See You At The Amazing Meeting 2013!

Some of us from SIN Network will be dong a workshop on "Skeptical Blogging" Thursday morning at 8 AM. Here's the program link. Now for the video:



This is gonna be good!

Several More Examples How Biblical Authors Stole Literary Ideas from Ancient Pagans

The wholesale plagiarizing of ancient Near Eastern literary themes didn't end with the Old Testament 's   reworking of much older cuneiform stories in Sumerian (4,000  – 2,000 BCE) and Akkadian (2,500 BCE – 100 CE) which recorded The Creation Epic (Enuma Elis), The Flood (Sumerian), The Story of Gilgamesh, The Decent of  Inanna / Ishtar to the Neither World (Jewish Sheol and Christian Hell) and The Legend of Sargon (the basis for Moses' birth story).
  

However, many people are not aware that the plagiarizing of established pagan myths can be found in the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.      

As Yahweh Was Endowed With More Major Divine Attributes, So Did Both His Global Responsibilities and Theological Problems

I have noted many times in posts here at DC that the Jewish God (Yahweh) was a simple local West Semitic deity textually employed after 250 BCE to give a historical foundation for the descendants of the poor Canaanites from the hill country near Ugarit later known as Jews.

The New Theist: How William Lane Craig Became Christian Philosophy's Boldest Apostle

When, during a conversation in a swank hotel lobby in Manhattan, I mentioned to Richard Dawkins that I was working on a story about William Lane Craig, the muscles in his face clenched.

"Why are you publicizing him?" Dawkins demanded, twice. The best-selling "New Atheist" professor went on to assure me that I shouldn't bother, that he'd met Craig in Mexico—they opposed each other in a prime-time, three-on-three debate staged in a boxing ring—and found him "very unimpressive." "I mean, whose side are you on?" Dawkins said. "Are you religious?" LINK.

A Solid Theological Contradiction: An All-Knowing God Must Test People

No temptation (testing) has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted (tested) beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted (tested), he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.     
(1 Corinthians 10: 13)

Typical Tube Tester

When I first setup an electronic repair shop back in the late 1960’s (before the universal use of the transistor), one of the first pieces of equipment I bought was a tube tester to check receiving tubes in radios and televisions. Unless the tube was completely burnt-out or had turned white inside do to air entering the sealed vacuum enclosure, there was no way to find out if the tube was either good or bad without a tube tester which usually had a three level meter scale.  When the “TEST” button was pushed (after the tube warmed up) it was rated   as GOOD, “?” or BAD (and you hoped it didn't tested “?”!). So, unless a tube was visually bad, it was humanly impossible to know how the tube would function without testing it (due to the fact that a resistor or capacitor could be making the tube malfunction while in the circuit).

God's Burning Orphans - The Problem of Divine Hiddenness

Here is a nice summary of the problem of divine hiddenness (also called the argument from nonbelief) from Youtuber TheoreticalBS.

You may also be interested in this article from John Schellenberg, the man who pioneered the argument: What Divine Hiddenness Reveals, or How Weak Theistic Evidence is Strong Atheistic Proof

Countering The Accusation That There is Nothing New in My Books

One of the most common claims about my books, coming mostly from Christians but also from a few atheists, neither of whom have any credentials or body of work to their names, is the accusation that there is nothing new in them. I think the reason they say this is because it makes them sound intelligent. For it's very very difficult to come up with a new argument in this late stage of human understanding. Anyone can say this with little fear of being wrong (except when it comes to new scientific findings). Any ignoramus can say such a thing too. It makes them sound superior without actually doing the hard work themselves, of in-depth researching for the best arguments in the available literature and then trying to make a good case themselves. Confound the ancients, they've stolen all of our ideas! So here's my attempt at disabusing them of this claim, something I recently wrote in response to an atheist who said it about the book God or Godless?:

Christians Shouldn't Outta Do That!

I went to the local Christian bookstore yesterday and guess what I found? My book God or Godless?was displayed on a bookshelf with the cover facing the shopper. They had three copies. Woooo Hoooo! Little do Baker Books and those bookstores know but they have invited the devil into their houses. ;-)

Three Questions Concerning the Function of Theism in the Modern World

1. Should it be an ethical mandate for science to remove a whole section of God’s creation from the face of the earth (for example, the total elimination of certain harmful parasites, germs and viruses)?

