Alvin Plantinga Gives Philosophy a Bad Name
Hell yes! So argued PZ Myers. Okay, this is a bit of old news, but hey, I'm getting up there in years.
Jon Stewart: The Gretch Who Saved the War on Christmas
Link. In it we hear of yet another victory, this time in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Shirley Phelps-Roper Interviewed
Atheist vloggers MannixThePirate & xCrowMagnuSx sat down with Shirley Phelps-Roper (daughter of Westboro Baptist Church founder Fred Phelps). As you watch this 14 minute video you'll see quite plainly that a person can be intelligent and at the same time delusional (part 1, I'll not bother you with any more). Watch as she answers every query with a quote from the Bible. The Bible says it, that settles it for her. She doesn't trust the sciences, nor anyone else but what she thinks the Bible says. She is absolutely confident in the Bible as she knows it. This sounds exactly like most Christians. Yet she is regarded by most all other Christians today as delusional. If we set aside what the sciences have forced Christians to accept over the last few centuries I'm confident most medieval Christians would agree with her about most things. And I don't see much difference between her and other Christians who quote mine the Bible for answers without thinking, reasoning and learning from the sciences. At that point the only difference is how Christians interpret it. The question is why Christians think she is delusional when they are not.
Dr. Matt McCormick, "Is Naturalism a Scientific Thesis?"
Quoting from an article by Penelope Maddy:
[I]s naturalism itself a scientific thesis? I think the right answer to this question is that naturalism is not a thesis at all, but an approach. The naturalistic philosopher is the Neurathian sailor, working within science to understand, clarify, and improve science... Link
The Top Ten Occupations That Lead People to Become Atheists
[Written by John W. Loftus] Keep in mind there are others I could mention and trying to rank them's a bitch:
Why Do I Bother? It's Who I Am.
Apparently I'm a lightening rod. I get slammed almost daily by people on all sides. So why do I bother? It's who I am.
“10 Reasons I’m Extremely Hesitant to Debate Christians”
So says The Wise Sloth. See what you think:
Atheism is Winning Despite the Fact That it Shouldn’t Be
I previously wrote on 10 Reasons Why Atheism Can't Win where I highlighted what seems to be the enormous challenges facing atheism in America. I’m not oblivious to the fact that Europe is mostly a secular continent having faced these challenges and won. Nor am I oblivious to the fact that more young Americans are becoming non-believers than ever before. You can see stories about this phenomenon in The Economist, and in other places with titles like Young Americans Leaving Churches in Droves, and Young Christians Desert Churches.
Ten Reasons Why Atheism Can’t Win
Greta Christina’s post on How Atheists Can't Win, tells us why we can’t seem to win in our debates with believers. I’m going to give ten reasons why atheists can’t win at all because we are against the overwhelming odds—so much so that a post title like this is deserved. The odds are so against us that it should be shocking when believers change their minds by leaving their culturally inherited Christian faith. I think religion is here to stay and that’s why atheism can’t win.
Writer's Block and Open Mike Night
I've been focused on another book project so I've got nothing for my blog. Let me just link to something funny that James McGrath found about writer's block in a peer-reviewed journal...and then open it up for anything you want to highlight or argue about. Enjoy.
Extraordinary Claims Hogwash, Remix
Our conceptions of what makes for an extraordinary event have changed in each subsequent century/generation with the advancement of science. It has repeatedly forced believers to change their views on the matter. In the ancient world they knew axe heads don't float, that women were not turned into pillars or salt, or that donkey's can't talk. But to the pre-scientific ancients most every event was in some sense an extraordinary one, from the birth of a child, to the rising of the sun, the rainfall, to a bountiful crop. Extraordinary events occurred for them almost daily. They couldn't understand how these events could take place within nature's laws. Since they could not explain them they concluded some deity did them. Then one by one these events were explained naturally by science and consequently one by one they were taken out of the realm of the extraordinary and placed into the category of the ordinary course of events.
Scientists Find the Fountain of Youth
Do you want to know why I trust science rather than religion? Because science delivers the goods. In an amazing feat scientists have been able to reverse the aging process in mice. "These mice were equivalent to 80-year-old humans and were about to pass away," said Ronald DePinho...After the experiment, "they were the physiological equivalent of young adults." Scientists say we may be able to expect this with human beings in 15-20 years! No wonder Christians accuse us of worshiping science (which we don't)--because it produces amazing results. I must live longer. I must live another 20 years. I must.
Had this science been around a century ago my famous great grandfather could have lived longer. He died at the age of 53 from throat cancer. When I say he was famous I mean he's the stuff of a Hollywood movie. He was a lifelong friend of Charles Cominskey and also managed the Chicago Cubs (then the Orphans) under owner Albert Spalding (with part ownership). Had he lived longer he could've seen baseball enter the "live ball era" with the likes of Babe Ruth, and he could be as instrumental in that new phase of professional baseball as he was in the tumultuous phase he lived through. At least he was able to see the Cubs win back to back World Series a century ago!
