Timothy Keller: Dishonest Reasons for God (Chapters 3 to 5)

I began my critique of Keller’s The Reason for God with an exposé of everything up through Chapter 1. I continued with Chapter 2. Here I cover Chapters 3 through 5. Next will be Chapter 6. I’ll continue to other chapters in future installments. Today the...

Timothy Keller: Dishonest Reasons for God (Chapter 2)

I began my critique of Keller’s The Reason for God with an exposé of everything up through Chapter 1. Here I continue with Chapter 2. Next I’ll cover Chapters 3 through 5. I’ll continue to other chapters in future installments. Here the same themes...

Timothy Keller: Dishonest Reasons for God (Chapter 1)

It used to be C.S. Lewis. Then Josh McDowell. Then Lee Strobel. Now it’s Timothy Keller, whose The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism (published in 2008) is the number one most read defense of Christianity. So here’s why it’s bunk....

The Rain Miracle of Marcus Aurelius: A Case Study in Christian Lies

This September, Mythicist Milwaukee will be putting on Mythinformation Con IV, always a fun and excellent conference. You’ll definitely want to go this year. Some of the Mythicist Milwaukee team traveled to Italy recently, and among much else, took some...

In Oregon Next Week I’m Debating Whether Jesus Was the Son of God

On Tuesday (May 30) at 7pm in the Gilfillan Auditorium at Oregon State University, I’ll be debating Dr. Michael Gurney on whether Jesus was the son of God. This event is sponsored by the Socratic Club. I might have books to sell and sign at the final closing of...

Christians Did Not Invent Charity and Philanthropy

Let me dispel a common myth: no, Christianity did not bring the idea of charity to the Western world. The concept of charity and concern for the poor was already fully developed before the Christians borrowed the notion from their pagan and Jewish peers. It’s...

The Mythical Stillbirth of Science in Greece

A few years ago a hyper-religious Catholic chemist with no history credentials wrote a face-palming article at Strange Notions that repeats an all-too-common myth Christians love to sell today: that science was “stillborn” in antiquity, and only a...

The Case for Christ: The Movie!

So I went and saw it. Here’s a review. Read on, and enjoy your Easter week pondering the aesthetic merits of a film embedded with religious propaganda. I’ll remark on both, but my focus will be on the propaganda, and what this film tells us about how...

Could Simcha Jacobovici Just Go Away Already?

I’m really tired of this guy. He pops up everywhere trying to push all kinds of sensationalist conspiracy theory crap about the ancient world, from the bogus Jesus tomb, and the semi-bogus James Ossuary (the key portion of which most experts now agree was forged), and...

Bayesian Counter-Apologetics: Ten Arguments for God Destroyed

Bayesian counter-apologetics is the method of using Bayesian logic to turn every argument for God into an argument against God, simply by understanding how the logic of evidence works, and then reintroducing all the evidence theists always leave out when they...

The Real War on Christmas: The Fact That Christmas Is Better Than Christ

Let’s face it. Jesus is a dick. The Gospels portray him as a cruel, sociopathic asshole who gloats over millions being horribly tortured for billions of years at his command (Mk. 9:43-49, Mt. 13:40-42, Mt. 13:49-50, Mt. 18:7-9, Mt. 24:51, Mt. 25:40-46, Mt. 5:22,...

God’s Not Dead 2: Historicity Boogaloo

The best thing about this film is that it lies to the audience. Because we live in the age of the Internet. So anyone who ever thinks to fact-check it will find out they’ve been lied to. And that may do more damage to their faith than any atheist they may ever...

The Ehrman-Price Debate

The Mythinformation Con Historicity of Jesus debate last Friday was disappointing to many. To be fair to Robert Price, he is in failing health. And he’s a sweet guy. But I have to be honest. Even granting that, he didn’t respond to hardly anything Ehrman...

Response to Pitts on the Resurrection Body

It’s been a really long time since I’ve bothered with the literature in resurrection apologetics. It mostly just bores me now. Nothing new has ever arisen since my best summary treatment in The Christian Delusion. But there is now something new and...

Speaking at Edinboro, Pennsylvania!

The Anthropology Club at Edinboro University has invited me to speak on Bayes’ Theorem Is the Logic of Historical Argument: A Demonstration Comparing the Historicity of Jesus and John Frum. That’s right, I’m going to compare Bayesian arguments for two...

Three Things to Know about New Testament Manuscripts

Way back in 2012 Matthew Ferguson published Leveling a Mountain of Manuscripts with a Small Scoop of Context, and it long reminded me of how non-experts can be manipulated by Christian apologists, because laypeople don’t know basic things about paleography...