Test Your Knowledge on a Harvard Final Ancient Near East History Exam

The following final exam is from the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations: Ancient Near East 105 (History of the Ancient Near East: The Levant up to Alexander the Great). The course number in this department is ANE 105 / Harvard Divinity School course HDS 1118.

Quote of the Day, By Don Severs of Skeptic Ink Network

If you trust God no matter how he acts, then you are in an abusive relationship. The issue isn't whether God could have good reasons for allowing suffering. Serial killers have reasons that satisfy themselves. The issue is whether he could have included less suffering in the world. If he could have and just didn't, then he is sadistic.

If we say God loves humanity no matter how he treats us, then love means nothing. If we can't judge God to be evil, then we can't judge him to be good, either. LINK.

A Modest Proposal for Comprehensive Traditional Marriage™ Reform.

Behind all the furor over gay marriage, there seems to be the underlying belief by fundamentalists, and the preachers and pundits of the Religious Right, that the purpose of marriage is this: To be a method of funneling men and women together into a government-backed monogamous, lifetime child-production alliance. They also contend that Traditional Marriage™ is in a weakened state and needs to be protected and propped up by the government, since the future of society, our country, and indeed perhaps civilization itself could be threatened if gay marriage becomes a legally-recognized union. Traditional marriage does seem to be in trouble, and in light of this, I would like to present a solution which addresses all the important root causes. If you are a literal-minded Christian, please stop reading immediately, get a dictionary, and look up the word ‘satire’ before proceeding.

Faith is the Problem Not the Solution

This creative diagram is floating around the web. I call it the Venn Diagram of Faith. If you'll notice, Scientology is at the intersection of all four categories of bollocks (i.e., rubbish). Does that make Scientology the most irrational of them all? Or, is it rather that when faith is the basis for what people accept as true almost anything can be believed, or denied? Does it make a real difference how many things are believed or denied because of faith? Faith itself is irrational. I had a conversation with a friend last night, posing some hard questions for his Christian faith, and you know what he said repeatedly? "You just got to have faith." Faith is the problem. If not, then what is it?

Another Mathematician, Dr. James Lindsay, Critiques the Kalam Argument

This 5 part series of his seals the deal. Taken together with James East's critique the Kalam can be considered dead. Take a good look. Another Wow!

Bible Slavery: TOTALLY DIFFERENT

A Mathematician, Dr. James East, Critiques the Kalam Argument

I'm not a mathematician by any stretch but what Dr. East wrote was very readable to me. He made some great points I haven't seen anywhere else before. I sure hope he gets this published in the journals. Wow! Take a good look.

The History's Channel's "The Bible" Made Me Laugh

Yeah, I'll confess I watched a lot of this series. I previously wrote a post on The History Channel's "The Bible" arguing it was pure propaganda. There were two scenes that made me laugh. The first one was where Jesus called Peter to be a fisher of men. Peter wasn't catching any fish so Jesus waded up to his chest in water and asked Peter to help him in his boat. Then with a little sleight of hand Peter was able to catch a boat load of fish. What struck me is that Jesus didn't walk out to Peter's boat on the water, as we're told he did on a different occasion. I found that funny. You see, just one miracle at a time, not two.

The other laughable thing that struck me was that after his resurrection Jesus was given back his pre-crucified body. During his trial and crucifixion his face, hands, and body were all bruised and cut from the whippings, nails, crown of thorns and the spear thrust to his chest. But in his resurrection the body of Jesus was restored to its original condition, with one exception. His resurrected body had prominent holes in his hands and feet. If God gave him back his original body then why were the holes in his hands still there? It was obvious this was the same person. The disciples did not need to see holes in his hands to know that it was Jesus. Oh, no, I thought, maybe the disciples couldn't recognize him without the holes in his hands. Maybe they were that dumb! Or, it was made up instead to help convince readers of the Gospels that Jesus arose from the dead. This is not unlike what we find in the virgin birth narrative of Luke's Gospel, where an angel tells Mary she will conceive a son. Mary responded by saying, "How will this be since I am a virgin?" (NIV, Luke 1:34) You see, if Mary was actually talking to an angel she would not have to say she was a virgin. The angel would already know. By the same token, the disciples wouldn't need the evidence of holes in the hands and feet of the resurrected body of Jesus either. They would already know it was him.

Children Accused of Witchcraft

Christian, You Are Fooled On April Fool's Day!

It was just a joke! ;-) What's the best other prank you've ever done on this date?

