by Robert Jensen This past year, after decades of steadfastly avoiding churches of all kinds, I returned to church. Ironically, and completely by coincidence, I returned to a Presbyterian church, the denomination in which I was raised and to which I swore -- in both senses of the term -- I would never return. But return I have, prodigally perhaps, depending on one’s position on various doctrinal issues, which we will get to tonight in due time. I don’t want to be overly dramatic, but my early experience with church had been life-threatening: I was bored, nearly to death. For me, growing up in a middle-of-the-road Protestant church in the Midwest, religion seemed a bland and banal approach to life -- literature, politics, and philosophy seemed far more fruitful paths to explore. As I have confessed to my pastor, in my entire life I have cheated on only one test -- the exam to pass confirmation class so I could fulfill that requirement imposed by my parents and be done with the whole ent...

Otherwise rational people who look to ancient manuscripts for moral instruction inevitably do so within the framework of modern ethics. Modern ethical norms grease the wheels for the student of ancient morality, allowing the acceptance of certain doctrines that seem timeless while rejecting others that seem barbaric. Generally speaking, this is a perfectly reasonable approach to the study of ancient moral philosophy. Unfortunately, such an approach becomes unreasonable once an ancient manuscript is believed to be the product of divine authorship, applicable to all people in all ages. As we will see, it is this belief in divine authorship and universal applicability that undermines the position of religious moderates. Among the most popular belief systems, it is usually taught that God is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, and infallible. Perfect in the administration of justice and the source of morality, God does not make mistakes or lie. These characteristics of God are just...

...in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not soon depart from it. — Solomon

by John W. Loftus As many of you know I've been preparing for my public debate with David Wood of "answeringinfidels.com" on the problem of evil, so I'm not posting much until afterwards. The question is this: "Does the extent of suffering in our world make the existence of God implausible?" The debate is not far away. It takes place on Saturday October 7th at 7 PM, in Norfolk VA, at the Old Dominion University, BAL 104. If you're in the area and can make it please do. The transcript (and video) will be available afterward with comments by Victor Reppert and probably Paul Copan on his side, and Andrea Weisberger and Richard Carrier on my side (plans still in progress). I don't know of a major public debate that focused specifically on this problem by able defenders of each side for more than a decade (but I could be wrong). It may turn into a book too. A big thanks goes out to those who've made helpful comments on a draft of my opening stat...

You'll never be able to hear this song the same way again. Religion and relationships is next. And this is Sarah Silverman .

An ex-Christian writes a letter to his Christian mom.

Kent E. Hovind (born January 15, 1953) is an American evangelist and prominent "Young Earth" creationist who is currently offering US$250,000 to anyone who can prove evolution "is the only possible way" that the universe and life arose, although his numerous critics consider the challenge to be spurious because evolutionary theory has nothing to say about how the universe came about or how life began. The self-styled "Dr. Dino" (whose Ph.D, from an unaccredited university, is in Christian education) established the Creation Science Evangelism Ministry in 1989. Hovind now speaks frequently in schools, churches, university debates and on radio and television broadcasts, and is the subject of controversy and public scrutiny. He is currently charged with 58 federal crimes, including separate counts of making threats against federal officials, filing false complaints and tax evasion. This video is a critical analysis of the first of Kent Hovind's lectur...

Colbert interviews science educator Ken Miller regarding the "debate" (or lack thereof) between evolution and the junk science know as "Intelligent Design."

by Tyrone Williams (aka Checkmate) The Bible is a book of vile trash. From cover to cover, Old Testament and New, from the mouths of Moses, Jesus or Paul, the “word of God” is an “inspired” mish-mash of instructions and commandments that promote MURDER, GENOCIDE, RAPE, ABORTION, INFANTICIDE, SLAVERY, HATRED, MISOGYNY, MANIFEST DESTINY, CONQUEST, INTOLERANCE, RACISM, BIGOTRY, CLASSISM, IGNORANCE, GULLIBILITY, SELF-MUTILATION, THE BELIEF IN MAGIC and just about every IMMORAL and HEINOUS DEPRAVITY a sick mind can imagine. And there is not one HONEST person, who has read the Bible, who can deny this fact. However, I am being told by the Liberal Christian (Liberal, in this case, meaning any Christian who ISN’T a Fundamentalist.) that I need to ignore all these “bad” things, and simply focus on the “good”. Yes, the Liberal agrees, the Bible is guilty of having a few “blemishes,” but why not simply throw out these “aberrations” and focus instead on the “good moral teachings/lessons” we can le...