2. If no (to protect theism), should humanity be left to suffer with these divine creations as the Will of God?

3. If yes, then should the logical next step be to eliminate God (Theism itself) as an ethical failure due to the fact that science is having to cleanup up God’s many malevolent creations?

Atheism 101: The Null Hypothesis

An excellent explanation of the null hypothesis and burden of proof from Youtuber AntiCitizenX. Be sure to check out his channel for more excellent videos on apologetics, as well as a fascinating Psychology of Belief playlist

"The Christian Delusion" is Arming This Generation's Atheists

This is from Alex Reppe who can be found here on Facebook.

An Analogy on How Most Christian Apologists Defend the Bible

An atheist arguing with a Christian apologist is like driving down a highway with him (or her) in your car. As you drive along, he continually and randomly points to land, cars, buildings and even planes in the sky stating: “My family owns that . . . and we own this . . . and we own that . . .I KNOW we do without a doubt along with much more!” However, common sense tells the atheist that these claims aren't logical, in fact, they’re impossible and the atheist tells this to the Christian.

Why the Fuss About Darwin & Evolution? Eugenie Scott At IPFW in Ft. Wayne

Open Thread for Comments On the Book "God or Godless"

Since so many people have gotten the free ebook God or Godless?: One Atheist. One Christian. Twenty Controversial Questions.let's now discuss what you're reading. What d'ya think?

"God or Godless" Now Ranked #1 in Free Kindle Apologetics Books

That's exactly where I want to be given today's free promotion. ;-)

Richard Carrier on the Free ebook Offer of "God or Godless"

There is one thing people should to know about my friendship with Richard. He was the first scholar to recognize and recommend my work, and for that I'll be ever grateful (Ed Babinski did so before him). As I look at the five books I've published in five years, Richard's influence on me is evident. You can see it with my use of him as a solid resource in support of my arguments, or as a contributing author for my anthologies, or as a blurber for my individually written books. Here's what he additionally said today about the book "God or Godless":

I’d recommend starting any debate online, for example, by having both sides read the corresponding mini-debate in this book, and then continuing from there. And if you just want some ideas for how to debate these topics in general, or even to help you think about them in building your own philosophy of life, this book is well suited as a primer for the task. Even if you don’t think either side is making the very best possible defense of their position, it’s even a useful task to think through how you’d do it better, since both are representative of some of the best approaches. So even then it’s a good place to start. LINK.

He joins other atheist reviewers like Robert Price in recommending this book. And, did I say you can get it free today, July 1st? That's right!.

Inspired With Error: The Gospel of Matthew Can’t Remember Who Said What in the Old Testament

The following was copied from Bruce Metzger’s A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd ed., p. 55.

(Click on to enlarge.)

 What is exposed is a total screw up / misquote by the author of the Gospel of Matthew (who is under divine inspiration of the Holy Spirit) when he thought that Jeremiah (Ἰερεμίου) made a prophetic statement about Judas:  “Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: "They took the thirty pieces of silver, the price set on him by the people of Israel,” Matthew 27:9.
Finally, we then see how later editors tried to cleanup this misquote by either re-assigning it to Zechariah or Isaiah or by leaving out "Jeremiah" altogether.

New Puzzles About the Divine Attributes by Moti Mizrahi

The first puzzle he presents about omniscience purportedly shows that the divine attribute of omniscience is incoherent. The second puzzle about omnibenevolence and omnipotence shows that these two divine attributes are logically incompatible. The third puzzle about perfect rationality and omnipotence shows that these two divine attributes are logically incompatible. See what you think:

What religion has contributed to the world this month - Episode 7

Reach an Audience Who Visits Here About 180,000 Times Per Month!

You can reach this huge audience with your product or service for just $75 a month here at DC. See the advertisement at the right for Reasonist Products? That's all they're paying. The ad doesn't have to be atheist oriented. It could be for an insurance agency, a financial agency, or an artist who wants to promote her work. Christian ads will cost more than that but I'll entertain them, I'm not scared. Contact me at johnwloftus@comcast.net. Serious inquiries only.

