Tuesday, November 10, 2009

It takes a village of village atheists

The Christian Delusion

Table of Contents
Foreword (Dan Barker)
Introduction (John Loftus)

Part One: How to Think About and Test Your Faith

1. The Cultures of Christianities (Dr. David Eller)
2. Christian Belief Through the Lens of Cognitive Science (Dr. Valerie Tarico)
3. The Malleability of the Human Mind (Dr. Jason Long)
4. The Outsider Test for Faith Revisited (John Loftus)

Part Two: Why the Bible is Not God’s Word

5. The Cosmology of the Bible (Edward Babinski)
6. The Bible and Modern Scholarship (Paul Tobin)
7. What We’ve Got Here is a Failure to Communicate (John Loftus)

Part Three: Why the Christian God is Not Perfectly Good

8. Yahweh is a Moral Monster (Dr. Hector Avalos)
9. The Darwinian Problem of Evil (John Loftus)

Part Four: Why Jesus is Not the Risen Son of God

10. Jesus: Myth and Method (Dr. Robert Price)
11. Why the Resurrection is Unbelievable (Dr. Richard Carrier)
12. At Best Jesus Was a Failed Apocalyptic Doomsday Prophet (John Loftus)

Part Five: Why Modern Society Does Not Depend on Christian Faith

13. Christianity Does Not Provide the Basis for Morality (Dr. David Eller)
14. Atheism Was Not the Reason Hitler Killed So Many People (Dr. Hector Avalos)
15. Christianity Was Not Responsible for Modern Science (Dr. Richard Carrier)


http://sites.google.com/site/thechristiandelusion/Home/table-of-contents

In other words, The Christian Delusion is new book by a hack village atheist editor (and contributor) who has rounded up a number of other hack villages atheists to form a literary village of hack village atheists. On top of that, the hack village atheist editor has also rounded up some additional hack village atheists to write glowing blurbs for a book by, to, and for hack village atheists.

This is a truly monumental breakthrough in the history of hack village atheist publications.

14 comments:

  1. It takes a village of village atheists

    A good opportunity to evangelize or an exercise in futility ultimately ending with dust being shaken off one's feet?

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  2. Hey thanks for the recommendation! In your view is there any other kind of atheist scholar?

    BTW: Dale Allison, who recommends my book, is one of a handful of premier Jesus scholars in the world who has defended the view that Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet, just like I did in chapter 12.

    Cheers.

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  3. I honestly thought this was a joke, one of Steve's parodies.

    Until I got to the link.

    Fiction is stranger than truth, apparently.

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  4. Once you know what the Dr. stands for with most of those people, you will get the sense of the logical falacy of Appeal to Authority. :)

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  5. I love how the credibility of the authors is established by what amounts to little more than shameless self-promotion:
    http://sites.google.com/site/thechristiandelusion/Home/contributors

    Exhibit A:
    Dan Barker is co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and author of Godless: How An Evangelical Preacher Became One of America’s Leading Atheists (2008).

    Exhibit B:
    Edward Babinski is the editor of the book, Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists (2003), and his writings appear on the Secular Web, Talk Origins, Debunking Christianity and at www.edwardtbabinski.us.

    Exhibit C:
    John W. Loftus, M.A., M.Div., Th.M., is the author of the book Why I Became an Atheist: A Former Preacher Rejects Christianity (2008), and founder of www.debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com.

    Can I point out the fact I am the founder of www.antipelagian.com and write autobiographical notes in order to create a sense of authority?

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  6. What is a hack village atheist?

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  7. Dan Barker was an ordained minister for nearly 20 years.

    Robert Price is a professor of theology at Johnnie Colemon Theological Seminary, with a doctorate in Theology.

    Not that any of that stuff matters. Richard Dawkins was Simonyi Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford before he retired last year, and most of the people lecturing at AAI this year were leading researchers in fields like physics, cognitive neurology and biology.

    Not I think anyone should commit the fallacy of validating an argument on authority alone. But if you're judging whether you'll peruse the book by credentials alone, the contributors are certainly as credentialed as people like Bill Craig or Lee Strobel.

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  8. And Babinski's got a Bachelor's in Biology from Fairleigh Dickenson University.

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  9. The "Dr." from this atheist village are about as reliable as the "Dr." from Peter Ruckman's Pensacola Bible Institute.

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  10. I think a Hack is someone, like John, who claims to have "intellectually investigate" Christianity and yet in his book...rather foolishly...admits that of the three reasons he CLAIMS to have "left" Christianity Two were emotional.

    Face it, this is a guy who, as a minister, admits to carrying on an affair with an "ex stripper" and then blames his wife (for "lacking passion") and blames other family member for suspecting him during the whole thing.

    And this is all right from the first chapter of his book, so its not an ad hominem.

    I don't think he has a credibility...because he does other things in the book like claiming to have the "equivalent" of a Ph.D. when in fact he does not. (Unless he has a peer reviewed thesis that has passed the committee and is just awaiting final approval...which he does not.)

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  11. I notice that a number of contributors to John's book, notably Babinski and Long, don't have academic qualifications in the fields they address.

    Fascinating.

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  12. Goldstein--

    Most Christian apologists don't have advanced degrees in the fields they address either, interestingly enough, or not. On second thought, it's not at all surprising.

    However, ad hominem criticisms for people with advanced degrees (of any kind) doesn't seem to help the theist argument any, especially if what you were intending to defend it with is arguments from people with advanced degrees who support your hypothesis-i.e. the aforementioned apologists for your particular faith.

    It seems you are committing the error which Thomas Paine alluded to when he stated: "I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies another this right makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it." -- Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)

    In my opinion, the reason for this is obviously because of a preconceived bias, or as ex-Bishop Richard Holloway has stated:
    "One of the things that bedevils religion, is that it develops official truth, which is antithetical to real truth. You close yourself off from the future... It makes you disrespectful to others who may see things from a different angle and may not be stupid people."

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  13. "In my opinion, the reason for this is obviously because of a preconceived bias..."

    Because only religious people have bias.

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  14. Tristan, I see no ad hominems on Goldstein's part.

    Everything he stated about John is derived form things JOHN said about himself IN HIS BOOK.

    NOTABLY, in the first chapter JOHN admits that TWO of the THREE reasons he "deconverted" were emotional, not logical.

    And all the things about cheating on his wife, and later blaming his wife for it are facts.

    And they are signficant because in his book he admits he lied to his congregation about his state of belief.

    It is also significant that the people he mentions do not have advanced degrees, because John loves to BRAG ABOUT HIS DEGREES and his "Equivalent" of a Ph.D.

    He makes this claim in the first chapter.

    FACT: he does NOT have the equivalent of a Ph.D.

    He states falsehoods, and does not even seem aware of it.

    That said, I don't see where Goldstein said he does not have a right to his opinion.

    He does. And Goldstein is simply stating HIS opinion. LOL!

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