New Books to be Released Through May of 2011

JP Holding Has Reared his Ugly Head Again

The last time I said anything here about Holding was almost two years ago in a post I'll link to below. He has recently brought up the same old accusations about me and embellished on them as the time goes by, even though I had already answered them as gross mischaracterizations at best, to outright lies.

The two questions for his Christian supporters are as follows: 1) Why does he continue to repeat these old accusations when I have already reasonably answered them? and, 2) Why doesn't he stick to the arguments? See for yourselves. Sheesh. To answer him drags me down into the sewer with him. Sorry about this.

I’m Ready to Go With New Suit and Passport in Hand

I want to thank the people who donated for me to get a new suit and a passport. The suit is a Calvin Klein one from Macy’s. The passport is for when I speak in Toronto, Canada, at CFI's Extraordinary Claims Panel Discussion. This means a great deal to me in the midst of the worst financial crisis I’ve ever experienced this past Fall. We’re climbing our way out of it with your help. Now if I could only get enough to pay for a new computer (see the ChipIn widget). Every little bit helps and will be equally appreciated. If not, I still appreciate the wonderful encouragement I’ve received over the years here at DC to continue Blogging.

Atheist 2 Star Review of The Christian Delusion: "This is not an awful book"

What a resounding accolade! ;-) Maybe we can place it on the front cover for the next printing? See my response in post #18. 33 people thought this review was helpful, eh? What do you think? I can take justified criticism even though it's difficult, but he's faulting the book for what it wasn't supposed to do. You can see this in his last paragraph as well as his 2 star rating. In other news I finally learned how to herd cats:

Quote of the Day, by William Lane Craig

Anyone who fails to believe in God by the end of his lifetime does so only by a stubborn resistance to the work of the Holy Spirit in drawing that person to a knowledge of God. On the biblical view people are not like innocent, lost lambs wandering helplessly without a guide. Rather they are determined rebels whose wills are set against God and who must be subdued by God’s Spirit....The unbeliever is like someone dying of a fatal disease who refuses to believe the medical evidence concerning the efficacy of a proffered cure and who rejects the testimony of his doctor to it and who, as a result, suffers the consequence of his own stubbornness. He has no one to blame but himself. Question 191.

And to think, some skeptics here are blasting poor little Debbie for saying the same kinds of things. I wonder where she gets these platitudes? Bill exhibits a stubborn refusal to actually listen to us as real people with real doubts, choosing to believe the Bible instead. What nonsense! Bill is the one who stubbornly refuses to see the truth written on our faces.

Jonathan Pearce's New Book on Free Will

I have not read it yet to recommend it. Here is Jonathan Pearce's Amazon Profile Page. Here is a link to his book: Free Will?: An investigation into whether we have free will, or whether I was always going to write this book. The following is what he emailed to me about it:

Professor Johnnie Terry is Using "The Christian Delusion" in His Class

Johnnie Terry is a professor of Philosophy and Humanities at Sierra College in Northern California--just outside of Sacramento, CA. He created an Introduction to Atheism course a few years ago that he now teaches to about 60 students every spring semester. This year he's requiring them to read The Christian Delusion. Other required texts are How to be a Good Atheist by Nick Harding, and The Portable Atheist edited by Christopher Hitchens. He'll probably also require students to listen weekly to Dan Barker's and Annie Laurie Gaylor's Freedom From Religion podcast. He tells me he's very excited, as am I.

He's not the only one using my books. Christian professors are doing so. Dr. Dan Lambert from John Brown University is using my book, Why I Became an Atheist, as I wrote about before, and so is Dr. Richard Knopp of Lincoln Christian University, my Alma mater. If you're a Christian professor maybe you should consider doing the same by educating rather than indoctrinating your students. Cheers.

Sex, Sex Toys, Sexy Girls, Naked Girls, Strippers, Porn, XXX, Lesbians, Adult Games, Threesomes and Orgasms

Welcome to DC. Put your dick away for just a minute. You can get back to it later. Since porn is such a multi-billion dollar industry most of the searches for the words in the title above are done by Christian men. You feel a bit guilty for this but you do it anyway. You may even publicly condemn pornography, homosexuality, lust, and even masturbation, but here you are doing what you're doing. You rationalize your behavior away by thinking to yourself God will forgive. In my opinion Christianity is sexually repressive. God supposedly created you with this strong desire and then forbids you to express it. He wants you to be celibate except in a monogamous heterosexual marriage, even though most people are not in that kind of relationship at the moment. For some Christians there is to be no oral sex, no adult toys, and no contraception.

Sex will be the undoing of Christianity.

Here are a few links for you to look at before getting back to business: ;-)

Quote of the Day by R. Joseph Hoffman

On defining a fundamentalist: “You have to have a book that you take deadly seriously, and you have to forget that the book has a history.” Link.

Hat Tip: James McGrath.

Ha! This is Funny But True, Beware of a Little Curiosity

Come on Theists, just admit it, you're a little curious. We know it. You know it. You wouldn't be here otherwise.

Just come out and admit it. It's okay. We're not bad... not really. ;) If you're a Theist and are spending time lurking on /r/atheism or Pharyngula or Debunking Christianity or any of the other Atheist websites out there, you're almost one of us already. If you're a Theist and are spending time actually COMMENTING on Atheist websites, you're just a half step away from being a full fledged baby-eating scourge of humanity. Link

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.