God Cannot Exist if Yahweh Didn't.

Yahweh did not exist. He is much too tribal of a god, created the world in conflict with the sea God Rahab, married to Asherah, accepted child sacrifice, commanded genocide, forbid worship of all other gods (didn't deny their existence), and chose Israel like the others gods did to other nations.

Bayesian Background Priors

[Written by John W. Loftus] A lot is made by Christian philosophers about their background "priors" when assessing the truth of Christian theism. Their claim is that with their particular "priors" they are warranted in concluding from those "priors" the evidence leads them to their faith. My claim is that they have the cart before the horse, big time, bad time.

Thom Stark's Book, "The Human Faces of God" is Available

Thom Stark's book is The Human Faces of God: What Scripture Reveals When It Gets God Wrong (and Why Inerrancy Tries to Hide It). To read some glowing blurbs see below. I heartily recommend it as well, having seen a digital pre-pub copy. A must read book!

Quote of the Day, by Robert and Ken Pulliam

Robert: "I think that without Internet access, I would still be a believer today. I might have wondered why the Bible gives permission to beat slaves, and I might have asked my preacher about it, but I don't think I would have searched the local libraries to find atheist authors and see what they had to say!...but entering 'Yahweh genocide' in a search engine (with the intent of finding a Christian response) can easily land us upon a site like this." Ken: "The printing press was instrumental in bringing about the Reformation in the 16th century, and I think the internet will have an even greater impact." Link

Ed Babinski Responds to "The Infidel Delusion"

Check it out!

The Irrational Christian: The John Loftus Trinity Argument

Some things are hard to explain in a video, but Rhetorical Bullshit gives it a try:

My Thoughts on Sam Harris's New Book, "The Moral Landscape"

There truly is something new about the New Atheism now. See what I wrote about this new book on Amazon.com. You'll have to scroll down to it.

Quote of the Day, by Biblical Scholar Michael Coogan

The point I’m trying to make is...that everyone, whether they are aware of it or not, uses the Bible selectively. Link.

This was said in an interview about his new book God and Sex: What the Bible Really Says.

High Stakes Intelligent Designing

This is both an entertaining and informative video:

Bill O'Reilly vs. Bill Maher On Religion - 09/30/10

See what you think below:

Dan Barker's Email

Ever get an email also addressed to several others and the discussion goes on an on between the people involved? Dan and I were tagged in one of them recently. I had written a response earlier that basically said this. After a Christian responded Dan wrote:

Praise God for the Candiru Parasite! Isn't God Good?

When did God create the Candiru parasite? And why didn't he tell us how to avoid it? Seems to me a good God who cared for us would at least tell us, don't you?

The Outsider Test Resonates With Many People

If it's so blatantly misguided I wonder why it resonates with so many people?

A Proposed Scientific Test For the Truth of Christianity

Ask some non-believing outsiders what they think of the so-called evidence for Christianity. Ask, oh, let's see where should I start, Muslims, Hindu's, Buddhists, Christian Scientists, witch doctors...

Calculate the conversion rates and get back to me. But there's more to it:

Defending the Christian Faith Makes Brilliant People Look Stupid...

Yep, just click and read through this. As you can see they don't like me. I entered the fray a bit later. Be sure to read my links. "Tim" is professor Timothy McGrew.

God and Sex, by Michael Coogan

I saw this book at the bookstore yesterday by biblical scholar Michael Coogan. It looks really good. I just ordered it.

Harry McCall on God, Yahweh and Elohim

Harry wrote:

The word θεὸς “Theos” (God) in the major Liddell & Scott, et. al., Classical Greek Lexicon published by Oxford University Press: "God is defined by the deities of ancient Roman and Greece. As such, the Greek Classical textual tradition links “God” directly with the Classical Gods and not with the Christian pagan god Yahweh. When Rome left the Gods that had made them great and became Christian, the mighty Roman empire began its decline until it was sacked. It was Christianity and its god that ushered in the Dark Ages at the end of this great Classical period."