Had this science been around a century ago my famous great grandfather could have lived longer. He died at the age of 53 from throat cancer. When I say he was famous I mean he's the stuff of a Hollywood movie. He was a lifelong friend of Charles Cominskey and also managed the Chicago Cubs (then the Orphans) under owner Albert Spalding (with part ownership). Had he lived longer he could've seen baseball enter the "live ball era" with the likes of Babe Ruth, and he could be as instrumental in that new phase of professional baseball as he was in the tumultuous phase he lived through. At least he was able to see the Cubs win back to back World Series a century ago!
Why I Don’t Believe the Bible is God’s Word.
According to Calvinists I don’t believe because God has determined from the beginning of time that I should not believe. It’s God’s secret will for me. I cannot believe unless God wants me to believe. It doesn’t bring him as much glory if I believe, so this is what he wants. He does not want me to believe the Bible is his word. For the Calvinist this is the end of the discussion. For me, it presents an additional reason why I don’t believe, for not only do I not see the evidence to believe, I also reject the supposition that God would both call on me to believe and at the same time secretly desire that I should not believe. What does God really desire here?...that I don’t believe…that’s the bottom line. My unbelief is exactly what God desires. It brings him the most glory. Calvinists should praise God that I don't believe. But what kind of God is this? See here.
Debunking Christianity Ranked in 5th Place on Both Sides of the Divide
This site has a unique status on both sides of this debate, for it's ranked in 5th place on the Society of Biblical Literature's Bibliobloggers list and among atheist blogs. While it's hard to continually have the ears of both sides, I'll take that. It's what I want.
Dr. James Sennett's Review of My Book, "Why I Became an Atheist"
In the recent issue of the Stone-Campbell Journal Sennett says, among other things:
He presents a compendium of well-reasoned arguments (wrapped together nicely in a steadily developed “cumulative case”) against the central beliefs of Christianity...Loftus’s arguments are not the easily-refuted caricatures so often offered in Bible college textbooks and Sunday school materials. They are the genuine article – clear, well-articulated statements of plausible arguments by one who finds them overwhelmingly convincing. I dare say very few preachers, teachers, and Bible students have its likes on their shelves. And it should be there.
A Discussion I'm Having with Dr. Thomas Talbott (and others)
See what you think. It begins toward the end of a long discussion of my OTF started by Victor Reppert. Click here.
Debate: Does the Universe Have a Purpose?
Richard Dawkins, Michael Shermer, and Matt Ridley recently debated William Lane Craig, Douglas Geivett, and Rabbi David Wolpe on the topic: Does the Universe Have a Purpose? in Mexico.
Let the War on Christmas Begin!
I you have my book, The Christian Delusion, in chapter one Dr. David Eller shows why language and culture matter to Christianity. In a Christian culture with Christian language people will be inclined to accept Christianity as true. But as our culture changes so will our language, and that is a good thing even if like a chameleon Christianity will learn to adapt. In fact I'm in favor of being proactive about this. There are just too many secularists, too many Jews, too many spiritualists, too many people of different faiths in our country that the language of this holiday needs to be changed. And one place we can insist that it be changed is how retailers market their products. Call it "The Holidays," or just "December 25th," but let's have done with the word "Christmas," especially when we describe it.
Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!
Believers wonder who an atheist has to thank at this time. I thank my lucky stars that I was born and enjoy the good life that I do. So many others don't, based on factors like when and where they were born.
Thom Stark on the Joshua Delusion
A new wave of evangelicals have two new strategies for interpreting the Canaanite genocide texts in Joshua. 1) They are "hyperbolic," not meant to be taken literally because the accounts are exaggerated. 2) They are "hagiographic" or "mythical," "to make a moral point to encourage a certain type of orthodox religious behavior among the faith community who gathers to hear the book as sacred scripture." Thom Stark destroys both strategies.
Unbelief by Default and Selective Credulity
Chris Hallquist: "Recently, Victor Reppert claimed that, 'as the OTF [Outsider Test for Faith] is typically presented, it attempts to give a kind of special default status to the denial of religion, and in doing so it starts to engage in anti-religious special pleading.'"
"This sounds like a fair criticism...but it misses the point that...unbelief by default is already the attitude many Christians have to most religions. To be more specific: many Christians, when they hear non-Christian supernatural claims–or even Christian supernatural claims made outside the Christian canon–are skeptical by default. Some even say so explicitly." Link.
