Correction: Boghossian is Not Addressing All Atheists

I got to thinking that since there are some atheist criticisms of Peter Boghossian's book, A Manual for Creating Atheists,that he's not writing for all of us. He's addressing atheists 1) who are convinced that religion has no epistemic warrant, 2) who think the world would be a better place without religion in it, 3) who want to change the minds of believers, and/or 4) for atheists who are not necessarily intellectuals. He's largely addressing people he calls Street Epistemologists, seeking to motivate them into action. Even as an intellectual though, I appreciate what he's doing. This should surprise no one. There are many books written by Christians instructing them how to talk atheists into faith. Here's one recently suggested to me, written by Jay Lucas, Ask Them Why: How to Help Unbelievers Find the Truth.There have been many missionary books doing the same thing, showing how to make inroads into different cultures, only they sought to change and even destroy those cultures, as David Eller shows in a chapter for my anthology Christianity Is Not Great: How Faith Fails.The title to his chapter says it all: "They Will Make Good Slaves and Christians: Christianity, Colonialism, and the Destruction of Indigenous People."

Boghossian's book is not meant to change the minds of believers but rather the approach he lays out in it should.

In his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, Peter Boghossian is not writing to Christians. He's writing to atheists. Christians are reading and critiquing his book of course, but the atheists who implement his strategies are taught by him to be respectful of believers as persons, using the Socratic Method. So what's going on here? He uses some rhetoric to get atheists motivated but in actual practice when speaking to Christians, as his own "interventions" demonstrate in the book itself, he advocates being respectful to them and their beliefs. He first motivates then he educates.

Critical Thinking Crash Course, by Peter Boghossian

[Redated post] This audio recording is from a public lecture given by Dr. Peter Boghossian of Portland State University on May 11th, 2012 at the Intel Campus in Hillsboro, Oregon. This is an excellent presentation. I could only hope his critics listen to it, especially the Q & A afterward. This predates his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, but helps introduce it.

Daniel Dennett On "Four Steps to Arguing Intelligently"

Dennett offers what he calls “the best antidote [for the] tendency to caricature one’s opponent.” What he says (below) is a good reminder. Sometimes I need that. I have gone on record arguing that ridicule is an effective weapon in disabusing believers of their faith, and it is. It does not characterize what I do though. Most of the time I deal with the arguments of believers respectfully until it appears they are unwilling to think. Sometimes I can spot them quickly, on the first comment here. They will mindlessly quote-mine from the Bible or the theology based on it. These are people who come to preach to me rather than learn from me. I've said it before and I'll say it again, there is nothing significant believers can tell me that I have not considered before. So it takes a great deal of my time before they will realize this about me. I'll even tell them to read my books but hardly any of them are interested. It doesn't occur to them that I have more to teach them as a former believer and an intellectual than they could ever teach me. Not even Randal Rauser has yet read my magnum opus. In many cases after dealing with the same believers for months or years, I lose respect for them and turn to ridicule (Think Victor Reppert, Randal Rauser, David Marshall and Matthew Flannagan). In my mind they are beyond hope. But after regrouping and re-adjusting with some time off from them I start being respectful again, until it becomes clear all over again they are unwilling to think. This is a vicious cycle. Nonetheless, what Dennett writes is a good reminder to us all (along with the further commentary). Enjoy.

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Peter Boghossian Responds to his Critics in an Interview with Ignoranti

Peter Boghossian says his critics have lost touch with how people actually use the word faith (think Tim McGrew, Randal Rauser, David Marshall, and Tom Gilson). Believers like "Betty Churchgoer" use the word faith just like he says. Boghossian tell us "Faith is the word someone uses when they don't have sufficient evidence toward belief but they decide to believe anyway." LINK.

The Apologist Two-Step Dance--Timothy McGrew and David Marshall on Boghossian

Here's James Lindsay on this dance of theirs:

The two-step is their game. The way it's played is simple: give multiple characterizations for everything, including God, faith, Christian, etc., and then whenever someone calls you out for the problems in any one of them (and there are always problems), switch to another. Dance, dance, dance. Pretend, pretend, pretend. Whatever it takes to avoid having the cherished beliefs treated with intellectual honesty, which would destroy them. [Read this!]

Crazy Stories, Crazy Christians: A Review of John Alan Turner's Book "Crazy Stories, Sane God"

My review of Crazy Stories, Sane God: Lessons from the Most Unexpected Places in the Biblecan be read right here. Christians will downvote it just because, so any upvotes if you like it would be appreciated.

