Washington Post Story: "5 Churchy Phrases That are Scaring Off Millennials"

The first line? "The statistics are in. The millennials are leaving the church, and nobody seems quite sure what to do about it." ;-) The five churchy phrases? 1) "The Bible clearly says…” 2) “God will never give you more than you can handle.” 3) "Love on" (e.g. “As youth group leaders, we’re just here to love on those kids"). 4) Black and white quantifiers of faith, such as “Believer, Unbeliever, Backsliding.” 5) “God is in control...has a plan...works in mysterious ways.” Take a look.

The Core Brilliant Argument in Boghossian's Book

I'm writing a few posts about Peter Boghossian's book, A Manual for Creating AtheistsTo see them click on the tag below this post. In this one I want to highlight his core brilliant argument.

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Boghossian's Book Will Change Our Nomenclature

I'm writing a few posts about Peter Boghossian's new brilliant book, A Manual for Creating Atheists.In a previous post I mentioned the first thing I had noticed, that Richard Dawkins has had a change of mind! The second thing I noticed about Boghossian's book is that it will change our nomenclature, and this is one of the best things about his bestselling book, although there are many of them.

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When It Comes to God’s Protection, Christians Are No Better Off than Atheists

"Think of a church, and you envision a place that's holy, peaceful.

Church Security Officer

But church security expert Carl Chinn says churches and other ministries were the scenes of 135 deadly force incidents in 2012, a 36 percent increase from 2011. Crimes like domestic violence and robberies. Seventy-five people were killed in those incidents."

Watch the News Video:  Protecting The Flock: Church Security

Poll: A Majority of Americans Approve of God's Job Performance

This is not a joke, but it should be given Typhoon Haiyan.

The Free Will Excuse

When Christians are asked why their all-powerful, loving god does not intervene when people are carrying out acts of horrendous cruelty and violence, they have an answer.  Perhaps it would be more accurate to say that they have an emergency exit.  This mental escape hatch allows them to stop wrestling with the implications of a god who stands idly by and allows psychopaths to carry out their cruelties, unopposed.

Long ago, Epicurus pointed out that a god’s inaction in the face evil calls into question its power and goodness:

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The Top 10 Christian Responses to Typhoon Haiyan

Here is a recent CNN news report about the devastation. I hurt for the victims don't you? Why doesn't God? From my experience the following are the top 10 Christian responses (i.e., excuses) to it in descending order:

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Guy Harrison Just Keeps Spitting Books Out

Harrison's prolific writings are very good. I highly recommend them. He has a new book out called "Think: Why You Should Question Everything," which looks excellent as well. I don't have an opinion on his first book, "Race and Reality," since I haven't read it. His others are important and needed. Check them out.

Richard Dawkins Has Had A Change of Mind!

One of the traits of New Atheists was that in light of the 9/11 murders they expressed a measured anger at religion, especially Dawkins. In February 2002, four years before The God Delusion was released in 2006, Dawkins called atheists to "arms" in a TED talk. Seen here, which as of this date has had 2,131,473 views! (Talk about star power, wow!). His talk was first posted on TED in April of 2007. He made it clear that he wanted a campaign much like the gays used to gain acceptability in American society. His final sentence was, "let's all stop being so damned respectful." This strategy has worked. He's been pretty consistent about it too, even refusing to debate William Lane Craig, for doing so would gain his creationist views more respectability than they deserve. And even though I have produced works that treat Christianity respectfully in order to effectively critique it, so far he has not recommended them. I wished he had done so but it would be recommending works that do what he advised against. Well, there is a small change in the air.

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Agnosticism is Religion’s Friend as the Same Logic that Can’t Disprove God, Can’t Disprove Minerals Have Spirits Either

Think about it. Once religion is forced out of it theological apologetic protective shell, there’s the same credible level of logical proof for the human made world of Gods, angels, devils, demons and other spirits as there is for the human made world of mineral spirits or, to put it another way, both the same printed texts that are used to prove theism is true provides the very same level of proof that a printed label proves real Spirits do exist in a can of mineral spirits .. . . no joke!

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Dan Lambert About Believing Despite the Lack of Arguments

Peter Boghossian: "If the arguments for the existence of God were rebutted, would you still believe?" She: "Yes". Boghossian: "Then you don't believe on the basis of arguments."