The Outsider Test Disallows Faith

So many people are writing about the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF) I can't keep up anymore. I've made my arguments. Let them talk among themselves about it. The test is straightforward, simple and elegant. It's all about not having any double standards when critically evaluating religious faiths. In the end, the OTF disallows faith when examining the reasons to accept or re-evaluate a religion. For having faith in one's own culturally inherited religion unfairly exempts that religion from an objective evaluation.

What this means is that when examining Christianity a person who is already a Christian cannot punt to faith when encountering problems, since doing this is disallowed by the OTF. In fact, to the degree a person must repeatedly do this is the degree his or her religious sect is false. One cannot have his thumb of faith on the weighing scales. One is left with reason and evidence. No more using the omniscience escape clause either. Christians must seek to justify what they consider the facts apart from faith.

My contention is that Christians cannot do this. My contention is that this is NOT any fault with the OTF itself since it is a reasonable, objective and fair test. The fact is that Christianity MUST pass the OTF. Otherwise, people who could not be convinced to believe because they were raised as outsiders will be thrown into hell. If Christianity does not pass the OTF God is to be blamed when outsiders cannot be convinced to believe. So there can be no legitimate objection to the OTF. Q.E.D.

The Implications of the Book Mistakes Were Made (But Not By Me)

From the description of the book we read:

Backed by years of research and delivered in lively, energetic prose, Mistakes Were Made but Not by Me offers a fascinating explanation of self-deception—how it works, the harm it can cause, and how we can overcome it.

I read it and loved it. Fascinating stuff here about cognitive dissonance and how we deceive ourselves to resolve it. The implications of this book are that we should all be skeptics and trust the sciences. Let me briefly explain.

Yes, I Am Pretty Certain I'm Right

I am as certain that Christianity is false as Christians are that people are wasting time and money on cold fusion. [I know someone is trying to make headway in that field so don't get me wrong]. I am as certain that Christianity is false as I am that Scientology or Mormonism is false. If I'm risking hell you would think I must be sure of it, right?

We are all justifiably certain that some ideas and theories are wrong. It's easy to do. We merely conclude the case has not been made.

But these are not beliefs of mine. I am not affirming anything. I'm denying something. I deny the cases have been made. Some cases I have never even considered before, but tell me of them and I'll deny them without further thought. We all do this. So I am not doing anything out of the ordinary when I do so.

It's International Blasphemy Rights Day 2010

Yep, that's right.

Bring on your blasphemies right here. I'll start with a gay Jesus, or is it rather a Jesus for gays? Warning: explicit cartoon image below.

Quote of the Day, by Bob

What evidence would I accept for the claim that god exists? That's easy. All he would have to do is show up, once, -or- he could supernaturally change the way my brain works so that I no longer need evidence and am willing to accept as fact, wild claims that are based on ancient religious documents.

What Would Christians Say if Their Faith Passed the Outsider Test (OTF)?

That Christians object to taking the Outsider Test for Faith only confirms it doesn't look good for their faith. For if Christianity passed the OTF with flying colors Christians would be arguing on behalf of it and pressing that case at every step along the way. You KNOW this is what they'd do. You know it. So by objecting to it they tacitly admit their faith doesn't pass the test. But it's worse that this, for their faith MUST pass the OTF. So now they're caught in a huge dilemma--a catch-22--either embrace the test even though doing so will cause them to abandon their faith (by their own admission), or object to the OTF even though their faith MUST pass that test.

Even Arguing Against the Outsider Test for Faith Looks Bad

We abhor someone who is supposed to decide between two parties who also has a conflict of interest. That person could be a trustee of an estate, a judge, or a principal. We want a fair and impartial judgment. We want a fair ruling. So arguing against the Outsider Test for Faith is like arguing against a fair and impartial ruling. It is to argue against what is intuitively obvious to everyone else and consequently makes believers look very bad, because we abhor what they try to argue against. That is, even arguing against the OTF tells an outsider there is something badly wrong with the Christian faith. Good luck with that *cough*

Pew Survey: Atheists Know the Most About Religion!

This comes as no surprise to me at all. We know the most about it because the more we learned the less we could believe.

Respondents to the survey were asked 32 questions with a range of difficulty, including whether they could name the Islamic holy book and the first book of the Bible, or say what century the Mormon religion was founded. Atheists and agnostics scored highest, with an average of 21 correct answers. Link