"American Looks Ripe for a Religious Revival"

So reads the headline of an interview with church growth expert Kent Hunter in my local paper. What Kent actually says is that America is "sort of like a field that’s ready for seeds.” This is hardly like a field ripe for harvest as the attention getting heading indicates. Christians say this kind of thing all of the time, I know. They say it with faith in God's providence in hopes he'll do something. But Kent is not to be taken lightly. He is a widely recognized church growth specialist who lives in my area and heads up Church Doctor Ministries. He is sought after around the world for advice and the author of several church growth books. My suggestion is to heed his warning and get involved now before it's too late. Come out of the closet...Donate to skeptical causes...then brace yourselves for the long haul just in case he ends up being right.

What Led You Initially to Deconvert, Some Surprizes

This multiple choice poll is closed and here are the results below. There were a couple of surprises.

"If I Am Wrong...I Want to Know"

Now there's a statement I endorse. What's more likely, that a believer or a skeptic wrote it?

I Had Lunch With My Former Youth Pastor, John Lloyd

Maybe you have never heard of John but he is an incredibly talented amazing man who helped me in my walk with God just after I had become a Christian in 1973. He was my youth pastor at the Adam's Apple, in Fort Wayne, Indiana. It was a hip place for young former hippies like me to find God our own way through Christian rock music and a down to earth kind of teaching from someone who was one of us before his conversion. The Adam's Apple was one of several pentecostal ministries started up all over America that cared enough to reach our generation. Nancy Honeytree (the first lady of contemporary Christian music) led us in singing every Monday evening, and we had the best musical bands come in every Friday during the summer at the very beginning of the Christian rock music era. Artists like Larry Norman, Chuck Girard, Love Song, 2nd Chapter of Acts, Keith Green, and Petra sang there, and it included Mike Warnke too, who has been disgraced since that time as a fraud.

My Goal is to Drive a Wedge Between the Brain of the Believer and The Bible

I just wanted to throw this out there in a post all its own. I aim to show there is nothing divinely inspired inside the pages of the canonized set of texts that were written by some ancient agency detecting barbaric superstitious people. If I succeed then what could the believer still believe? In any case, this is my niche. I'm arguing a negative case against Christianity because I know it best. Along with it I'm offering a good rational tool in the Outsider Test for Faith to examine all religions by the same standard.

I'm Speaking for CFI Canada's "Extraordinary Claims Examined" Panel

This will take place on January 21st at the University of Toronto - MacLeod Auditorium - 1 King's College Circle, Room 2158. Here's the link. Then I'll be in California on February 8th-9th. Link. Hope to see some of you at one place or the other.

Quote of the Day, By Articulett

She wrote:

Either the natural world is all there is-- or an infinity of possible supernatural beings, forces, and realms are possible with no way to tell the real from the imaginary-- and yet every believer in the supernatural imagines they have figured out a way to do so!

A Response to Rev. Phillip Brown’s Objections to the OTF

Okay, Okay, some people think that if I don't respond directly to their specific objections that I can't. Such stupidity... So because Rev. Brown has linked to his objections to the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF) as if they're more important than other ones, here goes:

What if I Personally Witnessed a Miracle?

Jayman asked me,

So if I've witnessed/experienced a miracle do I have to take the OTF?...I'm not interested in arguing that I have experienced a miracle. I am interested in whether you believe a person should take the OTF if they have experienced a miracle. Does such a person get a "free pass" so to speak?...For the sake of my question assume no natural explanation can be found and no materialistic explanation seems plausible even in principle.

I have said that it would take a personal miracle for me to believe. I didn't say what kind of miracle nor did I comment on the other things that would have to accompany that miracle. Let me do so now.

On the So-Called Failure of the Outsider Test for Faith

I will offer a brief response to Thrasymachus who claims that the Outsider Test is a failure.

Revised Poll: What Issues Initially Led You to Deconvert (Multiple Choice)

So sorry for the screw up before. This poll has been revised. What think ye?

Where David Marshall Goes Wrong, Part 4, the Final Part

This is the Final Part of my response to David Marshall's criticisms of the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF). Part 1 can be read here, with a link to Part 2 and so on.

