In the discussion thread to “John W. Loftus defends Peter Boghossian” Mr. Loftus provided yet another “defense” of A Manual for Creating Atheists. He writes: “Boghossian does indeed use rhetoric to his advantage. I like it because I agree with him that Christianity is baseless. He’s writing to motivate those of us who agree with […]
Peter Boghossian
John Loftus wants me to exercise the principle of charity … and Pig Pen wants Charlie Brown to take a bath
John Loftus has now written an entire article, “Lesson One for Randal Rauser on How to Properly Exegete the Bible or Any Other Book,” chiding me for failing in the most basic of hermeneutical principles: that is, interpreting a text in light of the audience and purpose for which it was written. Loftus notes that […]
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 […]
John W. Loftus defends Peter Boghossian
John Loftus has a lot riding on Peter Boghossian’s book. He gushes that “Dr. Peter Boghossian Seeks to Revolutionize Our Academic Institutions” and “Peter Boghossian is taking the world by storm” and Boghossian’s book will change our nomenclature” and “Boghossian is Very Serious; He’s a Crusader, a Radical, and I Like It!” At this […]
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 […]
Bore-hole samples and bad methods
I expected that there would be resistance and hostility to my third installment criticizing Boghossian’s book, “Peter Boghossian’s Manual for Wasting Paper (Part 3): Deepities”. The good news is that my powers to discern the future have not abated. But let me offer here a few reflections. The first point I want to respond to is […]
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 […]
Will Bibleman defeat Boghossian’s Epistemic Knight?
A few days ago Derek M drew my (and the collective “our”) attention to the following proposal from Peter Boghossian for inculcating atheist beliefs and values in pop culture, and in particular within children: “Whether or not we can be successful in helping people see value in epistemological rigor is an empirical question. I have […]
Is Peter Boghossian guilty of hate speech?
Over the last day my good readers have drawn to our attention a couple passages on Peter Boghossian which are worth spotlighting on the main stage. To begin with, Derek M pointed out a truly bizarre fact that Boghossian’s promotional blurb mentions that he was kicked out of a doctoral program. For example, in the […]
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 […]
