May 2013
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The Usual Arrogance
thelovelyrealm:
The Deconversion Movement: Another Plagi-Apologist
deconversionmovement:
What’s a plagi-ApologistTM? A plagi-Apologist is a wannabe apologist who plagiarizes. Thelovelyrealm attempted to solve the contradiction of Judas’ death. How? Definitely not by being original or employing critical thinking. He simply read what apologist sites had to say and reworded it to make…
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Another Plagi-Apologist
What’s a plagi-ApologistTM? A plagi-Apologist is a wannabe apologist who plagiarizes. Thelovelyrealm attempted to solve the contradiction of Judas’ death. How? Definitely not by being original or employing critical thinking. He simply read what apologist sites had to say and reworded it to make it seem original; then he had the nerve to message me and say that he wasn’t...
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apreacherskid asked: For the sake of his own intellectual integrity he should have conceded that his argument was flawed. Unfortunately, he has none. It's a pity these folks are so averse to reevaluating their arguments after they've been thoroughly refuted. Religion has rendered them impervious to reason. Just another reason I'm glad I'm an atheist.
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thelovelyrealm asked: ...who said anything about priests finding his body, taking it down and carting it to the field????
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The Contradiction Stands
thelovelyrealm:
A skeptic cited this ‘contradiction’ in response to the Green Eggs and Ham example I put forward.
When you look at an article about the Boston marathon bombers and what happened in regards to their capture, you will read that the older brother (not even mentioning their names here) was shot dead by the police.
I hope you’re sitting down. They guy’s body didn’t just vanish and...
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On Muslims and Christians
oh-your-god:
deconversionmovement:
george-barter:
Do people seriously lack the understanding that Allah is a translated word for ‘God’? C’mon, people! Of course, I believe in Allah!
This only pretends to respond to my objections. I am aware that Allah translates into English as god; however, I am also aware that the Muslim view of god and the Christian view of god are different. So no,...
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My Own Philosophical Challenge
I challenge a Christian, any Christian, to come up with an original and new argument for god, theism and/or Christianity. “All thinking men are atheists.” At the moment, I don’t see a reason to disagree with that statement. We atheists are freethinkers; Dawkins, Harris, Hitchens, etc. don’t think for us. Show us that Craig, Licona, Swinburne, Plantinga, etc. don’t...
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serveonlythyself asked: What? A Christian with no argument removing all traces of said argument? Tell me where I've heard this one before... let me guess... he'll have a different blog name and/or be gone within weeks? :P
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serveonlythyself asked: LOL and now he has deleted all his response posts. ^___^
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The Usual Obduracy
apreacherskid:
serveonlythyself:
george-barter:
Most of my philosoraptor questions go unanswered. I really would enjoy an answer to this one. From anyone.
I have an opinion that unicorns don’t exist. Does me having that opinion mean they exist? No, it simply means that the idea/concept exists.
The concept/idea of God (in many forms) exists. The Islamic concept, the Christian concept, the...
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Ignoratio Elenchi
george-barter:
Do people seriously lack the understanding that Allah is a translated word for ‘God’? C’mon, people! Of course, I believe in Allah!
This only pretends to respond to my objections. I am aware that Allah translates into English as god; however, I am also aware that the Muslim view of god and the Christian view of god are different. So no, you don’t believe in Allah. You...
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Parading Foolishness
And never mind the false analogy this so called philosopher is employing. A refusal to believe in something real (tigers) isn’t the same as a disbelief in something that is demonstrably nonexistent (the Judeo-Christian god). But you know how obstinate these sophisticated wannabe theologians and apologists are. They could hit a fallacy like a drunk driver hits a tree, and yet they will...
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Not Philosophy; Just More Foolishness
george-barter:
greatestmyth:
george-barter:
Most of my philosoraptor questions go unanswered. I really would enjoy an answer to this one. From anyone.
I can only speak for myself, but when I talk about god or a god, I talk about him as if he were any other character in a story. People talk about Zeus all the time without believing such a god exists. Just because you have an opinion...
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Even If Most Scientists Are Atheist, Don't... →
It is difficult to deny that there is a strong negative trend between professional expertise in the field of science and traditional monotheistic beliefs. 93% of the members of the National Academy of Sciences do not believe in the existence of god, while an almost reversed proportion of 92% of the general American public do believe in a god. While different polls have slightly different...
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Two Bayesian Fallacies →
At INR3 in Kamloops I spoke on applying Bayesian logic to the study of Jesus along with the same principles we apply to dead religions (so as to avoid the “don’t offend the Christians” reaction to controversial claims…claims that would not be controversial if Jesus was not the object of worship of billions of loud, influential people). In Q&A philosopher Louise Anthony challenged my...