Where David Marshall Goes Wrong, Part 3

This is Part 3 of my response to David Marshall's criticisms of the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF). Part 1 can be read here, with a link to Part 2.

Where David Marshall Goes Wrong, Part 2

This is Part 2 in response to David's criticisms of the Outsider Test for Faith. Part 1 can be found here.

Where David Marshall Goes Wrong, Part 1

In this post I will examine in detail David Marshall's criticisms of the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF). I do think he outlines things very well. I like it when someone tells us how he will proceed and then follows that outline. But it's no substitute for substance.

David Marshall

In my next post I'll examine in detail David Marshall's criticisms of the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF). I have seen him in action a few times on Amazon and here at DC and he’s like Paul Newman in the movie Cool Hand Luke who gets beat down time after time by George Kennedy only to keep getting back up to get beat down again. George just got tired of beating on him and walked away. I suspect David will not be satisfied with my response and won’t admit defeat just like Paul Newman and I’ll just tire of beating on him and walk away too. Here's the clip below:

Quote of the Day, By brdeadite99

Christianity is so stupid that mere words do not posses the power to fully express it. Every single year, historians, ex-Christians, scientists, skeptics, scholars, Jewish scholars & historians drive more and more coffin nails into the coffin lid of Christianity; and Christians are too asinine, vacuous, and brainwashed to admit or even face this fact. If they could just mind their business and keep their shit to themselves, they wouldn't be so noxious and intolerable. As it stands now, we'll have to break the back(and neck) of the Fundamentalist movement in order to ensure our nation's future. Link

*Sigh* On Answering An Objection to the Outsider Test for Faith

From a part of my Introduction to The End of Christianity:

When Christians ask if I have taken the outsider test for my own “belief system,” I simply say “yes I have, that’s why I’m a non-believer.”

My Top 25 Substantive Posts in 2010

I've made a list of what I consider the Top 20 Substantive Posts of Mine in 2009. So now I introduce you to what I consider my top 25 substantive posts in 2010:

William Lane Craig Accused of Heresy, Oh My!

Yep, there's a buzz about him from other Christians over a statement he made about original sin: "...that doctrine is not universally affirmed by Christians and is not essential to the Christian faith."

This will not be the undoing of Craig. He's an Arminian. Link. I just wish Christians could come to an agreement about their inerrant Bible. ;-) Who is a Christian anyway? In a prior generation he would have been burned at the stake.

Quote For a New Year, Hey, This Time It's By Me!

Science focuses on that which is detectable and its method is doubt. It is the skeptical adult approach rather than the gullible childish approach to an issue that if a god existed he would be pleased with. If God is not detectable and if he cannot be apprehended by such an adult attitude then I can't help him.

The 2011 Debunking Christianity Challenge

Three years ago I challenged Christians to take the Debunking Christianity Challenge. Luke over at Common Sense Atheism developed a very nice Ultimate Truth Seeker Challenge. Luke equally selects the best Christian books for skeptics to read, which is something I don't do because it's for Christians to pick them rather than me. After all, Catholics and Protestants will choose different books as will Protestants and Evangelicals, or Calvinists and Arminians, so I'm not in the habit of giving preference to one professing Christian sect over the others especially since professing Christians themselves can't agree. Anyway, this year I'm proposing twelve college level books, one for each month. Make it your New Year's resolution to read the other side.

My New Computer Tower

I want to thank everyone who donated to help me get a new computer. I bought a tower that cost me $425. It’s a Dell Inspiron 560 with a dual core processor and a dvd/cd writer. It has a whopping 320 gig hard drive! I’m getting it to where I need it, but this is a joy. Thanks so much!

And yes, that's my pool table. $10-$50 a game anyone? I need some more money. ;-)

What Nontheists Can Learn from the Success of the Homosexual Rights Movement

Check this out written by Gregory S. Paul. On a similar note Robert Price insightfully argues that the thing that will sooner or later bring the Evangelical Wailing Wall down is sex. Because sex is such a problem, Catholics and Baptists are changing the rules so they don't lose members as Darrel W. Ray argues.

Quote of the Day by articulett

Ugh... there's just so much wrong with the Jesus story. You have to be indoctrinated, skilled in apologetics, and unwilling to ask yourself a lot of questions even to try and get it to make sense. Link.