Austin Cline's Readers' Choice Awards

He's conducting a reader's choice poll for the following categories:

* Best Agnostic or Atheist Book of 2010
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Blog
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Podcast
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Website
* Best Agnostic or Atheist to Follow on Twitter
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Facebook Page
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Social Networking Website
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Forum
* Best Agnostic or Atheist Ad

Hey, didn't I publish an anthology in 2010? ;-) If you think The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails is a worthy one then I'd appreciate your nomination.

It's Easy to Convert People to Christianity!

This 13 minute cartoon video is very instructive, although a bit boring. It's the kind of stuff that converts people to Christianity within a Christian culture. [Warning: Watch it at your own risk! You may convert! lol] This is all you need to do to convert people. Tell a person who is in need a nice tear jerking story. It's easy!

Open Mike Day

Share some thoughts and links here. Then discuss them all you want to. I'm preparing for a couple of talks in the Los Angeles area. Keep me in mind for any upcoming events.

My Interview With Tuesday Afternoon, Part 2

Enjoy. Part 1 can be found here.

"Don't Spank That Monkey" App Courtesy of XXX Church ;-)

Such a guilt producing message! Okay, Okay, sexual addictions can be very serious, but WTF is this! What's wrong with masturbation? Anyone? Anyone? Will it make you go blind or something? And what's wrong with lust? It's biology baby. Christians will forever have problems with sex. They don't know what to do with it except deny, deny, deny. I've written about this before.

Quote of the Day

Given the proliferation of religious delusions that seem to be growing around the globe in an age of weapons of mass destruction, atheists must start breeding like rabbits. ;-)

Just in Case: An Image of the Cover of My Book for Facebook, etc.

Nine Reasons Why You're a Christian

Why Former Conservatives Become Atheists More Often Than Liberals Do

Someone recently said: "I would love to see conversion rates to atheism between creationist/conservative Christians (like John Loftus) and more liberal Christians." The implication is that conservatives leave their faith and become atheists more often than liberals do. By proxy this shows liberalism is a better brand of Christianity. I suspect both implications are correct. Conservatives have already rejected liberalism as outsiders to liberalism, and for good reasons. So once they reject their own conservative Christianity it's probable that a high number of them eventually become atheists. Unlike former conservatives though, liberals have probably never critically examined their faith from an outsider's perspective, and this makes all the difference. Since liberals believe in less then liberalism is harder to reject, for the less you take on faith the better it is. ;-) Of course, since that's true agnosticism (understood as a position against all metaphysical claims) would be better than liberalism. And atheism (understood as no religious beliefs at all) is the best conclusion of them all.

Yep, God is Watching Over Us All Right!

PZ Myers on Science and Atheism: Natural Allies

At What Point Would YOU Walk Out On An Ice Covered Lake?

I'm amazed when Christians argue their faith is more probably true than not, and then try to live as if they're 100% certain of it. So let's grant them a 51% probability that their brand of Christianity is true. Now to put this into perspective, would they walk out on an ice covered lake if there was only a 51% probability the ice would hold them up? ;-)

My Responses to a Christian Scholar

Someone emailed me what an unnamed Christian scholar had written him so I responded as follows. I'll blockquote his comments:

My Interview with Tuesday Afternoon

Enjoy. This is part one of three.

The Diminishing of the Gods

A thorough study of the history of gods reveals a pattern we’d expect if gods are not real. The farther we move back in time (and the farther we move away from science) we see more and bigger claims of divine intervention. Gods have been responsible for thunder, lightning, rain, comets, and holding up the very earth itself. The Christian god in particular has been finding himself with less and less to do these days...It’s almost enough to make a person think gods — and the Christian god, too — have simply been the human explanation for that which was not understood. Link.

BBC - Can We Trust Science?

Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines why science appears to be under attack, and why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded - from the theory that man-made climate change is warming our planet, to the safety of GM food, or that HIV causes AIDS.

