Answers in Genesis BUSTED!

New Study Refutes Old Creationist Argument

2009-12-13T06:18:00.000-06:00

A new study has shown that entropy (or thermodyamic disorder) actually creates orderly and complex crystals.

This ought to be the final proof that the creationist argument from entropy is FALSE. Their argument goes something like this:

Evolution violates the Second Law of Thermodynamics, which states that everything tends toward disorder, while evolutionists claim that throughout history life has become more orderly. Therefore, the Second Law disproves evolution.

I refuted this argument as follows on page 120 of my book, Atheism and Naturalism:

This totally misunderstands what ‘disorder’ in the thermodynamic sense is. Thermodynamic ‘Disorder’ is simply energy that is not available for use. Evolution does not violate this law because usable energy is supplied to living things by the sun.

Now it looks like we all have something easy to point to to totally blow the creationist argument out of the water and show that they are fundamentally wrong in their interpretation of 'entropy'.

Richard Carrier Speaks on the History of Jesus

2009-12-11T05:28:00.002-06:00

Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6

Also, an Arab website interviewed Richard Carrier about Metaphysical Naturalism, Islam, Jesus, and more. Well worth a read.

A Blog You Ought to Check Out

2009-12-10T04:32:00.001-06:00

Sweet Scandalous Skeptic. You may remember that I poster her award-winning essay "Good Without God" a while back. She's also posted an essay by her son, Scooter the Skeptic, which has to be one of the all-time best skeptical kid-written essays.

Also: Capital City Free Press

Justin Martyr and Pagan Parallels to Jesus

2009-12-09T07:16:00.002-06:00

A few days ago I watched this video (see below). It attempts to explain something that the early Christian Apologist Justin Martyr said. You see, Justin was living in the second century, and he made a pretty damning statement about Christianity (which you'll see in the video). He points out that Christianity has quite a bit of specifics in common with older pagan religions. So the Christian in the video counters this by saying (basically): "Oh sure, he said it, but he only said it to show that the Romans were being inconsistent for NOT punishing other religous groups who believed the same type of stuff."

I might point out that it doesn't really matter why Justin said what he said, it only matters that he said it. If he said that Christianity had a lot in common with older religions (so much so that he attributes this to demons counterfeiting Christianity in advance) then why he said that DOES NOT MATTER. He still said it.

So the guy made this video goes on to give another quote from Justin Martyr that I think is worth addressing:

"[W]hatever we assert in conformity with what has been taught us by Christ, and by the prophets who preceeded him, are alone true, and are older than all the writers who have existed..."

So is Justin saying that Christianity is older than all these pagan poets (the 'writers')? Yes and No. Justin seems to be saying that the Old Testament prophets are older than the pagan poets. He is probably not saying that Jesus predates the pagan poets, because in chapter 23 of Justin's First Apology he says that before Jesus became a man among men, demons influenced the pagan poets to imitate Old Testament prophecies as having already happened to a pagan deity. So Justin realized that the pagan parallels needed an explanation, and he did the best he could to give one. That tells us something right there: If the parallels were not signifigant, he would not have needed to explain them. One could argue that Justin was wrong about these parallels needing an explanation, but look again at the parallels Justin cites in chapters 21-23 of his Apology (linked above) and you tell me if those parallels are insignificant nothings.

Also, there are several reasons Justin Martyr's explanation will not work. First, it smacks of special pleading because in any other case we would simply say that Christians borrowed this stuff from the pagans. Second, a lot of the stuff about Jesus that Justin thinks the Jews prophesied actually weren't: The Old Testament does not predict that the messiah would be born of a virgin, or that the messiah would be the literal son of God, that he would suffer a miserable death, be resurrected, heal the lame or blind, etc.

Dan Barker Speaks at Skepticon

2009-12-08T07:00:00.006-06:00

Dan Barker is the author of Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists and Losing Faith in Faith.

Click for Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5 / Part 6

Just a Reminder

2009-12-07T15:00:00.001-06:00

I published a review of Charles Darwin's classic Origin of Species at DB Skeptic. Check it out and comment!

How Could Creationism Not Be Dishonest?