Dan Lambert: "The outrage at this woman's response is so disingenuous. The fact is that we all have certain beliefs that we will never give up, no matter what someone else 'proves.' That's because we all move the goal posts when confronted with a seemingly indisputable fact. Theists do it. Atheists do it. It's human nature. Big deal."

Really? Let's talk about being disingenuous.

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A Description of My New Anthology, "Christianity is Not Great"

For the chapter titles and authors see here. Now for the description:

This anthology focuses on the harms of Christian faith that best explain why atheists argue against it. It contains new substantive essays written by superior authors on many of the most important topics relevant to its theme. In Part 1 the authors begin by showing that faith itself is the problem. It has no method, solves no problems, and gets in the way of the progress of science. With faith as a foundation almost anything can be believed or denied. Almost any horrific deed can be done too.

In Parts 2 through 4 the authors take a good hard look at many of the most important political, institutional, scientific, social and moral harms the Christian faith has generated. The Christian faith has caused and is causing great harm to the rest of us who want to live a peaceful successful life on this planet.

In the final part the authors answer the triple Christian retorts that 1) atheists cannot judge a harmful action without an objective moral standard, that 2) atheists need faith to solve the world’s problems, and that 3) atheists cannot live a good life without faith.

The harms of Christian faith need to be explained, not explained away. This is especially the case if there is a perfectly loving omnipotent omniscient God who invented it. The essays in this book clearly show that such a God-concept is not the author of the Christian faith based in the Bible with its terrible track record in history.

That’s the point of the book. The Christian faith can be empirically tested by the amount of harm it has done and continues to do in our world, given the Christian God-concept. The result is that Christianity fails miserably.

Atheists, Stay Focused On The Goal

I'm concerned that too many atheists are just talking to themselves rather than focusing on the delusions of religious faith. I'm reminded of church all over again. As a former I minister I saw the same phenomena. Christians spend a great deal of time with internal debates that don't address the credibility of their faith before the watching world. Perhaps this is just a reflection on human beings. We belong to communities so we desire to address the concerns of our communities. But never forget that outspoken atheists are outnumbered by believers a thousand to one. As a vocal minority we need to spend much more time addressing the credibility of non-belief before the believing world. Major on the majors and minor on the minors. Keep focused on the goal. It will not do to focus most of our efforts on cleaning house when a massive number of barbarians are at the door. Want the statistics? Then watch Bad News For Atheism? If you agree then please share this far and wide.

Two Unanswerable Dilemmas Concerning God and Morality

God is like a parent who tells his children "Do as I say and not as I do."

God commands us to do good, to be kind, to be merciful, and seek after justice for the disenfranchised, but he doesn't do it. Do as I say and not as I do, is the divine message.

God is the ultimate hypocrite. Christians worship a divine hypocrite who is above ethical standards. Yet they maintain God is the standard for ethics. A whole industry of apologists for this hypocritical God has arisen to justify his deeds and his inaction in our world. It doesn't make any sense at all. Christians don't make sense. They call good evil and evil good. Woe to people like that, God hypocritically said (Isaiah 5:20).

What can justify this divine hypocrisy? 1) Creation. He's the creator. We aren't. So he has the right to take our lives because he made us. 2) Omniscience. He has it. We don't. So he knows what is best. Power (or ownership) and Knowledge. This supposedly justifies why he acts differently than he commands us to act. This is why he can do evil and call it good. This is why he can tell us to do as I say and not as I do. Do these twin attempted justifications offer an adequate apology for God? No, no, no.

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Pictures of Two of My Bookshelves

Here are pictures of two of my bookshelves. Say that I'm ignorant. Go ahead. Say it. ;-) And yes, I've read most of the books or significant parts within them. Click on a picture to enlarge it.

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The Era of Memory Engineering Has Arrived

Yep, that's science baby! It gives rise to the thought that God could easily help people who have suffered and continue to suffer debilitating memories, like a war veteran or a rape victim, who might want the emotional content of a specific, life-destroying memory modified. A merciful God doesn't do this but science will probably be able to sometime soon. Kudos to science! Jeers to God.

