In the past I have had my great frustrations with John Loftus and his Outsider Test of Faith. Shall I count the reasons? For starters, it is arbitrarily imposed upon people who hold a set of claims that are “religious” as a means to test those claims when a more consistent application would present it as […]
rationality
“To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained.”
Ray Ingles provided this quote from “The Doctor” in my post “On Taking an Objective Approach to Inexplicable Events“. This is an interesting claim. It first begs interpretation. I take there to be the following two basic possibilities: (1) The rational person believes that every object, event or state of affairs has some explanation for why it […]
For since the creation of the world: On the wickedness of atheism
PM asked with disarming directness: “Hi Dr. Rauser, “Wondering how you’d situate Romans 1:18-32 into this discussion? Thanks.” The problem at first blush Let’s put the most relevant excerpt of this passage before us: 18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the […]
Is “biblical Christianity” the only rational worldview? (And is atheism wicked?)
Yesterday David Parker provided us with a link to “triablogue“. Once there I read this: “While atheism is wicked, I truly appreciated Azrienoch’s logical rigor and consistency. His analysis only confirms what I’ve been saying for years, which goes something like this: If you are logically consistent and want to have a worldview that can […]
Doing your belief inventory (or how not to be a fundamentalist)
John has recently commened the following advice in the blog when it comes to belief: “You can (and should) give weights to your beliefs. If you only have 20% justification, then evidence that approaches 20% should be sufficient to force you to at least reexamine your belief. In fact, if you’re using a belief with […]
Extraordinary cars require extraordinary acceleration
Silverbullet sternly informs me: “We ask that you support extraordinary claims with extraordinary evidence.” This claim is so familiar, indeed, well-worn, that it is like putting on a pair of old 501 jeans. The only problem is … it doesn’t fit very well. And why is that? What’s wrong with this delicate and eminently reasonable demand for […]
When atheists grow up and become naturalists
A number of my readers are atheists, but only one is anatheist.net, and that’s James Tracy. In “What John Loftus has is a failure to communicate” James and I continued with the old faith as a starting point of thinking theme (my theme, to be more specific). When James refused to come out and affirm any form […]
