tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-32171534305130501632024-03-14T11:48:48.156-07:00Deity ShmeityOne day we'll all be atheists, I'm just an early adopter.Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.comBlogger353125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-15580740506632212852020-08-24T06:30:00.000-07:002020-08-25T20:19:58.022-07:00The Tipping Doubt
Mary Baker Eddy
The last god I believed in was the version of Jesus seen through the eyes of Mary Baker Eddy, an American women who attributed overcoming health issues to faith healing after homeopathic “medicine” failed her. The religion she founded, called Christian Science, framed sin and sickness as errors of thought and framed thought as an expression of Mind, Soul, or Spirit--all of Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-39566387295123757602020-08-01T13:56:00.000-07:002020-08-25T20:19:33.101-07:00The Lottery And The Fine Tuning ArgumentTo be clear, we are not certain the physical constants of the universe can vary and if they can, by how much. It is the assumption of those who use the fine tuning argument for God that they can vary by a great degree. Let’s assume they're right and, for the sake of argument, nail it down to five constants. The following compares winning the universal lottery to winning the actual lottery.
To Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-90061762808313528672019-06-04T11:22:00.003-07:002019-06-04T11:22:44.920-07:00God Both Is And Can't Be UnchangingChristians believe Jesus has a set of attributes on the authority of scripture. Classic Christian Apologists took these attributes and formed arguments around them that lead to their God. The cosmological argument, which argues that a First Cause is needed for our universe’s origin, emphasizes God’s atemporal and aspacial attributes to signify that only God is outside time and space. God is then Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-22728716422793916272019-05-17T12:24:00.000-07:002019-05-17T12:24:01.323-07:00What Motivates A Pro-life Stance?
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What motivates a pro-life stance? I ask myself this as the abortion issue once again takes center stage. Let’s consider the possibilities.
A ruling against abortion affects women more than men for obvious reasons. We might expect that difference toGrundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-37390330416271883502019-02-14T10:45:00.000-08:002019-02-14T10:47:55.931-08:00According To The Bible: God Either Changes Or LiesThe following is a real exchange with a Christian Apologist who's written a book and everything.
Christian: If Christianity were true, would you become a Christian?
Me: I would become Christian, but I would try to persuade God to make some changes.
Christian: Because you're so much wiser than omniscient God.
Me: Hey, he occasionally takes the advice of humans in the Bible, and Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-19378673351920810912019-02-07T12:01:00.000-08:002019-02-12T05:37:02.285-08:00Without God, does morality mean whatever we want?A favorite claim among Christian apologists is that, without God, morality can mean whatever we want. That’s what happens when good and evil is not grounded by a divine standard. All we have are individuals with personal preferences judging others with preferences that may well be very different. As best, an individual or group can only impose their rules and judgements on others with a show of Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-72472019254226879552019-01-08T11:58:00.003-08:002019-01-08T11:58:47.285-08:00Rights, Responsibilities, & JusticeSo an apologist on Twitter put out a challenge and I thought, that seems easy enough. Not easy to convince her, per se, just easy to fulfill the task. Here it is:
Critics, here’s your homework assignment. Begin with the brute facts of existence and a bare minimum of defensible assumptions. Then, using meticulous logic, syllogistically arrive at a basis for:1. rights2. responsibilities3. Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384447512175143295noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-39496289828665429342018-05-18T06:52:00.002-07:002018-05-18T06:53:25.777-07:00A Christian Scientist Camp ExperienceHalf way into high school I went to camp for the first time in my life. It was a Christian Science camp which would be a very odd choice if not for the fact that I was a Christian Scientist. The camp’s selling point to my parents was the promise to re-up my faith and to provide leadership opportunities as a Counselor-in-Training. The camp’s selling point to me was a canoeing trip in Canada and a Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384447512175143295noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-31739049332223824912017-11-15T11:49:00.001-08:002017-11-15T11:49:31.545-08:00The Apologists Appeal To Conditional Morality
The moral argument for God requires the existence of a moral realism that can only be sustained by a deity. To argue that moral facts exist, the apologist finds commonality between himself and the nonbeliever by highlighting mutual condemnation of certain actions. Common agreement does not prove a moral fact’s existence, it only shows a shared judgement, but thats the tactic that is most Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-33742877298135519052017-06-05T07:06:00.000-07:002017-06-08T13:48:25.788-07:00#notworthfollowing
It used to be that wearing a shirt with the headline “Atheist” was considered to be the gold standard in testing public reception of the label. Most of us never wore such shirts and assumed that non-atheists would be confrontational or, at the least, expect the shirt-wearer to be confrontational. Living in the bible belt, I get it. Don’t expect to see me wearing such a shirt to a job interview. Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-67958478473202784332017-05-31T14:36:00.000-07:002017-06-08T13:48:44.930-07:00A Personal Relationship with AtheismAtheism isn’t a worldview. It isn’t a belief system. It’s a single belief, or as many of us phrase it, a “lack of” a single belief. It’s not a religion, it has no dogma or doctrine, and it only unites us under the same wide umbrella as the label “theism” unites the rest. Theism, as many of you know, includes categories such as polytheism, monotheism, pantheism, and dystheism as well as specific Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12384447512175143295noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-10867495227582707822017-05-17T07:00:00.000-07:002017-06-08T13:49:02.830-07:00Religious SemanticsWords are ultimately invented, with definitions that were chosen arbitrarily. They are meaningful today, because most of us have a common understanding of the context of each set of letters. They are meaningful because those definitions are relevant to most of us in that they correspond to something in our consensus reality or experience.
