Skeptical inquiry is the best way to approach life. That's my premise. What is skeptical inquiry? Here's one straightforward definition:

Skeptical inquiry is a method of investigation which guides the evaluation of claims of fact. Four words neatly summarize the skeptical credo: Prove what you claim!

Skepticism's core value judgment holds that empirical evidence must support a falsifiable claim to justify acceptance of that claim. A skeptic strives to identify and clearly articulate assumptions and, when they are questioned, rigorously test those assumptions. Science is the best tool yet-invented for producing evidence that skeptics consider valid.

My question to you: Are you skeptical or credulous? Do you tend to believe, without evidence, whatever you read or hear?

Those who believe the fundamental claims of Christianity (Jesus is God, was raised from the dead, born of a virgin, etc.), I submit, are credulous. The funny thing is, most of them would be skeptical about a modern day claim of resurrection or virgin birth, but for some reason accept without question the claims of the Bible. Why? Because they're in the Bible.

What evidence do they have that any of these things ever happened? None whatsoever. For that matter, how do they know that God is good? Because it says so in the Bible. Take the Bible out of the picture and they have nothing.

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People who follow Todd Bently are complete jackasses and deserve to have every penny they own taken from them by this fucking lunatic. First of all, his name is TODD!!! On top of that, he's Canadian! (At least he sounds like he's Canadian, which is just as bad.) Shouldn't that be enough? But no, you need more to keep you away?

The best line from this video: "People that need people raised from the dead are now tuning in to the meeting." It's like he's talking about people who need their drains unclogged. Who in hell wouldn't like to have someone raised from the dead?



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At the request of Christian relatives I take at look at "Miraculous Mission," a DVD presentation that promises, on the box cover, to pick up where the story of Jesus leaves off and show me the story of the twelve apostles, "using 21st century technology" so that "faith and science collide." (I'm not sure if they mean that faith and science get into a fight in the video or if they come together in peace. Guess I'll see.) Here goes!

The first thing I notice is, there is no expectation that this will be watched by anyone using critical thinking skills. Statements are made that are patently false, but who's going to question them? An example in the introduction: "According to ancient eyewitness accounts, on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead." The truth is there are no eyewitness accounts of Jesus' resurrection. No one knows who wrote the so called gospels, they are completely anonymous and were written decades after the events they purport to describe.

From there the narrator tells the story from the point of view of someone who has already decided that the Bible is all true. Jesus dis this, the apostles did that, whatever it says in the Bible, blah blah blah. I thought they were going to prove this stuff. OK, I'll keep watching.

They seem very hyped up on how these ordinary men could have so changed the course of human history. That seems to be very impressive, proof of the truth of their claims, and even miraculous to these folks. I guess the inventor of Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, not to mention general relativity and Coca Cola, must also have been miracle workers.

Hmm, he's saying now that neither the biblical nor historical accounts tell us much about the apostles. So from whence will we get our information for the rest of the video? I can't wait to find out!

OK, they're hinting that science can now assist us in finding out about these guys.

They're trotting out a couple of professors of New Testament and History who don't really say anything about proof that these men even existed, then they go back to some regular folks talking about the "almost supernatural" aspect to the way these ordinary men changed the world. There must be some real scientific proof coming soon.

Nothing yet. A cute girl in a soccer outfit is asking me how these ordinary men could have overcome all the forces against them (Rome, Jewish leaders) to spread the message around the world. Not proof of anything, but I'm still hopeful.

More stuff from the Bible accepted as fact. Then a guy with his kid telling me how amazed he is that these apostles gave up everything to follow Jesus. First, there's nothing amazing about that whatsoever. Just ask your Aunt Marge, who last week sent another ten grand to her boyfriend in Nigeria, whom she's never met in person, who lost his wallet and can't get home. Second, just because it says it in a book doesn't make it true!

OK, now we're talking. They show an ancient inscription that proves Pontius Pilate really existed. Then the James Ossuary, a stone box used to house human bones, with the Aramaic words "Ya'akov bar-Yosef akhui diYeshua," or "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus," comes up, although the narrator admits there's controversy surround its authenticity. In fact, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) declared it to be a forgery in 2003. Google it. Is that it? They're moving on, but this proves nothing!

