a tippling philosopher

Showing Tag: "christianity" (Show all posts)

Exciting News

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, August 13, 2012, In : General Life 
Within the next couple of days, there will be some exciting news to announce with regards to blogging. As you know, I am a regular contributor to  Debunking Christianity, John Loftus' website and blog. There is movement afoot and a new project is under construction. All I can say is watch this space because there will be an exciting announcement to make in the next couple of days.
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Outdated morality?

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, May 23, 2012, In : Religion 
I like this picture. I can imagine it being pretty true. 

Please refer to my previous posts on the issue. 

 

 

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Guest poster at DC

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, May 21, 2012, In : Religion 
Author John W Loftus has asked me to be a guest poster over at Debunking Christianity. At 130,000 hits+ a month, this is a great privilege and one about which I am very grateful. Thanks to John for the invitation. Hope to see you there!


http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.co.uk/ 

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Ockham's Razor and Christianity

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, May 19, 2012, In : Religion 

OCKHAM’S RAZOR AND CHRISTIANITY

 

Here is a definition of Ockham’s Razor:

 

Occam's Razor: the principle that entities should not be multiplied needlessly; the simplest of two competing theories is to be preferred.

 

This can often be a very useful principle in comparing competing theories which seek to explain the same phenomena. I will like to apply this theory to everything we know and see whether Christianity or atheism is a more attractive theory.

 

 

Let us look at issues w...


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A word on exclusivism

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, May 17, 2012, In : Religion 

Exclusivism, as I understand it, is merely accepting one belief in denying other similar claims. Which can surely be boiled down to accepting a claim and denying other claims.

 

We all do this, surely.

 

I see people as having two choices for living in a world of evidence.

1) being Pyrrhonian Skeptics

2) being able to make some kind of truth claims (beliefs)

 

For those who don't know Pyrrhonian Skepticism:

Whereas academic skepticism, with Carneades as its most famous adherent, cla...


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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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Homosexuality and Christianity Part 2

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, May 2, 2012, In : Religion 

So now it is time to return to the idea of homosexuality and Christianity about which I posted the other day.

 

Having looked at biblical issues concerning the position of deeming h/s morally wrong, let us now look at what makes people h/s and whether it is fair for an all-loving god to judge them.

 

Historically, h/s has been seen as a behavioural choice. However, over recent years, more and more research has been carried out into the causality of h/s.

 

H/s is seen as being "an endur...


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"Why is not working?”

Posted by Sergio Paulo Sider on Friday, March 23, 2012, In : Religion 
Here is a post from a fellow freethinker, Sergio Paulo Sider from Brazil. Thanks Sergio!

"Why is not working?”

 

There’s an old joke about a young boy looking at his mum spending a long time doing makeup in front of the mirror.

 

Mum, what are you doing?

I am doing my makeup, darling.

Why?

To look more beautiful.

But why is not working?

 

I remembered this joke when I was thinking about the fact that, without some special and explicit hints, it’s virtually impossible to surely ...


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Why Christianity is not 'responsible for science' (Part 2)

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, January 29, 2012, In : Religion 

Epistemologically speaking, truth was often seen as being the product of revelation, whether from God or the Pope. Therefore, empiricism was frowned upon as a method to arrive at truth and certainly could not trump revelation.

 

What was also frowned upon was scientific progress. This value was seen as poor in comparison to the value of the Gospels and spreading the good word, and the resulting relationship with God. These value positions were not antithetical to God, but they likewise did ...


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Why Christianity is not 'responsible for science'. (part 1)

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, January 28, 2012, In : Religion 

I have recently been involved in an argument online which is a very common argument and one which annoys me just a little. It is also an argument which I have had many times before with Christians. The claim goes something like this:

 

“Christianity is responsible for the development of science.”

 

The word science can be swopped with hospital, charity, education and so on. In the case in hand, there were statements such as:

 

“the essential neccesity of Christianity to the origin...


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Loftus posts my piece on DC

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, October 3, 2011, In : Religion 
John Loftus, blogger at Debunking Christianity, has posted this piece on his blog, kindly (http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2011/10/is-this-best-possible-world-and-does.html#disqus_thread):


Is this the Best Possible World and does God have Free Will?

Let us assume the triple properties of the classical approach to God: that he is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent. In terms of the classic Problem of Evil argument, if there is too much evil in the world, ...


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The BBC and BC/AD to be replaced by BCE/CE

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, September 25, 2011, In : Religion 

I was walking past the newspaper stand in the newsagents and I saw the headline to the Daily Mail. Now, the Daily Mail is a hate-filled diatribe of poor and polemical journalism. Its online message boards more so, with posters who are so right wing, they would be more at home in the Tea Party.

 

Anyhow, what was the headline? Well:

 

BBC turns its back on year of Our Lord: 2,000 years of Christianity jettisoned for politically correct 'Common Era'

This was the headline to an article full...


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New video - another question for God.

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, September 23, 2011, In : Youtube 

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Nice post by lockley at DC

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, August 16, 2011, In : Religion 
Here is Lockley's post:

 

Religions tell you that you must have faith because there is no other reason for believing! One does not need faith where enough evidence exists. I don’t need faith that gravity will suddenly give way because according to all my perceived observations and experiences- gravity has never failed me or anyone else before!

 

Listen believers.....If there really is a god, and there really is some ultimate truth that we humans must know for the sake of our eternal souls, ...


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Nonstampcollector confirms suspicions that God is a consequentialist

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, August 13, 2011, In : Youtube 


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New video about Jesus!

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, August 11, 2011, In : Youtube 
Enjoy.
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Great post from Loftus: What must be the case if Christianity is true

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, July 24, 2011, In : Religion 

Reality Check: What Must Be the Case if Christianity is True?

Below I've put together all thirty theses (so far) that most Christians agree on and why they are all improbable:

1) There must be a God who is a simple being yet made up of three inexplicable persons existing forever outside of time without a beginning, who therefore never learned anything new, never took a risk, never made a decision, never disagreed within the Godhead, and never had a prior moment to ...

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Religion is...

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, June 4, 2011, In : Religion 
In the same discussion as the previous post was involved in, this comment by papalinton deserves a mention. It is a great summation of religion:

brdeadite99,
You say, "... Atheism is not a belief system."

It is just as you say; with atheism there is no doctrine, no 'good' book, no dogma, no catechism, no organised tradition, no institutional body or theological administrative organisation underpinning the ritual and  ceremony; there is no  procedural observance; no service, no sacrament, no litu...

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Systematic theology?

Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, March 31, 2011, In : Religion 
I think one of the many problems that Christianity faces is the lack of a systematic theology. There is no coherence across the religion and across the bible. The responsibility of this lies on the lap of an all powerful and system designing god. And this itself is incoherent with such a god as defined by Christians.

What I mean by this is a religion that has 32,000 denominations that argue to toss over different aspects of theology, different core beliefs and so on is, to me at least, an obvi...

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