Liars for Jesus debunks many of the historical lies invented and used by the Christian nationalist history revisionists in their efforts to further their far right political agenda and destroy the wall of separation between church and state in America. Liars for Jesus is not a book about religion. It is a history book, setting the record straight by presenting and fully documenting the true stories and historical facts that are distorted in the "Christian nation" pseudo-history of our country.
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| I am very uncertain about faith! |
The controversial evangelical Bible scholar...explains how Christians mistake “certainty” and “correct belief” for faith when what God really desires is trust and intimacy. Combining Enns’ reflections of his own spiritual journey with an examination of Scripture, The Sin of Certainty models an acceptance of mystery and paradox that all believers can follow and why God prefers this path because it is only this way by which we can become mature disciples who truly trust God. It gives Christians who have known only the demand for certainty permission to view faith on their own flawed, uncertain, yet heartfelt, terms.
How does life work? How does nature produce the right numbers of zebras and lions on the African savanna, or fish in the ocean? How do our bodies produce the right numbers of cells in our organs and bloodstream? In The Serengeti Rules, award-winning biologist and author Sean Carroll tells the stories of the pioneering scientists who sought the answers to such simple yet profoundly important questions, and shows how their discoveries matter for our health and the health of the planet we depend upon.
One of the most important revelations about the natural world is that everything is regulated--there are rules that regulate the amount of every molecule in our bodies and rules that govern the numbers of every animal and plant in the wild. And the most surprising revelation about the rules that regulate life at such different scales is that they are remarkably similar--there is a common underlying logic of life. Carroll recounts how our deep knowledge of the rules and logic of the human body has spurred the advent of revolutionary life-saving medicines, and makes the compelling case that it is now time to use the Serengeti Rules to heal our ailing planet.
A bold and inspiring synthesis by one of our most accomplished biologists and gifted storytellers, The Serengeti Rules is the first book to illuminate how life works at vastly different scales. Read it and you will never look at the world the same way again. LINK
- Evangelical means obsessed with sex.
- Evangelical means arrogant.
- Evangelical means fearful and bigoted.
- Evangelical means indifferent to truth.
- Evangelical means gullible and greedy.
- Evangelical means ignorant.
- Evangelical means predatory.
- Evangelical means mean. LINK.
to the person getting the most upvotes (within the continental US).
...cuts to the heart of religion’s appeal: the strong emotional pull of belief and its promise to fill what has been called “the God-shaped vacuum in our hearts and minds.” As the author notes in his preface, the New Atheists have “largely ignored the real reason that most believers believe: their personal experience of the presence of God.” This book examines that subjective religious experience, offering a cogent description of its likely biological and psychological underpinnings.It looks like a fantastic book. I would prefer the book was titled The Delusion of God's Presence, but that's just me. Regardless, gone is the cockamamie notion of the authenticating private subjective witness of a god in our lives (i.e., the god named holy spirit). Anyone who takes it seriously is indeed deluded. There are Christian apologists like Norman Geisler and Victor Reppert (I think) who don't agree with it, like me. What they should see is the lengths Christian apologists will go to defend their evangelical faith. And since that's obviously the case here, they should reflect on the lengths they themselves go to defend their evangelical faith.
A Clinton/Trump match should not just worry Democrats. It should terrify them. They should be doing everything possible to avoid it. A Trump/Sanders contest, however, looks very different indeed...Sanders is an almost perfect secret weapon against Trump. He can pull off the only maneuver that is capable of neutralizing Trump: ignoring him and actually keeping the focus on the issues. LINK.
Once we learn about these problems and recognize them as the serious ones they really are, and that they stand in the way of a clear-headed investigation of the truth, we can proceed to be honest investigators of the truth. We would know what kind of evidence to look for and be better able to see any bias we might have and adjust for it.
What is this "evidence" of which you speak? Pray, tell, where is this bounteous cornucopia of ignorance masquerading as knowledge?
What do you make of how genetics, geology, archaeology, comparative religions, and even biblical textual criticism contradicts your bible?
1. Genetics falsifies both the Adam&Eve myth and the Noachian flood myth by disproving these population bottlenecks
"Adam and Eve: The Ultimate Standoff Between Science and Faith", Jerry Coyne.
2. Noah's Ark as recounted in the bible has no possibility of being anything more than a story on practical grounds
Moore, Robert A. "The Impossible Voyage of Noah's Ark." Creation Evolution Journal Vol.4, No.1, Winter, pp 1-43. 1983.
3. The Noachian flood myth as told in the bible is not historical on geological and hydrological grounds
Collins, Lorence G. "Yes, Noah's Flood May Have Happened, But Not Over the Whole Earth." Reports of the NCSE Vol.29, Iss. 5, September-October, pp 38-41. 2009.
