a tippling philosopher

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Another good review for "Free Will?"

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, July 17, 2012, In : Books 
5.0 out of 5 stars Great Thought-Provoking Book!July 16, 2012
By 
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Free Will?: An investigation into whether we have free will, or whether I was always going to write this book (Paperback)
I recommend this entertaining and well-argued, mind-blowing book in which the author examines a notion we all seem to take for granted in the West, i.e., our dearly beloved notion of free wil...
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I have an internet stalker - and he's a bloody pain in the arse

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, June 29, 2012, In : Books 
So I have a stalker. He's a complete tool with no capacity for intellectual conversation. He started by posting a negative review of my free will book without having read it. He has done it on .com and .co.uk,. He has started reading it now but is so dense that he is making stooopid claims. He is a man of the cloth, it seems - a Father Clifford Stevens.

For example, in Free Will I set out the three positions, talk about their main adherents and then debunk them. However, he quotes me quoting...
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The Nativity available now!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, June 22, 2012, In : Books 
My new book "The Nativity: A Critical Examination" is now through all the distribution channels! It has a foreword written by David Fitzgerald, author of "Nailed". Looking at the infancy narratives in the Bible, it analyses the reports from a historical context to see whether they stand up to scrutiny.

They don't. Check it out in paperback or on Kindle.

 
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Book looks good!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, May 28, 2012, In : Books 
I have just received my proof copy of my new book "The Nativity: A Critical Examination" and it looks really good. As you can imagine, i am pretty excited. It is available of kindle already, but there's nothing like the feel of new book in your hands!

The cover looks great too. Just a week or so before it filters through the distribution channels then!

 


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High praise indeed - and a cable TV slot!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, May 25, 2012, In : Books 
A chap called George Ortega contacted me recently about a video of my free will talk to the South Hampshire Humanists. He runs a small local cable project about free will in the States. Anywho, he is planning on using the video as the backbone for four of his cable shows, which is great.

What is more impressive, is this quote from him:

 
This is far and away the best refutation of free will available anywhere! I'm only about 1/3rd of the way through it, and Johno Pearce wowed me so completely ...

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The Nativity update - proof ordered, Kindle submitted

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, May 16, 2012, In : Books 
I am pretty excited. My new book, The Nativity: A Critical Examination, has been submitted to Kindle and the printers / distributors. It will be available on Kindle by the end of today, and I should get a print proof copy within, say, a week or so.

Being my fourth book (discounting the children's book I edited), I am really happy with things at the moment. It's all about keeping that profile up!

I'll keep you posted.

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Author David Fitzgerald is writing a foreword for my new book

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, May 11, 2012, In : Books 

 I am very excited to announce that author and public speaker David Fitzgerald will be writing the foreword for my new book "The Nativity: A Critical Examination". i am really pleased that he thought the book was "excellent".


I am presently making some final editions, changing a few things about which David and myself have been talking. A big thanks to him.

Go and buy his excellent book from the UK and US links above!

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Of Hardening of Hearts

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, April 26, 2012, In : Books 
I thought, as I was reading through Free Will? again for a reprint, that it was worth posting this. It is still, to me, a really powerful argument against the sort of God we all know and love....




Of hardening of hearts

 

Normally, there are two ways of seeing theological determinism. Firstly, the soft type, called soft theological determinism, allows for humans to have free will, even though God knows what they are going to do. The hard type means that humans do not have any free will, and G...


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New book idea - Craig and the Kalam

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, April 25, 2012, In : Books 
I will soon be writing an extended essay on the Kalam Cosmological Argument as used by William Lane Craig. This has recently been a personal interest of mine as a subject, so it seems obvious that it would be a future choice of subject for a book.

The KCA has been a stalwart defence used by many apologists, particularly Craig. erroneously so, I believe. The essay and book will set out to undermine the KCA in the ways that I have shown already on this blog and in the essay section in my cosmolo...
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An excerpt from my upcoming book "The Nativity: A Critical Examination"

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, March 9, 2012, In : Books 
Just thought I'd post another excerpt from my upcoming book which is just being copy-edited at the moment. Let me know if you see any mistakes!


14 – An unlikely Herod acts particularly naïvely



One has to wonder why, if travelling from the East, the star does not lead the magi directly to Bethlehem but to Jerusalem and then to Bethlehem. What becomes even more implausible is that Herod decided not to follow the star himself, but to task the itinerant wise men with going themselves and ...


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Apologies for quiet!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, March 8, 2012, In : Books 
Sorry I have been quiet these last few weeks, but I have been editing and finalising my latest book:

The Nativity: A Critical Examination


I will post an excerpt soon and get back to a few blog posts!


Here is the cover (draft):




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I am amazed anyone believes the Nativity at all!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, February 9, 2012, In : Books 
I am continuing apace with my latest book. But the more research that I do, the more astounded I am that anyone believes in the historical veracity of the nativity accounts of Jesus' birth.

I am including a section that I am still working on, and which has not been proof read yet, so apologies for any typos. It looks at the early actions of Herod and the notion that the magi are nothing but literary and theological devices:


13 – Herod acts rather naively and the magi as a mechanism for Matthe...


