"A" Week is This Week

Tell others you’re an atheist and proud of it this week. Start some discussions with people about your atheism.

A Week is not about being disrespectful to religion or people who have religious views, it’s about quietly showing that there are more people than may be realised who are ‘Good without God’ and who don’t need religion to influence their lives. Link

My Interview With Minnesota Atheists

Enjoy

Why Are You An Atheist?

Jerry Coyne asked a good starter question so let me repeat it here:

Why are you an atheist? Does it have anything to do with a lack of evidence for god, or are there other factors involved?

Link

Quote of the Day, by The Maverick Jester

It was one of my children that pushed me toward atheism. He did something that I didn't approve. In the bible, we learn that if one of god's children disappoints him and refuses to beg for forgiveness, he sends them to an eternity of torture. Until that incident with my son, I didn't understand how insane the concept of hell was. Never would I want my son to suffer. He could spit on me or hate me and I would still seek his good. There is nothing that he could do that would make me want him to be tortured forever-or even a minute. Once I began to question god about hell, I began to question him about everything. I didn't want to ask questions. I wanted to believe. But once the ball started rolling, I couldn't stop it. Link

And the Winner is...James McGrath

There is a clear winner for my T-Shirt slogan contest with the most votes, and it's James F. McGrath. His slogan: "Atheists: Disbelieving in gods without getting struck by lightning for more than 2000 years." He said he would like to blog his way through the book by Earl Doherty that I'll send him. I look forward to that. There were many other great slogans. The ones I liked the best are below, and I may use a few of them on my shirts:

Why I Am Not a Christian

You can read essays with this title on the Secular Web from Richard Carrier, Graham Oppy, Keith Parsons, Ken Daniels, and myself. Enjoy.

A World Without Atheists

A nice short video...

Quote of the Day, by Russ

Simply being able to imagine something is no reason to think that it's possible for it to exist. All gods so far are imaginary. You are forced to agree with me that all gods are imaginary with you taking exception only for your particular incarnation of a Christian god. But, your god is no more real than Rama or Vishnu or Thor. Until it can be shown that a god, any god, can do something there is no reason to think it's even possible for one to exist. Until we can see a god acting on its own rather than being credited with things achieved by other means, we are fully justified in treating them like we treat trolls and flying dragons: they are the stuff of myth. Link

Let's Talk Turkey About the Evidence for Christianity

Tell me if I'm missing something. It's time to sum up the evidence for Christianity and see what it is.

About.com Reader's Choice Awards Are Now Posted

The Christian Delusion was chosen as the Best Atheist Book of 2010. To see other choices in other categories click on the image in the sidebar to the right, or the one below:

Quote of the Day

When people quote the bible at me, they may as well be telling me they're crazy. It probably has the same effect as people quoting the Quo'ran, Book of Mormon, or Dianetics at me-- or even the Big Book of Greek Myths-- or casting a spell upon me. I think it's crazy that people believe in magic books in the 21st century. -- articulett

Another Mark of a Deluded Person

[Written by John Loftus] Previously I wrote on the Ten Marks of a Deluded Person. Here's another one. Many Christians treat skeptics like me as if we are enemies to be debated rather then fellow human beings interested in the truth. That is surely one of the marks of a brainwashed or deluded person too. Dr. Randal Rauser in his book, You're Not As Crazy As I Think, would seem to agree. Rauser: "The single most effective way to protect a core set of ideological claims from critical introspection is by positing a simplistic binary opposition between two sides while placing the views we seek to protect on the correct or true side and all views hostile to the core ideology on the incorrect side." (p. 58) "For too long we have objectified the dissenting voice at the other end of the battlefield as nothing more than a target of conquest." (p. 12) However, "The real person of truth is one who expresses a genuine willingness to listen to the other as as equal conversation partner." (p. 8) As a corrective to this Rauser endorses a resolution "...to engage with the other--the liberal, the Dawinist, the animal rights activist, and the atheist--as an equal partner in dialogue and so to treat each one as a person we can learn from and need to listen to." (p. 11)

God and The Outsider Test for Faith (OTF)

Christian, if your faith does not meet the skeptical standard of the OTF then people who are born into different cultures cannot be rationally convinced to believe by virtue of being raised in their respective cultures as outsiders. Don’t tell me people in the Southern Hemisphere are converting. That’s not the point. The point is that God had to make Christianity pass the OTF, and if that’s so, why kick against the goads? Why not apply its standard against what you were raised to believe? Examine your own faith with the same level of skepticism you use when examining the other religious faiths you reject.

