In what follows is a smack-down of the entire edifice of David Marshall's apologetics (not that he will be convinced of course). Christian apologist David Marshall has repeatedly argued that "All scientific knowledge depends upon human testimony." He does so to put the vinyl siding of scientific respectability over the rotting wood of his faith. He rhetorically asks, "How many eyewitness testimonies were confirmed by DNA evidence?" His point is that DNA evidence doesn't confirm eyewitness testimonies, but rather that the human testimonies of scientists confirm the DNA evidence. That's because they saw it and they interpret it for the rest of us. This is crucial for Marshall's defense of Christianity, the resurrection of Jesus, and the claims of miracles in today's world. Human testimony is what both science and his faith depend on for truth. If we can know from the human testimonies of scientists the truth about the world, then we can also know from human testimonies the truth about the Easter Event and miracles in the modern world.
What's there not to understand atheists? Checkmate!!
Religion is associated more closely with societal dysfunction than societal health. Although religionists imagine themselves and their spawn as being more moral, tolerant, and generous-- when you actually measure such things, you find that the opposite is true. Again and again, the more secular the society, the healthier... the religious are only moral in their minds.
If you want to know what is actually true, you might try getting your information from scientists and other peer reviewed sources-- not people who imagine themselves saved for what they believe: Contrary to the views of many conservative pundits and the Christian Right, the least religious countries in the world today are not full of chaos and immorality, but are actually among the safest, healthiest, most well-educated, prosperous, ethical, and successful societies on earth.
So what are we supposed to be applauding the Christians for again? Is there any measurable evidence whatsoever that they are better, righter, or that their beliefs are more true or useful to society than conflicting religions/myths/superstitions? Because all I find in peer reviewed sources is tons of evidence showing the that religion is associated with dysfunction while secularism is associated with more tolerance and more prosocial behavior.
Miles Mogulescu of the Huffington Post Calls for Debbie Wasserman Schultz's ouster!
It's increasingly clear that Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Chair of the Democratic National Committee, isn't acting as a neutral party Chair, trying to insure a fair and democratic primary and building the Democratic Party in the states.
Rather, she's acting as a shill for Hillary Clinton, doing everything in her power to ensure that no one will effectively challenge Hillary's coronation as the nominee.
Wasserman Schultz is committing political malpractice and should be removed. LINK
This so-called war is not what you think, according to Jay Michaelson writing for The Daily Beast. It's more likely the declining numbers of self-identifying Christians who aren't necessarily at war with Christianity. They just don't believe for a variety of factors. The demographics look bad for Christianity in the United States:
According to a Pew Research Report released earlier this year, the percentage of the U.S. population that identifies as Christian has dropped from 78.4 percent in 2007 to 70.6 percent in 2014. Evangelical, Catholic, and mainline Protestant affiliations have all declined. Meanwhile, 30 percent of Americans ages 18-29 list “none” as their religious affiliation (the figure for all ages is about 23 percent).
This represents almost 1/4 of people in the United States which would be the second largest denomination by the numbers only. Whose fault is this state of affairs? According to the very first Christian it is his follower's fault. They are not very effective in their job of recruitment. Do Christians still want to complain about any so-called war when they are to blame? Most of these "nones" just don't give a hoot about the Christian faith. They are about as concerned with Christianity as Buddhists in Thailand or Hindus in India would be. So this attitude of theirs shows up in our culture too, in a variety of ways, especially when it comes to Christian holidays like Christmas and Easter.
These changes are taking place for a constellation of reasons: greater secular education (college degrees), multiculturalism, shifting social mores, the secular space of consumer capitalism and celebrity culture, the sexual revolution (including feminism and LGBT equality), legal and constitutional changes (like the banning of prayer in public school, and the finding of a constitutional right to same-sex marriage), the breakdown of the nuclear family, the decline of certain forms of family and group identification, and the association of religion in general with nonsensical and outdated dogmas. LINK.
My word of advice to Christians is to learn to live in an increasingly non-Christian culture. Your faith is not to be inexplicably tied up with your culture anyway. In fact, living in a non-Christian culture may be a reason to rejoice--using some twisted kind of logic--for there would be no reason for people to play the hypocrite to gain social rewards from the pretense. As a result, only true believers will remain in the fold. Like the Amish today! Living in their own sect-specific communities! Voluntarily! ;-)
I'm very thankful at this season for the support I've received over the years from my readers in terms of comments from which I've learned from you, and the moral and financial support given. I'm just a starving artist without a job right now, who is trying to change the world and who thinks my efforts are worth the sacrifices I've made, even if few others agree or support my causes. I've sacrificed most everything for what I do and live alone on a pauper's income because of it. If you desire to do so, and can afford it, please consider making a donation to what I do. A few people have done so and it helps.
