Technically Speaking, We Can't Disprove the Existence of Witchcraft, But...

Technically speaking, we cannot conclusively prove that a Devil or his demons don’t exist, or that witches cannot work their magic. There just isn’t any evidence that they do. Furthermore, with the advancement of science, supernatural explanations for any given event in our lives become unnecessary and superfluous. A Devil empowered witch may have caused a particular illness by her spell. But what best explains why we can usually trace the illness to some undercooked food that was eaten, as an example? And what best explains why the right medicine always cures the illness? If an illness was caused by the spell of a witch there is no reason to think we could find a natural cause for it. Nor is there a reason to think the right medicine could always overcome the power of the spell by curing it either.

What Went Wrong? Where is Their God? The Sad Tragedy of Christianity

In posting this News Video, I would like comments from Christians on why the Christian religion failed to control the situation and from any non-theists on your take of the situation. 
(The video has been removed, but you can still read the story  here:

  http://www.foxcarolina.com/story/23701174/pastors-sermon)

Two Splendid Christmas Gift Ideas!

Thanks to John for allowing me to post this. So, the celebrations are upon us to commemorate good ole Jesus and his rather miraculous (and dare I say imaginary) birth. Well, he may have been born, but not like that. But enough of that. Or maybe not. I have two rather decent suggestions with which to fill your stockings (Christmas, not underwear).

An Excerpt From My Chapter On the Witch Hunts

Hey, why not throw this out to my readers? Maybe I can get some good feedback on it. I looked in vain for a good book or essay on this, but I'm sure there must be one. It concerns the rules of evidence for convicting people of crimes in the Bible. See what you think so far of this draft:

Bible Prophecy Fulfilled (Part 2) More of Matthew's Scripture Magic

The writer of Matthew had a prophecy fetish and seized every opportunity to declare that events in his version of the life of Jesus happened in order “that it might be fulfilled”. 

In this series we are focusing on examples surrounding the birth narrative.

Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the east came to Jerusalem,  saying, “Where is he who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him.” When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him;  and assembling all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born. They told him, “In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it is written by the prophet:  “‘And you, O Bethlehem, in the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah; for from you shall come a ruler who will shepherd my people Israel.’”Matthew 2:1-6 (ESV)

Matthew’s author quotes the book of Micah as foretelling the birthplace of Jesus.  Does it?

An Evangelical Evangelist Titan Faces Death

Billy Graham at 95

“Franklin Graham asks for prayers for his father”

I can’t think of one national televangelist who didn't end up running their ministry as a family business including Billy Graham.

Thirty years ago I remember Billy Graham announced his pending retirement and the question was quickly asked if his son Franklin would takeover.  Rev. Graham responded "This is God’s ministry and it's God's choice to make, not mine".  Well, let’s see who God chose:  Billy's Son, Franklin Graham to be followed by Franklin’s own son: William Franklin Graham IV.  (Yes, it looks like God sure is not a respecter of persons. (Acts 10: 34)) LOL

Sour Tidings and Wretched Festivities: How Christmas is Destroying the Heart of our Christian Commonwealth

 DC readers may be interested in my latest essays published this month. 

The first, titled The Puritan War on Christmas, explains why Puritans, who are often considered the model of America’s Christian foundations, hated Christmas so much.

The second essay, titled In Praise of the Evil Kings: Latino Ethnic Identity and Biblical Scholarship, outlines why claims that the representative teachings of the Bible are social justice, love, and anti-imperialism, reflect the bibliolatrous and religionist bias of modern biblical scholarship and liberation theology.

Quote of the Day, By An Executioner To a Man Accused of Witchcraft

Sir, I beg you, for God’s sake confess something, whether it be true or not. Invent something, for you cannot endure the torture which you will be put to; and even if you bear it all, yet you will not escape, not even if you were an Earl, but one torture will follow after another until you say you are a witch.

These are the words of an executioner to Johannes Junius, the mayor of Bamberg, Germany, in 1628, after enduring some torture without confessing, who was subsequently burned at the stake after deciding to confess. [Source: The Witchcraft Sourcebook, p. 201.]

Learn What it Was Like When Accused of Being a Witch in Germany in 1638

Care to see what it would be like being accused of a witch in Germany of 1638? Follow this link to a simulation where you are accused of being a witch. Click on "Let the Hunt Begin..." Answer your interrogators questions and see what happens depending on how you answer them. It's interactive. It's based on actual hunts that took place in Germany during the early 1600's.

Some of The Earliest Witnesess Didn't Believe So Why Should We?

