Religion

A collection of 233 posts

Religion

On respecting beliefs

I was having a conversation earlier today and was levied with a claim which went something like this: "we should respect the beliefs of others" and I must say, I was a little annoyed.

evolution

ESPN Suspends One Of Their Reporters For Defending Theory Of Evolution On Twitter

From Addicting Info: In between clips of touchdowns and postgame interviews with sweaty athletes, ESPN typically doesn’t find itself having to pick sides on the debate over the reality of evolution by natural selection, but it’s now become abundantly clear which side they’re on. After former baseball

God

The Last Testament - some light relief

I follow God on Twitter, and he is downright funny, acerbic and  nails so many big points in so few facetious characters. So I was happy when he announced that he had a book. In fact, the Twitter account is no doubt a marketing arm to sell the book. And

Religion

Religion still being taken seriously

Aah, The Daily Mash is brilliant. I'm sure it;s written by the same writers as Viz...: RELIGION is still being taken seriously by billions of people, according to new research. The Institute for Studies found that every country in the world contained at least one thousand humans

atonement

The Atonement properly ridiculed

OK, so we know that Nonstampcollector is genius. His return to for in this one is great, especially when the angels visit Jesus in the tomb at around 5 minutes or so.

atonement

The Doctrine of Atonement - Robert Ingersoll

I have elsewhere talked about how the Doctrine of the Atonement is simply nonsensical. Well, here is the eminent thinker Robert Ingersoll on the subject. According to one of these gospels, and according to the prevalent Christian belief, the Christian religion rests upon the doctrine of the at

atonement

Winell on the ridiculousness of the Atonement

Marlene Winell, an ex-Christian, in Leaving the Fold, wrote, The most serious demand for unquestioned belief is, of course, the atonement.  First the believer is to suspend familiar notions of justice, such as punishment for the guilty as opposed to an innocent party.  You are then expected to accept the

God's characteristics

Slugging out the incoherence of the Trinity

Gah! I posted my Trinity piece with some alterations on John Loftus' Debunking Christianity where I used to be a more full-time contributor. It was picked up by some Catholic chap who tried to critique it, except that he really didn't deal with the substantive points.

Featured ATP

My appearance on the Skeptic Canary Podcast, with Dan Fincke

I really enjoyed being a guest on the Skeptic Canary Show podcast where we covered lots of issues and philosophy, including Neil deGrasse Tyson's dismissal of philosophy. It was great to have Dan Fincke from Camels With Hammers pop by. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lztZJRJIeHo&

Philosophy of Religion

Science, Religion, Culture Journal - get it free

Gregg Caruso, an author on free will, is now editor-in-chief of a nascent open source journal which is well worth perusing: Science, Religion & Culture. It's aims are as follows:

fear

Psychology of Religion: Religion - a Hell of a Lot of Fear and Depression

This article is taken from the excellent podcast Reasonable Doubts which itself borrows from source material and commentary from Tom Rees' superb Epiphenom blog. Thanks to these two great sources for the bulk of this article. Some interesting research has recently found out that there is a correlation between

causality

Christianity and science. Again.

Here is a quote that I posted on the Daily Telegraph (eek) in the UK which was reporting the letter it had received denouncing PM Cameron's claim that we should be proud that we are a Christian nation. I will first post the comment I reacted to:

God's characteristics

The Trinity - bad analogies

Thanks again to Andy Schueler for finding this. Good way of showing that those oft-used analogies to describe the Trinity are in fact highly problematic. I have worked in Catholic schools where these have been commonplace. http://youtu.be/KQLfgaUoQCw The Trinity remains one of the  most nonsensical notions of

Christianity

Christianity is not responsible for science

Tihs has come up in conversation elsewhere, so I thought I would resurrect this old post from my old, old blog. I have recently been involved in an argument online which is a very common argument and one which annoys me just a little. It is also an argument which

Religion

The protection of minors against excesses of sects

H/T to Gandolf for this one, in response to the article about the girl being taken out of a Christian school because she didn't look girly enough. God move for the European Union to be tackling such issues. This is from the Parliamentary Assembly Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. Read

Cosmology

Carroll vs Craig, tomorrow.

So, God and cosmology will be debated tomorrow as cosmologist Sean Carroll takes on theologian William Lane Craig. I, for one, am excited. Should be a cracker. I know Carroll has been inundated with advice. Let's hope he takes some heed. Hear Dr. Craig’s thoughts on the

God's characteristics

William Lane Craig's self-authenticating witness of the Holy Spirit well critiqued

H/T John Loftus at DC. http://youtu.be/Mh7JjeakfjI   The source used, the interview with William Lane Craig, is one which has done the rounds, and one with which I have taken issue before (on my old blog). Good to see it taken to task by Matt McCormick (I

Religion

SCIENCE AND RELIGION: 5 QUESTIONS

Author Gregg Caruso, who has written some really useful academic books on free will has a new project ont he go which looks fascinating. Check it out. Here is the email he sent me:

Christianity

Aaaarggghhh! The Republicans are properly mental!

So, us in the rest of the world can see that the Republican Party in the US are several sandwiches short of a picnic, holding the country and perhaps the world to ransom. Here are a couple of interesting articles: Salon.com: Christian delusions are driving the GOP insane Why

Evidential Problem of evil

Process Theism and Open Theism and worship-worthiness of God

Some theists state that god does not have the full gamut of traditional omnis, that he does not know the future of freely-made decisions since to know the counterfactuals of such decisions implies that they are deterministically defined (or some such similar reason). God, on some understandings of theism, which

Consciousness

The ‘Why I am a Christian’ series – Vincent Torley of Uncommon Descent (Part 4)

After having looked at Randal Rauser’s reasons for being a Christian, and having had my reasons and his defences intensely debated on his blog, I have in a previous posts (linked below) offered Dr Vincent Torley’s account. Some readers may know Vincent from the Uncommon Descent website which attempt

Religion

Bill Maher New Rules About Religion Collection

Brilliant. I heartily chortled! http://youtu.be/mUP7NY6US5A

Church

What religion has contributed to the world this month - May/June

http://youtu.be/ctWj-OV4cI0

atheism

Chief Rabbi: atheism has failed. Only religion can defeat the new barbarians

This was an article from The Spectator, a British conservative magazine. Thoughts?   I love the remark made by one Oxford don about another: ‘On the surface, he’s profound, but deep down, he’s superficial.’ That sentence has more than once come to mind when reading the new atheists. Future

theology

Systematic Theology?

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 defi