A Shirt Slogan Contest For a Free Copy of Earl Doherty's Book

Some generous person sent me Earl's book Jesus: Neither God Nor Man - The Case for a Mythical Jesus. Since I already had a copy of it I'm going to send this $40 book via Media Mail to the person within the US who comes up with the best shirt slogan (front side only). A friend of mine will design it just as he did for my Outsider Test for Faith shirt, which can be seen and bought right here. I'll be the final judge of the winner but I'll take into consideration any slogan that receives a high number of "Like" clicks next to it, so be sure to vote even if you don't suggest a slogan yourself. I'm looking for one that people will actually buy and wear.

The Delusional Mind At Work

[Written by John Loftus] Let's take a look at what a Christian named fonsoc wrote:

One of us is wrong. You can prove me wrong when you can prove the non-existence of God and let me know where the very first cell came from at the base of Darwin's tree. I have never heard on credible answer to that question yet. You will know that I am right or wrong after you die. We will all die someday - and there is no argument against that. I am not just guessing, I am sure that there is life on the other side of death because of my personal relationship with God. I don't have to wait until I die to see that. He has given me that assurance in the here and now. Link.

Why Evolution is True, by Jerry Coyne

Every day, hundreds of observations and experiments pour into the hopper of the scientific literature. Many of them don't have much to do with evolution - they're observations about the details of physiology, biochemistry, development, and so on - but many of them do. And every fact that has something to do with evolution confirms its truth. Every fossil that we find, every DNA molecule that we sequence, every organ system that we dissect, supports the idea that species evolved from common ancestors. Despite innumerable possible observations that could prove evolution untrue, we don't have a single one. We don't find mammals in Precambrian rocks, humans in the same layers as dinosaurs, or any other fossils out of evolutionary order. DNA sequencing supports the evolutionary relationships of species originally deduced from the fossil record. And, as natural selection predicts, we find no species with adaptations that only benefit a different species. We do find dead genes and vestigial organs, incomprehensible under the idea of special creation. Despite a million chances to be wrong, evolution always comes up right. That is as close as we can get to a scientific truth. - Jerry Coyne, Why Evolution Is True

For more see the DC Evolution Smackdown.

I'll Be Speaking on "The Christian Delusion" in Lafayette, Louisiana

This event is organized by the University of Louisiana-Lafayette Philosophy Club. It'll take place Thursday, March 17, from 5-8 PM in room 522n of Griffin Hall. See campus map. I'll not be as active here as I prepare and while I'm gone.

I No More Worship Science As I Do My Wife

The deluded mind of a believer says I worship science. What utter buffoonery! I no more do so than I worship my wife, although I trust her implicitly. I do not pray to her in hopes that by waving her magic wand she will grant my requests, nor do I light votive candles to her, nor do I build expensive cathedrals in her name and evangelize people to join me once a week to sing her praises, nor do I accept everything she says without evidence since sometimes she's wrong, nor do I read with devotion what she has written, nor will I pray to her when she dies, nor do I have any hope of being with her in heaven, nor will people be sent by her to hell if they think otherwise. No wonder skeptics think believers are brainwashed. No wonder many skeptics are adopting the Courtier's Reply in responding to believers. If believers actually think this then there is nothing left to do but laugh! ;-) And I'm serious! Point. Get. The.

Devastating Tsunami Hits Japan. You Want Evidence There Isn't a Good Omnipotent God? Here it is.

Here it is. Try explaining this rather than explaining it away.

I'll Be Teaching an Online Class for CFI on "What is Atheism?"

Yep, this will take place in April with Dr. John Shook, see announcement below:

People Don’t Know When They’re Lying to Themselves

I've said these kinds of things before but I need to say them again and again and again, this time in reference to two notorious people in the headlines. The lesson of Muammar Gaddafi and Charlie Sheen is that they're lying to themselves and don't know it. They've convinced themselves they are right. But then, this is what we as human do, most all of us. It takes a special kind of skepticism to stop ourselves from doing this. And this applies equally when it comes to our religious debates. My claim is that Christians are delusional. They simply believe despite the overwhelming evidence against their faith. They are in denial just like Gaddafi and Sheen. We can see it plainly in others. What we cannot do is see the same thing in ourselves. So I'm against faith-based reasoning, which is best defined as "belief in search of data." Gaddafi and Sheen have a belief in themselves so they have found the relevant data and convinced themselves they are in the right. You cannot convince them otherwise. That makes skepticism, an adult attitude, a virtue. So I won't believe anything for which there isn't good solid evidence for it. And I won't believe anything for which there are no reasonable answers to basic questions. What's not to understand about this?