More proof of the existence of Jesus in the writings of people in the "2nd through the 5th centuries." But what did those people rely on for the information? The same anonymous, decades out of date writings that we have today.

Another professor telling me that "Matthew tells us that Jesus..." blah blah. I know this guy must know that we have no idea who wrote the book of Matthew! He goes on: "Time after time, he demonstrated his miraculous power," healing diseases, etc., etc.

I can't do this anymore. A waste of time. This video was put together by and for people who have already decided, on blind faith, that the Bible is true, and who will grasp at the most insubstantial so-called proof they can scrape together to bolster that faith.

Now I have to figure out what to tell my relatives. Any ideas?

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Whenever a Christian acquaintance from my past reaches out to me I am immediately skeptical about their motives for doing so. Does this reaction seem paranoid or unkind? Perhaps it does to some, but to me it seems a reasonable perspective, and here's why...

First, Christians are told in their scriptures to love the lost in order to recruit them. Aside from this motive, they are taught to "come out from them and be separate," and not to be "unequally yoked" to them. They learn that suffering in this life is essentially unimportant, since the life to come will bring everything to right. They are told to care for other believers first, outsiders second. So when a Christian is kind to you, be wary. It's not uncommon, should you show a lack of interest in what they're selling, for them to lose interest in you, "shake the dust off their feet" and move on in search of a better harvest. This is not to say that some Christians aren't very caring people apart from their religion, but whenever their religion plays a part it's likely screwing with their motives.

Second, I have never known a supernaturally loving Christian. They have all been ordinary people, some more loving than others, just like everyone else. According to the Bible, they are supposed to be infused with the "fruits of the Spirit," making them better in ways that would be literally impossible otherwise. I can't recall ever meeting or knowing someone who stood out to me in this way. The way the term "miracle" has been dumbed down to mean the occurrence of any unlikely event that has a happy ending, people will call anything supernatural these days, but I'm talking about things that cannot be explained or duplicated by natural means.

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Have you heard this before? This is the advice often given to Christians who are seeing, perhaps for the first time, widening cracks appearing in the seemingly solid foundation of their faith. It's a neat little admonition that underlies the defensive mechanism inherent in all faiths.

In which other area of life would it be considered prudent to ignore evidence and cling to what the evidence disproves? Of course people do this all the time, but is it ever a good way to navigate life?

I would rather see clearly, even if the view is painful or uncomfortable.

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When I was but a wee baby Christian, I attended a devotional service for college students in my church wherein evidence for the truth of Christianity's claims was presented. One of the linchpins of this so-called evidence was expressed in the form of the question, "What happened to the body?"


We were given a few choices, each of which was easily refuted as a realistic or logical possibility. The Romans took it? Why wouldn't they have produced it to disprove the claims of Jesus' resurrection? Jesus wasn't really dead? Then how come blood and water came out when the soldier stuck the spear into his side to make sure he was dead? The disciples took it? Then why were they so willing to die for something they knew to be a lie? Etc.

Looking at these evidences now, I see that they all have the same fundamental weakness. They are like the house of cards described by Vinny Gambini:


"Let me show you something. (he holds up a playing card, with the face toward Billy) He's going to show you the bricks. He'll show you they got straight sides. He'll show you how they got the right shape. He'll show them to you in a very special way, so that they appear to have everything a brick should have. But there's one thing he's not gonna show you. (turns the card, so that its edge is toward Billy) When you look at the bricks from the right angle, they're as thin as this playing card. His whole case is an illusion, a magic trick."

Here's the trick: They cleverly begin their argument with the assumption that any of the details of the story have any credibility whatsoever. In a court of law they would have to prove every bit of it as a foundation for their argument. In effect they're saying, "We know that all of this really happened as described. So, where is the body?" Hold on a minute! We don't "know" any such thing.

Here you have a story that wasn't even written down until decades after the purported events, whose authors are unknown, whose accounts are contradictory, and whose assertions are uncorroborated in the historical record. (Check out Bart Ehrman on this topic.)

This is a common tactic with apologists. Take the "Lunatic, liar or Lord" false choice as another example. How about "Legend"? The moral of this post is, look at the cards side on before accepting the premise of the argument.


