After I got into a disagreement about tactics with John Loftus of Debunking Christianity, I ended up in a discussion of what, if anything, an atheist agenda should consist of and whether atheists had anything at all in common beside their disbelief in God. First, the posts dealing directly with my dispute with Loftus Want to help write a book? — Loftus solicits possible questions for a Christian apologist and I offer a few thoughts Why do atheists ask the boring questions?... Read more
There have been a number of interesting comments on my “Are Atheists a Side?” post from earlier this week, and, when I started to reply, I realized I’d need a new post to flesh out my response. Since there have been a number of interesting discussions sparked over the past two weeks over how atheists should frame arguments, I’ve collected those posts into a series here. As always, you can browse all post series under the Featured Series tab. ... Read more
This post is a LONG overdue response to Peter Somerville, who had some questions about a post I wrote way back in October on the morality of drone strikes. Here’s a quick excerpt from Peter (not a full recap, so click over and read it) Given that Leah’s post falls under a series on the topic of sinfulness, I was surprised that she never identifies any sinfulness in her post. Does she believe that a soldier killing an opponent is sinful?... Read more
While I wait to see if my post yesterday (“Are Atheists a Side?“) satisfies Dom, the commenter I was trying to address, I thought I’d share thoughts a recent piece I wrote for HuffPo (especially as I’ve written about Glee here before) and I’ve asked a few questions about religious communities at the end of this post. The article, titled “Glee’s Gay Suicide PSA: It Got Worse” focused on the troubling example Kurt, the gay character, set for viewers, when he decided he... Read more
After reading through my disagreement with John Loftus over appropriate tactics for debunk religion, Dom had a few questions: If atheism, in and of itself, is a fairly slim and uninteresting belief (which, as an atheist, I think it is), and the interesting bit comes from the positive framework you build on top of your atheism, then what does it actually mean to talk about any atheist “side” to this debate that defines itself positively rather than negatively, as furthering... Read more
–1– This post is up late, and a little less verbose than usual, since I had an exam this morning. To make it up, I promise that I’ll be posting this afternoon/evening to respond to Dom’s question posted last week during the John Loftus kerfuffle: So I’ve got a question which I’d love to see you write a full-on post about, if you’ve the time or inclination, because it’s preventing a lot of the things you and Loftus have been... Read more
This post is linked to a series inspired by Michael Egnor’s eight questions for atheists I buried some comments about my beliefs about epistemology and evidence for Christianity in the tail-end of yesterday’s answer to the question “What Caused the Universe?” The comments thread has been posing some interesting questions, so this post will serve as follow-up and extension of yesterday’s thought. Lukas asked: Would it be fair to summarize this by saying that you think a theory must... Read more
This post is one in a series responding to Michael Egnor’s challenge to New Atheists to explain what they believe. Short answer: I don’t know. Long answer: First, to be honest, I don’t know whether I can apply my usual understanding of the word ’caused’ to this problem at all. I think of cause as something that connects events A and B when A occurred before B and B’s occurrence was dependent on A happening. The trouble is, before the Universe, it’s far from... Read more
I’m still working on my series of posts answering the eight questions posed to atheists by Michael Egnor and some of the ones coming up have me a little baffled. I’m digging up my notes from Directed Studies freshman year to be able to tackle the question about Aristotle’s four causes, but when it comes to question six, I don’t even know where to begin. Here’s the prompt: Why is the human mind intentional, in the technical philosophical sense of... Read more
Since he explained why he would not be replying again on the comment thread at Debunking Christianity, I figured I would cross-post it here, so as not to leave anyone in suspense. Loftus wrote: Leah, I’m not interested. I don’t know who you are. I don’t care to discuss strategy online when this scholar is reading what we write. And I don’t care to discuss whose questions are better. I know what I’m doing. That scholar agrees. Leah, had you... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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