On Christmas day in 1837, the Africans and Native Americans who formed Florida’s Seminole Nation defeated a vastly superior U.S. invading army bent on cracking this early rainbow coalition and returning the Africans to slavery. Some textbooks such as Holt McDougal’s U.S. History (2012) reference the Seminole Wars. However they classify them not as anticolonial, liberation struggles, but as minor impediments in Manifest Destiny’s "triumphant march." -- from an essay by William Loren Katz.on the history left out of the textbooks.
The answer can be found in an interview The Washington Post did with physicist Aaron Adair, who is skeptical of the supposed star of Bethlehem. LINK. Dr. Adair wrote the book, The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View, and a chapter for my upcoming anthology, Christianity in the Light of Science: Critically Examining the World's Largest Religion. I am doubly thankful for Adair's work. He not only used his expertise in science to debunk the faith-based claim of The Star of Bethlehem miracle, he also took the time to understand both the theology behind the supposed Bethlehem star and the apologetical gerrymandering surrounding that claim. His work is highly recommended.
Believers give lip service to science. Science has been very powerful as an knowledge provider such that they have to dress their faith up in it to give it some semblance of credibility. Wow! Only people of faith who are gullible will like this book. LINK.
Looks like the Kindle edition of my book How To Defend the Christian Faith made it to the front page of Christian Apologetics bestselling books by authors like Timothy Keller, Norman Geisler, Lee Stobel, Gregory Boyd and others. This happened in no small part because of Dawkins linking to it.
The Official Facebook Page for The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science just recommended my book. LINK. For those of you not on Facebook *gasp* I put a screenshot of it below. No doubt there are naysayers (both Christian and atheist) who'll claim Dawkins doesn't know enough about sophisticated theology to recommend my work. Maybe not. But he doesn't need to since he knows Christianity is a delusion from his own field of expertise. And he can read the blurbs from people who do. So about the naysayers I say this: If they had written a book--which they almost never do--wouldn't they be pleased with the exposure this gives their work? It's quite an honor! There is a lot of discussion taking place on his Facebook page too.
I know readers hear me say with each new anthology the latest one is the best one. But that's what I think. Here it is ready to be unleashed on the English speaking world, titled "Christianity in Light of Science: Critically Examining the World's Largest Religion." It's in honor of Victor Stenger. Pre-order it on Amazon by clicking here. I see Prometheus Books put up some blurbs of my other works there. Enjoy.
I've seen the newly released movie "Krampus." It's good up until the last quarter of it when it gets too crazy for me. Then it ends well, something I should have guessed. But think about how cruel parents were in earlier days not too distant in the past. Not only did children have the threat of Santa reading their minds and not giving them any gifts, or worse, a black coal in their stockings, each culture had a different gruesome threat beyond that, powerful evil creatures who would punish and torture children if they were naughty. The most feared and widely believed evil creature was Krampus, the Christmas devil. He's caught on camera here. ;-) But seriously. Wasn't the threat of a devil and an eternal conscious torment in hell enough? Makes me wonder how these beliefs didn't make thoroughly dysfunctional adults when they grew up.
This debate is being put on by Mythicist Milwaukee. Since there is a supply and demand feature to anything with a price tag on it, given the ticket costs they expect a high demand (from General Admission of $30.00 to VIP $160.00). Bart will donate his proceeds to charity while it'll be a needed financial relief for Bob. I know a few of us who barely make enough to survive. So that's good for him. The debate will take place as part of a Mythinformation Conference III in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on Friday, October 21, 2016 - 6-9 PM. Earth shattering stuff here folks, sure to convince a Christian one way or another. Or, is this just another example of atheists talking to each other? LINK.
I'm on record as saying debates don't really solve that much. But they are both educational and entertaining. So no one should have any fear if one side or the other loses the debate (although I doubt that will happen). I am curious though, why scientists don't solve their disputes this way. I can imagine it now. One scientist thinks the notion of a holographic universe is nonsense while another thinks otherwise. So they get sponsors and debate the issue. Tickets are costly because there is a high demand for the debate. Afterward both sides declare victory. One college graduate in computer science, who rejects the holographic theory, is unhappy with the debate performance of his guy so he writes a blog post saying his guy does not represent everyone who rejects the holographic theory! [But doesn't every thinking person already know that, which indicates the ignorance of that blog writer? The only reason he would say such a thing is for self-promotion because that's his modus operandi (Just think Jeff Lowder)].
