Dr. Richard C. Miller Joins Our Manifesto

[In light of Dr. Miller stating on Facebook that he's taking a break due to the horrible way he's been treated for his research and scholarship, I'm reposting this tribute by Dr. Hector Avalos, first published Oct. 2016].

I am happy to report the addition of Dr. Richard C. Miller to our Manifesto for Secular Scriptural and Religious Studies.

Having begun with just two of us (myself and Dr. André Gagné of Concordia University in Montreal) in 2015, our Manifesto now has 20 signatories. It's a relatively small number, but just 15 years ago I would be hard pressed to name a single biblical scholar who was openly secular, atheist or agnostic.

Dr. Miller first came to my attention with an excellent article, “Mark's Empty Tomb and Other Translation Fables in Classical Antiquity” in The Journal of Biblical Literature (2010), the flagship peer-reviewed journal of the Society of Biblical Literature. Dr. Miller clearly showed parallels between Greco-Roman resurrection/empty tomb stories and those in the Gospels.

He subsequently published a book on Resurrection and Reception in Early Christianity (2014), which renders him one of the most authoritative scholars of resurrection stories in early Christianity.

Johno Pearce on the triumph of the feels, low information people, messaging, and why Trump won.

This needs a wider reading from Johno Pearce on the triumph of the feels, low information people, messaging, and why Trump won. [From "Only Sky" which asks you to subscribe with an email] LINK

This one by Dale McGown [also on "Only Sky"] is deserving of a wider reading too, about temporary dictatorships: LINK

How Much Horrendous Suffering Can Christian Theology Tolerate?

The survival of the church depends on the devout not noticing

During my recent stay in London, I visited The Wiener Holocaust Library, which is an easy walk north of The British Museum. For a long time I have been following it on Twitter and—more recently—on Facebook, and wanted to see it in person. I have always been stunned that there are holocaust-deniers, because the evidence for this crime against humanity is massive. The Nazis themselves kept detailed records, confident that their elimination of Jews was an important contribution to the world, and they could hardly cover up the stark realities of the concentration camps. On this, see especially Martin Gilbert’s book, Atlas of the Holocaust (1993, 254 pages). Moreover, there is an abundance of survivor memoirs.

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Bernie Sanders On the Democratic Loss

What do you think about this?

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David Fitzgerald’s Toolkit for Dismantling Christianity

Religions Thrive on Fantasy, Deceit, and the Failure of Curiosity 

One of the biggest examples of deceit is this practice of Bible editors: printing the words of Jesus in red. Mainstream Bible scholars know the problem here: none of the Jesus-script in the gospels can be verified. The red print amounts to a claim that is not justified by any evidence. The gospels were written decades after the death of Jesus; their authors do not identify their sources; they never cite contemporaneous documentation (letters, diaries, transcripts) that would give us confidence that we’re reading real words of Jesus. Apparently, Bible editors couldn’t care less. Fundamentalist/evangelical editors insist that the Jesus-script was divinely inspired, so the red print is entirely in order. But then they have to write books, articles, doctoral dissertations to explain away the awful Jesus-script, e.g., the hate-your-family verse (Luke 14:26); I didn’t come to bring peace, but a sword (Matthew 10:34-36); drinking Jesus’ flesh and drinking his blood are magic potions for achieving eternal life (John 6:53-57). There are so many of these.

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Breaking the Grip of Indoctrination

Brainwashing is a disaster  

It is a common feature of religions that their devout followers are confident that they’ve “got it right.” Because, of course, their leaders have convinced them that they are exclusive custodians of the truth, and there are severe penalties for disagreeing or disbelieving. Since there have been thousands of religions making such claims, we can be sure they’re all pretense and nonsense. On occasion over the years, I have asked a few devout Christian friends to read/critique various chapters of the books I’ve written: I genuinely wanted their perspectives. But they usually refused, because they didn’t want to read anything that might put their faith in jeopardy (which was a big clue that they have major doubts that they don’t want to think about). One Catholic woman did agree to read one of my chapters on the gospels. Her primary reaction was shock: she didn’t know that Jesus was expected to come back. Another was angry to learn that there is Jesus-script demanding hatred of family—and even life itself—for anyone who wants to be his disciple. Several Catholics have told me they were not encouraged to read the Bible, so I was hardly surprised.

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Franky Schaeffer's Warning: The Theocrats Are Coming!

Don't believe me? Then listen to Schaeffer. Heed his warning Christians. He's the son of Francis Schaeffer, the philosopher/theologian who wrote "The Christian Manifesto" in 1980. That book and others helped ignite the recent modern American desire for theocracy, democracy be damned!

