Why Former Conservatives Become Atheists More Often Than Liberals Do
Someone recently said: "I would love to see conversion rates to atheism between creationist/conservative Christians (like John Loftus) and more liberal Christians." The implication is that conservatives leave their faith and become atheists more often than liberals do. By proxy this shows liberalism is a better brand of Christianity. I suspect both implications are correct. Conservatives have already rejected liberalism as outsiders to liberalism, and for good reasons. So once they reject their own conservative Christianity it's probable that a high number of them eventually become atheists. Unlike former conservatives though, liberals have probably never critically examined their faith from an outsider's perspective, and this makes all the difference. Since liberals believe in less then liberalism is harder to reject, for the less you take on faith the better it is. ;-) Of course, since that's true agnosticism (understood as a position against all metaphysical claims) would be better than liberalism. And atheism (understood as no religious beliefs at all) is the best conclusion of them all.
At What Point Would YOU Walk Out On An Ice Covered Lake?
I'm amazed when Christians argue their faith is more probably true than not, and then try to live as if they're 100% certain of it. So let's grant them a 51% probability that their brand of Christianity is true. Now to put this into perspective, would they walk out on an ice covered lake if there was only a 51% probability the ice would hold them up? ;-)
My Responses to a Christian Scholar
Someone emailed me what an unnamed Christian scholar had written him so I responded as follows. I'll blockquote his comments:
The Diminishing of the Gods
A thorough study of the history of gods reveals a pattern we’d expect if gods are not real. The farther we move back in time (and the farther we move away from science) we see more and bigger claims of divine intervention. Gods have been responsible for thunder, lightning, rain, comets, and holding up the very earth itself. The Christian god in particular has been finding himself with less and less to do these days...It’s almost enough to make a person think gods — and the Christian god, too — have simply been the human explanation for that which was not understood. Link.
BBC - Can We Trust Science?
Nobel Prize winner Sir Paul Nurse examines why science appears to be under attack, and why public trust in key scientific theories has been eroded - from the theory that man-made climate change is warming our planet, to the safety of GM food, or that HIV causes AIDS.
This is a passionate defence of the importance of scientific evidence and the power of experiment, and a look at what scientists themselves need to do to earn trust in controversial areas of science in the 21st century.
Quote of the Day, by Jesse Bering
Does all this disprove God? Of course not. Science speaks only to the improbable, not the impossible. If philosophy rules the day, God can never be ruled out entirely, because one could argue that human cognitive evolution was directly and intentionally inspired by God, so we alone, of all species, can perceive Him (and reality in general) using our naturally evolved theory of mind. But if scientific parsimony prevails, and I think it should, such philosophical positioning becomes embarrassingly like grasping at straws. (The Belief Instinct, p. 195-6).
Science Based Explanations vs. Faith Based Explanations
I'm quite aware of the differences between methodological naturalism and metaphysical naturalism. I have not misinterpreted John's view of science. Rather, I have questioned why he would state that science assumes natural explanations for all phenomena on the one hand, then ask believers to corroborate supernatural explanations through science. -clI must admit this is a great question. The objection is that if I demand that supernatural explanations must abide by the rules of science which only admit natural explanations, then supernatural explanations by definition don't have a chance. This is definitely a quandary of sorts. Let me respond.
A Listing of Cognitive Biases
Cognitive bias is a general term that is used to describe many distortions in the human mind that are difficult to eliminate and that lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, or illogical interpretation. LinkWhy do I keep writing about this? Because we know humans are prone to these biases. We know this. So we should all become skeptics. We should all ask for positive evidence for that which we accept as true. We should adopt a science-based reasoning rather than a faith-based reasoning. Dr. James Alcock defined faith-based reasoning as "belief in search of data." Given the cognitive biases this is simply a wrong-headed approach if we want to know the truth.
I Met a Former Mormon Bishop in Canada
Yep, after I spoke for CFI’s Extraordinary Claims Panel in Canada this former Mormon Bishop came up to me and introduced himself. Afterward we talked over a Foster’s Beer. Someone overheard us talking who said to me, “Mormon’s have some really weird beliefs, don’t they?” Yes they do. But then I see no difference between their beliefs and my former Christian beliefs. I learned to think this way because of my wife. She grounds me. I used to say the same thing about other religions and every time she would tell me they are no different than Christianity. It finally sunk in. She’s right. Then it stuck me. There are people who have never been religious at all. When I tell them I am a former evangelical they must shake their heads and wonder how in the world I could ever have believed what I did. I too am stunned at times. Do natural born atheists think about me the way former evangelicals-turned-skeptics think about Mormonism? Do they shake their heads and wonder how stupid I must be to have believed what I did? Some of them probably do. If so, I hope to show that children are taught to believe in their respective cultures because of indoctrination, brainwashing and enculturation. It could have been them too, ya see.