If atheists cannot agree on the evidence then how does anyone expect to convince Christians Jesus never existed? I think we must first approach Christians as Bart Ehrman does before they can be open enough to entertain the idea that Jesus never existed. Yes, a tiny number of Christians have gone from believer to mythicist in one fell swoop, but what kind of believers they were beforehand is another question. This debate is yet another example of people who will eventually find something to disagree with if given enough time. I have witnessed this phenomena myself. People meet. They talk a bit. They agree quite a lot. But eventually they find a disagreement. They almost always do. That disagreement bothers them. They each want agreement so they argue over the disagreement. It eventually leads to anger. They part ways. In my view this is yet another divisive issue among atheists. Granted, I think it's a worthy issue, one that merits careful consideration. But as for me, I'll keep majoring on the majors, the issues that can and do actually help change the minds of believers. Do as you wish though. To each his or her own. Cheers.
Barbara Walters 10 Most Fascinating People of 2015 airs tonight on ABC (check times in your area). One of them is Bernie Sanders! Here's a clip LINK. Don't forget to watch the Democratic Presidential Debate tomorrow.
Seasons Greetings one and all. I'm going to share a few of my favorite songs for the season. Michael Bolton's rendition of "Silent Night" tops my chart. This CD came out in 1996 and every year since I listen to it. It brings tears to my eyes just as it did the first year, and every year since that time. It recalls the memories and regrets of years gone by. I was in a deep crisis of faith when it came out. I listened to it hoping it could give me hope through my crisis. I liked how he sang it with such conviction, the kind I wanted to have again, but couldn't muster no matter how many times I listened to it, and I listened to it over and over and over again. I really wanted Christianity to be true. I knew nothing else. But it isn't true. I had to admit I was deluded. Everything I had hoped for was dashed. Regardless of my back-story, Bolton's rendition of "Silent Night" is the best one ever made.
[Redated post from March 2014 in light of the recent flurry of comments about the mythicist position].
Last night Richard gave a talk at Purdue in West Lafayette, Indiana, based on his book On the Historicity of Jesus. It's to be published by Sheffield-Phoenix Press in a few months. Professor James McGrath has described Richard Carrier as "the last, best hope for mythicism." He goes on to say that "Having an academic book of this sort published does not prove that one is right. It means that one is approaching a question in a rigorous scholarly manner. And to have a mythicist do that is indeed a big deal. Those of us interested in this question will undoubtedly be delighted to finally have a serious academic work to serve as a conversation partner on the topic." Link. Yes, this is a big deal!
Below you can watch his lecture and see a few pictures of us together. If you haven't encountered the evidence that the Book of Acts is historical fiction you need to see this. [Edit: If you can see the case for Acts as fiction why can't you see the evidence that the Jesus story itself could be fiction?] Here, ladies and gentlemen, Carrier presents some good strong evidence that the author of the canonical book of Acts is another liar for Jesus. Enjoy.
Historically scientists didn’t set out to test religious beliefs. They just wanted to understand the world they live in. As they did they discovered evidence that questioned religious beliefs.
Not long ago Harry McCall wrote a post titled, Why Atheists Must Assert Jesus Never Existed, and proceeded to tell us. Being someone who refuses to march to the beat of any drum unless persuaded to do so, I was disappointed since I was unpersuaded, and still am. Liberal Christian Dr. James McGrath saw Harry's post as yet another example of atheist dogmatism so he highlighted two of Harry's posts on this issue as examples. In the comments I told McGrath I was disappointed. The reason is because the credibility of DC is something I take seriously. Today Dr. Valerie Tarico weighed in on the historical vs mythical Jesus debate in a post reasonably titled, Here are 5 reasons to suspect Jesus never existed. I don't think she was aware of the McCall/McGrath exchange. Her post is a much more reasonable one that I can recommend. Readers might disagree with her and still see a big difference in how a scholar like Tarico deals with this issue.
By now, many people are aware that the Islamic State is an apocalyptic death cult that wants to provoke an Armageddon-like battle in a small town in northern Syria. A profusion of articles have been written about this aspect of the Islamic State's mission since it rose to prominence in the summer of 2014. In fact, the most read article ever published in The Atlantic, by Graeme Wood,dedicates considerable space to the apocalyptic motivations behind the largest and best-funded terrorist organization in human history. The Islamic State actively wants the world to end, because this is what it believes the prophet Muhammad said is supposed to happen.