Dr. Rebecca Bradley On the Resurrection of Jesus

It’s Easter Sunday, the day when Christians of various (but not all) sorts celebrate the resurrection of Christ– or some version of it. Of course, just as Christ’s birth is recounted differently in the four gospels, the tales of his resurrection are also inconsistent in all kinds of awkward details. Who was it who first arrived at the empty tomb? What or whom did they find inside? Whom did Jesus appear to next? What did he say to them? What did they say to the others? All of these differ from gospel from gospel. So is this a problem for people who believe the Bible is divinely inspired, inerrant, and literally true in every jot and tittle?

Not a problem! The name of the game is harmonization, and here’s how it works. Each different account is treated as absolutely true, but only part of the story – therefore, if the details seem to disagree, it is only because they are about different parts of the same picture. If one gospel says it was Mary Magdalene who first visited the tomb, and another gospel says it was three other women, then both versions are true, but they refer to two different visits. Therefore, all one has to do is manipulate the conflicting details until they form a consistent story – or, to put it another way, until they harmonize.

So how do the harmonizers harmonize the discords among the four gospel accounts of the resurrection? In a word, hilariously. [To read the rest of her essay, click here.]

Today is Easter. Here's to Forty Years Spent on a Delusion: A Life Wasted?

On Easter 1973 I became a Christian. That was forty years ago. 40 YEARS AGO! Last year this time I had written:

I have decided that unless something drastically happens to change my mind, this time next year I will quit what I'm doing. I only have one life. I think thirty-nine years spent on a delusion will have been enough. First I'll have to find something else to do that will annoy people, but what it is I haven't figured out yet. ;-)

Since I haven't figured out what else to do I guess you're stuck with me. I will be changing my focus though, as I previously said. It hurts my head to think I believed that crazy stuff, the kind I now think is no different than any other religious faith, because faith is the problem! It's an irrational leap over the probabilities. Better yet, faith is a cognitive bias leading people to overestimate the confirming evidence and to underestimate the disconfirming evidence. If faith isn't the problem then what is it?

Sometimes I question if I've wasted too many hours of my life on a delusion, first as a believer, then a minister, college instructor and now as a debunker. Maybe others of you feel the same. If so, welcome to the club. Remember though, that it does no good to dwell on what could have been. Keep also in mind that so long as you're not dead the future is still wide open. If you find yourself debating Christians online too much then maybe you should reconsider. Christianity will die out. We know this. We know this if for no other reason than that human beings will evolve into another species who will find any religion based on humanity to be nonsense. Maybe that's too far off into the future for our likes but it will happen, if nothing else. So enjoy life. As an eighty year old man told me recently, "Do not deny yourself any pleasure." Part of what gives me pleasure though, is to know that what I write helps others. So as the Bud Light commercials say, "Here we go!"

The Book "God or Godless?" Is Now Available

Says Amazon, it's in stock and shipping. Dr. Randal Rauser and I first started writing it in November of 2010. We waited a year before getting a contract, and landed one with a major Christian publisher, Baker Books. Then the pre-publication process was quite long. Well, it's finally going to land in your laps this coming week. Now our readers can finally get it and decide for themselves. Just follow the link: God or Godless?: One Atheist. One Christian. Twenty Controversial Questions.Blurbs can be seen below:

I'm Going to Change My Focus in the Coming Months

I'm bored. Are you? Why do I keep kicking the dead horse of Christianity over and over and over again? Could very many people sustain such a focus as I have for seven years of blogging? I've said all that needs to be said. Christianity is dead. Those who continue believing and defending it just don't realize it yet, something akin to Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock's classic movie Psycho, who believed his dead mother upstairs was still alive and speaking to him. Oh, it's not like I won't offer links to items that debunk Christianity, and it's not like I won't continue defending my books against attacks, or writing about them. It's just that I need to do something different, otherwise I could get too bored to continue. And it's not like I plan on doing something that far afield since I'll still be writing in areas I have an expertise in. Here is my plan, at least for the foreseeable future:

Gay Marriage: The New Apocalypse?

Forget the Rapture, the Mayan calendar, the sinister United Nations, and socialist/Muslim/antichrist President Obama. Fundamentalist Christians know what will trigger the end of America, Western Civilization, and possibly herald the start of the Great Tribulation. Gay marriage! That’s right folks, if same-gender marriage is recognized by the Federal government; if gays are extended the same rights and protections as straights, Very Bad Things will happen!

Who knew that the future of the planet dangled from the slim thread of a word definition? Who knew that marriage, which has existed in such a variety of cultural forms throughout history, could be neatly squeezed into the Traditional Marriage™ box and that Christians owned the rights to it?

eSkeptic: What Science Really Says About the Soul

Check it out!

