The DOs and DON'Ts of Prayer

Here is Andrew Lamprecht's Deconversion Story

Andrew Lamprecht is a former Christian living in Adrian, Michigan, who is an aspiring author. Enjoy. See if his story resonates with you.

Does God Exist? A Debate Between Dan Barker and John Mark Reynolds

Satanists Unveil Design for Okla. Capitol Monument

"The Satanic Temple says Oklahoma's decision to put a Ten Commandments monument at the Capitol opened the door for its statute."

"Oklahoma City — A satanic group unveiled designs Monday for a 7-foot-tall statue of Satan it wants to put at the Oklahoma state Capitol, where a Ten Commandments monument was placed in 2012."

See link:  The Associated Press

Also of interest: The Satanic Temple website

Dr. Matt McCormick On Immortality

Here's An Interview I Did With Red Tani of the Filipino Freethinkers

Get Peter Boghossian's Audio Book, "A Manual For Creating Atheists" for Free

Seth from the Thinking Atheist podcast has a link to get a free audiobook and to get 30 days free access. You can hear Dr. Boghossian talking about his new book right here, then you can go to this link to get it free. Just search for the title "A Manual for Creating Atheists," and listen to the free, unabridged version of the book as read by the author, Peter Boghossian himself. Plus, you're helping support TTA I'm told.

Anyone Want to Improve On This Quote of the Day?

Give it a try, I want you to:

Not only is fundamentalist Christianity the greatest threat in the United States to science, tolerance, and social progress, but it is also the most prevalent form of Protestant Christianity to be found in our nation, whether you like it or not. It is the fundamentalist religious right that holds the reigns of the Republican party (which currently controls the nation, in case you didn't realize), and it is this same fundamentalist religious right that lobbies for the teaching of lies in public school and fights against funding for embryonic research that could potentially save the lives of millions. Whether you like it or not, it is this flavor of Christianity that makes the loudest, most obnoxious, most dangerous impact on the world today, giving us plenty of good reason to direct the brunt of our attacks in its vicinity.

Russell Blackford Comments On the Book, "God or Godless"

Russell Blackford is a philosopher with numerous books to his name. On Facebook he said this:

I'm currently reading God or Godless?by John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser. From my perspective, the former is intellectually demolishing the latter. You may think I'm biased, but it's not that simple. I suspect that I would (to my dismay) have had the same response even in my Christian days. Loftus is very good in this debate, but even that is not the problem for Rauser. So much Christian apologetics may be internally consistent... but still looks bizarre and implausible the moment you try to look at it from the outside. There's not much Rauser can do about this.

Biblical scholar Robert Price said the same thing. Dustin Lawson, Josh McDowell's infidel disciple, agreed wholeheartedly.

This is all gratifying to me personally. For anyone who has not seen it, co-author Randal Rauser and I debated each other in Edmonton, Canada, on June 5, 2013. Enjoy it below:

The Science Guy Bill Nye to Debate Ken Ham

Bill Nye to Visit Creation Museum for Debate

"Bill Nye "The Science Guy" is set to visit Kentucky to debate evolution and biblical creation with the founder of the Creation Museum."

No Question About It, The Bible Debunks Itself

Pastor Mark Driscoll’s Holy Ghost Porn.

Mark Driscoll, pastor of the Seattle-based Mars Hill megachurch is no stranger to controversy.   Early in his career, he was known as the ‘cussing pastor’.  As things rolled along, he garnered a devoted following by preaching a macho Jesus who would probably enjoy watching a UFC cage match, deriding effeminate male worship leaders, and telling Christian wives that they should drop their husband’s trousers and ‘serve’ them by performing oral sex.   His sermon videos on the topic of sex are often too controversial to be carried by GodTube (the Christian version of YouTube).  Recently, he has been in a new kind of controversy, as charges of plagiarism have been leveled at him.

What is perhaps not as widely-known is his claim that he sees replays of sexual encounters and child molestations in his head, courtesy of a ‘gift’ of the Holy Spirit.  That’s right folks.  We have a pastor claiming that he has a Holy Ghost porn channel in his head.  As Mark puts it, “I see things.”

I’ll let him tell you about it:

Frederick Douglass On Christianity and Slavery

At this point I'm beginning to write a chapter on the Bible and slavery for my new anthology. Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) escaped from slavery and became a leader of the abolitionist movement. This is what he wrote in his Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave [Norton Anthology, Vol. 2, 6th ed.]:

Henry Bibb, An American Slave, Tells of the Best Case of Slavery He Knew

At this point I'm beginning to write a chapter on the Bible and slavery for my new anthology. Here's something I ran across concerning Henry Bibb (1815-1854), an escaped slave, who became a leading abolitionist. In his autobiography Bibb describes his life as an American slave. He describes the cruelty, the beatings, lashings, and the riches gained by the slaveowners at the expense of slaves. Then at the end, in chapter twenty, he does something remarkable. He describes the best case scenario, the mildest kind of slavery he ever knew.

Faith Doesn't Need a Factual Basis In Order To Work

Bible Prophecy Fulfilled (Part 3): The Christmas Murders

The story of the wise men being guided by a heavenly star, to the house where Jesus resided has been a key element of many a Christmas play.    What has not been talked about very often is how this little piece of razzle-dazzle got a bunch of kids murdered.  Yep.  This is one of those not-infrequent moments in the Bible which makes a person (of even average intelligence) face palm and say “Really God?  Really?  This was the best you could come up with?”

James Lindsay to Tom Gilson: "Repudiate All Unreliable Epistemologies"

The fact is unavoidable. The word faith is used to mean "I don’t have enough evidence to warrant belief in X, but I’m going to believe anyway." It’s unavoidable because they’re using the word faith for exactly this purpose, to jump an epistemic gap that can only be bridged by evidence. It is used that way because faith is not a reliable method for obtaining knowledge, and the methods that faith is based upon--tradition, authority, and revelation--are also not reliable.

Believers do this because they lack evidence and yet want to believe, so strongly in fact that they appear not to care whether or not faith is a reliable methodology. That is, Christians do not care to know what is true as much as they want to pretend to know things they do not know.

Again, Mr. Gilson, I call upon you to drop your argument with Peter Boghossian and to repudiate all unreliable epistemologies, faith--and the resulting Christianity--among these. Link

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.]