Plantinga’s Latest EAAN Refuted, by Dr. Stephen Law

Here's the money quote:

Jesse Bering on Klüver-Bucy Syndrome and Nymphomania

This article is a very significant one by the author of two books I recommend, The God Instinct, and The Belief Instinct. He tells us: "Although Klüver-Bucy Syndrome is relatively rare, it's one of the most notorious neurological causes of a complete breakdown in one's ability to control sexual urges." Read both pages linked below and see what you think. Here is his conclusion:

The Danger of Belief is Thinking You Believe What God Does

[Written by John W. Loftus] A study done by Nicholas Epley from the University of Chicago tells us all believers think God agrees with what they do about a host of non-related issues. Let me just quote from Discover Magazine’s “Creating God in One’s Own Image” (Nov. 30, 2009):

Epley asked different groups of volunteers to rate their own beliefs about important issues such as abortion, same-sex marriage, affirmative action, the death penalty, the Iraq War, and the legalization of marijuana. The volunteers also had to speculate about God’s take on these issues, as well as the stances of an “average American”, Bill Gates (a celebrity with relatively unknown beliefs) and George Bush (a celebrity whose positions are well-known).

For many religious people, the popular question “What would Jesus do?” is essentially the same as “What would I do?” Through a combination of surveys, psychological manipulation and brain-scanning, he has found that when religious Americans try to infer the will of God, they mainly draw on their own personal beliefs.

Epley surveyed commuters at a Boston train station, university undergraduates, and 1,000 adults from a nationally representative database. In every case, he found that people’s own attitudes and beliefs matched those they suggested for God more precisely than those they suggested for the other humans.

If this study shows us anything at all it should make believers less certain of what they pontificate about. In fact, this study falsifies faith itself, for there is no independent way to determine what God thinks, if he exists at all. Believers simply create their own religion, their own Gospel, and their own God in their own image.

This is a recipe for disaster since believers will claim they have a divine mandate for anything they think is the case.

On the Failure of God's Strategy

So many things to say about this and so little space. But think on this. Christians describe the world as a stage for a cosmic war. So what should God do with any skeptic who's aim is to dethrone him? He could continue allowing us to do what we do waiting for the time to sock it to us in hell. But our eternal fate would be equivalent to being blindsided with a divine sucker punch after the ending fight bell had rang. And waiting until that time seems unreasonable since we're leading others "astray" into eternal damnation, which isn't something I would want people to experience if I were God. I would think he would kill or silence the leading atheists late at night in mysterious ways when no one is looking. Or, he could give them their own undeniable personal miracle so they would believe. Or, God could personally visit them and explain enough of his mysterious ways for them to believe. Then too, God could simply snap his fingers and take away their critical thinking skills so that they would believe. Christians say it's all in his plan. Balderdash! Sounds inept to me. It's like God is a Jekyll and Hyde all rolled up into one. Don't quote the Bible to me. I know what it says. I'm questioning what it says. I do not believe it. Offer a reasonable answer. Tell me why his strategy is effective rather than a failure.

BBC - Wonders of the Universe - Episode 1: Destiny

Harry McCall on the Lies of God

Does God lie? He most certainly does according to the Bible. If so, how can we trust anything in it? Maybe God's plan is to send skeptics to heaven and gullible believers to hell? ;-) Ya just can't know.

Quote of the Day, by Jon Jeremy

There is a fairly simple diagnostic test for delusion: before starting any debate, just ask: "What kind of evidence would cause you to change your mind?" If the answer is 'none' then you've caught one of the deluded. Go on with the debate by all means, but treat it as a spectator sport rather than an attempt to convince your opponent.

"Is the Catholic Church a Force for Good?" by Stephen Fry

This is very well said!

Christopher Hitchens on 60 Minutes

Enjoy.

10 Questions That Every Intelligent Christian Must Answer

Enjoy:

How Do We Know Christians are Delusional?

Enjoy:

Proof That Islam is the Truth!

Yep, let's see other believers at the next Islamic worship service. Enjoy and convert now! So many believers, so sure of themselves, it all sounds the same. Because it is!

