Advocatus Atheist

Ep. 21 The Enlightenment Show: Robert Price interview "Inerrant the Wind" from FreeThought Fort Wayne on Vimeo .

The Burden of Proof Theists say it's up to the unbeliever to "disprove" God. But nonbelievers don't believe in God to begin with. This is what is called an error in logic, since believers are making the mistaken assumption they are (undoubtedly) right and so you must start from their understanding (because yours is invalid in their eyes). In other words, they are refusing to consider the atheist's point of view, and this causes the misunderstanding.               One problem which crops up is that because of the sensitive nature of the religious debate, believers often view their beliefs and cultural values as coming under attack whenever a skeptic offers an argument which threatens to disconfirm their cherished religious values or faith based traditions—making believers statistically less likely to consider the contra-arguments being given. (see: “The Malleability of the Human Mind” by Jason Long, chapt. 3, The Christian Delusion ed. John W. L

"One of the things that bedevils religion, is that it develops official truth, which is antithetical to real truth. You close yourself off from the future... It makes you disrespectful to others who may see things from a different angle and may not be stupid people." --Richard Holloway (ex-Bishop) "I have always strenuously supported the right of every man to his own opinion, however different that opinion might be to mine. He who denies another this right makes a slave of himself to his present opinion, because he precludes himself the right of changing it." --Thomas Paine (The Age of Reason)

Born and Raised a Good Christian Boy I was raised in the Assemblies of God belief system, a Protestant sect of Fundamentalist Evangelical Christianity which believes that the Bible is God’s inspired word. I was a Bible thumping Christian for nearly thirty full years before my deconversion. I’ve studied the New Testament of the Holy Bible during Bible Sunday school, at youth group services at my Church, in adult Bible study at various evangelical churches. In college I joined Campus Crusade for Christ for a spell, I taught as a youth counselor at Big Sky Bible Camp, and for a time I joined Little Beth Israel where I attended a Messianic Jewish synagogue to learn the Jewish culture and also perchance to study the Bible on a more intense level than I had at any Christian congregation prior. Being Taken For Granted As such, by circumstances out of my control, it seems I am an Atheist who knows the Bible better than your average moderate Christian, precisely because I was a Fundamen

1) Aren't there any worthy alternatives to living a good life without God? If not, how do you propose to test such a radical hypothesis? 2) How do you account for the incontrovertible discrepancies, historical inaccuracies, Biblical contradictions, as well as the redaction , typology , and the midrash so blatantly prevalent in the New Testament and yet continue to consider it an indispensable source for sustaining your faith? 3) Likewise, how can you discern anything about the nature of Jesus Christ when there is not a single viable strand of genuine extrabiblical evidence to tie him to the fabric of authentic history? 4) Unilaterally, you have suggested that “faith” in the existence of God is more than just a matter of “blind faith,” e.g. that it also rests upon genuine evidence, such as experiential knowledge, yet I have not seen you offer any examples which cannot be explained away by naturalistic means. So what firm evidence do you propose educated nonbelievers consider