In Matthew 28:16-17 we read: "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted." How is it possible for some of the eleven disciples to doubt after seeing the resurrected Jesus? Then too the Apostle Paul claimed in I Corinthians 15:6 that, "After that, he [Jesus] appeared to more than five hundred of the brothers and sisters at the same time..." Of them, only 120 believed according to Acts 1:15: "In those days Peter stood up among the believers (a group numbering about a hundred and twenty)." Even by the testimony of the New Testament itself many of the earliest witnesses didn't believe. Why should we?

Bible Prophecy Fulfilled: Christmas Trees.

Since it’s the time of year when my Christian friends are preparing to celebrate Christmas, I feel that I must point out something very important, to them.

Christmas trees are mentioned in the Bible. 

Not only mentioned, but prophesied thousands of years before they would become a part of Christmas celebrations.  Not only were they predicted, but they were condemned by the prophet Jeremiah:

Thus says the Lord: “Learn not the way of the nations, nor be dismayed at the signs of the heavens because the nations are dismayed at them, for the customs of the peoples are vanity. A tree from the forest is cut down and worked with an axe by the hands of a craftsman. They decorate it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so that it cannot move.

Jeremiah 10:2-4 (ESV)

Clearly, the Bible condemns the practice of cutting and decorating Christmas trees.   All believers who practice such things are in rebellion against their god - right?  Maybe I will have to tear up my American Atheists membership card.  We have a bona fide example of fulfilled prophesy in the Bible!

Which Subtitle For My Anthology "Christianity is Not Great" Sounds the Best?

1. Christianity is Not Great: Why Faith Causes Good People to Do Atrocities
2. Christianity is Not Great: Why Faith Causes Good People to Do Great Harm
3. Christianity is Not Great: Why Faith Threatens Human Flourishing
4. Christianity is Not Great: Testing Faith With The Practical Empirical Results
5. Christianity is Not Great: Faith Tested Against The Practical Empirical Results
6. Christianity is Not Great: Faith Fails The Practical Empirical Results
7. Christianity is Not Great: Why Faith Is Bad For Us and Our Planet
8. Christianity is Not Great: Why Faith Is an Utterly Unreliable Moral Compass
9. Christianity is Not Great: Why Faith Is an Utterly Unreliable Moral Guide
10. Christianity is Not Great: How Faith Kills
11. Christianity is Not Great: How Faith Destroys Us
12. Christianity is Not Great: The Destructiveness of Faith

Or, suggest others.

The Barbaric Christian Witch Hunts

I'm doing some research for a chapter on the witch hunts for my new anthology, "Christianity is Not Great." A description of it and a link to the chapters can be seen here. The title to this post will probably be the one I'll use for the chapter. Any other suggestions? I've selected a few quotes to begin the chapter. See what you think.

Russell Blackford Interviewed About His Book, "50 Great Myths about Atheism"

You can read the essay below, published in the book pages of the Newcastle Herald.

Dan Lambert Objects When I Said Christianity Made No Discoveries in 2013

Dan and I are friends. We live in the same city. He is a former professor at John Brown University who used my book, "Why I Became an Atheist" in one of his classes. He is also on record as saying "Christians should be reading John Loftus's Books." Still he thinks his faith is strengthened by reading them. Okay, I guess. Recently on Facebook he objected to a link I provided where I made fun of the fact that Christianity made no discoveries in 2013. Here is our exchange about it on Facebook. I think it is instructive. Enjoy.

"Telekinesis" is Now a Reality: The Top Ten Scientific and Religious Discoveries of 2013

Let's do a comparison between science and religion by looking at their top ten discoveries in 2013, okay? Here are the results of last year. First take a look at the top ten scientific advances in 2013, from ListVerse. Pretty impressive, right? "Telekinesis" is now a reality. Now let's consider the top ten religious discoveries in 2013:

A List of Scientists Who Became Creationists After Studying the Evidence

If you can spot anyone who's been missed, please add their name in the comments. LINK.

Hat/Tip Matthew Cobb

Dr. Matt McCormick Offers a Serious Blow to William Lane Craig's Credibility

McCormick is a professor of Philosophy for the California State University in Sacramento, CA. He is the author of the best book arguing against the resurrection of Jesus, Atheism And The Case Against Christ.McCormick is developing an online Philosophy of Religion course. In one 33 minute video is a hard-hitting critique of Craig's view of the "Witness of the Holy Spirit." This is top notch stuff.



If you have a Google+ account you can see other videos he has made, right here. They include Swinburne's Argument From Design; Leibniz: This is the Best of All Possible Worlds; Hick: Suffering Builds Moral Character; Introduction to the Problem of Evil; Religion and Morality; Clifford and James on the Ethics of Belief; Confirmation Bias; and What is Atheism?