On Appreciating the Arguments of Ludwig Feuerbach

Feuerbach was a skeptical pioneer who influenced Karl Marx. The first edition of his influential skeptical book, The Essence of Christianity, was criticized widely by the public at large as "baseless." So in the Preface to the Second Edition two years later, he explains why so many people thought his work was bad, just like many Christians think my work is bad. While I'm not comparing myself to him, what he said in response was brilliant:

If Nothing Else Look at the Trend, From Conservative to Moderate to Liberal to Agnostic to Atheist

[Written by John W. Loftus] In Ed Babinski's book, Leaving The Fold: Testimonies Of Former Fundamentalists, published seven years ago, there are testimonies from former fundamentalists who became moderates, liberals, and even "ultra liberals," like Dewey Beegle, Harvey Cox, Conrad Hyers, Robert Price (who now describes himself as a "Christian atheist"), and seven others. We could add other names like Howard Van Till, Valerie Tarico, John Hick, Marcus Borg, John A. T. Robertson, James Wall, Andrew Furlong, and James Sennett. In another section there are testimonies of former fundamentalists who became agnostics, like Ed himself, Charles Templeton, Farrell Till, and five others. We could add other names like Robert Ingersoll, William Dever, Bart Ehrman, and William Lobdell. In still another section of his book there are former fundamentalists who became atheists, like Dan Barker, Jim Lippard, Harry McCall, Frank Zindler, and four others. We could add other names like Hector Avalos, Michael Shermer, Ken Daniels, Ken Pulliam, Jason Long, Joe Holman, Paul Tobin, myself and many many others. I can't remember all the names of the important people who left fundamentalist Christianity because there are simply too many of them to remember! If you read Ex.Christian.net, deconversion stories are posted there almost every day.

Dr. Richard Carrier On the Dark Ages

Richard reminded me he wrote on this subject a few years back. Enjoy. Below is the money quote:

John's Top Posts from 2009 thru 2013

Top 20 Posts for 2009.

Top 25 Posts for 2010.

Top 25 Posts for 2011.

Top 25 Posts for 2012.

Top 30 Posts for 2013.

The Debunking Christianity Challenges

Here are three Debunking Christianity Challenges:

1) The 2015 Debunking Christianity Challenge.

2) The Debunking Christianity Challenge, Part 2

3) The Debunking Christianity Challenge, Part 3

Dr. Matt McCormick On the Goodness of God

In A Simple Paradox Concerning God’s Goodness he writes:

Has God committed morally wrong actions? If God is the almighty creator of the universe, then there are countless instances where there was an event that God was either directly or indirectly causally responsible for that we would ordinarily identify as morally wrong. Consider the class of actions or omissions that we would identify as morally wrong if a moral agent had been present and had committed them or allowed them to happen. A person drowns by herself near a dock on a lake where a life vest sits on the dock. If a person had been standing next to the life vest and saw her drowning in the lake, but refrained from tossing the life vest to her, we would think of that failure to act as morally abhorrent. There are countless other events like these where it does not appear that God did what we would ordinarily have identified as the morally obligatory act. Therefore, it would appear that God has committed (or by omission allowed to happen) countless morally wrong events.

The Late Ken Pulliam on the Mind of the Believer

Dr. Pulliam only blogged for about a year before his untimely death in October 2010. But he did have something to say about neurology and the mind of the believer. He reviewed a few important books and studies that I'll link to below:

Dinesh D'Souza On Why We Need Earthquakes

D'Souza reviewed a book for Christianity Today titled, Rare Earth, written by Peter Ward and Donald Brownlee, which he recommends. The answer proffered is that without earthquakes, "the planet couldn't support creatures like us." Here's my response:

The Mind of the Believer, Revisited

As I said earlier, the more I read the contorted ways Christians try to gerrymander around the basic questions I ask of them and the more they retreat when I ask for evidence to believe, then the more I become interested in the psychological state of the mind of the believer. Even though I once believed, it continually amazes me to see how believers respond to what I write. That's why the next several books I plan on reading have to do with this topic, books that you can read for yourselves, three of which I have previously reviewed (or commented on).

So let me pursue this here, even though it's probably fruitless. Let's say Christianity is palpably false much in the same way as Christians think Islam, Orthodox Judaism, and Hinduism are palpably false. Let's also say that believers in all of these faiths are delusional by virtue of being indoctrinated (or brainwashed) by their cultural upbringing to believe. Let's say this is all true even though I cannot persuade devout believers this is in fact the case, for if this is the case then it's highly unlikely anything I say could convince them otherwise. Okay? Now let me put the following questions to you: If you are deluded by your faith would you want to know? Are you honestly interested in knowing whether or not your faith is true? Or, do you instead get a knee-jerk visceral reaction to any doubt producing argument? Do you come here to do battle with Satan himself, or do you view me as a human being who is sincerely expressing his doubts? Can you say you are willing to honestly consider what I write, or not? If not, why not?