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Bethlehem or bust

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, In : Books 
Here is a draft version of a section of the book on the Nativity that I am working on. see what you think:



5 - To Bethlehem or not to Bethlehem

 

 

Bethlehem is a very important place for the average Christian. It is the birthplace of Jesus. But it is more than that, it is the birthplace of the predicted Messiah, whether Jesus existed or not. For Jews and Christians alike, Bethlehem was touted as ‘the place to be born’ if you had any hopes of achieving Messianic greatness. For an eva...


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"Free Will?" Kindle format tidied up.

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, January 18, 2012, In : Books 
Kindle formatting is a nightmare. Not being able to accept tables for free-flowing text is a headache. For my twins book, which had loads of tables, it really proved frustrating. There were some glitches for the Free Will? book too (as well as a duplicated quote). I have now tidied them up and resubmitted a better .prc file for the Kindle version on Amazon. Anyone who has bought an earlier version, let me know (with proof) and I can send you a rectified file. 
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A Tale of Two Texts

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, January 8, 2012, In : Books 
I am really enjoying writing at the moment. I have drafted some 40 odd pages. Here is the start to the bppk (after the introduction) which looks at the Gospels as an overview, and then the two texts individually. I have included the short overview section here:



 

PART 1 – THE GOSPEL ACCOUNTS

 

 

Introduction to the texts

 

 

It would be imprudent to start talking about the issues with the textual accounts of the nativity without at first acknowledging their background and discussing the...


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New book coming on nicely

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, January 4, 2012, In : Books 
It always feels good to get a good evening's writing done. i must admit, I am really enjoying writing this new book (working title - 25 Reasons to Disbelieve the Nativity). I am some 20 odd pages in and I will certainly have enough pages to make a decent sized book. It is going to be a job making sure it is concise enough!

I am also rating Gerd Theissen's 'The Historical Jesus'. What a fantastic reference book it is turning out to be! I have just finished my opening background section on the G...
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25 Reasons to Disbelieve the Nativity: My next book is on the Nativity

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, December 14, 2011, In : Books 
Ho ho ho, it's Christmas. Hark the Herald Angels Sing. Or do they?

My next book, which has been on the back-burner for some time now, is tentatively called "25 Reasons to Disbelieve the Nativity". It will be a cumulative debunking of the Nativity of Jesus, Although there will be 25 points eventually, here below are 27 points, in note form, and the mental stretching and gerrymandering one has to do to accept them as coherent truth.

Let me know what you think:


1) Mary and then Joseph are visited b...


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Another 5* review!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, December 7, 2011, In : Books 
The Little Book of Unholy Questions, as linked on this site, has received another 5 star review on Amazon.com! Great stuff!.

Here it is:

5.0 out of 5 stars Easy reading with a profound contentDecember 7, 2011
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
I met Jonathan in a couple of forums over the internet. When the subject is religion and philosophy you surely expect pa...
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Calling all dads of twins!!!!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, November 26, 2011, In : Books 
An announcement to any dads of twins out there in the UK. I have just released my third book, Twins: A Survival Guide for Dads. It is out now on Kindle, and will soon be released in paperback. Twins UK and TAMBA has shown an interest, which is great. 

Here is the description and a review:

"So you’ve found out the good news. How did you take it? Normally it is a choice of pure joy, pure terror or downright panic. In the event of any or all of these emotions, you will certainly be needing advic...
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Questions from my new book - The Problem of Evil

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, May 24, 2011, In : Books 
With the release of my new book - The Little Book of Unholy Questions - I thought it would be nice to share some of the questions from the Problem of Evil section. Here goes...



1.              During the 2004 tsunami where, say, 250,000 people died, would it not have been more caring of an all-loving God to have made one less person die?

 

 

2.              (One question I have seen online) What am I supposed to be learning from my disabled son?

 

 

3.              What is he supposed to...


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My new book to be released soon

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, May 9, 2011, In : Books 
I am pretty excited that my new book, now called 'The Little Book of Unholy Questions', will be released in the coming weeks.

I sent a review copy to Derek Murphy, author of Jesus Potter Harry Christ and he returned this review:


If you were given an exclusive, face-to-face interview with God, what would you ask him? Are you curious about what the animals ate on the ark? Why Jesus could eat fish but also walk through walls? What, exactly, are angels? In "The Little Book of Unholy Questions" J...

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Part II to Reasonable Faith critique

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, April 25, 2011, In : Books 
I have just rushed off the second part to the critique of William Lane Craig's Reasonable Faith. It can be found here. Any comments abou tthe critique, please feel free to reply to this blog post.
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Reasonable Faith Critique

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, March 25, 2011, In : Books 
William Lane Craig is very famous for his seminal classic "Reasonable Faith" - an apologetic that unashamedly defends Christianity supposedly in a very reason-based manner.

I am in the process of critiquing the book in detail. However, it is slow-going. As a result, and insipred by a conversation on the Amazon review I made of this book, I have put the first part of the critique on the website here: http://atipplingphilosopher.yolasite.com/book-reviews.php.

As I complete more and more, I will c...
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