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Via Science, Reason and Critical Thinking


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I shall begin this post with a quotation from the venerable Thomas Payne:

No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such a communication if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of a case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and hearsay to every other, and, consequently, they are not obliged to believe it.

It is a contradiction in terms and ideas to call anything a revelation that comes to us at second hand, either verbally or in writing. Revelation is necessarily limited to the first communication. After this, it is only an account of something which that person says was a revelation made to him; and though he may find himself obliged to believe it, it cannot be incumbent on me to believe it in the same manner, for it was not a revelation made to me, and I have only his word for it that it was made to him.

-The Age of Reason

When I converted to Christianity (or a peculiar brand of it), I skipped over reason. I navigated no journey of logical, sensible, or rational cognition by which others may have convinced me that the tenets of the religion (the existence of God, the inerrancy of the Bible) possessed any objective basis by which to lay claim to my life. And yet, I was converted.

As I look back at that period of my life, and the years that followed, wherein life in the church cemented my choices and narrowed my options, I can see clearly that, were I, at that tender age, capable of logical thought, I would have rejected the religionists’ claims of “revelation” outright.

Why do men and women accept as revelation from God words that were not revealed by God to them, but rather, supposedly, revealed to someone else, for which claim we have only this person’s claim, or even less credible, someone else’s claim on their behalf?  “He saw a burning bush that did not consume the bush!” “They saw Moses and Elijah and Jesus together on the mountain top!” “He calmed the sea!” If someone made such claims in the present we would judge them mentally incompetent. God supposedly told Abraham to slaughter his child and burn it? Believable? A mother makes a similar claim in a courtroom (God told me to knife my children to death!) and she is sentenced to a mental institution or lethal injection.

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Ronald Reagan's oft-quoted maxim, "Trust, but verify," actually works in the real world. There is a place for trust, and there is a place for seeking verification. A phone call out of the blue from someone who purports to be a representative of your car company, warning you that your warranty is about to expire, and pressing you to pay (by credit card, over the phone) one thousand dollars to renew it, should not be taken at face value. Although thousands apparently do just that.

Trusting your spouse or loved one is good, but such trust has been earned over a period of time during which they have demonstrated trustworthyness. Trusting that your medical practitioner knows her business is based on a set of regulations that are meant to separate the wheat from the chaff.

And so on.

So why is it that we give religion a pass?

Religions inoculate themselves against such demands quite handily, to whit:

A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign. And there shall no sign be given to it, except the sign of the prophet Jonah. And He left them and went away (Matthew 16:4).


And he said, I beg you therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may testify to them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the Prophets, let them hear them. And he said, No, father Abraham, but if one should go to them from the dead, they would repent. And he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, they will not be persuaded, even though one rose from the dead (Luke 16:27-31).

Asking for some scrap of proof before I go and commit my life to a set of beliefs is, to my mind, a reasonable request. But religions not only provide no proof of their veracity, they tend to slap you down for even asking.

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It's so common it's become a cliché. Someone close to you dies, so you're angry with God. You lose your job, you blame God. The crops fail, God has it in for you. "Why did God let this happen?" "God and I aren't on very good terms right now." And so on. Seems pretty silly to me. Wouldn't it be more rational and reasonable to conclude  that what happened was not the doing of a spiteful deity, but rather the result of earthly causes?

When people suffer, they tend to seek a "reason." They want to have an explanation. But people die. Bad things happen. What makes anyone so special they should be exempt from the harshness of a disinterested universe?

Since I've admitted to myself and others that I'm an atheist I've been accused of being angry with God. How can one be angry with a being one has no reason to believe even exists? When bad or unpleasant things happen to me, it seems I'm much more capable of dealing with these events when I focus on real causes. Is there something I can do to rectify the situation? Is there a way I can prevent this sort of thing from happening again? If not, what's to be gained by dwelling on it? Like that.

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An amusing saying: The man who smiles when things go wrong, has found someone else to blame it on.

Christians have a ready-made and defensless scapegoat whenever you point out any one of the counless examples of poor design in nature. If God is so wonderful and perfect, we ask, how could he have screwed up so royally? Why are people's backs so easily put out? Why is there cancer? What's up with the problems between men and women? (You know, can't live with them, can't live without them.)