A Manual for Creating Atheists - Book Review

Guest Post By David Marshall On His Recent Debate with Phil Zuckerman

I have offered several Christian scholars a guest post here at DC. To see them click here. I do so in the interests of letting them speak for themselves in the spirit of dialogue and debate. There is just something about David Marshall I cannot figure out. He seems so nice and congenial at times and yet so, well, ignorant. Still, he's a human being and I find people interesting, even evangelical pseudo-scholars like him. Given some of the comments concerning his debate performances and his indefatigably ubiquitous presence on atheist websites and blogs, I thought I would offer him a chance to address us. I warned him in advance he may not be treated well here, but he can handle it. If nothing else, look at what he writes as a case in understanding the mind of the believer. It was originally an email presumably sent to several prominent atheists. Try to enjoy. ;-)

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Quote of the Day, by Cipher

The following quote is well articulated, even if I don't agree. I have tried to disabuse cipher of the following cynical position to no avail. I consider it a rhetorical exaggeration that makes a very forceful point, and not completely false given the nature of faith. It's meant as an explanation for why most of our best attempts at arguing Christians out of their faith fail miserably. It was said in response to David Marshall's unwillingness to admit he lost his debate with Phil Zuckerman recently, where Marshall wrote, "He didn't win the debate -- he admits he didn't rebut my arguments."

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Halloween Special: All About Satan!

It's that special time of year when the forces of darkness and sugary excess are unleashed upon the U.S. and other countries which celebrate Halloween.  Although this holiday's pagan roots run deep, it also has direct ties to the Christian feast of All Hallow's Day, and I must say that I am a bit disappointed that my Christian Facebook friends are not busily posting "Keep Christ in Halloween" memes on their status updates.

I would also like to take this opportunity to remind our Christian friends (and enemies) that the fact that we do not believe in their imaginary god also means we do not believe in  - or worship -  his fictional arch-enemy.

For those who have never delved into how the Satan character evolves in the biblical writings (and how Christianity borrows from other religions to build its concept of Satan), I am linking to several videos.  I would also recommend the book The Birth of Satan: Tracing the Devil's Biblical Roots by T. J. Wray and Gregory Moberly.  It is a fast read, entertaining, and gives a good popular-level coverage of the topic.

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Randal Rauser and Myself in Conversation Parts 1-5

When I went up to Canada to debate Rauser in June we recorded five separate discussions, linked below. Enjoy.

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Christian, If God is Not Blessing You Then Examine Your Life!

Over the last 40 years while living in the Buckle on the Bible Belt South, I’ve always been fascinated with the excuses preachers give on radio and television explaining why God is not blessing Christians in their “Walk of Faith”.

One thing all explanations have in common; they put 100% of the blame on the believer for God not blessing their life. Remember God’s promises never fail (not because they don't happen), but it’s because the Christian is not doing something right or (and God forbid) there might be hidden sin.

The following are some of the many excuses I’ve heard over the decades as to why God is not blessing a life of faith:

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Peter Boghossian on "Street Epistemology"

This talk is based on chapter four of his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists.

The Immorality of Salvation

The Christian concept of salvation is an immoral one.

im•mor•al
adjective
1. Violating moral principles; not conforming to the patterns of conduct usually accepted or established as consistent with principles of personal and social ethics
Dictionary.com

Before I tell you why, let’s set the scene. Christianity teaches humanity is doomed to go to Hell where the god Yahweh will do Very Bad Things to them, forever. Why is humanity doomed? Well, apparently, Yahweh did a product launch - Humans 1.0 - without doing adequate beta-testing (perhaps he runs Microsoft also). His product didn’t function quite like he wanted it to.  A skeptical talking snake proved more persuasive than an all-powerful deity, and so the prototypical couple snacked their way into the bad graces of their Sky Daddy. Rather than acknowledging his own incompetence, the Loving Creator instead cursed humans with painful childbirth, male domination of women, and a difficult life, ending in death. No second chance and no appeal process. One strike, you’re out. It’s all there in Genesis 3, if you need more details.

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Damn That Articulett, She's Good!

A Christian who fancies himself as an intellectual named labreuer is being taken to task by articulett. Here is what she recently wrote, which deserves a post of it's own. I'm glad she's on our side, the correct side!

