Sunday, March 31, 2019

The Free Will Argument Is Riddled With Insurmountable Problems

The Free Will Argument Is Riddled With Insurmountable Problems.

If the Christian god was truly good he wouldn't risk our salvation upon faith amidst a world rife with conflicting religious claims and sects. He would provide an irrefutable and personal revelation via a direct message to each of us and the message would never conflict. A truly loving god would not leave it up to an accident of birth, geography, or what family you're born into to determine whether you will ever believe the right things.

Saying that the Christian god revealing himself would be infringing on our free will is ridiculous. Not only did he reveal himself to various people during the OT he even did so in the NT. If the Christian god is supposed to not favor one over another then it would be unreasonable and unfair for the Christian god to expect anyone to take another person's word for it much less an account told my someone that lives millennia ago and in whom we have no verifiable details about their life much less their motives or honesty in telling these stories.

The Free Will Defense also exonerates the Christian god from answering for the very problems he started. If the Christian god is omniscient, omnipotent, omnisapient, and omnibenevolent then he could very well have placed us in a universe where there would be no sin, evil, or suffering. In fact, an omnibenevolent god wouldn't be able to live with himself unless he did exactly that. If I had a way to prevent or solve suffering I would do it. That means that, I, a mere mortal has more compassion than the Christian god. If I had both the ability and desire to prevent evil and suffering and I didn't do so then I am not a loving or compassionate person.

100 Miles for Free Hearts, Free Minds Fundraiser for Kilian Korth

Wednesday, March 27, 2019

I Am Taking A Break For Medical And Other Reasons. I Will Return.

Tuesday, March 26, 2019

What Happened To Us Ex-Minsters?

Thursday, March 21, 2019

What's An Efficient Way To Overcome Procrastination? by Oliver Emberton

What's an efficient way to overcome procrastination?

Answer (1 of 3143): You're not going to like what I'm about to say. But that's okay. Truth is often bitter. And it always hurts. Perhaps, that's the point of it. Here's something funny about this Quora thread. If you look at the stats on it, you'll find something amazing.

Monday, March 18, 2019

Ithiel de Sola Pool and Society's Need for "Apathy", "Passivity", and "Defeatism" by Elpidio Valdes


Let's talk about how the "liberal" elite perceive how a democratic society should function. In 1967, Ithiel de Sola Pool published a book in cooperation with the American Political Science Association titled: Contemporary Political Science: Toward Empirical Theory. Pool was a revolutionary figure in the field of social sciences, having studied under Harold Lasswell.

Christian Becomes An Atheist!

Bernie Sanders Shames Trump's Budget Director "Do You Really Not Have A Conscience?!?"

Friday, March 8, 2019

Right Wing SCOTUS Justices' Embrace Of 'Discrimination' Argument In N.J. Case Alarming

Guest Op-ed: Justices' embrace of 'discrimination' argument in N.J. case alarming

It's a troubling portent for our secular Constitution that three U.S. Supreme Court justices endorsed earlier this week the oft-repeated bogus claim about "religious discrimination." The U.S. Supreme Court did the right thing on Monday by deciding not to hear an appeal of our organization's winning lawsuit at the New Jersey Supreme Court level that barred the use of millions of state tax dollars to repair churches.

What is Christianity? Ehrman-Harris Podcast

FYI- This Blog Page Views By Country Since It Began to Present

9,134 total Page Views so far! 

Measuring Morality by Grey Skeptic

Wednesday, March 6, 2019

The Hypocrisy of the Clergy by Elpidio Valdes

The Hypocrisy of the Clergy

Are there clergy men who don't believe in "God"? The answer is Yes! ...and they're the subject of a new study by Daniel Dennett and Linda LaScola from Tufts University, "Preachers who are not Believers". Imagine being forced to go to work every day and, as part of the job, profess something that you absolutely...

There Is No Such Thing As A True Christian! by Elpidio Valdes

There Is No Such Thing As A Christian!

Let's be honest, there is no such thing as a "true" Christian. It's common to observe Christians advertising the virtues of their faith and how they live their lives to honor and praise their God. Many Christians are fond of saying that "true" Christians are role models for the rest of the world which is...

Monday, March 4, 2019

What Is Atheism?


If there is a god or gods and he/they/she/it wants me to believe in it then it has done a really poor job of convincing me that it exists. It is hilarious that Christians and Muslims threaten unbelievers with Hell or tell us that there is no justice. We make our own justice and we always have. It may be finite in its scope and isn't by any means perfect but it does a good enough job to deter a lot of chaos. Sometimes there is no justice and that is a hard fact to swallow but to wishfully think that there is some divine afterlife justice such as Hell is ludicrous. Infinite punishment for finite crimes is beyond barbaric. If for some reason I discovered that the Bible god was real I would certainly not worship it nor would I respect it. If there is such thing as a god or gods I think its quite clear that they are disinterested with human affairs and human and animal suffering. In such a case I wouldn't care and have no respect for them either. 

The existence of evil/suffering is to me a strong indicator that there is no such thing as an omnibenevolent god or gods. Spend a day in a children's cancer ward and tell me just how wonderful your god is. Consider the massive loss of innocent life daily and the extreme suffering from diseases and injuries. Senseless suffering serves zero purpose and only adds misery and great pain. There is nothing good about it. We can all learn good lessons in life without suffering. If there will be a New Heavens and Earth as spoken of in the Bible then that means that it wasn't impossible for the Christian god to know how to make a Universe where there will be no suffering and where beings can freely choose to be loyal and loving toward this god. Why would an omnibenevolent god chose the mid experience of suffering and evil leading to lost souls going to eternal torment when he could have skipped to the end and only had the elect exist? It makes zero sense why an omnipotent, omnibenevolent, and omnisapient god would plan to do otherwise. The Christian god (and by extension by the same principles) is an illogical being (if it exists) and is unworthy of an ounce of my respect much less adoration.