Frank Schaeffer Now Claims to Be an Atheist Who Believes in God

*Sheeh* When will his shenanigans end:

I believe that life evolved by natural selection. I believe that evolutionary psychology explains away altruism and debunks love, and that brain chemistry undermines the illusion of free will and personhood. I also believe that a spiritual reality hovering over, in and through me calls me to love, trust and hear the voice of my creator.

Franky should just trust the results of science. Where science is inconclusive suspend judgement. It's really that easy folks! LINK

On "Getting Excited About Jesus"

George W. Bush with Frank Page and Wife
 in the Oval Office

(This post was originally published in 2007 (from a letter) when Rev. Frank Page was pastor of the Taylor's First Baptist mega church here in Greenville county. Later, he was elected President of the Southern Baptist Convention.  This post illustrated how Christian propaganda is over sold; not even being believed by the pastor preaching it!) 

Dear Dr. Page,

I heard you preach Sunday morning on our local channel about “getting as excited about Jesus as people do about their favorite ball teams”. I (as a former Baptist preacher) must say there is a major difference between the world of everyday reality and the religious world view claimed by faith.

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Quote of the Day, By Thomas Hobbes On Revelation

When God speaketh to man, it must be either immediately; or by mediation of another man, to whom he had formerly spoken by himself immediately. How God speaketh to a man immediately, may be understood by those well enough, to whom he hath so spoken; but how the same should be understood by another, is hard, if not impossible to know. For if a man pretend to me, that God hath spoken to him supernaturally, and immediately, and I make doubt of it, I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce, to oblige me to believe it....To say he hath spoken to him in a Dream, is no more than to say he dreamed that God spake to him; which is not of force to win belief from any man ... [Leviathan, chap. 32.6]

Dr. Valerie Tarico On Bible Verses That Atheists Love

She asked some outspoken anti-theists and other champions of secularism what they think are the best verses in the Bible, and why. Here are their responses.

Finally! Sam Harris Responds to the Moral Landscape Challenge

A few months back Sam issued a challenge for someone to prove him wrong. Ryan Born rose to the challenge, as his essay was chosen out of hundreds of responses by Russell Blackford. Here is Ryan's essay. Read it and then read Sam's response Just a brief comment. I thought Sam's response is an effective one. The most interesting and controversial claim Sam makes is this one:

I am, in essence, defending the unity of knowledge—the idea that the boundaries between disciplines are mere conventions and that we inhabit a single epistemic sphere in which to form true beliefs about the world.

Richard Carrier vs Zeba Crook: Jesus of Nazareth: Man or myth?

Richard Carrier has written about it here.

Randal Rauser's Book, “What on Earth Do we Know About Heaven?” is FREE June 5 (eBook only)

The book looks like pure speculation based on the need to believe, but what the hey, see for yourselves, today only.

Three More Blurbs for "Christianity is Not Great"

I've previously mentioned that Richard Dawkins and David Mills wrote blurbs for my new anthology, Christianity Is Not Great: How Faith Fails.Here are three more in the order I received them:

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The Evolution of Venom: This is How Science Works

All believers denigrate science in at least a few areas. The more fundamentalist the believer then the more that person denigrates science. Methinks they just don't understand how it works. Below is a video showing an example with regard to venom in some animals. Notice that science makes predictions. In this case the prediction was based on evolution that venom must have existed before there were fangs, and further that snake venom was inherited from an earlier ancestor. This prediction went against common wisdom. But the evidence was found. Notice the scientist does experiments looking for evidence rather than believing any authorities. Notice also that this science is helping make our lives healthier by the development of medicines, something you will not find in the Bible, God's supposed wisdom. Seriously, do you see a mad scientist here, someone seeking to destroy people's faith?

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Why Faith is a Delusion, Case in Point: William Lane Craig

Craig said:

Plantinga talks about intrinsic defeater-defeaters. That is to say, a belief which is so powerfully warranted for me that it intrinsically defeats any defeater brought against it. You don't need another extrinsic defeater to defeat the defeater. You have an intrinsic defeater-defeater in the witness of the Holy Spirit which allows you to retain faith rationally even in the face of unanswered objections.

The context of this quote is as follows:

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Eleven Kinds of Verses Bible-Believers Like to Ignore, By Valerie Tarico

John Alan Turner wrote this book I'll be reviewing soon (click on the image). Usually though, Christians ignore these kinds of stories and verses. Here's Tarico on it:

Bible-believing Christians play fast and loose with their sacred text. When it suits their purposes, they treat it like the literally perfect word of God, and, in a peculiar twist of logic, they quote the Bible itself to back up their claim. Then, when it suits their other purposes, they conveniently ignore the parts of the Bible that are—inconvenient.

