Unsettled Christianity

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Archive for the ‘Atheism’ Category

May 19th, 2012 by Joel

John Loftus, Quitter

Our good friend, John Loftus, has declared that since he had made no head way in his war on Christianity, he is packing it in. Bully for him. Of course, he says that he is just tired of kicking a dead horse, although it seems that atheism is the dead horse.

You know, I don’t mind people going against the flow – as a matter of fact, I suggest it – but when no one listens to you, you may wish to reconsider your position. I mean, if you are only attracting people like you, then you may in fact be wrong.

Now, for me, I’ve seen Christianity grow, and count the New Atheists (even those whom, um, are tag alongs) as sort of like prophetic figures who are pushing us to greater heights.

People like John have come and gone for a very, very long time and yet Christianity is still here. So, John, we’ll wait for you to come back around to the faith. Good luck. I hope that if he comes back this way again, his arguments are better. They were the same, tired, stuff.

Oh well… You can read his poor, poor pitiful me post here:

Debunking Christianity: Okay, The Time Has Come, I’m Done.

May 12th, 2012 by Joel

That’s an interesting proposition, Penn

PENN

What sayeth ye? How many errors can you spot?

April 4th, 2012 by Joel

Patrick Greene to convert to Christianity

Greene, an Air Force veteran from San Antonio who has a history of activism related to atheist causes, threatened in February to file a lawsuit against Henderson County, Texas, if they did not remove a Nativity scene in front of the courthouse, Malakoff News reported.

But he was forced to drop the lawsuit after doctors told him that he had developed eye cataracts and was in danger of losing his vision, according to the Houston Chronicle. Shortly thereafter, Greene’s failing vision forced him to quit his job as a taxi driver and he was left with the challenge of supporting himself and his wife of 33 years.

That’s when Jessica Crye, a Christian woman who read about Greene’s troubles in the paper, went to members of her church and asked if they would be willing to donate money to help Greene. They ended up raising $400 in donations for Greene, which left him “flabbergasted that Christians would help atheists,” the Athens Review reported at the time.

Both Christians and atheists alike ended up donating to Greene through a fundraising account he set up on the site GoFundMe.com.

It’s that compassion that Greene says compelled him to start rethinking his religious beliefs. He told the Christian Post that after thinking deeply about Christianity and reexamining his views on evolution and animals, he decided to start practicing the religion.

via Patrick Greene, Longtime Atheist Activist, Announces Conversion To Christianity.

I dunno. I ain’t saying nothing….

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February 27th, 2012 by Leslie

Why I’m Not Sure that Christians Attending an Atheist Event is a Good Idea (but I Could Be Persuaded)

On March 24, an event billed as “the largest gathering of the secular movement in world history” will be happening in Washington, D.C. The Richard Dawkins Foundation for Reason and Science, in partnership with several other stateside atheist and humanist organizations, is sponsoring what they call the Reason Rally.

In response to the Reason Rally, several Christian apologetics organizations have established True Reason, which will, in their words, “demonstrate a humble, loving, and thoughtful response to the Reason Rally.

When I first heard about True Reason and their plan to hand out water bottles to thousands of atheists, my reaction was similar to Han Solo as he approached the Death Star and muttered to himself “I have a bad feeling about this.” Then I wondered why I was having such a strong, instinctive reaction to something that a lot of smart, reasonable, loving Christians seem to think is a good idea?

The answer turned out to be something that I should have realized in the first place—that talking exclusively about “reason” and ignoring experience, emotion, and imagination cannot hope to communicate what it really means to know Christ.

Click here to read the entire (frustratingly noncommittal) post.

February 21st, 2012 by Joel

Richard Dawkins, no longer an atheist

His recent poll showed that a majority of Christians in Britain are illiterate of Scripture of which he took to the extreme and said that they weren’t Christian. It would seem that only a bible-idolater and a fundamentalist would go that far, but that does seem to be what Dawkins and most militant atheists are…. still fundamentalists. Anyway, Dawkins got into it on Imperial Television, God save the Queen and all that bloody rubbish, with a priest, Fr. Fraser. He forgot the title to his ‘bible.’

Giles Fraser: Richard,if I said to you what is the full title of ‘The Origin Of Species’,I’m sure you could tell me that.

Richard Dawkins:Yes I could

Giles Fraser: Go on then.

Richard Dawkins: On The Origin Of Species.. Uh. With,Oh God. On The Origin Of Species. There is a sub title with respect to the preservation of favoured races in the struggle for life.