No matter what you look at that's messed up and badly designed, the answer is the same: It's because of the Fall! Before the Fall, everything was perfect. Animals ate only veggies, not each other. There were no back problems. If only Adam had done the right thing!

Of couse, the Fall might be the perfect scapegoat except for the fact that there isn't a shred of evidence to show that things were ever better than they are now!

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It strains credulity, doesn't it? But it is demonstrably true. Human beings will believe absolutely ANYTHING! And they will believe anything without the slightest bit of evidence besides the fact that someone, anyone, says it's true. And they will believe anything, based on the claims of anyone, in spite of mountains of evidence to the contrary.

I'm reminded of a story.

Seems there was a delusional fellow who was convinced that he was dead. No one in his circle of friends or family could convince him otherwise. It was time for a professional to try. So, they hired a psychiatrist with a huge reputation for using logical arguments successfully to persuade delusional people to change their minds and abandon their delusions.

The psychiatrist wasted no time using his most powerful argument, one that had worked beautifully in prior cases. "Are you alive?" said the psychiatrist.

"Certainly not! I have been dead for many years now," said the patient.

"Another question: Do dead men bleed?"

"No, I happen to know that once the heart stops beating, there is no longer enough pressure to force blood out. So dead men do not bleed," said the patient.

"Very well, then." And suddenly the doctor snatched up a scalpel, grabbed hold of the man's hand and sliced the patient along the base of his thumb. Blood poured out of the wound until the doctor applied a large napkin to the spot. "So, what do you say to that?"

Ashen faced now, the patient seemed on the verge of an epiphany. The doctor waited for the magic words...

"Well I'll be damned. Dead men do bleed!"

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First, let's agree that the Bible tells us that God is omnipotent.

Job 42:2 I know that you can do all things; no plan of yours can be thwarted.

Genesis 18:14 Is anything too hard for the LORD? I will return to you at the appointed time next year and Sarah will have a son.

Matthew 19:26 Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Next, let us agree that the Bible also tells us that there are some things that God cannot do.

Hebrews 6:18 God did this so that, by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have fled to take hold of the hope offered to us may be greatly encouraged.

James 1:13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone.

The typical argument made in an attempt to remove any apparent inconsistency here is to say that God can do anything as long as it does not go against his nature. In other words, God, by nature, is always truthful, and therefore it is impossible for him to lie. And so on.

However, cannot the very same rationalization be used to excuse our own inability to do things? It is impossible for me to fly without technological assistance. But that is because flying is not in my nature. I cannot survive without oxygen, for doing so is not in my nature.

So God is not really omnipotent. He is merely more potent than I.

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This question tends to be proffered by some Christians who sincerely wonder why I, and others like me, wouldn't choose to be Christians just to hedge against the possibility that the God described in the Bible actually exists. The question presupposes, wrongly I think, that the God of the Bible would even accept such provisional believers. What I would agree with is the proposition that, since the penalty for unbelief if this God is real is so steep, it would behoove us to look into the matter before . The thing is, I have. Now, after knowing what I know of the question, I see no reason to believe that such an unlikely being exists. Therefore, my answer:

It smacks of cowardice to subscribe to a system of belief that seems so highly unlikely, simply to cover my bases. And it smacks of a lack of integrity. It's as if you are saying, "This is totally bizarre, there's almost no evidence to support it, everything I know to be true about the world contradicts it, more and more so every day, but, I'll go along with it just in case." That's not going to happen. I might as well knock on wood, throw salt over my shoulder, and pay lip service to every other major religion, just to be safe.

Suppose Mormonism is right? Suppose Seventh Day Adventists are right? Suppose Jehovah's Witnesses are right? What possible system of belief could encompass them all and so avoid going to hell if one of them is true? What if L. Ron Hubbard is right? Most Christians choose not to subscribe to the doctrines of most other denominations because they think they are untrue. That's what I'm doing with Christianity. I don't believe it is true.

You may say, what if I am wrong? Doesn't it make sense to adopt belief just in case?

I could do a lot of things to mitigate risk, but when I judge that risk to be so small as to be insignificant, and the price of mitigating it far too great, then, no. I don't consider that smart at all. There is a tiny but non-zero risk that I will be killed in a car wreck tomorrow. Should I stay off the streets to remove that risk? That would be irrational.