The High Vulnerability of Christian Belief

Why do its faithful followers fail to notice?

How many Southern Baptists drive by Catholic Churches on the way their own churches? And vice versa? Does it never cross their minds that there are major differences in their versions of Christianity? They can’t both be right. Yet these believers trust the priests and ministers who have taught them since their earliest years. When we broaden the perspective, it’s obvious that the problem becomes more extreme: there have been thousands of different religions—and all of them teach as absolute truths their own ideas about god(s). Religions push the importance of taking it all on faith. “Please don’t think about it: you must trust that your priest or minister has a firm grasp of the absolute truth.”

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See, Al Gore Told You So.

Hurricanes have been in the news lately, thanks to the United States getting whacked by hurricanes Helene and Milton in quick succession. The two hurricanes followed intersecting tracks, with some areas of the U.S. state of Florida getting grazed or hit by both storms.

Milton near peak intensity just north of the Yucatán Peninsula on October 7, image from Wikimedia Commons

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‘It’s mindblowing’: US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge

Fact, we're dealing with angry, utterly stupid people. Say it isn't so! LINK.

Will Humanity Ever Escape the Grip of Religion?

It’s unlikely—we seem to be cursed with it forever

There are now more than eight billion humans on the planet, and a significant portion of this total has been indoctrinated by hundreds of different religions. The great irony, of course, is that these religions have never been able to agree about god(s). The supreme irony is that there are thousands of different Christian brands, and they differ significantly in their beliefs about god. This alone is evidence that religion is guesswork, which makes the fanatical attachment to it puzzling indeed. What can we do to escape this curse?

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"Crying Won't Help You, Praying Won't Do You No Good"

Here's the discussion with regard to Milton and Trump's Mar-a-Lago. [For the record I hope there's minimal loss of life as possible and that the rescuse operations are as successful as possible. No god can help us, no prayers, only people who care.

Here's A Link To My Debate On Horrendous Suffering with Don McIntosh

My debate with Dr. Don McIntosh (M.S., M.Div., Dr.Apol.) on horrendous suffering is now found in one helpful shareable link below. McIntosh is the Editor-in-Chief of the "Trinity Journal of Natural & Philosophical Theology," from which our papers can be found. LINK.

"How to Be an Honest Life-Long Seeker of the Truth" by John W. Loftus

This excerpt is from my book How to Defend the Christian Faith: Advice from an Atheist, published by Pitchstone Publishing in 2015. LINK. You'll be taken to a website maintained by my publisher. Click around to see other essays written by other authors. I'm happy to be one of them.

The Stupidity Factor in the Survival of Religion

And the major role of ignorance as well

Mike Pence has declared that he doesn’t believe in evolution, but has also said that, when he dies, he’ll asked god if evolution is fact or fiction. This represents a special brand of stupidity, fortified by colossal ignorance. The literature on evolution is vast—is Pence just unaware of it, and can’t be bothered by curiosity? And does he really imagine that a creator deity with billions of galaxies under supervision will take the time to sit down for a chat with him about stuff he should have learned about before he died? Of course, when such a prominent Christian voices his rejection of evolution, this gives permission to the devout to embrace the stupidity and ignorance. I personally witnessed another special brand of stupidity a few years ago—I’ve told this story before, but it’s worth repeating: ten days after the Sandy Hook school massacre in December 2012 (20 kids and 6 adults murdered), a devout Catholic woman offered this explanation: “God must have wanted more angels.” Not even the pope is stupid enough to say such a thing—although the stupidity level at the Vatican is incredibly high.

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About the Vice-Presidential Debate Last Night

This is a good commentary on the debate last night between JD Vance and Tim Waltz. LINK to Huffington Post.

Reasonable People Cannot Believe!

Let's grant that every miracle in the Bible took place as reported. That supposed fact doesn't mean we should believe those miracles actually took place. The rest of us need sufficient evidence before we can believe they did, and 2nd 3rd 4th handed uncorroborated hearsay just doesn't cut it.

When Theology Collides with Science and History

Deities and miracles vanish

For thousands of years, humans have been imagining and inventing gods. Once ideas about gods have been locked into human brains, fierce loyalties and certainties develop. People who claim privileged knowledge of the gods emerge—the priestly classes—and they do their best to enforce “correct” beliefs and behaviors. Today we call them clergy, and there are thousands of different brands, all of whom are confident of the “truths” they advocate. 
 
Just how many gods have been imagined?

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Seth Andrews VS. God: Who is the Better Intelligent Designer?

This is really good stuff as usual! At about 39:17 Seth Andrews recommends my book, "God and Horrendous Suffering." He recommends Dr. Abby Hafer's book too!



