Religion - The Bad Parent

This is an interesting and provocative video you must watch:

What Happens When I Write So That More People Can Understand Me?

I am able to reach more people, that's for sure. But I also get a lot of believers who think they can answer me who are best described as Unskilled and Unaware of it. But no, that's not true of these believers, right? They can answer me easily! ;-)

Alvin Plantinga Gives Philosophy a Bad Name

Hell yes! So argued PZ Myers. Okay, this is a bit of old news, but hey, I'm getting up there in years.

Jon Stewart: The Gretch Who Saved the War on Christmas

Link. In it we hear of yet another victory, this time in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

Shirley Phelps-Roper Interviewed

Atheist vloggers MannixThePirate & xCrowMagnuSx sat down with Shirley Phelps-Roper (daughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps). As you watch this 14 minute video you'll see quite plainly that a person can be intelligent and at the same time delusional (part 1, I'll not bother you with any more). Watch as she answers every query with a quote from the Bible. The Bible says it, that settles it for her. She doesn't trust the sciences, nor anyone else but what she thinks the Bible says. She is absolutely confident in the Bible as she knows it. This sounds exactly like most Christians. Yet she is regarded by most all other Christians today as delusional. If we set aside what the sciences have forced Christians to accept over the last few centuries I'm confident most medieval Christians would agree with her about most things. And I don't see much difference between her and other Christians who quote mine the Bible for answers without thinking, reasoning and learning from the sciences. At that point the only difference is how Christians interpret it. The question is why Christians think she is delusional when they are not.

Dr. Matt McCormick, "Is Naturalism a Scientific Thesis?"

Quoting from an article by Penelope Maddy:

[I]s naturalism itself a scientific thesis? I think the right answer to this question is that naturalism is not a thesis at all, but an approach. The naturalistic philosopher is the Neurathian sailor, working within science to understand, clarify, and improve science... Link

*Sigh* Such Ignorance and a Waste of Money

I'm serious!

The Top Ten Occupations That Lead People to Become Atheists

[Written by John W. Loftus] Keep in mind there are others I could mention and trying to rank them's a bitch:

Why Do I Bother? It's Who I Am.

Apparently I'm a lightening rod. I get slammed almost daily by people on all sides. So why do I bother? It's who I am.

“10 Reasons I’m Extremely Hesitant to Debate Christians”

So says The Wise Sloth. See what you think:

Atheism is Winning Despite the Fact That it Shouldn’t Be

I previously wrote on 10 Reasons Why Atheism Can't Win where I highlighted what seems to be the enormous challenges facing atheism in America. I’m not oblivious to the fact that Europe is mostly a secular continent having faced these challenges and won. Nor am I oblivious to the fact that more young Americans are becoming non-believers than ever before. You can see stories about this phenomenon in The Economist, and in other places with titles like Young Americans Leaving Churches in Droves, and Young Christians Desert Churches.

Ten Reasons Why Atheism Can’t Win

Greta Christina’s post on How Atheists Can't Win, tells us why we can’t seem to win in our debates with believers. I’m going to give ten reasons why atheists can’t win at all because we are against the overwhelming odds—so much so that a post title like this is deserved. The odds are so against us that it should be shocking when believers change their minds by leaving their culturally inherited Christian faith. I think religion is here to stay and that’s why atheism can’t win.

Irreducible Complexity Cut Down to Size

Writer's Block and Open Mike Night

I've been focused on another book project so I've got nothing for my blog. Let me just link to something funny that James McGrath found about writer's block in a peer-reviewed journal...and then open it up for anything you want to highlight or argue about. Enjoy.

Extraordinary Claims Hogwash, Remix

Our conceptions of what makes for an extraordinary event have changed in each subsequent century/generation with the advancement of science. It has repeatedly forced believers to change their views on the matter. In the ancient world they knew axe heads don't float, that women were not turned into pillars or salt, or that donkey's can't talk. But to the pre-scientific ancients most every event was in some sense an extraordinary one, from the birth of a child, to the rising of the sun, the rainfall, to a bountiful crop. Extraordinary events occurred for them almost daily. They couldn't understand how these events could take place within nature's laws. Since they could not explain them they concluded some deity did them. Then one by one these events were explained naturally by science and consequently one by one they were taken out of the realm of the extraordinary and placed into the category of the ordinary course of events.