Quote of the Day
I cannot possibly check everything I believe. There is a trust element involved. I trust the sciences. I trust the consensus of the scientists. Why? Because in those areas where I have studied I agree with them. In fact, if believers were to stop and think about it they trust the sciences too, in an overwhelming number of areas. They just disagree with them in those few areas when the sciences contradict what some pre-scientific ancient agency detectors claimed in a group of canonized texts. -- John W. Loftus
The Christian Faith Makes a Person Stupid. Doug Wilson: "I Have Faith in the Bible,You Have Faith in Reason"
See below:
Quote of the Day- by John W. Loftus
The bottom line is that the odds of a resurrection from my experience are at 0%. No Bayesian analysis can multiply 0 with any other number and get any more than 0. That's what the probabilities are. So I am skeptical of the extraordinary claim that Jesus resurrected since I cannot dismiss my present experience. I must judge the past from my present. I cannot do otherwise! Coupled with the fact that when I read the NT it provides its own demise there is no reason to believe such a claim EVEN IF IT IS TRUE!
Professor James E. Alcock on "The Belief Engine"
I was on CFI's Extraordinary Claims panel this Friday night with Dr. Alcock. He gave a wonderful talk which will be available online sometime in the near future. Here is an essay he wrote that goes right along with what he said, called The Belief Engine. It's a must read.
The true critical thinker accepts what few people ever accept — that one cannot routinely trust perceptions and memories. Figments of our imagination and reflections of our emotional needs can often interfere with or supplant the perception of truth and reality. Experience is often a poor guide to reality. Skepticism helps us to question our experience and to avoid being too readily led to believe what is not so.
CFI Extraordinary Claims Panel: Christ
Here are the notes from my talk for the CFI Panel in Ontario, Canada. Enjoy.
Quote of the Day: Can God Not Defeat Iron Chariots?
"And the LORD was with Judah; and he drove out the inhabitants of the mountain; but could not drive out the inhabitants of the valley, because they had chariots of iron." - Judges 1:19
There is a skeptical site called Wiki Iron Chariots based on this text that I recommend.
There is a skeptical site called Wiki Iron Chariots based on this text that I recommend.
Dispatches: Return to Africa's Witch Children
My heart breaks when I consider the harm Christianity does to children accused of witchcraft in Africa. This is how religion evolves as it comes into contact with a different culture. Since Christianity is growing exponentially in the Southern Hemisphere and in Asia this just might be the Christianity of the future. Watch this video. It makes my blood boil. I hope this barbaric idiocy can be eradicated in the future.
I'm Going to Be in Your Backyard In California for Two Speaking Engagements
Hey, just a heads up if you live in California close to where I'll be. I'm be speaking in Villa Park, CA, for the Backyard Skeptics Meetup on the 8th February, and then in Riverside, CA, on the 9th for the Inland Empire Atheists, Agnostics & Skeptics Meetup Group. As always I'm excited and would like to meet up with people who comment here at DC.
"John Loftus...Will Take on Christ"
That's what the billing for the Ontario, Canada, CFI event this Friday says. Do ya think Christ has a chance? He'll probably be a "no show" as usual. ;-)
Professor Matt McCormick's Article on "Atheism"
For the most part, atheists have presumed that the most reasonable conclusions are the ones that have the best evidential support. And they have argued that the evidence in favor of God’s existence is too weak, or the arguments in favor of concluding there is no God are more compelling. Link.
When Believers Say Their Prayers Get Answered
I'm looking for good one-liners to several statements believers might make about various topics to provoke discussion. I've started a "tag" for it and will try to compile some quick responses to believers as I think of them. So when believers say their prayers get answered ask them what kind of requests they make. For more as a follow up see this link.
Derren Brown on the Power of Suggestion
Check this out! Derren is a genius! Think you can be completely rational and uninfluenced by your cultural surroundings? Think again. And then think religion. The cultural influences for Christianity are everywhere in America. This helps to explain why Christians are not usually reasoned out of their faith because they were never reasoned into it in the first place. Really!
The Debunking Christianity Challenge, Part 2
I've proposed reading one skeptical book a month in 2011 as the Debunking Christianity Challenge. Now I'm going to propose a Part 2. Both of these challenges are designed to help Christians test their faith as outsiders. Here's another way for Christians to take the Outsider Test for Faith. Do this...
"Inside the Minds of Animals" by Jeffrey Kluger for Time Magazine
Read the Time Magazine article "Inside the Minds of Animals". Then see Kluger's interview with Charlie Rose. Animal research is confirming many things about animals that make my Darwinian Problem of Evil argument in The Christian Delusion
more and more forceful. See also my online essay The Bible and the Treatment of Animals.
