Not too long ago, I was reading Michael Shermer’s preface to Peter Boghossian’s book, A Manual for Creating Atheists. In the preface, he criticizes belief in eternal life, Jesus, and God’s work of salvation as being extraordinary claims made by Bible believing Christians. He reminisced about how he used to be an evangelical Christian, but he found these claims unreasonable. … [Read more...]
The Modern Missionaries of Evangelical Atheism
According to its website, The Unbelievers movie “follows renowned scientists Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss across the globe as they speak publicly about the importance of science and reason in the modern world - encouraging others to cast off antiquated religious and politically motivated approaches toward important current issues.” Okay, so let's unpack that a bit and … [Read more...]
Rumors of my endorsement have been greatly exaggerated
It has been drawn to my attention that Peter Boghossian has posted a quotation from me regarding his book, A Manual for Creating Atheists, on the book’s page at Amazon.com. Unfortunately, the quotation has been taken out of context in a way that could give a misimpression regarding my opinion of the book. Seizing a stray clause from someone’s writings and packaging it as an … [Read more...]
The New-er Atheists: Two movements battle for heart and mind
The term ‘New Atheist’ is beginning to get a bit old already. It is still relatively new, chronologically, at least in relation to centuries of classical atheists. The movement seems to have arisen, or at least gained popularity, after the events of 9/11 (2001) in the USA. It was characterized by a shift towards the use of rhetoric, emotion, fear, and embodied very ‘religious’ … [Read more...]
Antitheism and Krauss' Wager
Laurence Krauss- The Antitheist Recently in a discussion with Justin Brierly (Unbelievable?) and Rodney Holder, Lawrence Krauss made an interesting statement (podcast: 58:01): "You talk about this god of love and everything else. But somehow if you don't believe in him, you don't get any of the benefits, so you have to believe. And then if you do anything wrong, you're going to … [Read more...]
Richard Dawkins Helps Answer Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens, in his Introduction to the Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever, has a witty counter to those who claim that religious people are especially good: My own response has been to issue a challenge: name me an ethical statement made or an action performed by a believer that could not have been made or performed by a non-believer. As yet, I … [Read more...]
Reza Aslan's Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth
Guest post by Dan Barkman. Reza Aslan's recent foray into the historical Jesus debate has certainly been provocative. Zealot: The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth has become a New York Times best seller and has predictably engendered a good deal of controversy. Aslan attempts to revive the thesis of the eighteenth century scholar Herman Reimarus who argued that Jesus is … [Read more...]
Review: Boghossian's A Manual for Creating Atheists
The atheist Twitter-sphere has been abuzz over Peter Boghossian’s A Manual for Creating Atheists, and regular readers here know that I’ve been eagerly anticipating its publication. It came out almost two weeks ahead of its announced Nov. 1 release. I’d like to say I was happy about that, but I’m not. A Few Words of Appreciation—But Only a Few It’s not that I’m completely … [Read more...]
The New Atheism
[This post is a work in progress as part of the CAA Catechism.] [Add the title only in the title field, not in the body of the post.] Summary in 400 words or less: “Atheism” is best defined as the belief that there is no God or gods. It is the positive denial that God exists. “A” is a Greek prefix meaning “not,” while “theos” was used by the Greeks for both God and the gods. It … [Read more...]
7 Tips on Engaging Skeptics Like Paul Did in Athens [Part 3]
7 Cultural Engagement Tips from Acts 17 Today, I’m closing out my series of 3 cultural engagement posts called “7 Tips on Engaging Skeptics Like Paul Did in Athens.” In parts 1 and 2, I shared 5 simple lessons from Paul’s time in Athens: Care About People Prepare for Insults and Interest Find a Point of Contact Help Them Connect the Dots Recognize the Potential for Truth … [Read more...]