It's not that I don't believe in invisible things-- music is invisible... so is justice... and atoms and magnetism and electricity... and lots of things were invisible before we had microscopes... but they are all distinguishable from nothing... But beings mean consciousness and consciousness means brains-- it doesn't really mean anything to speak of immaterial consciousness... it would be like "music" without matter (sound can't travel in a vacuum)... just because we can imagine such a thing and want such a thing to exist doesn't make it real. So "god" (like souls) tends to be a nebulous word that people shift to mean what they need it to mean for the time being... they don't give it any real properties so there is not chance to disprove it. It's like Scientology's Thetans... they don't exist outside the belief of Scientologists... the same goes for Xenu. I can't prove this... but I can say that if these things WERE real there should be some evidence that would distinguish them from fantasy. If there is none-- then it makes sense to conclude they're fantasy. No scientist need to concern herself with such "things"-- the same goes for god, demons, and ghosts.

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Do Bananas Have Free Will?

I'm told bananas have 50% of the DNA of human beings. So I got to thinking do they have free will? Watch them grow and ask yourself if they ever made one single free will choice. If they don't, then why do you think human beings do? Does adding DNA change anything? What? Let's call THIS "The Banana Argument" against free will. Jerry Coyne eat your heart out. I got this one.

The More Conservative The Church, The Less Likely It's True

I think a solid case can be made for the title of this post. Hopefully some conservative Christians might even be able see this themselves in what follows (but I don't have my hopes up). Consider first the differences between conservative and liberal Christianities:

Liberal Christianity, broadly speaking, is a method of biblical hermeneutics, an undogmatic method of understanding God through the use of scripture by applying the same modern hermeneutics used to understand any ancient writings. Liberal Christianity does not claim to be a belief structure, and as such is not dependent upon any Church dogma or creedal statements. Unlike conservative varieties of Christianity, it has no unified set of propositional beliefs. The word liberal in liberal Christianity denotes a characteristic willingness to interpret scripture while attempting to achieve the Enlightenment ideal of objective point of view, without preconceived notions of the inerrancy of scripture or the correctness of Church dogma. LINK.

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As Believers in God (James 2:19), Demons Could Serve at Homeless Soup Kitchen While Caring Atheists Can’t

Atheists forbidden to volunteer at soup kitchen

SPARTANBURG COUNTY, S.C. —A group of Upstate atheists say that a local charity won't let them volunteer to help the homeless, but those who run the soup kitchen say that the atheists are just looking for publicity. Upstate Atheists, a group with about 200 members, say they offered to volunteer at the Spartanburg Soup Kitchen, but were turned away because they are not believers.

David Marshall Is Not Yet Ready for Prime Time, Loses Another Debate

He lost to Phil Zuckerman so badly that the church refuses to post the video. You can read up on this at Jerry Coyne's blog, who seems to cover most news that's worth covering, with a nice punch. LINK. You do remember the trashing Richard Carrier dealt to Marshall, don't you? If not, watch it and see. David Marshall is a joke, folks, and this is my judgment apart from his debates.

Another "Not a Real Christian" Christian Bites the Dirt

Married Youth Pastor

Victim of youth pastor sex abuse speaks out

"The abuse started with secret text messages which led to a sexual relationship between a teenager and married youth pastor."

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As Goes the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible), So Goes the New Testament and the Qur’an: Two New Posts for November and December

Original Enoch in Aramaic

Post 1:
Recent facts presented by Emmanuel Tov and other scholars of the Hebrew Bible have used textual evidence from the Qumran Scrolls to force a revision in the orthodox canonical assumptions that have long formed the matrix of the Judeo-Christian-Islamic belief systems. Reality has proven time and again that believers have depended on theological assumptions to apologetically defend the historicity of Biblical events which remains an imperative if these three major monotheistic religions are to have any textual base in historical reality.

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Ted Cruz, Anointed King of Republicans?

Republican politics has been in a long-standing illicit affair with religion. Parachurch moral watchdog groups, Bible-banging Baptists and fertility-venerating Catholics all seek to use political means to enforce their peculiar views of human sexuality. Calvinistic theonomists want to impose Old Testament laws (including the death penalty for blasphemy and homosexuality).  In other words, a sort of unholy offspring of the good old days of the 1950's, married to an Iranian theocracy.

