[Addressing Sam Harris’ indignation at the devastation caused by a tsunami] “Now I can only understand you being indignant with God over this if He is really there. But what if He is not there? What follows then? This event had no more ultimate significance than a solar flare or a virus going extinct or …
Truth Stays Put
“In other words, the ‘facts of the case’ never check with us first to see if ‘them being true’ will put us out in any way. The square of the hypotenuse is what it is quite apart from me having indigestion over it. Two apples added to two apples will result in four apples however …
The Suspension From Nothing Bridge
“Why ought one individual, with one set of nerve endings, be concerned about another set of nerve endings entirely? They are not connected, except through cultural teaching. That teaching, in our case, is grounded in the will of God. In your case, it is grounded in bare assertion. What you need to do here is …
Special Hypocrisy Rates
“But while we are on the subject of [OT] sexual slavery, let me raise the question whether anything like that is happening now . . . let’s talk about sexual slavery of children in places like Thailand. And let’s ask who would be most likely to approve of sexual jaunts to visit the slaves there …
And Then the Sun Goes Out
“You want them to stop turning America into a big, dumb theocracy. But why? If there is no God, what could possibly be wrong with theocracies? They provide high entertainment value, and they give everbody involved in them a sense of dignity and high moral purpose. They get to wear ecclesiastical robes, march in impressive …
And If We Have a Thirst for God . . .
“A desperate longing thirst in the desert doesn’t turn every mirage into water. But surely it argues that there is such a thing as water” (The Deluded Atheist, p. 77)
An Approach That Comes in Handy in Debates
“The problem is that Dawkins doesn’t seem to be aware that he is doing this. He is unaware of the fact that he is looking out at the world through his own eyeballs, and his worldview, freighted with all kinds of radical assumptions, is simply invisible to him. What he sees is simply what “is,” …
And It Would be Nice
“Hume posited a chasm between is and ought and Dawkins is unable to engineer a bridge across the chasm. In fact, his attempts appear to consist almost entirely of, ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be nice if we had a bridge here?'” (The Deluded Atheist, p. 49)
Atheism and the Magic Flashlight
“Dawkins’ lack of epistemological awareness is nowhere more evident than here. He is the enlightened one. We are the ones in darkness. He explains our darkness completely. But given his explanation, he is just as much in the very same darkness. And not only will he not explain where he got the magic flashlight, he …
Because Information Is Spiritual
“But atheism requires an evolutionary explanation every bit as much as religious conviction does. And that explanation cannot appeal to the correspondence of the chemical reactions in the head to the events of the outside world — what a contrived business that would be. Given atheistic principles, we have no reason to assign any truth …