2009-12-07T05:58:00.000-06:00

I Want This Debate

2009-12-06T06:20:00.001-06:00

Here's a post from the blog Panda's Thumb about a debate between ID proponents Stephen Meyer and Richard Sternberg and scientists Don Prothero and Michael Shermer. Sounds like Prothero really slammed the ID side. If anyone has the audio or video of this debate, I WANT IT. Seriously, if you can give me the web address to where I can listen to the audio or video of this debate, I would be much appreciative.

Peace.

Update: Found the debate on this youtube channel. Just look at the most recently uploaded videos.

Tee Hee

2009-12-05T15:26:00.000-06:00

Apparently Stan Guffey, the guy whom Ray Comfort plagiarized from, is now considering legal action over this whole ordeal. I think he should go for it. Ray Comfort knew that what he was doing was wrong, and he deserves to face justice for it. Furthermore, I would find it highly insulting and degrading if something I wrote was plagiarized and then used in a creationist writing full of lies and distortions.

I emailed Guffey after I wrote my now-infamous post. So, I wonder: Did I do that?

Climate Change A Hoax?

2009-12-05T12:00:00.002-06:00

I haven't had time to check the info in this video YET, however, I encourage others to do so, and furthermore, I think the argument presented against Global Warming being a conspiracy (because of the difficulties and implausibilities the video author explained) in and of itself conclusively disproves the notion that this is a big conspiracy.

Why Christianity Needs to Die

2009-12-05T06:17:00.002-06:00

Apparently Rick Warren, the smiling imbecile pastor behind that awful book "The Purpose Driven Life" (BTW, Here's a much better book,The Reason Driven Life by Dr. Robert M. Price) cannot bring himself to condemn a Uganda law that would put homosexuals in prison for life (and in some cases it would put them to death).

I know quite a few Christians on the internet who are not opposed to putting homosexuals to death. People who think this way aren't just run-of-the-mill idiots like Ray Comfort, but people I know on internet forums who are otherwise intelligent. They've simply accepted the Bible as the accurate word of God. And the result is dangerous bigotry. This is just one reason Christianity, in the long run, must perish for the well-being of our species.

How Did You Learn About Sex?

2009-12-04T12:06:00.000-06:00

A Signed Origin

2009-12-04T06:07:00.003-06:00

The folks from Skepticon are auctioning off a special signed copy of Ray Comfort's Edition of Origin of Species. PZ Myers, Dan Barker, Rebecca Watson, Joe Nickell, Richard Carrier, DJ Grothe, and JT Eberhard all signed it. Richard Carrier even wrote "Plagiarist!" under Ray Comfort's name, which I thought was funny. I was also kind of proud since I was the one who uncovered the big scandal of Ray Comfort's plagiarism. Here's a picture of the signed page:

God Takes Care of Children and Fools

2009-12-03T09:21:00.002-06:00

This is so silly:

The Gospel of Luke records that, as he was dying on the cross, Jesus showed his boundless mercy by praying for his killers this way: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do."

Not so fast, say contributors to the Conservative Bible Project.

The project, an online effort to create a Bible suitable for contemporary conservative sensibilities, claims Jesus' quote is a disputed addition abetted by liberal biblical scholars, even if it appears in some form in almost every translation of the Bible.

The project's authors argue that contemporary scholars have inserted liberal views and ahistorical passages into the Bible, turning Jesus into little more than a well-meaning social worker with a store of watered-down platitudes.

I've sometimes wondered if Conservatism was being fueled by Fundamentalism. But this indicates that (in some cases, at least) it's the other way around: Fundamentalism is being fueled by Conservatism. In other words, conservative politics don't always come from religion, sometimes religion is hijacked and altered to suit the needs of conservative politics. The article continues:

Contributors to the project aren't arguing on ideological grounds alone. The discussion forum on the site is full of discourse on Greek grammar, along with arguments long familiar to Biblical scholars about the history of certain passages.

Take the famous passage from Luke: the Conservative Bible Project omits it not only because it's "a favorite of liberals," but because there's some dispute over its authenticity, based on the manuscripts it appears in.

Professor Timothy Paul Jones said while some early Greek manuscripts omit Jesus' words, others include them.

"There are so many factors to consider when looking at that, but here it gets boiled down to 'liberals put it in,'" he said. "You've got people who are doing this who have probably never looked at an actual ancient manuscript."