Scientists Find the Fountain of Youth

Do you want to know why I trust science rather than religion? Because science delivers the goods. In an amazing feat scientists have been able to reverse the aging process in mice. "These mice were equivalent to 80-year-old humans and were about to pass away," said Ronald DePinho...After the experiment, "they were the physiological equivalent of young adults." Scientists say we may be able to expect this with human beings in 15-20 years! No wonder Christians accuse us of worshiping science (which we don't)--because it produces amazing results. I must live longer. I must live another 20 years. I must.

Had this science been around a century ago my famous great grandfather could have lived longer. He died at the age of 53 from throat cancer. When I say he was famous I mean he's the stuff of a Hollywood movie. He was a lifelong friend of Charles Cominskey and also managed the Chicago Cubs (then the Orphans) under owner Albert Spalding (with part ownership). Had he lived longer he could've seen baseball enter the "live ball era" with the likes of Babe Ruth, and he could be as instrumental in that new phase of professional baseball as he was in the tumultuous phase he lived through. At least he was able to see the Cubs win back to back World Series a century ago!

Why I Don’t Believe the Bible is God’s Word.

According to Calvinists I don’t believe because God has determined from the beginning of time that I should not believe. It’s God’s secret will for me. I cannot believe unless God wants me to believe. It doesn’t bring him as much glory if I believe, so this is what he wants. He does not want me to believe the Bible is his word. For the Calvinist this is the end of the discussion. For me, it presents an additional reason why I don’t believe, for not only do I not see the evidence to believe, I also reject the supposition that God would both call on me to believe and at the same time secretly desire that I should not believe. What does God really desire here?...that I don’t believe…that’s the bottom line. My unbelief is exactly what God desires. It brings him the most glory. Calvinists should praise God that I don't believe. But what kind of God is this? See here.

Debunking Christianity Ranked in 5th Place on Both Sides of the Divide

This site has a unique status on both sides of this debate, for it's ranked in 5th place on the Society of Biblical Literature's Bibliobloggers list and among atheist blogs. While it's hard to continually have the ears of both sides, I'll take that. It's what I want.

Dr. James Sennett's Review of My Book, "Why I Became an Atheist"

In the recent issue of the Stone-Campbell Journal Sennett says, among other things:

He presents a compendium of well-reasoned arguments (wrapped together nicely in a steadily developed “cumulative case”) against the central beliefs of Christianity...Loftus’s arguments are not the easily-refuted caricatures so often offered in Bible college textbooks and Sunday school materials. They are the genuine article – clear, well-articulated statements of plausible arguments by one who finds them overwhelmingly convincing. I dare say very few preachers, teachers, and Bible students have its likes on their shelves. And it should be there.

A Discussion I Had With Dr. Victor Reppert

Is he just dense, or what? See what you think.

A Discussion I'm Having with Dr. Thomas Talbott (and others)

See what you think. It begins toward the end of a long discussion of my OTF started by Victor Reppert. Click here.

Debate: Does the Universe Have a Purpose?

Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, and Matt Ridley recently debated William Lane Craig, Douglas Geivett, and Rabbi David Wolpe on the topic: Does the Universe Have a Purpose? in Mexico.

Triablogue Caught in a Web of Deception

How to Fight Cyber-Bullies and Win

Let the War on Christmas Begin!

I you have my book, The Christian Delusion, in chapter one Dr. David Eller shows why language and culture matter to Christianity. In a Christian culture with Christian language people will be inclined to accept Christianity as true. But as our culture changes so will our language, and that is a good thing even if like a chameleon Christianity will learn to adapt. In fact I'm in favor of being proactive about this. There are just too many secularists, too many Jews, too many spiritualists, too many people of different faiths in our country that the language of this holiday needs to be changed. And one place we can insist that it be changed is how retailers market their products. Call it "The Holidays," or just "December 25th," but let's have done with the word "Christmas," especially when we describe it.

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

Believers wonder who an atheist has to thank at this time. I thank my lucky stars that I was born and enjoy the good life that I do. So many others don't, based on factors like when and where they were born.