

Truth? What do You Think?

A skeptical Blogger insists he's on to something important so I decided to link to what he wrote. It's long. I have my doubts. It seems he wants to develop a rational step by step approach to reasoning with a believer. In my experience this has not worked. Believers switch topics once we corner them. In some ways that's legitimate to do because they have Bayesian background beliefs that are not presently on the table but form the background for why they think the present one on the table is more probable than not. In my experience it takes a slam dunk cumulative case dealing with all of the background beliefs that one can write about in a single readable book that refers to other tomes defending each claim.

Quote of the Day by Robert M. Price

"What evangelical apologists are still trying to show...is that their version of the resurrection was the most compatible with accepting all the details of the gospel Easter narratives as true and non-negotiable...[D]efenders of the resurrection assume that their opponents agree with them that all the details are true, that only the punch line is in question. What they somehow do not see is that to argue thus is like arguing that the Emerald City of Oz must actually exist since, otherwise, where would the Yellow Brick Road lead?....We simply have no reason to assume that anything an ancient narrative tells us is true." The Case Against the Case for Christ, (pp. 209-210).

Quote of the Day by Sam Harris

Consider: every devout Muslim has the same reasons for being a Muslim that you have for being a Christian. And yet you do not find their reasons compelling....Why don't you lose any sleep over whether to convert to Islam? Can you prove that Allah is not the one, true God? Can you prove that the archangel Gabriel did not visit Muhammad in his cave? Of course not. But you need not prove any of these things to reject the beliefs of Muslims as absurd. The burden is upon them to prove that their beliefs about God and Muhammad are valid. They have not done this. They cannot do this....The truth is, you know exactly what it is like to be an atheist with respect to the beliefs of Muslims. Isn't it obvious Muslims are fooling themselves? Isn't it obvious that anyone who thinks that the Koran is the perfect word of the creator of the universe has not read the book critically?...Understand that the way you view Islam is precisely the way devout Muslims view Christianity. And it is the way I view all religions." Letter to a Christian Nation (pp. 6-7).

Quote of the Day by Alvin Plantinga

Yep, this one comes from fundamentalist Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga, who wrote:

"To show that there are natural processes that produce religious belief does nothing, so far, to discredit it; perhaps God designed us in such a way that it is by virtue of those processes that we come to have knowledge of him. Suppose it could be demonstrated that a certain kind of complex neural stimulation could produce theistic belief. This would have no tendency to discredit religious belief....Clearly, it is possible both that there is an explanation in terms of natural processes of religious belief, and that these beliefs have a perfectly respectable epistemic status." Warranted Christian Belief (p. 145).

Why is this the quote of the day?