If you really want to empower your kids, start by rejecting the binary framework that frames every disagremeent as the truth vs. “a lie”. People can disagree with you without “lying”. Yet, this book goes through a long list of conservative evangelical bogeymen (e.g. naturalism skepticism, postmodernism, Marxism, feminism, progressive Christianity) while framing each opposing […]
indoctrination
A Look at Sam Harris and His Atheist Indoctrination
One of my favorite examples of atheist indoctrination comes from Sam Harris (Letter to a Christian Nation, (2006), 51). He begins: “Atheism is not a philosophy; it is not even a view of the world; it is simply an admission of the obvious.” Equating your beliefs with “an admission of the obvious” is indoctrinational in nature […]
Would you indoctrinate your child to save their soul?
This should be interesting. I just posted this Twitter survey. It seems to me that if you believe that the failure to be a Christian ensures eternal separation from God and the concomitant deprivation of the unimaginable goods of the new heavens and new earth, then in principle you would have excellent grounds to indoctrinate […]
What is Atheistic Indoctrination? A Short Lecture
On Ham-Fisted Young Earth Creationism
Today, I started listening to a new debate on Unbelievable between young-earth creationist Ken Ham and old-earth creationist Jeff Zweerink. Before listening, I tweeted that I was not sure it was still worthwhile to debate the young-earth creationist position. I should have qualified that a bit: if you are going to debate young-earth creationism, at least […]
Assuming Christianity is false. There, aren’t we clever?
#unbelievable Imagine you’re a Christian who wakes up to find that all the churches are gone & every other Christian in the world—including every minister— has forgotten they ever believed. You still have your Bible, & it’s up to you to win them all back. Good luck with that. — Tim Sledge (@Goodbye_Jesus) July 14, […]
Cultic Atheistic Indoctrination in a Meme
Observe carefully, this is what cultic indoctrination looks like: https://t.co/bQZRZ9Vz1w — Tentative Apologist (@RandalRauser) July 12, 2019 Sometimes, benighted folk say, “You can’t be indoctrinated into an atheistic or secular perspective because atheism is just the absence of theism or religion.” That self-delusion is the first step toward indoctrination because once you convince yourself you […]
The Ways of Atheist Indoctrination
Many atheists are keen to identify indoctrination within Christian (or other religious) communities. Not surprisingly, however, they typically fail to recognize the extent that indoctrination can occur among atheists. In this article, I am going to take a look at indoctrination in the contemporary resurgence of atheism known as “the new atheism.”[1] I can already hear […]
On Keeping a Closed Mind: Lessons from The Friendly Atheist
A couple days ago The Friendly Atheist posted an article titled “Christian Textbook Urges Readers To ‘Keep a Closed Mind’.” The short article features a screenshot from a page out of a textbook for Christian young people. (Before this I’d never heard of the book, What’s on Your Mind? Discover the Power of Biblical Thinking, or […]
Genuine Inquiry vs. Partisan Advocacy: A Couple Comments
Jeff Lowder just wrote a helpful article in which he contrasts “genuine inquiry” vs. “partisan advocacy”. Jeff describes genuine inquiry as “reading opposing viewpoints, not with the goal of preparing pithy one-liners for debates, but with the goal of actually trying to learn something or consider new ways of looking at old topics.” He adds […]
Atheists who celebrate intellectual regression
Intellectual development involves, among other things, the increased ability to analyze the views of others with critical nuance and charity. At its most sophisticated level, that trend includes the skill of rigorous devil’s advocacy, i.e. the ability to defend the views of others with as much sophistication and putative conviction as genuine advocates for the […]
A Little Learning is a Dangerous Thing, or the biggest problem with popular Christian apologetics
Thirty years ago popular Christian apologetics (henceforth PCA) was thin on the ground: Josh McDowell, John Warwick Montgomery, Norman Geisler, and a smattering of others largely carried the field. But these days the field of PCA is crowded with luminaries ranging from distinguished academics (e.g. William Lane Craig; Gary Habermas; Timothy McGrew) to lay church […]
How the atheist rhetoric of “reason” undermines reason
I opened my 2011 book You’re not as Crazy as I Think by chronicling some of the myriad ways that evangelical Christians invoke the rhetoric of truth as a way of reinforcing binary in-group out-group oppositions. In our age of marketing identities, I noted that evangelicals have attempted to brand themselves and their communities with “truth”. And […]
How the British Humanist Association Promotes Propaganda
This is my second critique of the British Humanist Association video “How do we know what is true?” In my first article on the topic I pointed out how the video tacitly endorses scientism and thereby undermines the value claims upon which humanism is predicated. It is now time to turn to the deeper and […]
