Professor James E. Alcock on "The Belief Engine"

I was on CFI's Extraordinary Claims panel this Friday night with Dr. Alcock. He gave a wonderful talk which will be available online sometime in the near future. Here is an essay he wrote that goes right along with what he said, called The Belief Engine. It's a must read.

The true critical thinker accepts what few people ever accept — that one cannot routinely trust perceptions and memories. Figments of our imagination and reflections of our emotional needs can often interfere with or supplant the perception of truth and reality. Experience is often a poor guide to reality. Skepticism helps us to question our experience and to avoid being too readily led to believe what is not so.

CFI Extraordinary Claims Panel: Christ

Here are the notes from my talk for the CFI Panel in Ontario, Canada. Enjoy.

Quote of the Day: Can God Not Defeat Iron Chariots?

"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." - Judges 1:19

There is a skeptical site called Wiki Iron Chariots based on this text that I recommend.

Dispatches: Return to Africa's Witch Children

My heart breaks when I consider the harm Christianity does to children accused of witchcraft in Africa. This is how religion evolves as it comes into contact with a different culture. Since Christianity is growing exponentially in the Southern Hemisphere and in Asia this just might be the Christianity of the future. Watch this video. It makes my blood boil. I hope this barbaric idiocy can be eradicated in the future.

I'm Going to Be in Your Backyard In California for Two Speaking Engagements

Hey, just a heads up if you live in California close to where I'll be. I'm be speaking in Villa Park, CA, for the Backyard Skeptics Meetup on the 8th February, and then in Riverside, CA, on the 9th for the Inland Empire Atheists, Agnostics & Skeptics Meetup Group. As always I'm excited and would like to meet up with people who comment here at DC.

My Top Ten Grievances Against the Bible

By Lady Atheist.

"John Loftus...Will Take on Christ"

That's what the billing for the Ontario, Canada, CFI event this Friday says. Do ya think Christ has a chance? He'll probably be a "no show" as usual. ;-)

Professor Matt McCormick's Article on "Atheism"

For the most part, atheists have presumed that the most reasonable conclusions are the ones that have the best evidential support. And they have argued that the evidence in favor of God’s existence is too weak, or the arguments in favor of concluding there is no God are more compelling. Link.

When Believers Say Their Prayers Get Answered

I'm looking for good one-liners to several statements believers might make about various topics to provoke discussion. I've started a "tag" for it and will try to compile some quick responses to believers as I think of them. So when believers say their prayers get answered ask them what kind of requests they make. For more as a follow up see this link.

Derren Brown on the Power of Suggestion

Check this out! Derren is a genius! Think you can be completely rational and uninfluenced by your cultural surroundings? Think again. And then think religion. The cultural influences for Christianity are everywhere in America. This helps to explain why Christians are not usually reasoned out of their faith because they were never reasoned into it in the first place. Really!

The Debunking Christianity Challenge, Part 2

I've proposed reading one skeptical book a month in 2011 as the Debunking Christianity Challenge. Now I'm going to propose a Part 2. Both of these challenges are designed to help Christians test their faith as outsiders. Here's another way for Christians to take the Outsider Test for Faith. Do this...

"Inside the Minds of Animals" by Jeffrey Kluger for Time Magazine

Read the Time Magazine article "Inside the Minds of Animals". Then see Kluger's interview with Charlie Rose. Animal research is confirming many things about animals that make my Darwinian Problem of Evil argument in The Christian Delusion more and more forceful. See also my online essay The Bible and the Treatment of Animals.

Hat Tip: Luke at Common Sense Atheism.

Science Friction: Miracles - BBC

See below:

Guest Post by Douglas Groothuis on the Problem of Evil

I have a number of Christian scholars I regard as friends that I allow posting here at DC for comment (hit the tag "Christian Scholars" to see a few of them). Doug is writing his magnum opus titled, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Christian Faith, which should be out by August of this year. He emailed me and asked that I publish a short article of his on the problem of evil which appeared in The Christian Research Journal, asking for comment. He'll have a chapter on this topic in his book too.