I invite your comments.

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You know how it is when a spouse or significant other complains about your behavior. They (and you) often exaggerate. You always do x, you never do y. I've asked you a quadrillion times, you never listen. Like that.

OK, that's human. That's what it feels like when we're upset. But would you expect a perfect, self-contained deity to do the same? Take a look...

as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD; ALL HAVE TURNED ASIDE, TOGETHER THEY HAVE BECOME USELESS; THERE IS NONE WHO DOES GOOD, THERE IS NOT EVEN ONE." "THEIR THROAT IS AN OPEN GRAVE, WITH THEIR TONGUES THEY KEEP DECEIVING," "THE POISON OF ASPS IS UNDER THEIR LIPS"; "WHOSE MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS"; "THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD, DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR PATHS, AND THE PATH OF PEACE THEY HAVE NOT KNOWN." "THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES." (Rom 3:10-18)

Come on, surely god is overstating.

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After Adam and Eve provoked God to the extent that he cursed all of humanity (the same humanity that he designed and built, mind you), and booted the silly, sinning couple out of Eden, the scriptures say this:

So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Gen. 3:23-24)

So God evicted them without notice and put security guard cherubs, armed with a sword-flambe, at the entrance just in case they tried to sneak back in.

Then humanity goes about its business.

So what happened to the Garden? With Google Earth around, should we be able to see it?

Of course literalistic Christians will say that just because God didn't tell us how he got rid of it doesn't mean he didn't. Or better yet, they'll opine that God has the power to hide it from our satellites if he chooses. Yes, yes, but explanations that make such frequent use of God's alleged superpowers ring hollow. Much simpler and more rational to conclude that the thing never existed in the first place, don't you think?

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Have you ever purposely pushed someone's buttons? You know, saying or doing things you know will annoy them? Sure you have. Did you know that God has buttons, too?

You may not normally think about God's buttons, but he sure has them. Take a look at some of the many references to how human beings, who really shouldn't have such a profound effect on the mood of a perfect, completely-self-contained deity, can easily provoke the bible god to fits of uncontrolled rage...

Exo 23:21 Be on guard before Him, and obey His voice. Do not provoke Him, for He will not pardon your transgressions. For My name is in Him.

Num 14:11 And Jehovah said to Moses, How long will this people provoke Me? And how long will it be before they believe Me, for all the signs which I have shown among them?

1Ki 14:9 But you have done evil above all who were before you, for you have gone and made yourself other gods, and molded images, to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back;

Eze 16:26 You have also whored with the Egyptians, your neighbors great of flesh, and have multiplied your fornications to provoke Me to anger.

1Co 10:22 Or do we provoke the Lord to jealousy? Are we stronger than He?

So be careful out there. Step lightly. Don't want to push God's sensitive buttons.

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You have surely heard it said (and if you haven't heard it said, you should hear it now), extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The claims of Christianity are certainly extraordinary; one might reasonably call them absurd. Therefore, it stands to reason, if reason is your guide, that its claims should be buttressed and proven by overwhelming evidence.

But for me, there is another reason to demand extraordinary evidence. I need such evidence, not merely because Christianity's claims are so preposterous, but because its claims on my life are so total and all-encompassing. Christianity demands that I lay down my life, that I suffer for Christ, that I give up everything for him and for his cause.

I can see why a certain mentality would find this calling attractive. Someone yearning for a purpose and meaning for his life, someone wanting to have his personality subsumed into a larger entity, for example. I was particularly vulnerable to this enticement at 17, with my unformed and uprooted life. Not anymore.

You want me to give my life for something, it had better be true. If you cannot demonstrate conclusively that it is true, I won't waste one minute or one calorie on it.

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From Epiphenom...

Every few years, a group based at Hertford College at Oxford puts together a statistical analysis of all the studies conducted to date that have looked at whether praying for sick people helps them get better (or at least stay alive).

The latest has just been published, and it contains something pretty radically new in their conclusions: the evidence is now so clear cut that they think that no more studies should be done. The book is shut. Praying for sick people simply doesn't work.

Now, the odd thing is that there haven't actually been any new studies on this since their last report, back in 2007. So why the change of heart? There are a couple of reasons.

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