This post is excerpted from The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth. ( www.lulu.com/content/220355 .) There is nothing respecting which a man may be so long unconscious of as the extent and strength of his prejudices. —Francis Jeffrey1 Several of the writers of the Bible didn't care much for females. More than one thought homosexuals were vile. Some considered foreigners to be slightly less human than God’s Chosen People. If the Bible is the record of imperfect humans, each limited by his own historical and cultural context, struggling to comprehend the divine, then we can approach its contents as those who carry forward this legacy. We can marvel at what our forebears achieved in their attempts to see Goodness "through a glass, darkly”2 and to model their societies and their individual lives on what they saw. We can look with humility on their failings, knowing that, if we are willing, they can teach us about our own. If, on the other hand, the Bible i...

By Tyrone Williams I love comedians and I love parody songs. I love them because with biting sarcasm and cunning insight they are capable of exposing the ugly truth of things even the most stubborn person can’t ignore nor deny. And they're just plain funny! Take for example one of my all-time favorite comedic instigators, Ray Stevens. Long before Weird Al Yankovic came along, Ray Stevens pioneered the field of comedy songs with such classics as “The Streak”, “Ahab, the Arab”, “It’s Me Again, Margaret” and “Would Jesus Wear a Rolex™?” It’s the latter song to which I call your attention. It begins like this: “Woke up this morning, turned on my TV set There in living color, was something I can’t forget This man was preaching at me, laying on the charm Asking me for twenty, with ten thousand on his arm “He wore designer clothing, and a big smile on his face Selling me salvation, while they sang Amazing Grace Asking me for money, when he had all the signs of wealth Almost wrote a check ...

by Tyrone D. Williams Without question my favorite movie of all time is The Wizard of Oz . From the black and white beginning in Kansas, to the colorful world of Oz. From the mundane antics of the farm hands and the natural threat of Miss Elmira Gulch, to the comic buffoonery of Dorothy’s new friends and the supernatural threat of the Wicked Witch of the West, I find The Wizard of Oz a marvelous tale of timeless delight for both young and old. I never get tired of watching that flick. To me, The Wizard of Oz is the Greatest Story Ever Told. “There’s no place like home” dammit. I especially love the ending, when Toto unceremoniously yanks back the curtain to reveal the scam of the carnival huckster. Apparently Toto was fed up with all the whining and cowering of his companions, so he blew the whistle on the deal. “Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!,” the big-headed apparition bellows, but it is much too late. Dorothy and friends have already seen too much. The “Wiz...

Burke lecture: UC San Diego

By John W. Loftus People in Biblical times defended God against the problem of evil by blaming themselves and their own sins for the natural disasters that God sent on them. They believed God controls all natural happenings (Ex. 12:23,29,30; 32:35; Num. 11:33; 16:46-50; 25:18; 2 Sam. 24:15-16). Why don’t very many Christians today use this same response to exonerate God for natural disasters? In ancient times, disasters were usually explained in only one way: God was upset with people because of their sins. And that’s the explanation we find most often in the Bible, although there are a few notable exceptions (Job; Luke 13; John 9). But even here we see a God who could do anything with the world of nature that he wanted to do without regard for the ordered world and laws of nature. In Job for instance, we see the Biblical answer for the problem of evil in the first two chapters. The answer was that God is testing us with disasters and he allows Satan to do us harm so that he migh...

"If God be for us, who can be against us?" Rom. 8:31 It is well-known that the spread of religious ideas has often been facilitated by the threat of force. Economic, social, political, or physical force (violence) has been exercised by and upon nearly every religion in history. In the name of God, our ancestors exterminated entire communities and even cultures, using scripture and traditional doctrine as justification. To be fair, the forceful propagation of religion carried with it certain economic, strategic, or political incentives. The church has classically endorsed or encouraged actions that strengthen its position in the world. The same could be said of certain political ideologies (Communism or Socialism, for example) that hold secular philosophy in high regard. However, it is not these additional considerations that concern me. What concerns me is that each of the three largest religions today have scripture that not only permits this, but encourages it. It is truly ...