Buy my book here!

Horrendous Suffering Reduces the Probability of a Loving God to Zero

The desperate scramble of theologians to rescue their deity 

In the classic American play, Inherit the Wind (by Jerome Lawrence and Robert Edwin Lee), about the 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, we find this exchange between the characters based on William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow:
 
Bryan: “I do not think about things I do not think about.”
Darrow: “Do you ever think about things that you do think about?”

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THERE IS NO ROOM FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE!

Thanks to several of you for your warm wishes on my birthday today. I appreciate them all!

Now I have a personal request. I want everyone to watch this YouTube video linked below. The lesson is clear and absolutely important:

THERE IS NO ROOM FOR POLITICAL VIOLENCE!

You see, my wife and I are also poll workers. It's terrible that Trump incites political violence. But he does. Election workers should never be targeted for doing our job! I hope you agree and spread this same message. LINK

Once Again Let’s Think About Abortion.

LINK.

The Desperate Embrace of Abusive Religion by the Devout

Clint Heacock’s new book shines a bright light on this reality

The Preface to this book is a grabber. Twelve-year old Clint had arrived home from soccer practice, looking forward to the family dinner. But there was no one home; instead of the usual buzz of activity, nothing. Clint went into a panic: had the Rapture happened, and he was left behind? He wouldn’t get to meet Jesus and go to heaven? I won’t offer a plot spoiler here—where the family actually was—but this incident is a stunning example of abusive religion. Here was a kid who had been told by people he trusted, from his days as a toddler, that Jesus would one day return to collect a select group of true believers for their trip to heaven. And woe to those who weren’t among those selected.

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Taylor Swift Endorses Kamala Harris

Yay! LINK. Her debate with Trump "wasn't even close" says NPR!

McIntosh and Horrendous Suffering

[This article is forthcoming in the Trinity Journal of Natural & Philosophical Theology, Vol. 2, Issue 2 (Fall 2024) in collaboration with the Trinity Graduate School of Apologetics and Theology. The version presented here is slightly different in formatting from the print version. Used with permission.]

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Why Religion Is Being Held Strictly, Bluntly Accountable

Critical thinking skills have kicked in 

There is perhaps nothing more stunning, more shocking, than clergy who have realized that their religion is false—and decided to tell this truth to the world. There’s the famous cartoon by John Billette depicting a priest getting into costume for worship, and confiding to his assistant: “Every Sunday I’m tempted to tell the congregation that it’s all bullshit, but I’m in too deep now.” John W. Loftus, Dan Barker, and Tim Sledge come to mind: clergy who were in really deep, and found the courage to describe their realization that the Christian religion has far too many flaws. It just doesn’t make sense, and cannot be taken seriously. The three ex-clergy just mentioned have written many books about the shortcoming of their abandoned faiths, but there are others who have published their stories, e.g., Jerry Dewitt, John Compere, Drew Bekius, Kenneth Daniels, Bob Ripley, David Ramsey.  

I describe my own loss of faith in an article I published here last May, How Christianity Disintegrated Right in Front of Me.

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The Obsession of Religion with Eternal Life, the Ultimate Scam

A tale of two deathbeds

A few years ago, a devout Catholic woman told me she was having a tough time finding a new job. Since I was a career coach at the time, I offered to give her a book on effective job search. I was stunned by her response: “I don’t read books. Even when I was in college, I didn’t read books. I passed the tests because I kept very good notes in class.” And she confessed that was very protective of her faith; she didn’t want it damaged in any way, because she was eager to see her mother again in heaven.

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Phil Zuckerman, What Happens When Countries Lose Religion?

Beware Furious Christians on the Warpath to Defend Their Faith

Christian love shatters into denial, rage and hate

By the time my first book, Ten Tough Problems in Christian Thought and Belief, was published in 2016, its Facebook page was up and running. I decided to do paid boosts on weekends to promote the book. I selected my preferred target audiences carefully: atheist, agnostic, humanist, secularist— but was surprised to find out that the boost had also appeared on the newsfeeds of devout Christians. This was not a happy event: there was an outbreak of Christian hate as they responded to the ad. I was called all sorts of names and was accused of never having been a real Christian. I was assured that I was going to hell. After a while I discontinued the paid boosts. The biggest irritant, actually, was that not one—not a single one—of the furious Christians chose to engage in any of the ten issues I raised in the book, any one of which is enough to falsify the faith. They were interested in lashing out, not learning.

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"Man is the Measure."

All ethics are made by human beings, many of which are claimed to be given by a God. This means when the ethics of a God are deemed barbaric so also goes that God.

It also means that it's not only possible to have ethics without a God, ethics have always been without a God.