Aaron Adair wrote a superb book which I edited called The Star of Bethlehem: A Skeptical View. It is well worth reading, and you will learn a number of gems. I thought I would give you a taste with part of the second chapter detailing methodological difficulties involved with the Gospel of Matthew and accounts and claims of the star. The book is available from the sidebar over there>>>>>>>
Author Jonathan MS Pearce
For anyone in the Portsmouth, UK area, I am giving my Case Against God talk to the Portsmouth Skeptics in…
I recently wrote an article for Free Inquiry titled Is Society Accepting That Free Will Is an Illusion? The article is…
Following what I reported from the BHA the other day, the Coventry Telegraph reports the following good and sensible news. Respect…
Nabeel Qureshi is great; he is a great resource for critiquing Islam, Muhammad, the Qu’ran and the Hadith. He is an ex-Muslim who converted to Christianity and now runs and MA course at Biola and runs his own ministry. His knowledge of Islam is super and his videos have certainly helped me in my exegesis and talks on Islam.
The BHA reports this annoyingly insane story. Please tweet them or email a complaint:
The British Humanist Association (BHA) has reacted with alarm at news that a non-religious human rights activist, Maryam Namazie, has been denied the opportunity to speak at a student society event, seemingly because she is an advocate of secularism who is critical of religious extremism.
The greatest podcast on the internet, Reasonable Doubts, has sadly come to a close. If you have not delved into…
I contribute a short segment called “Pearced Off!” to a skeptical podcast called Skepticule. Recently, they invited me on for…
Skeptic Ink is proud to announce a new addition to the network: Jon Webster, whose blog is known as The…
The Founding Fathers are still on the front line of debate amongst atheists and Christians, secularists and theocrats alike. All these years later there is still confusion abounding. Part of the reason why is that there are many misquotes (and this can happen on both sides). Here, for example, is a quote (A letter from Adams to Jefferson) sometimes used by secularists:
I am talking at the University of Exeter this week, on Monday, about Islam and religious violence. If you live…
John Grove, a commenter here on occasion at ATP, and a great supporter of my work, has really kindly placed the first review of my new ebook on classical theism: God’s omni characteristics. It is an amalgam (the book) of my posts, with some original extras, which I think is a super one-stop shop for all things counter-apologetic and arguing against that nonsensical God/god.
A great comment in reply to my post on Atonement and Jesus by D Rieder: Good post. It makes no sense…
It comes with great sadness to announce that my favourite podcast of all time, Reasonable Doubts, will no longer continue to be. This upsets me because there is no greater podcast on the internet than this one. RD has been with me for a good number of years and has provided ample stimuli for me to pass on in my own way.
The Atonement is one of those funny things in Christianity. It is the central tenet, the main raison d’etre of the whole shebang. Jesus existed as God incarnate in order to be sacrificed and die in order to pay for our sins, past, present and future.
Only it makes absolutely no sense.
In very simplistic terms, I see it like this:
You can’t beat it when such incisive atheology is delivered in such a trivial and comedic way: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPriOQkKd6k Well…
Franz Kiekeben studied (University of South Florida) and taught (Ohio State University) philosophy, having written for the SKEPTIC magazine and published academic articles on determinism and time travel. He recently sent me a book he has written called The Truth About God to review.
Yes, you heard me, tomatoes.
I am devastated. My harvest of about three hundred tomatoes has been decimated. Tomato blight. Gutted. The yield would have been my best ever, and they were very healthy looking.
This is so important an article (and paper it is derived from) that I had to share it. The final few paragraphs are powerful. Climate skeptics who claim to be the “real scientists” are so very wrong. It’s about time climate scientists fought back! From the Guardian:
Those who reject the 97% expert consensus on human-caused global warming often invoke Galileo as an example of when the scientific minority overturned the majority view. In reality, climate contrarians have almost nothing in common with Galileo, whose conclusions were based on empirical scientific evidence, supported by many scientific contemporaries, and persecuted by the religious-political establishment. Nevertheless, there’s a slim chance that the 2–3% minority is correct and the 97% climate consensus is wrong.
My new ebook is available now on Kindle, Nook and Kobo. James A. Lindsay (Dot, Dot, Dot: Infinity Plus God Equals Folly) kindly wrote a foreword to support the project.