Giles Fraser:You’re the high pope of Darwinism… If you asked people who believed in evolution that question and you came back and said 2% got it right,it would be terribly easy for me to go ‘they don’t believe it after all.’ It’s just not fair to ask people these questions. They self-identify as Christians and I think you should respect that.

via Dawkins failure to remember title of Darwin’s book proves he’s no atheist, according to his own logic « Protect the Pope.

Burn.

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February 16th, 2012 by Joel

What do you do if your god is attacked by atheists?

Well, if you’re Hector Avalos and your god is Richard Dawkins, and if Jim West, the atheist denier of Dawkins, attacks your god, well…you threaten…

On a recent post, West, Jim West, attacked Dawkins to which Hector Avalos, former Pentecostal faith healer (there is a connection there, believe it or not…) to which Hector responded with a threat

Either retract your statement, or you may find yourself featured in an essay on the hypocrisy of Jim West’s research. You criticize Dawkins for his research, but don’t have the integrity to see that you also have blatantly told an untruth, and you are not willing to give us a precise source.

Oh my…. this is what militant Dawkinianity will get you… it always leads to violence and the end of personal freedoms. Dawkinianity is a pox on humanity and one day, when we all open our eyes, we’ll see all the problems that Dawkinianity has caused.

December 19th, 2011 by Joel

This is what I mean when I say what I say about the New Atheists, Robert

Third, atheists do Christians a service by making us pay attention to what we believe and why. If it were not for atheists, there would not be the amazing renaissance of Christian philosophy that Alvin Plantinga rightly points to in his New York Times interview. We probably wouldn’t have the likes of Plantinga, Keith Ward, Richard Swineburne, et al.

Thank God for atheists | Roger E. Olson.

I know, so sue me, but I thank God for the New Atheists…

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December 16th, 2011 by Joel

Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011

Christopher Hitchens speaking at The Amazing M...

Image via Wikipedia

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.

via In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011 | Blogs | Vanity Fair.

He’s gone, I reckon…

But something he said, previously, will stay around:

Marilyn Sewell: The religion you cite in your book is generally the fundamentalist faith of various kinds. I’m a liberal Christian, and I don’t take the stories from the scripture literally. I don’t believe in the doctrine of atonement (that Jesus died for our sins, for example). Do you make a distinction between fundamentalist faith and liberal religion?

Christopher Hitchens: I would say that if you don’t believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ and Messiah, and that he rose again from the dead and by his sacrifice our sins are forgiven, you’re really not in any meaningful sense a Christian.

Click here to read the rest of the interview.

Let me say that what Hitchens has done for Christianity is nothing short of prophetic, or maybe Ecclesiastes-ic

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December 12th, 2011 by Joel

Sam Harris Believes in God? Wait? Is Loftus next?

You remember Sam Harris, right? One of the New Atheists? Well, it seems he believes in the divine, or the spirituality, or what not… Not exactly God in the traditional sense, but maybe the progressive sense?

The answer to the question “Do you believe in God?” comes down to this: It depends on what you mean by “God.” The God Harris doesn’t believe in is, as he puts it, a “supernatural power” and “a personal deity who hears prayers and takes an interest in how people live.” This God and its subscribers he finds unreasonable. But he understands that many people—especially in progressive corners of organized religion and among the “spiritual but not religious”—often mean something else. They equate God with “love” or “justice” or “singing in church” or “that feeling I get on a walk in the woods,” or even “the awesome aspects of existence I’ll never understand.”

via Rationalist Sam Harris Believes in God – The Daily Beast.

October 24th, 2011 by Joel

Richard Dawkins the coward?

I don’t think Dawkins is a fool, but I do think that his refusal to debate Craig is a little odd.

It seems that Dawkins has been doing a little internet trolling. He has dug up an online debate in which William Lane Craig apparently defends the massacre of a city of heathen Canaanites ordered by God in Deuteronomy 20:13-15. “Listen to Craig,” Dawkins writes, as if imagining Craig were a demon sitting on his shoulder. “He begins by arguing that the Canaanites were debauched and sinful and therefore deserved to be slaughtered. He then notices the plight of the Canaanite children [and concludes] … ‘We are so wedded to an earthly, naturalistic perspective that we forget that those who die are happy to quit this earth for heaven’s incomparable joy.  Therefore, God does these children no wrong in taking their lives.’” Dawkins writes that he is so disgusted with Craig’s thesis that he cannot possibly agree to meet him in person. “Do not plead that I have taken these revolting words out of context,” he adds. “What context could possibly justify them?”

Richard Dawkins is either a fool or a coward for refusing to debate William Lane Craig – Telegraph Blogs.

The reasoning behind Dawkins’ refusal is silly. It’s like not arguing Dawkins because he presents atheistic apologetics.

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