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Another Anthology of Mine Will Be Published, "Christianity is Not Great"

Yep, and I'm as excited as can be. Prometheus Books has just accepted another book proposal of mine on the harms of Christian faith, titled after Christopher Hitchens's NY Times bestselling book, God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.It's slated for a Winter 2014 or Spring 2015 publication date. Here are the table of contents and a list of authors:Introduction

1) Religious Violence and the Harms of Christianity, by John W. Loftus


Part One: How Faith Fails:

2) The Failure of Christianity and Triumph of Reason, by Robert G. Ingersoll

3) The Folly of Faith: The Incompatibility of Science and Christianity, by Victor J. Stenger

4) Faith, Epistemology, and Answering Socrates’ Question by Translation, by Peter Boghossian


Part Two: Political/Institutional Harms:

5) Love Your Enemy, Kill Your Enemy: Crusades, Inquisitions, and Centuries of Christian Violence, by David Eller

6) Thou Shalt Not Suffer a Witch to Live: The Wicked Christian Witch Hunts, by John W. Loftus

7) They Will Make Good Slaves and Christians: Christianity, Colonialism, and the Destruction of Indigenous People, by David Eller

8) The Slave is the Owner’s Property: Christianity and the Savagery of Slavery, by John W. Loftus

9) Christianity and the Rise of American Democracy, by Richard Carrier


Part Three: Scientific Harms:

10) The Dark Ages, by Richard Carrier

11) The Christian Abuse of the Sanctity of Life, by Ronald A. Lindsay

12) The Gender Binary & LGBTI People: Religious Myth and Medical Malpractice, by Veronica Drantz

13) Christianity Can Be Hazardous to Your Health, by Harriet Hall

14) Christianity and the Environment, by William R. Patterson

15) Doth God Take Care For Oxen?: Christianity’s Acrimony Against Animals, by John W. Loftus


Part Four: Social & Moral Harms:

16) The Cultural Wars, by Ed Brayton

17) Woman, What Have I To Do With Thee?: Christianity’s War Against Women, by Annie Laurie Gaylor

18) Secular Sexuality: A Direct Challenge to Christianity, by Darrel W. Ray

19) Psychological Harms of Christianity, by Marlene Winell and Valerie Tarico

20) Abusive Pastors and Churches, by Nathan Phelps


Part Five: Morality, Atheism and a Good Life

21) “Tu Quoque, Atheism?” - Our Right to Judge, by Jonathan Pearce

22) Only Humans Can Solve the Problems of the World, by James A. Lindsay

23) Living Without God, by Russell Blackford

About the Contributors

More details will follow in the months to come. This will be a superior book without peer since it has superior contributors writing substantive chapters on many of the most important issues.

Peter Boghossian's Book is Now Available!

It's titled, A Manual for Creating Atheists, and from the looks of it he's taking Amazon by storm!Everyone interested in the atheist versus faith debate should get it, NOW!

The Evidence from Guilt Argument

In a previous post I summed up the evidence for Christianity, which you can read here. I think I missed something. Guilt. We all feel guilty at times for something we did or didn't do. Religions pounce on this. Almost all of them. It's used as a wedge to open up the mind for faith. There is something wrong with us. We desire to do good and yet too often we don't. We even have false guilt, accepting responsibility for something that wasn't our fault. Religions were created to provide the solutions, almost all of them. They offer a way to find forgiveness, along with a way to behave better. Religions therefore thrive on guilt. C.S. Lewis made this a centerpiece in his classic book, Mere Christianity. However, if guilt is considered as evidence for religion then it favors none of them because it equally supports them all. Evidence that equally supports mutually contradictory religions cannot be considered as evidence for any of them.

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Articulett Does it Again!

If you visit here at DC then eventually you'll run into articulett (or she will run into you!). She is a High School teacher with a master's degree, and that's all I'll tell you. She is also an administrator here but doesn't exercise her powers much at all. She has never written one post. But she is a pit-bull when it comes to unevidenced supernatural magical beliefs. I admire her tenacity and her use of words. She helps me deal with the comments of believers, and like all of my posse, I appreciate this so very much! I actually met articulett in Vegas when I was at TAM in July (that's James Randi's, The Amazing Meeting). She is a very delightful person. We laughed a lot. She has become quite the advocate of the Outsider Test For Faith (OTF) too, and you know that's music to my ears. Here are some recent quotes of hers. Enjoy.

