I began my review of Boghossian’s book by pointing out the spurious definitions he provides for terms like “faith” and “atheism”. John Loftus immediately sprung to Boghossian’s defense (not surprising given that he had gushed about the book like a prepubescent superfan at a Justin Bieber concert). However, instead of attempting to critique my analysis […]
A Manual for Creating Atheists
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 7): Doxastic Closure
Thus far in my review I’ve argued at length that Boghossian’s definitions of key terms — deepity, faith, atheism, agnosticism — are wholly spurious. I have identified my method as one of taking core samples or test cases (i.e. my analogy with testing the candidate for his adeptness at sign language translation). Given that Boghossian […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 6): Defining Agnosticism
Thus far we have seen Peter Boghossian to be utterly inept at defining basic terms: “deepity”, “faith” and “atheism”, he’s flubbed ’em all. So it is little surprise that his incompetence continues when he attempts to define “agnosticism”. Before we consider Boghossian’s proposed definition, and the problems with it, let’s consult a few philosophical dictionaries to […]
John Loftus defends Boghossian’s “rhetoric” because the man has found “the truth”
Imagine that a Christian — let’s call him “Pastor Bob Gossian” — were to write an evangelistic manual on how to convert atheists to “the Truth” titled A Manual for Creating Christians. And then imagine that an atheist were to write a review in which he critiqued the definitions Bob Gossian offers for terms like […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 5): Defining Atheism
In this next installment of my review of Peter Boghossian’s A Manual for Creating Atheists we turn to consider his definition of “atheist.” In our last installment we saw that Boghossian ignored the way the word “faith” is standardly defined in formal and common usage, opting instead to construct tendentious definitions borne of his own boundless imagination. […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 4): Faith
We now turn to Boghossian’s definition of faith. He begins with the following porcine illustration: “The word ‘faith’ is a very slippery pig. We need to get our hands on it, pin it to the ground, and wrap a blanket around it so we can have something to latch onto before we finally and permanently […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 3): Deepities
Chapter 2 of A Manual for Creating Atheists addresses the topic of “Faith”. In this installment I’m going to camp on pages 21-22 as I analyze Boghossian’s use of the concept of “deepity” and his list of alleged paradigm instances of deepitiness as regards faith. I’m camping on this brief section because it highlights effectively the degree […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 2)
Before I turn to chapter 1, I need to say something about the bizarre author’s bio on the back cover: Dr. Peter Boghossian is a full-time faculty member in Portland State University’s philosophy department. He was thrown out of the doctoral program in the University of New Mexico’s philosophy department. (emphasis added) Why would somebody […]
Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 1)
Peter Boghossian, A Manual for Creating Atheists. Durham, NC: Pitchstone Publishing, 2013. As some of you will know, I originally purchased Peter Boghossian’s book A Manual for Creating Atheists after Justin Brierley sent me a tentative invitation to debate with Boghossian on “Unbelievable”. When Boghossian then refused to appear on the program with me based on his insistence […]
Peter Boghossian on his opponents
Back in November, 2013 I received an email from Justin Brierley, host of the excellent UK radio show “Unbelievable”. (If you happen to be unfamiliar with the program and you have any interest in irenic and thoughtful God-discussions, you need to click the hyperlink and start listening to the archive.) Justin asked me if I […]