Not, I find, when talking to religious apologists. They Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-65021923434547938982017-04-28T05:30:00.000-07:002017-06-08T13:49:21.909-07:00Grounding Morality in ReasonReligious apologists often overlook secular reasons to be decent to our
fellow man in order to make their arguments that morality can only be
grounded in God. For them, I present these ten secular incentives to
ground one's morality in reason.
Points one and two can be seen
as a catch all and that all following points can be seen as subsets of
one and two. The truth is, by making one and Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-22071323656869390432017-04-05T07:00:00.000-07:002017-06-08T13:49:38.677-07:00An Inconsistent Adherence to Informed ModelsI find that the best premises used in apologetic arguments for God take something that is true for the things we observe then assumes it is true for everything that we don’t observe. An example used in the cosmological argument for God is “everything that begins to exist has a cause outside itself.” We obviously haven’t observed everything’s origin of existence to confirm the premise, but it is Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-66549988916998962722017-02-15T05:33:00.000-08:002017-06-08T13:50:10.114-07:00What Would I Do If I Were God?It’s easy to say that I’d abolish pain and suffering. It’s easy to say I’d end death by making everyone immortal. Too easy to make everyday sunny and meet every desire, answer every prayer, but are any of these the best move?
Living life as I perceive it makes me think that taking away failures would lessen the satisfaction of successes. Making a universe in which all is given abolishes the Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-84248801077604366932015-08-22T17:03:00.000-07:002015-08-22T17:03:09.215-07:00Hard God Questions
I'm starting a new project over at HardGodQuestions.com. If you like this, follow me over there.
Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-28618431922761102792015-07-06T19:47:00.000-07:002015-07-06T19:48:32.860-07:00Don't Gotta Have FaithFaith is a polarizing word in my circles. Depending on what side one comes down on regarding the existence of God, people have biased meanings for the concept. I know atheists who define it as “belief in something contrary to evidence” and theists who define it as “justified, true belief.” A working definition of faith for which I’ve had the most luck in finding agreement is “belief in something Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-7560068520102209972015-06-01T06:30:00.000-07:002015-06-01T06:30:00.136-07:00Insights into an Apologetic MindThey See Concepts As Transcendent
Over and over again I see believers talk about concepts as if they exist outside of the mind that conceptualizes them. Morals, meaning, purpose, values, emotions, and the like are most often understood by the secular as constructs created as part of the function of the brain. Without sufficiently intelligent creatures to come up with this stuff, they don’t existGrundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-67747645163598436732015-05-19T18:40:00.001-07:002015-05-19T18:40:38.776-07:00Truth SeekingIn a courtroom, neither the prosecution nor the defense are trying to discover the truth. They are trying to make their narrative of what happened as convincing as possible to the jury. Back when Serial was a thing, I remember an episode in which they broke down the location of the cell phone used by the guy who was later convicted of murder. They did this by looking at which cell towers the Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-32458703772398391012015-05-12T05:00:00.000-07:002015-05-12T05:00:08.854-07:00Sin or Die
Is incest a sin? If you are representative of my primary audience you are probably saying “no.” Nothing is a sin. Sin isn’t a thing. However, think about it from a believer’s perspective...is incest a sin? I did a small, informal poll and 9 out of 10 Christians believe incest is a sin. That means one of two things to the Christian faith in particular. Let’s look at the possibilities.
EitherGrundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-7286327947694900152015-04-28T19:27:00.001-07:002015-04-28T19:27:19.528-07:00The Save My Soul Via Government-Run Gambling ChallengeThe religious ask me from time to time what would convince me that God exists. I have written about various ways that I would be convinced, but they all lack in detail and specifics. Today I’m offering one example of exactly what would convince me in a challenge that would likely save my soul, be compelling to readers of my blog, and almost certainly make the news as a story that would be picked Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-84303664555556578762015-04-13T04:30:00.000-07:002015-04-13T04:30:00.964-07:00The Subjective Scope of the NaturalGod, or any sufficiently powerful supernatural entity (if such a being exists), could have designed us to operate miraculously. We could see through pores in our skin, hear via golden halos, and float from place to place--all without any mechanism for how our bodies function. Instead we have a naturally comprehensible biology of which we have a deep understanding. Why would God make us, and all Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-26688220188796977862015-03-25T05:10:00.000-07:002015-03-25T05:10:00.053-07:00Bandwagon BeliefIn my experience talking to Christians I’ve learned to not assume I know the beliefs of the individual...with a few exceptions. Every Christian I know believes that Jesus Christ existed, that he was crucified, and that he rose from the dead. From there they vary wildly. A big disagreement is over which Biblical bits are historical and which are fictional stories--beliefs that are dependent on Grundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-60120279018088969942015-03-16T06:10:00.000-07:002015-03-16T06:10:00.283-07:00Why I Talk About GodWhy do I talk about about something I don’t believe in? I get this a enough that I should probably address it no matter how obvious the answer are to me. Yes, answers--plural. Here’s a bunch of answers, all of which apply, some more than others, depending on the context.
Because gods, as concepts, are some of the greatest influencers of our age or any age. The majority of people use the conceptGrundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3217153430513050163.post-11164942594328113852015-03-10T06:10:00.000-07:002015-03-10T06:10:00.204-07:00To Falsify Evolution
I recently had a discussion about what it would take to falsify evolution with another atheist. We both agreed that theories based on evidence are all falsifiable by counter-evidence, but we disagreed on the amount of counter-evidence it would take in the case of evolution.
Here is the hypothetical evidence that he believes would falsify the theory: “If we found an organism that clearly breaksGrundyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07339125862340793733noreply@blogger.com2