Tell Time Magazine to Stop Dismissing Secular Generosity

Ed Brayton just put up a post asking people to email the editors of Time magazine and urge them to do a full story about the growth of secular charities. Foundation Beyond Belief would really like to get the entire atheist blogosphere behind this effort. Time has had a reporter talking to some of the Oklahoma folks on the ground but they are vacillating on whether to actually do the story. We want to put some pressure on them to tell the full story of the incredible growth in secular service organizations. LINK. The email address for the Time editors is in the post. Help spread the word on this to others on your networks and to your readers. It's time that Time acknowledges the charitable work that the secular community does.

F**ked-up Heroes of the Bible: Samson (continued)

Recap: In Part 1, our hero has met a hot lady whom he wants to marry. He loses a riddle bet due some trickery by the aforementioned lady friend, and is forced to kill thirty guys so he can steal their clothes to pay the bet. He’s bummed, so he bunks out at his mom and dad’s, and while he’s gone, his disloyal fiancé marries the best man from the canceled wedding. Time for some good, old-fashioned revenge!

Exhibit 5:

Samson said, “This time I cannot be blamed for everything I am going to do to you Philistines.” Then he went out and caught 300 foxes. He tied their tails together in pairs, and he fastened a torch to each pair of tails. Then he lit the torches and let the foxes run through the grain fields of the Philistines. He burned all their grain to the ground, including the sheaves and the uncut grain. He also destroyed their vineyards and olive groves.
Judges 15:3-5 (NLT)

Arson and animal cruelty. That’s two out of three of the psychopath indicators. Definitely not PETA-approved,and we have the deliberate destruction of private property.

Quote of the Day, by a Christian Named Tannert:

I have been trying to disprove the Bible for quite some time now.

He (?) is a first time commenter, the kind we get who thinks he can straighten us out, saying,

All religions, except for Christianity, conflict with scientific fact, and history. If you can show me one plausible conflict contained within the Bible, and explain to me how its writers predicted the future far before it happened in specific detail...Then I will move it to the list of my false gods, but I promise you won't be able too.

I threw out a few examples. Undeterred, he's the "answer man" and mindlessly spit out some answers. If he's truly interested in trying to disprove the Bible *cough* then I suggest he reads just two books, Why I Became an Atheist, and The Outsider Test for Faith: How to Know Which Religion is True. In fact, if any Christian claims to be doing this then I've suggested twelve books to read, one per month. You can start reading them any given month. I very much doubt he'll read any of them. So much then for disingenuously claiming what he did. It's empty rhetoric, an apologist's trick, claiming he's doing something he isn't doing in order to sound more believable. Typical Christian. It reminds me of so many Christians who are now claiming to have been atheists before becoming Christians, when in reality they weren't intellectual atheists but rather practical atheists. There is a big difference. For all I know, they are still practical atheists. ;-)

Refuting the"Fine Tuning" Argument for God (Sean Carroll)

Physicist Sean Carroll lays some of the problems with the popular "fine tuning" arguments for a god. 

You can check out Carroll's post-debate reflections on his blog here: http://www.preposterousuniverse.com/blog/2014/02/24/post-debate-reflections/

Surely He Wasn't a "Real Christian"!

Pastor arrested, charged with sex crimes

SUMTER, S.C. —A Sumter pastor has been charged with sexually assaulting three female members of his church. Police said Friday that 58-year-old Larry Durant had been arrested and charged with two counts of second-degree criminal sexual conduct with a minor. He also faces four counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

Police say family members told them Durant coerced the victims into having sex with him starting in 2011. Police say the Word International Ministry pastor told the victims the activity was part of the "healing process" and "private prayer."

It wasn't known if Durant had an attorney. He is also charged with forgery after allegedly forging the name of one of the victim's grandmothers on property documents, which he then filed with Sumter County.

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them, With men this is impossible; but with God all things are possible. (Matt. 19: 26)

F**ked-up Heroes of the Bible: Samson

With as irate as fundamentalist Christians get about sex and violence in movies (well, sex at least- they are pretty okay with violence), it is surprising the kind Bible stories that get passed off as appropriate for the kiddies. Sunday School lessons are populated with all sorts of unsavory characters plucked from the pages of the Good Book, sanitized and shined up to be presented to impressionable children. Christians are so desensitized to the nature of what is really going on in the stories that they fail to see that maybe - just maybe - these Hall of Shame members are not the best role models for kids to look up to.