After reading it I responded:

Proving That Prayer is Superstition

See below:

The Mind/Brain Problem

Okay, Okay, I've been participating in a guilty pleasure by visiting Victor Reppert's Blog lately. Vic argued

I am suggesting on principled grounds that a careful reflection on the nature of mind and matter will invariably reveal that there is a logical gap between them that in principle cannot be bridged without fudging categories.

My responses so far:

Quote of the Day, by Desertbarry

Anything can be explained and therein lies a problem of huge dimension. There is nothing so implausible, improbable, morally repugnant, intellectually confounding or absurdly contraditory but that it can be explained. It is not the fool or dunce who does this best but the clever, the imaginative, the articulate, the intellecually creative, the ingenious: think Platinga, Hick, Gutting or indeed anyone's favorite theistic apologist. So what option have we? Perhaps a greater appreciation for demonstration as opposed to explanation might give us a start in the right direction.

Chris Hallquist on Alvin Plantinga and the Problem of Evil

Link. Here's the money quote:

...the fact that it is logically possible that something is false does not mean a compelling case for it has not been made, or that the contrary view is remotely plausible. And it’s especially difficult to see how Plantinga did anything to touch versions of the problem of evil based on specific evils like the Holocaust. For reasons I’ve explained...when the problem of evil is put that way, I think it’s a very powerful argument, even though I’m “familiar with Plantinga’s free will defense” and can’t see that I’ve been “misled.”

Quote of the Day, "Doubt is the Adult Attitude"

Doubt is the adult attitude. And only people who refuse to doubt will ask that I doubt my doubts. Doubt is a filter that helps me sift out what to believe from what not to believe. I cannot do away with that filter and remain an adult person who thinks critically.

What Positive Evidence is There for God's Existence?

In every era of history there were gaps in our understanding. We knew how women got pregnant through sex but we didn't know the internal bodily process, so guess what? God did it. We knew rain fell from the sky but we didn't know the process so guess what? God did it.

But look what's going on here, okay? Science closes the gaps. When it does it creates deeper problems and with them come the recognition of new gaps. The whole discussion about wormholes and cosmic singularities has been brought to us by the same science that closed a thousand previous gaps. Believers have been wrong to find God in the gaps of the past just as they are wrong to find him in today's gaps. To argue like they do is an informal fallacy called the Argument From Ignorance based in negative evidence, that is, we cannot explain something so therefore our particular god did it. This is not considered positive evidence for a god just as the negative evidence showing that an object is not a door tells us nothing positively about what that object is. The ONLY science that supports a god faith is therefore based in a logical fallacy. Christian, if you think otherwise then provide me some positive evidence that your God exists or acknowledge that you got nothing.

All you got is the centuries old claim that science can't explain this or that, and when it does you move the goal posts.

Why Should Anyone Believe?

I maintain there is no way to conclude Jesus bodily arose from the grave even if he did. I can even grant you for the sake of your argument the existence of Yahweh and that he does miracles, but this changes very little. For the evidence shows us that an overwhelming large percentage of the Jews in Jesus' day did not believe even though they knew their Scriptures and even though they were there. So why should I believe? Why should anyone?

The 25 Most Influential Living Atheists

Hey, did they miss anyone? Link. There are so many others to choose from but I doubt anyone can say the people on the list don't deserve to be there.

Dr. Hector Avalos Interviewed by Robert Price for CFI's Point of Inquiry

Enjoy

Christian, if You Are Deluded Then What Would You Expect?

If you are deluded then the evidence to the contrary, even if it is overwhelming, will not convince you otherwise. Just think of the Mormons. Perhaps you can explain to me why Mormons still believe even though it's been shown through DNA evidence that Native Americans are not descendants of Semitic peoples: Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church. Come on now. Think about this. Like the Mormons you were raised to believe and you now defend what you were raised to believe in a Christian culture despite the evidence just like they do because they were raised in a Mormon culture. Or, at least consider this a real possibility.

Dr. Hector Avalos on "What’s Not so Secular about Introductions to the Bible?"

This is a slightly edited version of his paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Ideological Criticism Section, on November 20, 2010. Link