Is God Omnipotent or Not?

Why is it that believers say God can do anything until I suggest a scenario that they don't like? This is yet another reason why I think Christians are delusional. It's crystal clear that what they think God can do depends on whether a given scenario is something that they like or not. It's much like how they deal with unanswered prayer. They count the hits and discount the misses. And it's much like giving God the credit for the good that happens in life and blaming human beings (or the devil) for everything else. I don't get it. Is God omnipotent or not? Let me give just one scenario concerning earthquakes which cause massive amounts of suffering.

CFI's New Campaign: Living Without Religion

I love it!

Why the Gods are Not Winning, by Gregory Paul & Phil Zuckerman

American opinion on the issue of human evolution from animals has been rock steady, about half agreeing, about half disagreeing, for a quarter century. What has changed is how people view the Bible. In the 1970s nearly four in ten took the testaments literally, just a little over one in ten thought it was a mixture of history, fables, and legends, a three to one ratio in favor of the Biblical view. Since then a persistent trend has seen literalism decline to between a quarter and a third of the population, and skeptics have doubled to nearly one in five. If the trend continues the fableists will equal and then surpass the literalists in a couple of decades. Link

10 Awful Truths About Book Publishing

Given the following ten awful truths about book publishing I'm very thankful to have a decent readership of my books:

1. The number of books being published in the U.S. has exploded.
2. Book industry sales are declining, despite the explosion of books published.
3. Average book sales are shockingly small, and falling fast.
4. A book has less than a 1% chance of being stocked in an average bookstore.
5. It is getting harder and harder every year to sell books.
6. Most books today are selling only to the authors’ and publishers’ communities.
7. Most book marketing today is done by authors, not by publishers.
8. No other industry has so many new product introductions.
9. The digital revolution is expanding the number of products and sales channels but not increasing book sales.
10. The book publishing world is in a never-ending state of turmoil. Link.

The Delusional Mind at Work

People are chiming in against me and reveling in it. At last, "we've got him," they chant as they raise their glasses and sing songs to Jesus. "He's blatantly wrong, ignorantly wrong, palpably wrong, utterly wrong, completely wrong," they chant on into the night. What am I wrong about? That the Christian Middle Ages were the "Dark Ages." I pretty much stand by what I wrote, but here's what some are concluding from my being wrong:

Were the "Dark Ages" Really Dark?

I'm being taken to task for publishing a graph depicting the Medieval Ages as the "Dark Ages" leaving a huge gaping hole in Western history, which can be seen here. What some people failed to realize is the title to the post in which Augustinian Platonism shares a large part of the blame (no, it is not totally to blame). Augustine like Plato before him placed a much greater value on the heavenly world (the realm of the eternal "forms" or ideas) over the empirical earthly world.

Quote of the Day, One More Time

In my world miracles like virgin births and resurrections do not happen. What world do you live in? If they do not happen now then they did not happen in the ancient past either. And that's how historians must view the evidence. Yesterday's evidence has lost all of its power to convince. We do not believe in miracle claims in today's world and we live in this world. So how much more so is it the case that we cannot believe they took place in the ancient past! We can interview people in today's world and we still don't believe they happened. How much more so is this the case in the ancient past where we cannot interview the people involved! The overwhelming numbers of Jews in the days of Jesus did not believe he resurrected even though they believed in a miracle working God named Yahweh and the Old Testament. How much more so then is it the case in our world that we cannot believe when miracles are supposed to establish that Yahweh did a particular miracle in the past! Again, if they do not happen in our day then they did not happen in the past either. What world are YOU living in? --John W. Loftus

An Open Question to Christian Apologists

I saw my cousin Bill at the restaurant this weekend and told him a bit about how my books are being received and a few speaking engagements I've had recently. I asked him that maybe he'd want to come with me to one of them. He responded, "I don't want to hear any of your vile." Well then, he has his mind made up hasn't he?

My claim is that believers like him were brainwashed or indoctrinated by being raised to believe in their respective cultures. I know he was. If my claim is correct then believers must be confronted with the issues I raise to know whether in fact they are, since, without being confronted with them they will never know that they are, if they are. Christian do you agree?