Amen to that. The project is very transparent: It's a bunch of dogmatic conservative self-declared-expert idiots using the bible as means to an end for their ideology. Moving on:

The Bible's roots in a dizzying variety of ancient manuscripts require a lifetime of dedication to master, said the Rev. Frank Matera, a professor at the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and a former president of the Catholic Biblical Association of America.
"There's a little Italian proverb, 'Every translator is a traitor,'" Matera said. "Most Bible translations are usually done by a group of scholars, precisely so they can balance out each other. It's not something that everybody can do."

Exactly. Where do these people get off thinking that their amateur bible knowledge is sufficient to do something that takes a team of experts who have studied the stuff for decades?

I'm glad that people like Matera and Jones are taking a stand against this stuff. Timothy Paul Jones is someone I confess to having a guarded admiration for. His book, Conspiracies and the Cross, is excellent. In a very conversational tone, Jones explains why so many popular folk theories about Jesus (that he married Mary Magdalene, for example) are just dead wrong. It is truly a great skeptical work. His reasoning throughout the book is, with few exceptions, spot on. Anyway, I just wanted to mention that. Stay Rational, folks.

Rebecca Watson Talk @Skepticon

2009-12-03T06:48:00.000-06:00

Review of 'Signature in the Cell'

2009-12-02T06:52:00.001-06:00

Here's an interesting (and critical) review of 'Signature in the Cell', a book by ID proponent Stephen C. Meyer.

PZ Myers First Speech At Skepticon

2009-12-01T05:00:00.001-06:00

Good Atheist Reading From Around the Web

2009-11-30T05:00:00.000-06:00

Here's some things I've found on the internet that make great reading:

The Case Against Presuppositionalism Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3
- Great series of articles on a very peculiar way to defend the Christian faith.

The Anthropic Argument Against the Existence of God - Appears to be a novel formulation of the Argument from Evil. Nevertheless it is fascinating and easy to comprehend.

Holding's Hypocritical Zeal - Good article on a quasi-popular Christian apologist.

Funny Skeptical Cartoon

Good Without God

2009-11-28T22:11:00.002-06:00

The following is an essay written by a member of my local freethought group, Amanda Gulledge.

Rebel flags, crosses, a church on every corner and county road signs that read, “Go to church or the Devil will get you”, seem to be staring back as my little boys press their noses to the truck glass. It is a hundred degrees outside and the mockingbirds sing while the smell of barbeque and magnolia trees linger. If you haven’t guessed by now; I live in Alabama.

Alabama, the Bible Belt, is also our Home Sweet Home. My husband, two boys, and I have an honest, open relationship about the many mysteries of existence. We don’t believe in an ever watchful, all powerful Deity or an ever burning place of punishment. Instead, we have lots of discussions about the best choices. Every day I am inspired by the natural goodness that radiates from within my children. When my boys have their lemonade stand, they choose to give their profits to fight children’s cancer; when we discuss stealing, they look at me like I am crazy and ask me to think how I would feel if someone took my belongings.

Before school I inhale the aroma of freshly brewed coffee as the smell of bacon wafts throughout the house. My pajama clad sons are watching the science channel and cutting trash bags to make play clothes. They explain that it will help save money and I shouldn’t worry so much about what they look like. I admit I am a bit of a fashion lover. My heart swells with pride and I fight back a tear as my husband refills my coffee and kisses us each on the head before leaving for work.

My eldest son turns every light in the house off to save energy and demands we use as little water as possible while brushing our teeth. He uses a candle in his bedroom instead of a light bulb. I tend to throw things away, but am quickly humbled when my children gasp and rescue the item. Chastising my carelessness, they proceed to remind me of the children and families in need.

Three cousins and two neighborhood friends were not allowed to play with my children because we do not attend church or accept Jesus Christ as our savior. Unbeknownst to me, my children approached both families and convinced the parents that it would be ok and that religion would never be mentioned. My eldest son promised to tutor one child and to teach another to play chess. Last night, in the truck and from the backseat, my little one began to talk of how short a mosquito’s life was. His brother then reminded us all how lucky we were to be humans. I looked back and then glanced at my smiling husband and said, “I am so very lucky to get to spend my life with you three”. Two boys exclaimed in unison, “Group Hug!!” There at a red light… in a truck in Southern Alabama a freethinking family embraced. Good without God? You betcha.

