Author archive

George, if you recall, identified himself in earlier calls as some sort of instructor who had kids in his class tuning into our show. He said in later calls that he is Eastern Orthodox. And his last call was about a big list of evidence he wanted to present on behalf of god’s existence. We asked for his best evidence, and he put forward the “Miracle of Fatima,” sometimes also known as “The Miracle of the Sun.” After the call, George wrote to us to pursue the case for this evidence further. And I am happy to publish our exchange below in its entirety, for reader review of the evidence, starting with his initial letter I ran through and swiftly cleaned up obvious misspellings and other format issues, but I have not adjusted the items below for content, grammar or readability in any other regard. I encourage you to read it through to the end. Read more

Here is the thread for today’s show with Jen and Russell. Jen’s topic is “The Bible as Fan Fiction.” She examines the idea that the Bible can be used to verify itself internally because there are multiple authors.

“A Directory of Information, Literature, Art, Organizations, & Internet Sites Related to Secular Humanism, Skepticism, Atheism & Agnosticism” —by Mark Vandebrake Website: http://freethoughtguide.com; Available now on Amazon.com   Mark Vandebrake has clearly put in a lot of hours and energy sorting through countless resources for the freethought community in this recently released book. Despite the fact that he calls this compilation “not an exhaustive collection,” it represents more than enough to cover the areas of freethought that are most commonly discussed, and some areas I had not actually even considered. The general structure of the volume consists of sections that begin with introductory essays, in which the author expresses his perspectives, interweaving passages from the writings of famous and historic freethinkers, relevant to the subject matter. These introductory essays are then followed by a breakdown of resources that cover the topics under consideration, often broken down further into subcategories. These resources take the form of annotated bibliographies, and occasionally simple lists. Vandebrake has inserted personal notes and recommendations in areas where he felt further information or clarification might be useful to the reader. Read more

Today Don talked about themes in Christianity and how they echo earlier religions and philosophies. We also had a fun time with caller Hamad, who offered this: 1. The universe is finite. 2. If the universe is finite, it cannot be infinite. 3. Finite things exist, therefore an infinite god is necessary.   Of course, the hosts offered up their own version, noting that using this same reasoning we could offer that the existence of “existent” things is evidence that nonexistent things exist.   Just a reminder that we have an e-mail address and Facebook page available for those who would like to call to tell us they agree with our positions or that they appreciate the program. Please feel free to contact us with those sentiments (which we appreciate) at <[email protected]> or post your thoughts to us on Facebook. The show calls should be geared toward atheist concerns (questions/problems/news/new information), or theists who want to explain to us why we’re wrong.

Someone at the Sunday ACA Lecture series alerted me that my (brief) introductory topic on the last show I cohosted might have confused some people. They asked if I could provide some examples in order to clarify what I was trying to describe. I’m always appreciative when someone lets me know I’ve been unclear, as it provides me an opportunity to clarify. And so, with that, I offer my clarification. There are many examples to choose from. I have conversations in everyday life that could illustrate this, and there are also examples among famous figures that demonstrate it well, but the most clear and concise example I recall is the story of Steven LaBerge. Read more