Archive: December, 2010
Ad Maitzen: On “What must I believe to be saved?”
Steve Maitzen’s response to my critique is brief and to the point: “Your proposal invites the same generic reply I gave on p. 182 of my article: You make belief in God (or belief in Jesus) out to be of no particular importance for salvation, a view that’s hard to square with much of the [...]
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Religious demographics and divine hiddenness
Maitzen’s argument stated with almost criminal brevity We now turn to Steve Maitzen’s argument. To begin with, he observes that theists typically offer three types of responses to the argument from divine hiddenness: “(1) claiming that non-believers are always blameworthy for their non-belief; (2) acknowledging blameless non-belief but insisting that God has specific good reasons [...]
Read moreA preliminary look at the argument from divine hiddenness
Last summer Silver Bullet asked me to respond to the arguments of atheist Stephen Maitzen in a couple journal articles concerning the demographic spread of religious belief. Here I begin an engagement with the following article: Stephen Maitzen, “Divine hiddenness and the demographics of theism,” Religious Studies, 42 (2006), 177–191. I like to take things in [...]
Read morePsychiatric Notes on a 21st Century Ezekiel
E. was discovered by his landlord after he had been lying on his side for two weeks in his apartment in front of a scale model that E. had constructed of Manhattan. The landlord gained entry to the apartment after neighbors complained of a sewage smell. It turned out that E. had been defecating in [...]
Read moreA few laughs before you go to hell
Sometimes you just can’t win. If you’re an irascible jerk then people don’t like you. But if you seek to be affable they still don’t like you. Case in point, consider the thread on John Loftus’ announcement of the book we’re writing together here. In the thread John carried on with his typically immodest gusto about how he was [...]
Read moreChristmas music from sleigh rides to stone cold tombs
Christmas music is a dicey affair. The basic problem is one that is shared by the television news broadcast. In half an hour we go from a story of the body count from a storm surge in Bangladesh to a heart-warming community interest story about bikers raising money for breast cancer research to a bank robbery to [...]
Read moreWho could deconvert you?
At the moment my daughter and wife are busy playing the new Wii (our token indulgence in crass western materialism; in case you’re wondering, as per German tradition we open presents Christmas eve) when I received the following query from Jerry: Just curious, Randal. Of the atheists you’re aware of, which one do you think [...]
Read moreRandal’s Christmas Eve Devotional
This year our church published an Advent devotional booklet. The entry I submitted was a brief reflection (I was going to say meditation, but Baptists don’t meditate — too new-agey — we just reflect) on Luke 2:20. So I have included it here for your sober reflection as well. (No meditating please, unless you’re Catholic.) But I digress. Merry [...]
Read moreWhat if John Loftus converts me to atheism?
I didn’t ask the question. Shawn did: “What if John ‘converts’ you?” he asks. Great question! It is an especially good question because it allows me to talk a bit about my new book You’re not as crazy as I think. Chapter six is called “This conversation could change your life” and it discusses the [...]
Read moreGod or Godless?
Hey everybody, you know I’d be blogging faithfully if I hadn’t been so incredibly busy. Completing the move into our new house and completing grading for my eager students was enough. But add into that the fact that I received the galley proofs from my publisher for my new book You’re not as Crazy as [...]
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