How to Assess the Truth of a Religion

2009-11-27T14:45:00.002-06:00

Lukeprog, over at the blog "Commonsense Atheism" has written a blog post about assessing whether or not a religion or worldview is true. One of his criteria is 'Consistency with known facts'. He writes:

If a religious claim contradicts what is known in another field, this may be grounds for rejecting the religious claim, unless the religious claim is better supported than the other knowledge. For example, if a religious system claims that the earth was created 6,000 years ago, but millions of pieces of solid evidence from multiple fields of consistent research conclusively show the earth to be much older than that, then this gives us cause to reject the religious claim. If the religious claim is central to the religion, then the whole religion may be rejected.

I would extend this principle even further: Don't fall into the trap of accepting numerous gross, unsupported speculations and just-so stories that attempt to make reality fit the religion in question. Too many times I have seen Christians defend Biblical inerrancy with just-so stories and speculations to get around the apparent (and probably actual) contradictions in the Bible. But guess what? There's no reason to accept those just-so stories unless you are already committed to Bible inerrancy. So that makes their speculations circular, if one is trying to approach religion objectively, as one should. Let me give you another example: Mormons claim that the Native Americans are descended from Hebrews. But archaeology and DNA evidence conclusively shows that they are not. So what do the Mormons say to this? They say DNA is a young science and so it doesn't have all the answers yet. As for archaeology, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. But again, realize that there is no reason to accept these ways of bullshitting around the facts unless you are already committed to defending Mormonism. But you should not be committed to Mormonism unless the facts bear it out as true. And if a Mormon accepts that, then they have to realize they are making a circular argument if they say that they are committed to Mormonism because the facts bear it out but then rely on their committment to Mormonism when the facts don't bear it out.

I would also add something else to Luke's post: It is possible that many religions are consistent with known facts, are logically consistent and consistent overall. So what one wants to look for is the religion or worldview that is the best overall explanation. The best overall explanation can be determined by explanatory scope, explanatory power, simplicity, and so on.

Christmas Shopping for Skeptics

2009-11-27T03:44:00.002-06:00

In honor of the biggest shopping day of the year, I've put together a list of books and DVD's that your skeptic relatives will definitely love as Christmas presents:

The God Who Wasn't There - This is a really cool documentary movie that pretty much any atheist/agnostic will enjoy. I mean, it discusses all the flaws of religion, Jesus mythicism, and has a goosebump-giving ending. Don't forget to print out Richard Carrier's critical comments on the movie and leave it in your recepient's stocking.

PBS Evolution Boxed Set - This is another one that pretty much any skeptic will enjoy: An 8 hour special on Evolution. 8 hours is enough to qualify as a 'gift that keeps on giving' and the show is fascinating. Of course, it's $70, so only give to the people you really like.

The God Delusion - Any skeptic who loves to read will enjoy this book, provided they don't already own it. So make sure they don't before you buy it (plenty skeptics have it). Otherwise, it makes a great gift.

Sense & Goodness Without God: A Defense of Metaphysical Naturalism - So you wanna buy something for your very bright, very well-read, college-sophomore nephew/son/grandson? Get this. It's a little deep, but a bright and well-read college skeptic will have no trouble understanding it. It's a superb book.

The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution - Perfect for anyone interested in evolution or creationism. Also a good gift idea for your Uncle Dana who reads a lot of creationist polemics and makes an ignoramus of himself everytime someone mentions 'millions of years'.

Godless: How an Evangelical Preacher Became One of America's Leading Atheists - Get this for your skeptic relatives who already have 'The God Delusion'.

Skeptic Magazine Subscription - It's the gift that keeps on giving, all through the year! Every skeptic will love this magazine!

Skepticon

2009-11-26T01:30:00.002-06:00

A youtube user has begun uploading videos from an event called "Skepticon 2". The first videos are of a student debate on the existence of God. It's well worth a watch, although I believe the theistic side did have the edge. Not an unfair edge, I simply mean that they were a bit better in their arguments and how they presented them.

Debunking Dinesh D'Souza

2009-11-23T16:37:00.005-06:00

I'm going to correct some very common errors that Dinesh D'Souza has repeated over and over, most recently in his debate with Dan Barker.