Hat Tip: Luke at Common Sense Atheism.
more and more forceful. See also my online essay The Bible and the Treatment of Animals.Hat Tip: Luke at Common Sense Atheism.
Guest Post by Douglas Groothuis on the Problem of Evil
I have a number of Christian scholars I regard as friends that I allow posting here at DC for comment (hit the tag "Christian Scholars" to see a few of them). Doug is writing his magnum opus titled, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case for Christian Faith, which should be out by August of this year. He emailed me and asked that I publish a short article of his on the problem of evil which appeared in The Christian Research Journal, asking for comment. He'll have a chapter on this topic in his book too.
After reading it I responded:
After reading it I responded:
The Mind/Brain Problem
Okay, Okay, I've been participating in a guilty pleasure by visiting Victor Reppert's Blog lately. Vic argued
I am suggesting on principled grounds that a careful reflection on the nature of mind and matter will invariably reveal that there is a logical gap between them that in principle cannot be bridged without fudging categories.My responses so far:
Quote of the Day, by Desertbarry
Anything can be explained and therein lies a problem of huge dimension. There is nothing so implausible, improbable, morally repugnant, intellectually confounding or absurdly contraditory but that it can be explained. It is not the fool or dunce who does this best but the clever, the imaginative, the articulate, the intellecually creative, the ingenious: think Platinga, Hick, Gutting or indeed anyone's favorite theistic apologist. So what option have we? Perhaps a greater appreciation for demonstration as opposed to explanation might give us a start in the right direction.
Chris Hallquist on Alvin Plantinga and the Problem of Evil
Link. Here's the money quote:
...the fact that it is logically possible that something is false does not mean a compelling case for it has not been made, or that the contrary view is remotely plausible. And it’s especially difficult to see how Plantinga did anything to touch versions of the problem of evil based on specific evils like the Holocaust. For reasons I’ve explained...when the problem of evil is put that way, I think it’s a very powerful argument, even though I’m “familiar with Plantinga’s free will defense” and can’t see that I’ve been “misled.”
Quote of the Day, "Doubt is the Adult Attitude"
Doubt is the adult attitude. And only people who refuse to doubt will ask that I doubt my doubts. Doubt is a filter that helps me sift out what to believe from what not to believe. I cannot do away with that filter and remain an adult person who thinks critically.
What Positive Evidence is There for God's Existence?
In every era of history there were gaps in our understanding. We knew how women got pregnant through sex but we didn't know the internal bodily process, so guess what? God did it. We knew rain fell from the sky but we didn't know the process so guess what? God did it.
But look what's going on here, okay? Science closes the gaps. When it does it creates deeper problems and with them come the recognition of new gaps. The whole discussion about wormholes and cosmic singularities has been brought to us by the same science that closed a thousand previous gaps. Believers have been wrong to find God in the gaps of the past just as they are wrong to find him in today's gaps. To argue like they do is an informal fallacy called the Argument From Ignorance based in negative evidence, that is, we cannot explain something so therefore our particular god did it. This is not considered positive evidence for a god just as the negative evidence showing that an object is not a door tells us nothing positively about what that object is. The ONLY science that supports a god faith is therefore based in a logical fallacy. Christian, if you think otherwise then provide me some positive evidence that your God exists or acknowledge that you got nothing.
All you got is the centuries old claim that science can't explain this or that, and when it does you move the goal posts.
But look what's going on here, okay? Science closes the gaps. When it does it creates deeper problems and with them come the recognition of new gaps. The whole discussion about wormholes and cosmic singularities has been brought to us by the same science that closed a thousand previous gaps. Believers have been wrong to find God in the gaps of the past just as they are wrong to find him in today's gaps. To argue like they do is an informal fallacy called the Argument From Ignorance based in negative evidence, that is, we cannot explain something so therefore our particular god did it. This is not considered positive evidence for a god just as the negative evidence showing that an object is not a door tells us nothing positively about what that object is. The ONLY science that supports a god faith is therefore based in a logical fallacy. Christian, if you think otherwise then provide me some positive evidence that your God exists or acknowledge that you got nothing.
All you got is the centuries old claim that science can't explain this or that, and when it does you move the goal posts.
Why Should Anyone Believe?
I maintain there is no way to conclude Jesus bodily arose from the grave even if he did. I can even grant you for the sake of your argument the existence of Yahweh and that he does miracles, but this changes very little. For the evidence shows us that an overwhelming large percentage of the Jews in Jesus' day did not believe even though they knew their Scriptures and even though they were there. So why should I believe? Why should anyone?