How Does Science Work? Believers Need to Become Scientifically Literate

Isn't it interesting that the more someone becomes scientifically literate the less is believed? It's not just the conclusions reached, although that is clearly important, it's understanding the process of how science itself works. Believers love to focus on the demarcation line between science and non-science, on cutting edge science which is still as yet unsettled, and ask endless questions about the precise description of the scientific method. But only by truly understanding how science works can they see why faith is an utterly unreliable method for understanding the nature and workings of the universe. To understand this process I heartily recommend the following books. According to one of them, written by Dennis Trumble, "For many people of faith the issue isn't about determining which beliefs are true and which ones are false but, rather, deciding which beliefs are good and which are bad." (p. 30).

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence, No Ifs Ands or Buts About It

I like provocative post titles. They're fun to create. Carl Sagan popularized this principle, that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. What I argue more precisely, is that extraordinary claims require a sufficient amount of objective evidence for them, especially when we have good reasons to expect the evidence should exist. The first thing you'll notice is that what I argue for works regardless of whether we're dealing with an ordinary or an extraordinary claim. The difference is how much evidence is required. When it comes to extraordinary claims a lot of evidence is required, whereas with ordinary claims we only need a little of it. All someone has to do is consider how much evidence would be required to believe me, if I said I levitated this morning for 5 minutes. Then compare this with my claim that I just ate breakfast. I'm sure you would not believe my claim that I levitated, whereas you probably would when I say I just ate breakfast. These two claims would clearly require a different amount of evidence to accept them.

John W. Loftus vs Randal Rauser Debate the Existence of God

This debate took place in Dr. Rauser's home church in Edmonton, Canada, on June 5, 2013. Enjoy.

I Have Never Read a More Anti-Woman Text Than "The Witch Hammer"

I'm doing some research for a chapter on the witch-hunts for my new anthology, "Christianity is Not Great." A description of it and a link to the chapters can be seen here. The Malleus Maleficarum (literally "The hammer of malefactresses, i.e. wrongdoing women, or witches) is a treatise on the prosecution of witches that was written by Heinrich Kramer (and James Sprenger) in 1486.

The main purpose of it was to argue that witchcraft exists, that witches were more often women than men, and to provide magistrates with guidelines that could help them find and convict them. In the Introduction to this work, published in 1948 by Dover Publications, translator Montague Summers wrote:

It is hardly disputed that in the whole vast literature of witchcraft, the most prominent, the most important, the most authoritative volume is the Malleus Maleficarum (The Witch Hammer) of Heinrich Kramer and James Sprenger...The Malleus lay on the bench of every magistrate. It was the ultimate, irrefutable, unarguable authority. It was implicitly accepted not only by Catholic but by Protestant legislatures. In fine, it is not too much to say that the Malleus Maleficarum is among the most important, wisest, and weightiest books of the world.

Note the word "wisest"? He was clearly a witch-hunt sympathizer. Nonetheless, given the influence of this witch-hunt manual I find it incredibly dense for Christians to say their faith was the motivator for the emancipation of women. It can't be. Just see for yourselves with selected quotes:

Sam Harris - Morality and the Christian God

A few weeks ago Sam Harris asked for volunteers to remix a clip from his William Lane Craig debate into a video.  Here is one very powerful result.

An Atheist's Perspective on Thanksgiving

For religious people, the standard setting for the giving of thanks is entirely incidental to the meaning of the occasion. The family around the table, the turkey or ham, the football game — all of these are just props and ritual. None is essential to thanking God.

What for a religious person, though, is just the setting of Thanksgiving is for the atheist the entire celebration itself. Family and fun, and marking the change of the seasons, is its only meaning and significance.

I suppose that to a religious person an atheist Thanksgiving must appear a thin thing, lacking reverence and grandeur. But then, again, a person who reveres a grand God must feel diminished in her own eyes. Giving thanks to God must engender in the religious the sense that they are powerless supplicants to a higher reality. Another thing we atheists are happy about, then, is that nothing at all depends on the will of a spirit in the sky.

The quote above is from Mark Mercer, chairman of the Philosophy department at Saint Mary's University, Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Submitted by J. M. Green

Today I'm a Very Grateful Person

Today I am thankful for my life, liberty and the ability to pursue happiness. I'm thankful for my health, my family and my friends. I'm thankful for the people who appreciate my work who recommend it and defend it against objections to the contrary. Today I am a very grateful person. I am usually this way though, so there isn't any change because it's Thanksgiving Day. It's the best way to live life if possible. Here's wishing the less fortunate among my friends can at least appreciate the simple things in life. When life seems frustrating or debilitating then just focus on breathing if nothing else.