‘Rationality is useless if it is not sound. This is what Martin Luther meant when he called reason a “whore”. Pick the wrong premises, and rationality is utterly screwed. Therefore, merely that someone is “rational” means absolutely nothing about whether that person is well-connected to reality.’
I was wondering when this issue would be raised by the bigger media outlets. The BBC reports: Three young women…
Last week, I introduced you to John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser’s new debate-style book, God or Godless? I am now going to furnish you with a review. I commend Baker Books for sending me a review copy.
A year after Amanda Berry disappeared in Cleveland, her mother appeared on “The Montel Williams Show” to speak to a psychic about what happened to her daughter.
Psychic Sylvia Browne, who has made a career of televised psychic readings, told Louwanna Miller on a 2004 episode of the show that her daughter was dead, causing Miller to break down in tears on the show’s set.
More misery for atheists and secularists in Bangladesh (see this very moving interview I shared the other day). The country is going seriously backwards.
As AlJazeera reports:
I think one of the many problems that Christianity faces is the lack of a systematic theology. There is no coherence across the religion and across the bible. The responsibility of this lies on the lap of an all powerful and system designing god. And this itself is incoherent with such a god as defined by Christians.
Countries with the best standard of living are turning atheist. That shift offers a glimpse into the world’s future.
Religious people are annoyed by claims that belief in God will go the way of horse transportation, and for much the same reason, specifically an improved standard of living.
The article below is from the UK Human Rights Blog. There is an interesting development in allowing subgroups of a society to exempt themselves from national laws or requirements. Then again, is there a sense that there is an analogy here between this and the rights of someone with dietary requirements (eg Halal) to have certain school meal or job-provided provision for their needs?
You´ve all heard the standard lies about the third reich being an “Atheist regime” and Darwinian evolution being a foundation for the Nazi race ideology. The funny (“funny” in a tragic way) thing about this is, that these claims are not only wrong, but that the exact opposite happens to be true.
So there were local elections yesterday, these for councillors for the County Councils (broadly speaking, States in the US). Councils are run by a number of councillors, and overall majorities mean that certain parties control whole counties (again, broadly and simply speaking).
I am stoked to have received a review copy of John Loftus’ latest offering, “God or Godless?” which he has co-written with Randal Rauser, the apologist with whom I had a radio debate on the subject of the nativity. Let me briefly introduce the authors and the book.
So this story has been doing the rounds of the international news agencies and channels over the last week. It seems we humans will do quite a number of things to survive. A powerful driver. Think the rugby team who were stranded after a plane crash in the Andes. I am a rugby player myself. No holds barred animalism…
You might well have heard about the plight of atheist bloggers in Bangladesh. I have signed a petition, and urge you to do so if it is still valid. Being persecuted (and yes, I mean this overused term) for nonbelief is simply outrageous in this day and age.
IBM, in researching data storage, have messed about with some atoms. You can see this only by magnifying some 100…
I came across these on my journey through You Tube today. I love them. They are great little chunks of fun, covering all the philosophical greats, including some very early Greek ones.
Check this New Scientist article out: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn23401-emerging-consciousness-glimpsed-in-babies.html “A glimpse of consciousness emerging in the brains of babies has been recorded…
Previously I had talked about an amazing piece of computational engineering from the ancient world, the Antikythera mechanism, which was also posted up at A Tippling Philosopher. In the comments there, a discussion came up about another wonder of antiquity which has attracted all sorts of speculations among alternative thinkers. This is the construction of the temple complex at the city of Baalbek, also known as Heliopolis, in modern-day Lebanon, about 70 kilometers* north of Damascus. The site has considerable antiquity, but it is the large stones at the temple, especially the three known as the Trilithon, that have garnered the greatest attention, each weighing in around 800 tons.* And deservedly so, as they are some of the largest single objects ever moved in the pre-modern era.
Crispian Jago, a local rational thinker, has produced this rather amusing and apt flow chart. It can be found…
http://youtu.be/bObzpWrhH-Q This is a nice little video to express why incompatibilism is the most robust worldview with regard to free…
So here’s the thing. The Christian seems to historiographically rate the NT over and above the other biblical books so that the Gospels have hermeneutic priority over any other book. My last book (The Nativity: A Critical Examination), and my subsequent radio debate with Randal Rauser, showed that the only time the Gospels are verifiable – that they intersect with known facts and verifiable incidents – is during the nativity accounts of Matthew and Luke.
If this doesn’t send shivers down your spine, you have no heart. Shed a tear, go on. One…