How to deal with the ‘Craig Con’: Part 2

In yesterday’s Part 1 of this three-part series, I wrote about how in debating sophisticated religious people, atheists have the disadvantage in that science impacts religion in many ways and that atheists, even if they are scientists, cannot know about all developments everywhere and so can be blindsided by arguments based on science that they have little knowledge about. I have labeled this the ‘Craig Con’, in contrast to the older and cruder ‘Gish Gallop’, because some theologians are now more sophisticated than the ones who came before and use information from cutting-edge science to give the same old and tired arguments for god a patina of freshness and credibility. William Lane Craig is the smoothest practitioner of this debating tactic, though by no means the only one. [Read more…]

The man behind the 47% video

While Mitt Romney always had a tough road to winning the last election, the infamous video of him at a $50,000 a plate dinner complaining about the 47% of moochers likely put the lid on his chances. Now the person who made the video has emerged from the shadows. To no one’s surprise, he was one of the staff working the event. His name is Scott Prouty and he worked as a bartender that evening and in an interview he explains what caused him to record the event, how he did it, and why he agonized over what to do with it once he realized what he had. [Read more…]

What now for the Catholic Church?

So we now have a new pope. As expected, Francis has solidly reactionary views on same sex marriage, homosexuality, abortion, and contraception, and opposed the liberation theology of Latin America that was perhaps the only good thing to come out of the Catholic Church in the last half century. These features are hardly a surprise since all the cardinals who elected him were appointed by the two previous reactionary popes. [Read more…]

How to deal with the ‘Craig Con’: Part 1

In a debate with religious people on the existence of god, atheists should win easily because all the evidence and arguments are on their side. After millennia of religious effort, what have religious people got to show in support of the existence of god other than vague appeals to the ineffable nature of his being? As Stephen Colbert said in an interview when his guest asserted the ineffability of god, claiming something is ineffable is great because you can say that you are right without having to explain it. [Read more…]

Teaching intelligent design in biology classrooms

William Jessup University in Rocklin, CA is a Christian evangelical institution that has as its mission to “prepare Christians for leadership and service in church and society, through Christian higher education, spiritual formation, and directed experiences”, so you can see that it is a religious institution through and through. What surprised me is that up until now it did not teach any of the sciences at all, an astounding exclusion for a university these days. [Read more…]

Humanists raising money for charity and Greta Christina honored

I am pleased to pass along news from the Foundation Beyond Belief (FBB) and the Stiefel Freethought Foundation that their “Light The Night Walk Team raised $430,000 for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society last year, the largest amount ever raised by a first year non-corporate team and the 4th largest amount raised by any team in the nation in 2012, including corporate teams.” [Read more…]