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R. Douglas Geivett On, "Can And Would God Speak to Us?"

R. Douglas Geivett

As announced earlier I’m planning on reviewing select chapters in the new evangelical anthology, In Defense of the Bible: A Comprehensive Apologetic for the Authority of Scripture, edited by Steven B. Cowan and Terry L. Wilder.[To read other entries in this series as I write them, just click on the "Defending the Bible" tag below this post].

This time up is R. Douglas Geivett's chapter, "Can and Would God Speak to us?" (pp. 13-46). It's set as a dialogue much like some of the books written by Plato, Berkeley, Galileo, and Hume.

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Who Cares About Certainty? We Have Virtual Certainty!

It isn't certain, but it's virtually certain that probability is all that matters when it comes to understanding the nature of the universe. It it isn't certain, but it's virtually certain that sufficient objective evidence is all that matters when it comes to understanding the nature of the universe. It it isn't certain, but it's virtually certain that evidence based reasoning is all that matters when it comes to understanding the nature of the universe. Since evidence based reasoning is science based reasoning, it's likewise true to say that it isn't certain, but it's virtually certain that science based reasoning is all that matters when it comes to understanding the nature of the universe. If anyone can provide a better method for understanding the nature of the universe then what is it? Faith has no method at all.

Two Negative Reviews of the Outsider Test for Faith (OTF)

I find that people who disagree with a reasonable non-double standard test for religious faith cannot be reasoned with, for obvious reasons. How we test a truth claim has a great deal to do with the kind claim we're testing. Sometimes a poll can settle one type of claim. Other times we can settle a different claim by traveling somewhere. Counting spoons can test a certain type of claim, while sitting on a fluffy pillow can test a different one. Logic and/or math can test other types of truth claims. In testing some types of claims we rely heavily on one discipline of learning, while testing other claims we rely heavily on other disciplines of learning. Some claims demand testing from several different academic disciplines. It depends on the type of claim we're testing that determines how we test it.

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Silly Sayings of Jesus: Don't Worry About Food or Clothes.

“Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?"                 Matthew 6:25-30 (ESV)

Really Jesus? Paris Hilton could have come up with something more sensible than that steaming pile! I mean, maybe you were doing that whole new-age guru, Deepak Chopra on Ecstacy thing… Pretty, birdies and flowers… bliss out baby! Sorry to harsh your buzz, but your words ring hollow in countries where sad-eyed children with arms like sticks, are starving to death. Try spouting your platitudes to a desperate mother who doesn’t have enough nutrition in her emaciated body to breast-feed her starving infant. “Life is more than food…”? Uh, no. If you go very long without food, life goes away. It’s called being dead. And clothes? Well, fashion isn’t important in the overall scheme of things, but a warm jacket can be helpful in not freezing to death in the winter.

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What About the US Government Shutdown?

I don't say much about politics but this issue deserves some commentary and condemnation. I blame the Republican idiots, including my own Congressman who recently said: "We're not going to be disrespected. We have to get something out of this. And I don't know what that even is." -- Marlin Stutzman (R-Ind.)



If you want to debate the issue then comment on the article, Obamacare's Real Glitch, which is utterly lacking in perspective.

Faith vs. Evidence - Why Religious Tolerance Always Wins

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Peter Boghossian Highly Recommends My Work

Peter says some flattering things about my work at 51:09, for which I am very grateful:

Jonathan Pearce's Brief Review of My Book on the OTF

The Outsider Test for Faith (OTF) is intuitively simple.The multitude of religions require explaining from a theistic point of view, and until an adequate answer is given, skeptical agnosticism is the most reasonable position. That is common-sense. Loftus takes this idea and thoroughly defends it in a fully convincing and very readable manner.

I wasn't expecting to like this book as much as I did because I though that the argument was simple and obvious, but the way Loftus drew in quotes and arguments from a plethora of different sources meant that this book packs a really hefty punch and left me thinking, on many, many pages, that I must remember this quote or that quote.

I am hoping to do a more in depth view on the content of the book to post on my blog. I think this book deserves to be very widely read as the argument seems not to have any significant counters.

Jonathan writes a blog for SIN.