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The Intellectual Laziness of Christians
This has seriously become my new pet peeve. I’m starting to see a trend amongst Christians (here (if you’re wondering why I linked an entire blog rather than a specific post, notice how every contra-atheist post mentions Dawkins) and here). They talk about Richard Dawkins The God Delusion, refute some major points of his book and then parade around as if they replied to every...
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Lee Strobel Endorses Ball State's Teaching of... →
Lee Strobel is a Christian apologist and author whose book, The Case for a Creator: A Journalist Investigates Scientific Evidence that Points Toward God, is on Dr. Eric Hedin’s reading list for his creationism-infested “science” course at Ball State University. Strobel claims that he was once an atheist, but that the evidence turned him religious.
Wikipedia characterizes the book thusly, which...
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The pope and the devil: Is Francis an exorcist? →
The question has bubbled up ever since Francis laid his hands on the head of a young man in a wheelchair after celebrating Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square. The young man heaved deeply a half-dozen times, shook, then slumped in his wheelchair as Francis prayed over him.
The obvious answer is no. The man he prayed for was either star struck or has a serious condition that causes him to...
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Losing My Religion: Why I'm Raising My Child to... →
Every two or three blocks on the avenues of downtown Brooklyn, a big old stone church rises from the ranks of the brownstones. A couple of weeks ago, my little boy Felix pulled his trike to the curb and squinted at the steeple of one.
“What’s that castle, Da-da?”
“It’s not a castle, it’s a church.”
“What’s a church?”
“It’s...
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interrupted-dreamer replied to your photo:
I don’t care who the last post was posted by. …
Wow is that Whycatholicisms attack poodle Adboutersmusings? New account maybe Adoubtersmusings is now returningtheticket. He heads whycatholicism, but obviously doesn’t care about its odious...
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Why Catholic?: The historical Jesus →
whycatholicism:
Some atheists (admittedly, the more extreme ones) claim that Jesus Christ never existed. Richard Dawkins made this claim in “The God Delusion” and later retracted it when pressed in a debate by Professor John Lennox. Many more question the historical reliability of the gospels. This article…
I would refute this entire post only to see you post it again in two months or...
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returningtheticket asked: Please, not this again. The numbers are accurate. Your first article dealt only with Britain and your second with general religiosity whereas we're talking about the WORLDWIDE (ie. not just the West) growth of CATHOLICISM (ie. not general religiosity). Not sure what your rant about mega churches in Korea was about. Sorry, but numbers are numbers (google it) and if you're going to accuse...
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“On its face, defeasibility is a modest concept, with roots in logic and...”
– Tania Lombrozo, Defeasibility (via ludimagister)
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Evolution and Christianity are Incompatible...
nikosnature:
nontransparent:
“Am i the only one that noticed that the Catholic church has finally accepted the theory of evolution and yet they still preach original sin … Whats up with that? From my understanding the theory of evolution figuratively calls bullshit on the doctrine of original sin…”
— Nekan Solanke
Why do you think the theory of evolution would discount original sin in any...
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The Church is Not Growing Worldwide
whycatholicism:
The Vatican has just released church statistics for the last few years.
A few facts:
the number of Catholics continues to rise, especially in Africa and Asia.
The number of priests and young men training for the priesthood continues to rise. Asia reported a 44% increase of candidates for the religious priesthood in the last decade.
The church is growing particularly quickly...
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If God Was at Nuremberg →
[This is a guest blog from my friend Michael Torri, a political science major with interests in World War Two, who asks us to consider how the god of the Bible would fare if he were tried as a war criminal. This is not a satire. Michael repeatedly draws astute and disturbing parallels between the biblical god and Axis war criminals.]
On 5 May 1945 a squad of US Army Soldiers of the 41st...
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Natural Selection and the Emergence of Mind →
Let us look at various possible stages in the emergence of consciousness.
As a possible first stage there may evolve something that acts like a centralized warning, that is, like irritation or discomfort or pain, inducing the organism to stop an inadequate movement and to adopt some alternative behavior in its stead before it is too late, before too much damage has been done. The absence of a...
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Let’s Presuppose That Miracles Happen: The Gospel... →
Time and time again apologists will accuse skeptics of not believing in miracles solely because of “naturalist presuppositions.” Repeatedly I have patiently explained that my skepticism towards miracle is not some a priori prejudice, but rather a conclusion reached a posteriori upon investigating the world that we live in. Did we all as children abandon our belief in Santa Claus or the Tooth Fairy...
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