Here are twelve [misprint?] kinds of verses that Bible-believers ignore so that they can keep spouting the others when they want to. To list all of the verses in these categories would take a book almost the size of the Bible, one the size of the Bible minus the Jefferson Bible, to be precise. I’ll limit myself to a couple tantalizing tidbits of each kind, and the curious reader who wants more can go to the Skeptic’s Annotated Bible or simply dig out the old family tome and start reading at Genesis, Chapter One....Thank God most Bible-believing Christians don’t actually take the Good Book as seriously as they claim to. LINK.

The Idea of Heaven Seems Strange To Me Now

Now  that I've been out of Christianity for a while, one thing that seems very strange to me is the Christian conception of a Heaven in which, day and night, people will be singing songs to God and telling him how great he is.  For one thing, wouldn't that get old rather quickly?  More importantly though, what kind of person would want people groveling and constantly going on about how awesome you are?  I could see a North Korean dictator enjoying that sort of thing (Kim Jong-un certainly does), but normal people?  No way!  What kind of person needs their self-esteem propped up by that sort of subservient, fawning adulation?   Imagine if when your friends were with you, all they did was bow down before you,  sing songs in honor of you, and constantly shower you with praise.  Wouldn't it make you uncomfortable; embarrassed?  Healthy relationships certainly don't work that way. 

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Quote of the Day, by Robert Ingersoll

Black comes to the conclusion that the Hebrew Bible is in exact harmony with the New Testament, and that the two are “connected together;” and “that if one is true the other cannot be false.” If this is so, then he must admit that if one is false the other cannot be true; and it hardly seems possible to me that there is a right-minded, sane man, except Mr. Black, who now believes that a God of infinite kindness and justice ever commanded one nation to exterminate another; ever ordered his soldiers to destroy men, women, and babes; ever established the institution of human slavery; ever regarded the auction-block as an altar, or a bloodhound as an apostle. [Ingersoll, Debate with Jeremiah Black, theingersolltimes.com]

What is Faith/Belief? Can Believers Even Tell Us?

[A redated post] In David Eller's words, Malcolm Ruel in his book, Belief, Ritual and the Securing of Life,

...demonstrates that the concept of belief in Western civilization and Christianity has evolved, from a kind of "trust" in god(s) to specific propositions about God and Christ to the notion of "grace" based on the personal experience of and commitment to God and Christ to a conception of belief as an "adventure of faith" which does not have any particular destination or make any specific claims. The evolutionary trajectory of belief in Christianity is, then, distinctively "local" and historical--that is, culturally and religiously relative--and not to be found in every religion. Many religions do not have any "creed" of explicit propositions about their supernatural worlds, and many do not mix fact, trust, and value in the English/Christian way. Ruel concludes that the English and Western concept of belief is "complex, highly ambiguous, and unstable" and "is demonstrably an historical amalgam, composed of elements traceable to Judaic mystical doctrine and Greek styles of discourse." [Source: Introducing Anthropology of Religion, p. 33.]

Peter Boghossian and Tim McGrew on the Christian Program "Unbelievable"

There's a lot of blathering about Tim McGrew's so-called trashing of my friend and colleague Peter Boghossian. For the record, I view myself as Boghossian's bulldog and I have posted a few reviews of his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists.Randal Rauser's headline is this: Tim McGrew gives Peter Boghossian an unbelievable public drubbing. On the other side, James Lindsay carefully reviews their debate. You can listen to it on the program Unbelievable right here. I think he did well but McGrew threw him for a loop once or twice.

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What's the Difference?

As a Total Literary Fraud Filled with Stolen Religious Ideas, the Bible Offers the World Nothing New

It’s simple.  Can anyone name one technological advancement, one scientific achievement, or a single advancement in morals and ethics not already covered earlier and better in a neighboring cultures near Palestine ?  

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Without A Mythical Jesus, What Has Modern Scholarship Left Us With?

Meet the Son of God:  Jesus

"And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head.” (Matt. 8: 20)

When Jesus is stripped of all his miracles, the Virgin Birth, the Resurrection, his descend to Hell, and his accent to Heaven (all of which the majority of New Testament scholars inform us are later theological embellishments), popular modern scholars such as Dale Allison and Bart Ehrman tell us that Jesus was nothing but a Failed Apocalyptic Prophet whose eschatology about the End of the Age was materialize in his own crucifixion.