Today’s example: Samson, who even has been immortalized as an children's action figure.

Samson’s sordid saga is detailed in Judges, chapters 13 through 16. It is like one long and violent soap opera. For the sake of brevity, we’ll just hit the low-lights as I present evidence that this hero of the faith (Hebrews 11:32) was just a scoundrel living the thug life.

Luiz Fernando Zadra on the Matrix Possibility

We know we are not in the Matrix because there's no Morpheus around asking us to take red pills, and traveling with us to a different realm of experience from where he can show us that our past life is an machine created illusion. After taking the red pill, your belief in the Matrix will become justified. Until there, it is not. Pretty simple. I don't know why people get so confused about it.

Quintessential Articulett

I'd say that anything that leads you to believe that you know which immeasurable beings are real and which ones are myth/false/superstition is irrational. It's a poor epistemology-- you can see this when it comes to people who believe in fairies or that they are the reincarnated spirit of Buddha or that demons are possessing you-- Heck, they may believe YOU are the anti-christ... but that doesn't mean that they are using the same process that you use to believe that you are NOT the anti-christ. The reason the Scientologist believes Scientology is not the same reasoning you use to believe that Scientology's teaching are bullshit. You are confusing belief in supernatural/far fetched thingies with the dismissal of these ideas-- all believers in magic like to classify skepticism of their claims as beliefs and pretend (as you do) that this means there's a 50-50 probability that their magical beliefs are the truth. (they confuse 2 options with the idea that both options are equally likely.)

Mathematician Dr. James Lindsay Explains How Math Originated

In the beginning, people like you had a rock. The idea of "one" was invented to describe the number of things you had. Then later, you found another rock, and the idea of "two" was invented to describe the situation for when you had one rock and added another rock to your pile. It was realized that the same applies not just to rocks, and numbers were given abstract meaning of their own. Arbitrary symbols, though not arbitrary like "A+A=B" (really, you embarrass yourself) for these numbers were eventually assigned.

Quote of the Day, by Papalinton ;-)

The rise and rise of Debunking Christianity as a forum for measured discussion continues. And just as a heading-lock gyro in a helicopter keeps it tracking true, no matter the direction the wind is blowing, so too does DC track straight and true. It is the place I start the morning, first thing, with a coffee, orientating my day. Increasingly DC is becoming a point of first referral at many sites across the blogosphere, its status and standing as a platform for reasoned discussion continues to consolidate, forensically clipping the remaining bedraggled and time-worn strands to a by-gone worldview, challenging head-on the recalcitrant nature of supernatural superstition.

Seeing they do not see, and hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand

After over 300 comments on how I know E=mc2 I'm transferring the discussion/debate here. I do find it interesting, so in a way I thank Steve for raising it. Now he has brought up a different example. In his own words:

My Podcast Interview With Reasonable Doubts

It's Episode 116 (my part begins around 31:30). Unlike almost all others this 30 minute interview was done in a studio. It's about my two recent books.

How Do I Know E=mc2

Since I demand sufficient objective evidence for what I think is true, here is the question:

I assume, from reading your book the OTF, that you believe that E=mc2. (Perhaps you would say that you do not "believe" that E=mc2; rather, you "know" that E=mc2. Either way; I won't quibble. At least not for now.) The initial question that I have for you is: How do you believe (or, if you insist, know) that E=mc2? Not why, but how? What is the process by which you John Loftus have arrived at the belief (knowledge) that E=mc2?

*Sheesh* Right now I have other things to do than waste it on this drivel. Maybe others can help me out here. [FYI: I did a master's degree research paper on the theory of general relativity.] Here we see another science denier for Jesus.

Use of Classical Greek Etymologies as an Apologetic Defense for New Testament Hellenistic Greek: A Two Edged Sword

I received two comments telling me that I was wrong on the use of the word the church (τη εκκλησια) in Matthew 18: 17. The first was more technical by a Daniel and is quoted in full below.

A Biblical Lie (The Exodus) Exposes Jesus Christ as a Fraud

Sadly for all Christians, their Holy Savior Jesus Christ (as a good Jew) swallowed this baseless Jewish myth hook-line and sinker! What we now find exposed is the fact that this all-knowing Son of God was little more than a wandering ignorant Jewish bigot (if he ever existed).