4. There's no trace of Israelites having been slaves in Egypt, of the Exodus, 40 years of wandering, of the Canaanite conquest, or of the story of David and Solomon.
"PATTERNS OF POOR RESEARCH — A Critique of Patterns of Evidence: Exodus", Hector Avalos.
"Why David Rohl's Response Fails.", Hector Avalos.
"How Archaeology Disproves Biblical History", Israel Finkelstein.
"Historical problems with the Hebrew Bible and the Conquest of Canaan", Bart D. Ehrman.
Loftus takes on the apologists in their own domain, showing why their arguments are flawed. He speaks very much from the point of view of someone who was, himself, one of them, addressing the (erroneous) criticism frequently leveled against other writers that they lack an understanding of religion and theology...The title of the book is also deliberately provocative; critics would say disingenuous. It isn't intended to help people become apologists, it's a masterful demonstration to those with an open mind of why the apologist position is untenable. LINK.
Isn't fear of religion at least a possible biasing factor? And if so, shouldn't any real test concerning religious belief have the capability of counteracting it. If the test only counteracts pro-religious biases but not anti-religious biases, then the test is faulty.I find this to be a very self-serving. The mother of all biases is confirmation bias (or confirmatory bias), which is the strong tendency to search for and/or interpret information in ways that confirm one's biases. People of faith have this problem evaluating their own religion because faith itself is a cognitive bias that misjudges the probabilities in favor of faith. Faith gets in the way of dispassionately evaluating one's inherited faith. Surely Reppert cannot disagree with this. If nothing else, just think of the millions of people who have inherited a different faith, and ask what keeps them from leaving their faith. The OTF is meant to help people with faith overcome their faith bias precisely because they need it. Non-believers don't have it precisely because we are non-believers. Take for example a Hindu raised in a Hindu culture who accepts the Hindu religion but is evaluating Islam to see if it's true. What real concern (as opposed to a feigned concern in the service of an apologeticial Jedi mind trick) would Reppert actually have that such a Hindu might have a confirmation bias problem when it comes to Islam, since s/he is not a Muslim? None, none that I can see. Any confirmation bias s/he has would be for Hinduism.
I was honored to be asked to write a blurb for it. Here is what I wrote: This book is written by the man most comparable in our day to the great 19th century communicator Robert G. Ingersoll. In it Price bypasses the usual cadre of apologists and clergy gatekeepers by taking his case directly to the fleeced flock of sheep still caged in their pew stalls. This book will liberate many of them, guaranteed! --John W. Loftus, author of Why I Became An Atheist and How to Defend the Christian Faith.
I don’t believe I am disparaging reason when I say that there are things beyond reason, that its reach is limited and it cannot encompass all of reality. I believe this is a simple fact, not disparagement. I believe you overestimate reason, and seem to believe – correct me if I am wrong – that there is nothing of any importance beyond the reach of human reason. But even in the ordinary course of life there are many things we don’t understand. Reason is in fact often a very puny and unreliable instrument. I only claim that there are higher truths that cannot be found by reason alone.John Loftus: It's the assumption of faith where you're wrong. Faith causes people with it to be anti-intellectual who reason like you. It causes people to fly planes into buildings because that's the logic of faith. When one has faith anything can be believed, anything can be justified and any horrible act can be done. People with faith can and do say what you have said to deny reason.
joekeysor: I have read off and on some of the leading Christian apologists, but have not found them very helpful. They do have some good arguments I suppose, but it seems they rely too much on reason and logic, trying to meet the unbelievers on their own ground, when in fact Christians should inhabit very different ground. Paul says that the things of God are foolishness to the natural man (I Cor. 2:14).John W. Loftus: Why do you disparage reason in your pursuit of truth? I'm reasoning with you now. Others do. We reason about politics, ethics, and about which house or car to buy, and where to go on vacation. Why does it stop when it comes to religion? ISIS fits that bill. The reason they believe along with the Hindu and the Mormon is primarily because of feelings that they're right in doing so. Private subjective feelings cannot be the basis our your faith either, since they produce so many false hits. In fact, if cultist came at your door and said what the apostle Paul said, that their faith is foolishness to the world, you would not accept that of them. So why do you put your brain at the door when it comes to church? You shouldn't.
The brain can be cheated. We do it all the time for several reasons. When I buy a lottery ticket, I do it pretending that the odds are reasonable. It's a pretend game, deep down I know I'm just fooling myself. But when I'm buying the ticket, I don't care because it feels good to think you are buying a reasonable chance of being rich. It's the same thing with some religious people. I know it because I did myself before becoming an atheist.