This is a passionate defence of the importance of scientific evidence and the power of experiment, and a look at what scientists themselves need to do to earn trust in controversial areas of science in the 21st century.

Quote of the Day, by Jesse Bering

Does all this disprove God? Of course not. Science speaks only to the improbable, not the impossible. If philosophy rules the day, God can never be ruled out entirely, because one could argue that human cognitive evolution was directly and intentionally inspired by God, so we alone, of all species, can perceive Him (and reality in general) using our naturally evolved theory of mind. But if scientific parsimony prevails, and I think it should, such philosophical positioning becomes embarrassingly like grasping at straws. (The Belief Instinct, p. 195-6).

Science Based Explanations vs. Faith Based Explanations

I'm quite aware of the differences between methodological naturalism and metaphysical naturalism. I have not misinterpreted John's view of science. Rather, I have questioned why he would state that science assumes natural explanations for all phenomena on the one hand, then ask believers to corroborate supernatural explanations through science. -cl

I must admit this is a great question. The objection is that if I demand that supernatural explanations must abide by the rules of science which only admit natural explanations, then supernatural explanations by definition don't have a chance. This is definitely a quandary of sorts. Let me respond.

Why Religion is Persuasive by Adam Lewis

See what you think.

A Listing of Cognitive Biases

Cognitive bias is a general term that is used to describe many distortions in the human mind that are difficult to eliminate and that lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, or illogical interpretation. Link

Why do I keep writing about this? Because we know humans are prone to these biases. We know this. So we should all become skeptics. We should all ask for positive evidence for that which we accept as true. We should adopt a science-based reasoning rather than a faith-based reasoning. Dr. James Alcock defined faith-based reasoning as "belief in search of data." Given the cognitive biases this is simply a wrong-headed approach if we want to know the truth.

I Met a Former Mormon Bishop in Canada

Yep, after I spoke for CFI’s Extraordinary Claims Panel in Canada this former Mormon Bishop came up to me and introduced himself. Afterward we talked over a Foster’s Beer. Someone overheard us talking who said to me, “Mormon’s have some really weird beliefs, don’t they?” Yes they do. But then I see no difference between their beliefs and my former Christian beliefs. I learned to think this way because of my wife. She grounds me. I used to say the same thing about other religions and every time she would tell me they are no different than Christianity. It finally sunk in. She’s right. Then it stuck me. There are people who have never been religious at all. When I tell them I am a former evangelical they must shake their heads and wonder how in the world I could ever have believed what I did. I too am stunned at times. Do natural born atheists think about me the way former evangelicals-turned-skeptics think about Mormonism? Do they shake their heads and wonder how stupid I must be to have believed what I did? Some of them probably do. If so, I hope to show that children are taught to believe in their respective cultures because of indoctrination, brainwashing and enculturation. It could have been them too, ya see.

Quote of the Day

I cannot possibly check everything I believe. There is a trust element involved. I trust the sciences. I trust the consensus of the scientists. Why? Because in those areas where I have studied I agree with them. In fact, if believers were to stop and think about it they trust the sciences too, in an overwhelming number of areas. They just disagree with them in those few areas when the sciences contradict what some pre-scientific ancient agency detectors claimed in a group of canonized texts. -- John W. Loftus

The Christian Faith Makes a Person Stupid. Doug Wilson: "I Have Faith in the Bible,You Have Faith in Reason"

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Quote of the Day- by John W. Loftus

The bottom line is that the odds of a resurrection from my experience are at 0%. No Bayesian analysis can multiply 0 with any other number and get any more than 0. That's what the probabilities are. So I am skeptical of the extraordinary claim that Jesus resurrected since I cannot dismiss my present experience. I must judge the past from my present. I cannot do otherwise! Coupled with the fact that when I read the NT it provides its own demise there is no reason to believe such a claim EVEN IF IT IS TRUE!

Failure by Divine Design (A Christian Construction of Unbelief)

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