"This sounds like a fair criticism...but it misses the point that...unbelief by default is already the attitude many Christians have to most religions. To be more specific: many Christians, when they hear non-Christian supernatural claims–or even Christian supernatural claims made outside the Christian canon–are skeptical by default. Some even say so explicitly." Link.
How Science Leads to Naturalism (At Least For Me)
We should be skeptics of extraordinary claims of miracles in the ancient past. Tell me why we shouldn't? There are too many of them in every culture, too many mythical stories.
Six Anti-Secularist Themes: Deconstructing Religionist Rhetorical Weaponry by Dr. Hector Avalos
Spirited debates in scholarly fields usually involve a mixture of substantive argumentation and rhetorical weaponry. Rhetorical weaponry is intended to detract from the real substance of arguments, as well as to appeal to the emotional side of the audience. Rhetorical weaponry and substantive arguments are not always easily distinguished, and participants may sometimes be unaware of the difference.
Here, I concentrate on the rhetorical weapons that are being deployed by religionist biblical scholars against efforts to reform the field of biblical studies so that it might function like all other fields in modern academia---a completely secular enterprise with methodological naturalism at its core.
These rhetorical weapons may be seen as literary tropes or themes, insofar as they depict fictional, rather than actual, villainy on the part of secularists. The purpose of these tropes and themes is to marginalize secularists rather than to address real arguments. They represent creative versions of the ad hominem fallacy.
Quote of the Day, by exrelayman
The natural world is all that we can detect with our 5 senses and instruments used to interact with those senses when the scale of perception surpasses the limitations of those senses. The supernatural world then would be that which we cannot detect with senses or instruments (at the present time). This means that at the present time there is no evidence which we can discern supporting the supernatural. If and when we become able to detect the supernatural, it will have moved into the realm of the natural, as we can then detect it.
David Eller's New Book on Religion and Violence
Jack David Eller's book Cruel Creeds, Virtuous Violence: Religious Violence Across Culture and History,
is massive and sure to be a good one. Be sure to get it. I plan on doing so.
is massive and sure to be a good one. Be sure to get it. I plan on doing so.What You Can Find Here at DC
I get new readers everyday so let me welcome them and briefly tell them what to expect here at DC. I am not a news source. There are lots of religion related news stories but I mostly comment on the high profile or interesting ones. Nor do I post many stories about the crimes or infidelities of pastors. They happen everyday and even though some of their abuses make our heads spin I mostly comment on high profile or interesting cases. Nor do I share many testimonies of deconversion, although I do so from time to time. And I don't post a great deal of obtuse philosophical arguments, or a great many things about science or cosmology. They are all useful, no doubt, and I do so from time to time.
Are We Angry Atheists?
Someone recently wrote this about us here at DC: “I find it amazing how much anger there is on this board.”
I find this to be an interesting charge. People have said this before. Is it true? If it is, does it imply anything important?
I don’t think it’s true, at least not with me. I am not an angry atheist toward anyone. If I have ever shown anger it’s because I was responding to what I considered to be willful ignorance, idiocy and/or attempts to belittle me.
But what if I am angry, and what if others here are angry? What then?
I find this to be an interesting charge. People have said this before. Is it true? If it is, does it imply anything important?
I don’t think it’s true, at least not with me. I am not an angry atheist toward anyone. If I have ever shown anger it’s because I was responding to what I considered to be willful ignorance, idiocy and/or attempts to belittle me.
But what if I am angry, and what if others here are angry? What then?
My Talk at the Texas Freethought Convention
It was on the Outsider Test for Faith. Enjoy. I followed Darrel Ray who wrote the book The God Virus
. His talk can be found there as well. He talked for a bit about sex and the triggers that cause people to believe. In my talk I mentioned Robert Price's essay on sex. Here it 'tis. This was an amazing convention and I highly recommend it for all skeptics. Don't miss it next year. It's put together very well. The people are awesome!
. His talk can be found there as well. He talked for a bit about sex and the triggers that cause people to believe. In my talk I mentioned Robert Price's essay on sex. Here it 'tis. This was an amazing convention and I highly recommend it for all skeptics. Don't miss it next year. It's put together very well. The people are awesome!I've Changed the DISQUS Settings to Flat vs Threaded Comments
Is this better? It's more like Blogger.
Dr. Matt McCormick on the F - Word
Be sure to click on his Powerpoint slide presentation on Faith. This is awesome! See here.
A Dialog With A Good Christian Friend
I get contacted from Christian friends I've had over the years who want to discuss why I rejected Christianity. Here is a brief email exchange I had with a dear friend from the past:
Dr. Hector Avalos Interviewed by the Iowa State Daily News
While growing up, Avalos' zealous belief in God ignited an intense study of the Bible. "Most adults, up until recently, usually end up in the religion they were raised in," Avalos said. "It's not because they came to that religion through a long period of study or research, but they were just raised that way. To me that was not satisfactory. I wanted to know whether it was true or not." "I started by trying to defeat the arguments of the other side," Avalos said, "and in the process I realized that my own arguments were not very good." "One thing led to another, and I realized that I did not believe in Christianity or that the Bible was the word of God, or that the Bible had any kind of divine origin." Link
Atheist Controversy Solved: "What Evidence Could Make Us Believe?"