Friday, March 1, 2019

Thousands of migrant children were sexually abused in U.S. custody, HHS docs say


Washington - Thousands of migrant children allegedly suffered sexual abuse while in U.S. government custody over the past four years, according to Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) documents released Tuesday by Florida Democratic Rep. Ted Deutch.


Treatise On Morality by Scott Clifton

My Thoughts On The Problem of Evil by Apetivist

My Thoughts On The Problem of Evil by Apetivist

Is it not possible for Yahweh to have created us all with a sense to do the right thing and also give us the idea of what constitutes wrong things? If Yahweh created the Universe as it is then he intended the world to have evil in light of his omniscience. Free Will Defense nor Transworld Depravity is not a good excuse either and in the following paragraphs I think I will make it clear why this is the case.

Apologist, Alvin Plantinga, puts forth the his famous apologetic argument:
"It is possible that God, even being omnipotent, could not create a world with free creatures who never choose evil. Furthermore, it is possible that God, even being omnibenevolent, would desire to create a world which contains evil if moral goodness requires free moral creatures." (God, Freedom, and Evil by Alvin Plantinga, 1974)

With advances in neuroscience and physics we are beginning to see indications that free will might be illusory and that indeterminism actually means that we are not as in control of the electrochemical reactions in our brain as we may think. This will make for another discussion later.

But that means that Yahweh is not omnipotent and it even calls into question his omnisapience. Surely even I can imagine a world where humans could think of doing evil but any attempt to carry it out would be thwarted by some measure. They have the free will to act as they may but there would be no ill effect on themselves or another if they so choose to do so.

Take an example regarding moral evil. I decide I want to stab a person with a knife. But the moment I try to do so the knife dematerializes. Imagine that I try to push a person down a flight of stairs and the moment I touch them my arm passes right through them with no effect whatsoever. Evil could be considered but not carried out with any effect. Eventually people would realize how pointless evil would be. Free will should not be so important that it takes away the free will of another person.

Equally I can imagine a world with no moral evil or natural evil. Can’t we all learn the importance of life without pain and suffering? We can challenge our character without experiencing physical pain. There could always be challenges but they need not involve suffering.

Why in the Garden was Adam and Eve created ignorant of good and evil? Why couldn’t Yahweh have placed that within them? Could he not of trusted his own creations to do what was right? Especially if they knew what was right? Surely, they could think of doing otherwise but as I said before they could be physically prevented from ever carrying it out. In fact, they could have knowledge of doing every act of evil imaginable but it would only serve as a way to appreciate the good life that they had.

If I can imagine this can’t an omnisapient and omniscient deity be able to do so? It seems that Yahweh is more concerned with the free will of a rapist in our world than the free will of the raped. In our world the toll and consequences of moral and natural evil is beyond measure. Even if we get a heaven later does that mean that we are properly compensated? Even if compensation seems fair would that in and of itself rectify the justification for evil in the first place?

If Yahweh knew all along that there would be no evil or sin in the New Heavens and New Earth then why didn’t he just make it that way to begin with? Skip to the end. Why even create people that are destined for Hell? Why even create a Hell? It is all so senseless especially given the so-called omnisapience of Yahweh. It also paints Yahweh as being evil. Only an evil deity would create a Universe where there is evil. An omnibenevolent deity would never create a Universe whereby evil would exist.

For those that say I’m being idealistic then you forget that Yahweh is being idealistic with the New Heavens and New Earth. It makes no sense whatsoever to put trillions of animals through suffering if it never was necessary to begin with. That is why I say that if Yahweh exists as described in the Bible then he is a malevolent deity. We could imagine a Deistic god though that is either unaware or apathetic of our existence. This Deistic god could have just set things into motion and left it all to play out perhaps to a desired end or to no ends whatsoever.

However, until we have any evidence of a god of any sort then we are left with no other choice than to withhold belief in such a being and go with what is available to us through naturalistic observation and measurement. Science (hard and soft and in-between such as psychology) and most of useful philosophy helps us better understand the world around us in such a way that religion could never have. It tells us that we live in a naturalistic universe and there are physical causes for what happens. If a person chooses or carries out involuntarily a moral evil against another person it isn’t because of some demon compelled or influenced them to do it is because that person is either intentionally violent, mentally unstable, or mentally deficient to do otherwise. What caused them to do it can be complex thus we have all different fields of study that can help shed light on such reasons if there are any to be discovered. Some events happen for no apparent reason but that just means that presently we don’t understand it and perhaps soon by asking the right questions, research, and testing we may eventually know.

An omniscient and omnipotent deity could well have created the Universe but without evidence of such we are left with more questions. Why would this deity or deities place us in a Universe where there would be suffering? If this deity is omnibenevolent then what has it to gain in such a creation? The less absurd hypothesis based on available evidence proposes we live in a naturalistic universe. It may not be comforting for the religious to entertain this but it is less complex than the Creator Hypothesis. I personally am left to no other course of thought than to side with the postulates of Occam’s Razor.

50 Renowned Academics Speaking About God (Part 1)