I once fervently believed the Christian religion. Those faithful whose dogma asserts—contrary to their own scriptures—that apostasy is impossible never cease to contradict me on this point. The history of the interior of one’s head being a hard thing to prove, I can refute them only by reference to their own sacred texts. But I …
To apostatize, all you need is love. At least, that’s what worked for me: it was love for what is true, what is good, and what is beautiful that led me away from Christianity. This is what I call conscientious apostasy. And I communicate my impiety to others out of concern for their well-being and …
“So what you’re saying is…” Ever notice how whatever follows the above line is seldom what you’re saying? In discussions and arguments, I often see certain kinds of statements confused for certain others. This post will detail two patterns of confusion. The Alethic Misidentification “Possibly,” “actually,” and “necessarily” are very different concepts. It is one …
I have a problem. Specifically, I have trouble communicating with Christians when I criticize their dogmas. Every time I do—or so it seems—I come across as having motives and sentiments which are not in fact mine. During one conversation I was told that a particular nod of my head conveyed the message “you should now …
Most of the Christians I speak with believe the Bible to be the word of God and therefore to be without error. The more sophisticated among them believe the Bible to have been without error in the original. But textual inerrancy is too much to ask of the available evidence. When I ask believers for evidence …
Christian proponents of a “young earth” typically agree that James Ussher—one of whose clerical titles, interestingly, was that of Primate—was not far off when he dated the origin of the cosmos to 4004 B.C.E. Answers in Genesis, for example, admits that an exact date may be impossible to determine but declares the world to have been … Continue reading »