While PZ Myers and Greta Christina and others banter this question back and forth I have already decisively answered this a long time ago when it comes to Christianity, right here. Q.E.D. If only they would come listen to the master! Sit at my feet children. I teach you. Place some coins in my jar with gratitude for once again decisively solving yet another dispute with precision. Thank you. Thank you very much. ;-)
James Sennett: "It would not take much to turn me into a Buddhist -- Theravada, that is."
As many of you know Dr. Sennett and I have been friends since seminary days. He has recommend my book. He has written/edited some significant apologetic/philosophical books and articles. He teaches at Brenau University. In March of 2009 he wrote a blog post at DC where he maintained he was still a believer. Now on Facebook (if you can access it) this is what he said in a post about "25 Random Things About Me." It's number 17. Anyone see a trend here? It's somewhat the same trend I went through (although I went from being a liberal to an agnostic to an atheist). Where will he end his intellectual journey? Who knows? But he is no longer an evangelical, that's for sure. James, I wish you well my friend.
"You Might be a Fundamentalist if..."
Jeff Foxworthy's line is "You might be a redneck if.." Below are ten suggested answers to this other line that were emailed to me. Got some of your own?
Quote of the Day, by D. Newman
I and many others are in Christian eyes little lost sheep. I look forward to being found by the good shepherd!!! He has not found me yet though and does not seem all that interested in looking either! (I am sure he is busy, washing his hair or something).
John Shimkus, R-Ill is presently running for Chairman of the House Energy Committee. He should be stopped NOW!
Hat Tip: Jeffrey A. Myers
I Know More Than You Do! Na Na Na Na Na NA!
Or, You Don't Know Jack Shit.
Christians have faulted the so-called New Atheists with ignorance. They do the same thing with me. If only I knew this or that I would see the error of my way and believe again. But think about this. How much philosophy should Richard Dawkins know to rationally reject religion? How much science should Christopher Hitchens know? How much Bible should Daniel Dennett know? How much theology should Sam Harris know? How much should we know to rationally reject religion? How much? What if we know very little? What if all we know is that God did not save our child and she died from Leukemia? What if a scientist rejects religion because s/he cannot adequately test supernatural hypotheses? What if a historian rejects the claims of a religion because as a historian s/he must assume a natural explanation for the events in the past? What then? Are they culpable for doing so when this is all they know to do? When can it be said that a person can rationally reject a religion? Surely the theist cannot possibly demand that nonbelievers must know all that can be known before their rejection of religion is warranted.
To put it in terms of the Outsider Test for Faith, how much should someone know in order to reject Mormonism, or Catholicism, or Islam, or Orthodox Judaism, to name a few. How much do YOU know of them?
To put it in terms of the Outsider Test for Faith, how much should someone know in order to reject Mormonism, or Catholicism, or Islam, or Orthodox Judaism, to name a few. How much do YOU know of them?
Atheist Ministers Struggle With Leading the Faithful
"I am an atheist," says "Jack," a Southern Baptist with more than 20 years in ministry.
"I live out my life as if there is no God," says "Adam," who is part of the pastoral staff of a small evangelical church in the Bible Belt.
The two, who asked that their real identities be protected, are pastors who have lost their faith. And these two men, who have built their careers and lives around faith, say they now feel trapped, living a lie. Link
I've switched to DISQUS Commenting System Because Blogger Sucks
I'm following the lead of Mike D The A-Unicornist.
My Review of Karen Armstrong's Book "The Case for God"
My review was just published in Philosophy Now magazine (follow the link). If the link doesn't work an earlier version is on Amazon. You'll see I made the same arguments against her liberalism that I made against John F. Haught's book, God and the New Atheism, against Cheryl Exum and Dennis MacDonald at last years annual SBL meeting, and that I make against Thom Stark's book The Human Faces of God, Robert Wright's book, The Evolution of God, and Mark Roncace's book Raw Revelation. See what you think. Let's have done with the notion that I don't understand liberal versions of Christianity. I do. I just reject them.
Roger Nygard's "The Nature of Existence" is Wonderful!
I just finished previewing a copy of this documentary to be released Nov. 23rd. It is fascinating as we hear from people around the globe what they think about the meaning of existence. This link does a great job telling you what it's about. Nygard goes on a quest to know the answer(s) and he comes back with a few meager suggestions when all is said and done. It's well done, contains some great humor, and is very educational.
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