The 25 Most Influential Living Atheists
Hey, did they miss anyone? Link. There are so many others to choose from but I doubt anyone can say the people on the list don't deserve to be there.
Christian, if You Are Deluded Then What Would You Expect?
If you are deluded then the evidence to the contrary, even if it is overwhelming, will not convince you otherwise. Just think of the Mormons. Perhaps you can explain to me why Mormons still believe even though it's been shown through DNA evidence that Native Americans are not descendants of Semitic peoples: Losing a Lost Tribe: Native Americans, DNA, and the Mormon Church.
Come on now. Think about this. Like the Mormons you were raised to believe and you now defend what you were raised to believe in a Christian culture despite the evidence just like they do because they were raised in a Mormon culture. Or, at least consider this a real possibility.
Come on now. Think about this. Like the Mormons you were raised to believe and you now defend what you were raised to believe in a Christian culture despite the evidence just like they do because they were raised in a Mormon culture. Or, at least consider this a real possibility.Dr. Hector Avalos on "What’s Not so Secular about Introductions to the Bible?"
This is a slightly edited version of his paper delivered at the Annual Meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, Ideological Criticism Section, on November 20, 2010. Link
Quote of the Day, by Albert Nolan
Albert Nolan in his book Jesus Before Christianity
:
Earth to Christians. Earth to Christians. There is a vicious circularity in your appeal to historical evidence. You cannot believe without historical evidence and yet you must approach said evidence from our present day perspective. The only way you can reach your historical conclusions is by assuming what needs to be shown based on your upbringing in a Christian culture and that's it. There can be no other reason why you conclude what you do. If in our world miracles do not happen then they did not happen in first century Palestine either. Q.E.D.
:“To imagine that one can have historical objectivity without a perspective is an illusion. One perspective, however, can be better than another, [but] the only perspective open to us is the one given to us by the historical situation in which we find ourselves. If we cannot achieve an unobstructed view of Jesus from the vantage point of our present circumstances, then we cannot achieve an unobstructed view of him at all.” (p. 4)In my world miracles do not happen, folks. What world are YOU living in?
Earth to Christians. Earth to Christians. There is a vicious circularity in your appeal to historical evidence. You cannot believe without historical evidence and yet you must approach said evidence from our present day perspective. The only way you can reach your historical conclusions is by assuming what needs to be shown based on your upbringing in a Christian culture and that's it. There can be no other reason why you conclude what you do. If in our world miracles do not happen then they did not happen in first century Palestine either. Q.E.D.
Major Religions of the World Ranked by Number of Adherents
2 Islam: 1.5 billion
3 Agnostic/Atheist: 1.1 billion
4 Hinduism: 900 million
5 Chinese religion: 394 million
6 Buddhism: 376 million
7 Primal-indigenous: 300 million
8 African Traditional: 100 million
9 Sikhism: 23 million
10 Juche: 19 million
11 Spiritism: 15 million
12 Judaism: 14 million
13 Baha'i: 7 million
14 Jainism: 4.2 million
15 Shinto: 4 million
16 Cao Dai: 4 million
17 Zoroastrianism: 2.6 million
18 Tenrikyo: 2 million
19 Neo-Paganism: 1 million
20 Unitarian: 800 thousand
21 Rastafarianism: 600 thousand
22 Scientology: 500 thousand
Scientists Discover a Promiscuity Gene
Yep, that's right.
In what is being called a first of its kind study, researchers...have discovered that about half of all people have a gene that makes them more vulnerable to promiscuity and cheating.While it isn't a forgone conclusion that people with this gene will cheat on their mates, the presence of that gene makes such a temptation harder to overcome. Imagine that, some people (half of us) have a harder time overcoming such a temptation and yet God supposedly judges us all equally. That doesn't seem fair now does it? I wonder if the incarnate Jesus gave himself that gene since he was "tempted in every way, just as we are.” (Hebrews 4:15) ;-)
"American Looks Ripe for a Religious Revival"
So reads the headline of an interview with church growth expert Kent Hunter in my local paper. What Kent actually says is that America is "sort of like a field that’s ready for seeds.” This is hardly like a field ripe for harvest as the attention getting heading indicates. Christians say this kind of thing all of the time, I know. They say it with faith in God's providence in hopes he'll do something. But Kent is not to be taken lightly. He is a widely recognized church growth specialist who lives in my area and heads up Church Doctor Ministries. He is sought after around the world for advice and the author of several church growth books. My suggestion is to heed his warning and get involved now before it's too late. Come out of the closet...Donate to skeptical causes...then brace yourselves for the long haul just in case he ends up being right.
What Led You Initially to Deconvert, Some Surprizes
This multiple choice poll is closed and here are the results below. There were a couple of surprises.
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