Dinesh says that Science confirms that "once there was nothing, then there was a universe." Not true. No one knows what happened before the Big Bang, or even if there was a 'before'. It may be that the Big Bang is the first moment and no moments exist prior to it, or it may be that there was a 'before' and that perhaps the universe is eternal. In fact, there are cosmologists who defend the notion that the Big Bang was part of an epic cycle within eternity, see: Endless Universe: Beyond the Big Bang. But even if Dinesh was right that "once there was nothing, then there was something" why does that point to God? Why couldn't the nothing-to-something transition be a natural event? As Victor Stenger has pointed out, Physics tells us that simple states tend to transition to more complex ones. Since "nothing" is as simple as it gets, it would be expected to transition to something. And in fact, this would not break any of the laws of Conservation, since we know that the universe contains equal amounts of positive and negative energy and electric charge (meaning the total NET energy and charge of the universe is ZERO).

Dinesh says that the ancient Hebrews also said that "once there was nothing, then there was a unvierse" even while other cultures believed that a creator had fashioned the universe from pre-existing material. That may not be true, because one scholar thinks that the Hebrews did in fact believe that God fashioned the universe from pre-existent material.

Dinesh also brings up the old fine-tuning argument, about how the speed of light is so well fine tuned. I recommend watching this video for a good refutation of that particular example. I've debunked Dinesh's argument further in my book.

He brings up arguments for the resurrection of Jesus. He asks, "Why would Christ's disciples die for a lie?" I recommend reading Ken Daniels' book for a good refutation of that:

[T]he assertion that Jesus' disciples died for their faith has no historical foundation; it is mere hearsay, as Bart Ehrman informs us:

And an earlier point that Bill made was that the disciples were all willing to die for their faith. I didn't hear one piece of evidence for that. I hear that claim a lot, but having read every Christian source from the first five hundred years of Christianity, I'd like him to tell us what the piece of evidence is that the disciples died for their belief in the resurrection (Craig and Ehrman 2006, 28-29).

What Erhman is saying is that we have no historical grounding for the martyrdom of even one of Jesus' disciples. All details regarding their manner of dying emerge years later in accounts that are far removed from the actual events. Even if it could be proven historically that some of the earliest disciples were martyred, we would still be unable to look into their minds and know they died specifically for their belief in Jesus' Resurrection.

Joseph Smith was murdered by a mob in 1844 in Nauvoo, Illinois. Latter Day Saints believe he was martyred for his unwavering conviction that God revealed himself through golden tablets that Smith had discovered in 1830. Many non-Mormons believe he was killed because he was a criminal. If the facts are so readily disputed for a relatively recent and well-documented event like Joseph Smith's death, how can we say with any confidence how or why Jesus' disciples perished, let alone what was in their minds when they died?

I've debunked arguments for the resurrection of Jesus in my book and also here.

"On The Origin of Species" A Review

2009-11-22T22:16:00.002-06:00

A wrote a review of Charles Darwin's classic on DB Skeptic. Click here to read it.

Why I Believed

2009-11-21T22:57:00.003-06:00

I just read a fantastic book called Why I Believed: Reflections of a Former Missionary by Kenneth Daniels. You can read it for free here at Internet Infidels. Ken tells a very touching story, and also manages to respond to a lot of Christian arguments with good sense and reason. Here's a quote that really struck a chord with me:

"In the end I realized it is human judgment alone that comes to the conclusion that the Bible is God-breathed. When skeptics challenge the Christian faith, they are merely pitting one fallible human perspective against another. There is no more to it than that. Did God tap ever me on the shoulder to tell me he wrote the Bible? No, and even if he had, how would I have known it was God? Ultimately I had to fall back on human judgment to make that determination. This debate is not one between skeptics and God; it is one between fallible skeptics and fallible believers. When my high school Mormon friend learned of my deconversion, he admonished me not to lean on "the arm of flesh" (Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 4:34) or human reason, but to listen to God. Yet we must all use our human reason or intuition or tradition to decide where we think God's voice can be found (if it is to be found at all), whether in the Jewish scriptures, in the Protestant Bible, in the Catholic Bible, in the Koran, in the Upanishads, in the Book of Mormon, in other sacred texts, in nature, or in our own heads. There is no way out of this bootstrapping problem other than to make a human judgment at some level."