The Kalam Cosmological Argument and the B theory of Time

"atheistspirit" sent me this criticism of the Kalam for your consideration. Enjoy.

What Religious Diversity Shows Us, by Articulett

What religious diversity shows us is that, if gods exist, they don't care what humans believe... any god worth their title could tweak things so that humans believed whatever they wanted them to believe if belief was important to them, and would have no one to blame but themselves if they were disappointed. (So could an evil demon or super advanced alien.) So either no gods exist, or they are fine with religious wars, misinterpretation, conflicting beliefs, and so forth. YOU privilege your hypothesis because you have been indoctrinated to believe in a god that rewards you for believing whatever you believe --and who will torture you for all eternity if you don't believe it! Just like the Muslims. Is it more likely that some god is involved in such a twisted mental game or that no gods exist? We KNOW for sure that humans create gods and other mythical beings... we have no reason whatsoever to believe that consciousness can exist without a material brain.

If no invisible beings exist, then atheism is true. As far as the evidence is concerned, the invisible beings you believe in are as imaginary as the invisible beings you dismiss as mythological. If there was any real evidence that consciousness could exist absent a material brain, scientists would be testing, refining, and honing that evidence for their own benefit, if nothing else. As it is, nobody really has a good definition for what it even means to be conscious but have none of the measurable characteristics of consciousness-- is the concept even coherent? If a ghost can be conscious then how do you know a rock isn't conscious? What distinguishes a real invisible being from an imaginary one? Why should a rational person give more credence to your supernatural beliefs than you give to Greek Myths or the supernatural beliefs of those in conflicting faiths?

Check Out David Cortright's Blog

David comments here at DC so I thought I would pay him back, so to speak, by recommending his blog, "God is a Myth." David writes: "I am a former Pentecostal evangelist who renounced his beliefs for atheism 18 years ago. I have decided to write a blog where I share my thoughts and ideas about Christianity in general and the biblical God." Check it out!

Some Satire: "Don't Blame God" the Apologist Pontificates

5 Religious Leaders Who Became Outspoken Atheists

More of us are changing our minds and becoming outspoken atheists. Check them out.

American Atheists Convention this Weekend!!

This should be fun at the 50th Anniversary of the American Atheists in Austin, Texas this weekend: Dinner with Atheist Stars. 

On Thursday, March 28, at 7:00pm American Atheists will host a Dinner with the Stars event during our 50th Anniversary National Convention. This dinner will feature luminaries of the atheist community and many of your favorite American Atheists. Following dinner, we will hold a fundraising auction with a number of exciting and rare items. To attend, please sign up when registering to attend the convention or contact Development Director Nick Fish. Tickets are $250. 

Special guests include: 

• Pete Stark, former United States Congressman
• Jay Jay French, Twisted Sister lead guitarist
• A.C. Grayling, Philosopher & Author
• Greta Christina, Author & Blogger
• Matt Dillahunty, Blogger & Vlogger
• Katherine Stewart, Author & Activist
• Dr. Hector Avalos, Biblical Scholar
• Teresa MacBain, Former Preacher
• Cristina Rad, International Blogger
• David Silverman, American Atheists President

Among the items to be auctioned are the following: 

• First Edition works of Robert Ingersoll
• Illustrated Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, signed by the late Douglas Adams
• One week accommodations for a Costa Rican vacation (airfare not included)
• Selected pieces of art from the American Atheists collection
• Mortality, by Christopher Hitchens with an autographed card

More information about the Costa Rica vacation villa, including pictures, is here. Previous guests include Daniel Dennett, who recently finished a manuscript there. The Costa Rica weeklong stay is valued at $3,600. 

Is Homosexuality Sinful?

The Fact of Religious Diversity and the Difficulties it Presents

There are two wonderful textbooks on the fact of religious diversity that I must recommend. Believers must understand the scope of the problem before they can ever hope to offer a solution, otherwise any solution they propose will be based in ignorance. Both books are published by Oxford University Press in the last eight years, with contributions by adherents in the various religious traditions around the world. Both are expensive. Both are enlightening. Both present serious challenges to anyone claiming more than that there exists invisible supernatural forces and/or supernatural beings. However, neither of them present the non-religious alternative, which as I'll argue below, is very interesting for two reasons. And neither of them offer an objective test to settle these religious differences, whereas I have offered the only one that can do so in my new book, The Outsider Test for Faith: How to Know Which Religion Is True.

Bill Maher On the Pope: Who Says Ridicule Isn't Effective?