The Warfare Is Mental

None Confirmed: The End Of Christianity, I

February 25, 2011

Tonight I had the opportunity to preview Vic Stenger’s contribution [PDF 220KB] to the upcoming Prometheus title, The End of Christianity, edited by John W. Loftus. After reading, I felt compelled to respond, so I figured I’d go ahead and kick off my review now. Amazon lists July 26 of this year as the expected release date.

Though Stenger’s contribution is titled, Life After Death: Examining the Evidence, over half the article clashed with Dinesh D’Souza’s philosophical arguments for God’s existence. For those expecting in an in-depth discussion of NDE’s as I was, you will probably be disappointed. Since I’m working on a series of posts addressing NDE’s, rather than reply to anything Stenger said about them, tonight I’d like to focus on a single claim:

Science: It Works!

February 23, 2011

Image source: guardian.co.uk

New Feature: Papers

February 22, 2011

I added a new feature to TWIM: Papers, a repository of scholarly articles I’ve come across while doing research for my posts. The link will be permanently available at the top of the blog via green tab above the banner. Summarized for convenience, each of the articles is in downloadable PDF format, and all of them are under 1MB. I encourage conversation on any or all of the papers, and comments are welcome Also, feel free to suggest other PDF articles, as I intend to keep adding to the list. I hope readers find the articles useful, and, as always, please let me know if any links break.

A Place Called Sheol: Jesus & His Kingdom, II

February 21, 2011

This is the third installment of my review on Mike Gantt’s Jesus and His Kingdom: The Biblical Case for Everyone Going to Heaven.

Chapter 2 is on the Hebrew concept of Sheol found primarily in the Old Testament. The chapter essentially serves as an extended introduction to the concept, exploring its various uses throughout the Old Testament and cross-referencing them with one another. My review itself is rather short, but I suggest you read it anyways, especially the addendum.

Desirism, Doughnuts & Red Curbs

February 20, 2011

In discussions of morality, attempts to define good can get downright maddening once one applies themselves duly to the task. Yet, it seems so simple. We all know what good means, right? The problem is, my “good” might actually be your “bad,” so how might we deal with that?

Fundamentalism: It’s Not Just For Theists

February 19, 2011

With a slight modification, I wrote the following comment at CSA the other day, and felt it deserves reproduction here. While I intend to develop it as a full post or perhaps even part of a chapter in my book, here’s what we’ve got so far:

…I think deconverted fundamentalists and evangelicals tend to make the most dangerous atheists. Often, the mental weaknesses that led them to dogmatic ways of thinking in the first place persist. These traits then carry over into their newly-embraced “skepticism,” the weaknesses again take the helm, yet, this time, they are actually far worse off because a thin veneer of rationalism masks their dogmatic and irrational tendencies and puffs many up with a false sense of confidence. Consequently, many mistakenly believe that their change of psychological allegiance solved the problem. They’re often less likely to see it, because they still have that “in the tribe” mentality, only now, they fancy themselves in the right tribe. I cannot overemphasize the threat this phenomenon poses to critical thinking and pursuit of truth. Trading one’s cross for a scarlet A accomplishes nothing unless the old habits are shed. [February 14, 2011 at 3:38 pm]

What sayest thou? Doth this ringeth true in thine own experience?

The Warfare Is Mental: Consciousness Primer

February 18, 2011

I’d like to thank all the new readers who’ve found their way over here in the past few days, especially dguller, whose persistent questioning has caused me to realize that my blog is nowhere near as organized as it was before importing to WordPress. Certain questions indicate that new readers might be unfamiliar with what I’ve written on the subject of consciousness. This is my fault, because as I said, the blog suffered some pretty heavy disorganization in the import process, and the majority of my consciousness posts weren’t previously accessible via the consciousness category, which only contained about a half-dozen entries as of yesterday.

I’ve been doing some housekeeping to make previous writings on consciousness more accessible to new readers. I spent a few hours locating the foundational posts, and made sure they are filed under the consciousness category, which now has about twenty entries. I also added a link to my series of rebuttals to Ebonmuse’s essay, A Ghost In The Machine, in the Series homepage, accessible from the green tabs above the TWIM header. Lastly, I doctored up a few posts for formatting issues, as the XML import didn’t go so smooth. If you notice any posts with particularly atrocious formatting issues, by all means, please let me know.

False Claims: Why You Should Be Skeptical Of John W. Loftus, IV

February 17, 2011

I want to preface this installment of the series by focusing on a comrade of Loftus’ named articulett–one of the people who literally trolled every thread I commented on–and now claims the following:

That wasn’t the first “creepy” thing that he wrote, clamat. He has made some “threatening” odd non sequiturs in a few posts and I haven’t read all his posts so there may be more.I started to skip over his posts when he started getting to scarily “irrational” from my perspective. I’m afraid of the irrational. If he believes in devils and demons and that atheists are such or in league with such, then he’s not someone I feel safe conversing with. And a couple time he referenced right wing sorts of rhetoric and it made me wonder if he might be a gun enthusiast. I don’t trust irrational people with guns– even if they are just on the internet. I may be over reacting, but I think the majority of theists posting here regularly are much “saner” sounding. [articulett]

I originally laughed at the irony of using the handle “articulett” while making basic spelling and grammar errors, but, this seems nothing less than blatant character assassination. It could be possible that articulett genuinely believes this heap of garbage, but I remain skeptical because—as usual—this “skeptic’s” claim is not accompanied by any positive evidence whatsoever, despite the fact that John’s out there telling everyone on his blog they should ask for positive evidence for that which they accept as true! Can the inanity really know no boundaries at DC?

Egregious Special Pleading: Why You Should Be Skeptical Of John W. Loftus, III

February 16, 2011

I realize some of you are probably as bored of this as I am, but, I need to take a few moments to add to the record here. Over at Victor Reppert’s, John implied that he banned me because I violated his comment policy [comment February 16, 2011 5:50 AM]. I’d like to take a few moments to point out the problems with this claim, and cite them as further evidence in support of my claim that you should be skeptical of John W. Loftus.

Of course, we’ve already touched on the first problem, which is the inconsistency between John claiming that we should all ask for positive evidence for that which we accept as true on the one hand, then turning around and littering the internet with unsupported claims on the other. As you might expect, he continues this trend when he accuses me of violating his comment policy while failing to include even a single link that would substantiate his claim.

Banned In DC!

Sorry, I couldn’t resist! Skateboarders, old-school punks and other misfits will certainly appreciate this parody! Besides, a half hour in Photoshop on a rainy night was more than worth the uproarious laughter I enjoyed while doctoring this little gem! Just look at the Loftus, black hat and all, his right hand raised almost too conveniently in the appropriate salutary position associated with one of history’s most famous demagogues—who also wasn’t much a fan of free speech!

For those not privy, Banned In DC is the name of one of my favorite Bad Brains songs. They wrote it after finding themselves the victims of an “unofficial” ban in the nation’s capital. As I explained here, the moniker also describes my fate at the hands of the Loftus, das Führer over at the “critical thinking” blog, Debunking Christianity, often referred to as DC. Banned in DC! Get it? You might not think it’s too funny, but I assure you that I’ve been laughing so hard I practically wet myself! So, there you go: even cl stoops to mockery when it seems appropriate, and here, it seems appropriate: censorship is un-American, and antithetical to free thought. Feel free to use this image on your own blog or website, or anywhere else for that matter. If you decide to make T-shirts or stickers, gimme gimme.

In all seriousness though, since when has censorship brought us any closer to the truth?

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