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The Case for Naturalism (Sean Carrol)

This is the opening statement by Sean Carroll at "The Great Debate: Has Science Refuted Religion?", sponsored by the Skeptic Society on 25 March 2012.  Other participants in the debate were Michael Shermer, Dinesh D'Souza, and Ian Hutchinson.

You can see the full debate here.

Beyond an Absence of Faith

This project has been a couple of years in the making, but it is one that myself and my co-editor are very proud of. Beyond an Absence of Faith: Stories About the Loss of Faith and the Discovery of Self is a collection of deconversion accounts from people of various worldviews from people from a number of countries.

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Jerry Coyne Reports: The Adam-and-Eve War Continues at Bryan College

The money quote:

The College is in a ferment over a topic close to my heart: the historicity of Adam and Eve. Even conservative Christians, it seems, have trouble believing that Adam and Eve were the literal ancestors of humanity. That historicity has become increasingly problematic since the appearance of new papers in population genetics, showing that over the last few hundred thousand years, the population of Homo sapiens could not have been smaller than about 12,250 (10,000 who remained in Africa and 2,250 who migrated out of Africa to populate the rest of the globe).

In other words, the human population never comprised only two people. And if Adam and Eve weren’t the literal ancestors of humanity, then a critical part of the Genesis story is wrong: the acquisition of Original Sin. And if there were no Original Sin accrued by a literal Adam and Eve, then all of us—their supposed descendants—aren’t sinful by birth, and Jesus’s return wasn’t necessary. LINK.

My, How the Truth of the Bible Has Fallen!

Biblical Archaeologist Nelson Glueck 

on the Cover of Time Magazine 1963

A famous quote by one of the 20^th century’s leading Biblical Archaeologist, Nelson Glueck:

“It may be stated categorically that no archaeological discovery has ever controverted a Biblical reference. Scores of archaeological findings have been made which confirm in clear outline or exact detail historical statements in the Bible. And, by the same token, proper evaluation of Biblical descriptions has often led to amazing discoveries.”  (Nelson Glueck from his 1959 book, Rivers in the Desert)

According to the late George Ernest Wright, Professor at, and Curator of Harvard’s Semitic Museum, “Glueck’s explorations are second to none, unless it is those of Edward Robinson.”

The question is now:  What can be proven historically true in the Bible (if anything)?

Quote of the Day, by Loftus

A god worthy of worship is a god that someone thinks is worthy of worship. As the world got bigger people needed a bigger god to worship. That's about it.

Dinesh D'Souza Pleads Guilty to Violating Campaign Finance Law

Link. He faces up to two years in prison. That's not the only thing he has faced recently.

Are You a Reasonable Christian? Do You Really Have Faith?

Richard Dawkins is a really good wordsmith and he wrote a very nice blurb for my soon to be released anthology, Christianity Is Not Great: How Faith Fails.He wrote, “John Loftus knows from the inside what’s wrong with Christianity. Few people are better qualified to explain to those still in its clutches why they’d do well to leave, and he has assembled a fine team of colleagues to assist him in doing so. This book should convert a high proportion of those with the courage to read it.”

What intrigues me is that he says it takes courage to read such a book. Courage. I like that. I know of Christians who do not have the courage to read books like this one. I keep asking them "what do you have to lose?" Seriously. Wouldn't any reasonable person want to examine his or her faith by reading books from people who don't believe, just to see if there are any good reasons not to believe? If your faith survives then you will have a stronger faith. So, do you want a stronger faith or not? If your faith doesn't survive then wouldn't any reasonable person want to know?

Typically most Christians will only read Christian apologetic responses to books like this one. This is a lazy way to investigate your faith, representing no effort at all. Think on this. When you prepare to vote in an election do you only listen to what campaign headquarters for one candidate says without checking into the rebuttals of the other campaign? You shouldn't. Those running a particular campaign have a vested interest in getting their candidate elected. They are spin doctors if needed. They have a one track mind. They cannot see a middle ground. So I invite Christians who don't read atheist books to read this one. Try it. Even your God, the one who supposedly created reason, would be pleased you're willing to investigate your faith by fearing nothing. If you fear, that is a sign you don't have enough faith.

Quote of the Day, by Loftus

That which creates and sustains all religions is a sense of mystery, fear, guilt and suffering. People want answers so religions have been created to help solve them. The scientific fact of evolution is the best explanation for why we experience these feelings as rational animals, thinking reeds. Hence, there is no longer any need for any religion.