A Critical Review of the Book, "In Defense of the Bible," Cowan and Wilder's "Introduction"

As announced earlier I’m planning on reviewing select chapters in the new evangelical anthology, In Defense of the Bible: A Comprehensive Apologetic for the Authority of Scripture, edited by Steven B. Cowan and Terry L. Wilder.[To read other entries in this series as I write them, just click on the "Defending the Bible" tag below this post].

So let me start by making some comments about the Introduction, co-written by editors Steven B. Cowan and Terry L. Wilder. While they introduce the chapters that follow, they also introduce how they view the Bible. Speaking for all the contributors to this book the authors claim the Bible is the inerrant word of God.

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Christian Unity Means Assurance of Salvation

This was left on my car's windshield.

Folks, there is no more Hocus Pocus when it comes to Salvation; no sir!  We can KNOW we are saved simply by reading seventeen verses cherry picked straight from of the Bible’s 31,103 verses followed by reciting a simple “Sinner’s Prayer”.  Salvation can then be suddenly achieved without any doubts, questions and further study faster than Ernest Angley can say Jesus.    No more confusion; no more of that “lost” feeling; and no more being on God’s shit list on a toboggan ride straight to an eternal Hell fire.  So amen and thank you Jesus!

The tract tells me my next move is to contact the local Independent Baptist Church and let the pastor share in the joy of my salvation.  (You see, isn't Christian salvation so very simple and sure?  Not only that, but NOW I KNOW I’m “Saved” . . . beyond a shadow of a doubt!)

So let’s say, after meeting and rejoicing in my new salvation with Baptist Pastor Jim, I go home praising God only to find two Jehovah Witnesses on my porch.  I tell them that, without a doubt, I know I’m saved.  To my surprise, they don’t rejoice with me, but tell me I’ve been tricked by Satan into a counterfeit religion.  OK, maybe there was a misunderstanding here.  Hey, as Pastor Jim puts it,  I’m just a babe in Christ.

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After 100 Years of Faithful Christian Service, God Calls a Church Home to Heaven

When I was a student at Columbia Theological Seminary, this was one church (out of more than several dozen) where we could do our required Supervised Ministry. As I watched the news account of the fire, I was left wondering just how believers would explain the reason this church caught fire and burnt, which took one-hundred fire fighters to extinguish and remains unknown. As an atheist I’m sorry this historical church burnt, but for us non-believers; hey, shit happens. However, I do have four questions for Christians: A. Did God cause the fire to test the congregation’s faith (a standard theological ploy often used as an excuse)? B. Did God cause the fire to punish disobedience and sin (Based on the Bible, God hates sin and punishes unforgiven sin both in this life and the next)? C. Did Satan attack and burn God’s house (In the New Testament, Satan is always at war with God)?
D. Or does shit simply happened and Christians really don’t have any better explanation than atheists in spite of their Christian faith?

Are Christians Stupid?

I have a friend who calls Christians “stupid people that believe in a fairytale, with whom one cannot have intelligent conversations.”

I have to disagree. I know many Christians who are quite intelligent.

Do Christians hold stupid beliefs? Absolutely. Are there Christians who are stupid? Undoubtedly. Just try and follow Pat Robertson’s rambling incoherencies, or pick a different clown from the televangelist freak parade. Are there certain groups or denominations within Christianity which tend to denigrate reason, and celebrate emotionalism and mindless belief? Most assuredly. But, haven’t we also encountered atheists who are uniformed about certain things and yet hold dogmatic assumptions nonetheless?

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A Critical Review of the Book, "In Defense of the Bible," Edited by Steven Cowan and Terry Wilder

Beginning today I’m planning on reviewing select chapters in the new evangelical anthology, In Defense of the Bible: A Comprehensive Apologetic for the Authority of Scripture, edited by Steven B. Cowan and Terry L. Wilder.[To read other entries in this series as I write them, just click on the "Defending the Bible" tag below this post].

In this first post I'm going to introduce the editors and make some general observations/criticisms about the book as a whole.

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Let's Look at Subjective Religious Experiences This Way

What if ten thousand people went up to a mountain top, saw something, and then they all disagreed with what they saw, even people who largely agreed with each other? Even with this best possible analogy to subjective religious experiences we would still have a reason to think the lack of oxygen caused them all to hallucinate.