John W. Loftus's Blog

Well it depends. When evangelical apologists/theologians claim liberals, agnostics, and atheists should pay attention to their latest research, they really mean we should pay attention to their latest obfuscations, special pleadings, and theological gerrymandering.

Among other reasons, it’s a very defective list

Not too long ago I saw a funny comment on social media, in the wake of recent pressures to have the Ten Commandments displayed in school classrooms: “The adultery rate among teenage boys and girls has fallen dramatically since these holy commandments have been put back in schools.” Never mind, I suppose, that the violation of church/state separation has increased. But the devout champions of this ancient law code seem not to notice that it is crippled with defects. It is so hard to take it seriously.

I'm happy to share this interview of me on YouTube. Happy Thanksgiving! .

This latest book by Paul Draper should be very good! This should lead to a triple thumping to take place against Christian theism! It's coming from books by Sterba, Draper, and Loftus! The 2nd edition of mine comes out in about two weeks!

Do the devout read it much anyway—and take it seriously? 

When we hear the words, Sermon on the Mount, we might be tempted to think it’s the pinnacle of moral teaching. Well, that’s been the church hype for centuries, but this doesn’t quite match reality. And does anybody ask the daring question: “Are these really the words of Jesus?” Since the gospel of Mark, by widespread scholarly consensus, was the first written, it’s a major puzzle indeed that the author was unaware of these supposed words of Jesus. The major thrust of Mark’s gospel is the expected arrival—very soon! —of the kingdom of god on earth. At Jesus’ trial, described in Mark 14, he promises those attending that they would see him coming on the clouds of heaven (v. 62). The author was dead wrong about this, which was his obsession—hence his gospel is lacking in moral teachings.

An argumentative holy hero promotes the Jesus-cult 

Many religions insist that their spiritual truths derive from divine inspiration. Christianity especially. The Bible is revered, indeed worshipped, because of its supposed origin. In many churches, a splendid copy of the Bible is on the altar, to remind the devout that cherishing, venerating it is the right thing to do.

 

Hence it is difficult for the laity to grasp that, for the gospels especially, none of the words and deeds of Jesus can be verified. The gospel authors didn’t identify their sources, never reveal from whence their supposed information about Jesus came. Since they were written decades after the death of Jesus—Mark being the first, some forty years later—careful, critical readers should be suspicious, indeed skeptical. Whoever reads the gospel of Mark several times can see that the author based the story on theology-inflamed imagination: he was not a historian. The lack of cited sources is a dead giveaway. The author of this gospel was focused on defending and promoting the Jesus-cult.

My peer-reviewed paper, "An Atheist Morality Without God", has been published at Religions. Atheists now have an objective morality without God! 😉 Yay! Click Here To Enjoy! Please please share!

John Loftus and Russell Blackford make the case for atheist morality

Many years ago I knew a devout Catholic woman who would tolerate no questioning of her faith, because—full stop—she was eager to see her mother again in heaven. I recently was told that she visits psychics to communicate with her mom. Of course, the hope of gaining eternal life has fueled many religions, Christianity especially. In the case of this woman, catechism had shaped her mind so thoroughly, so rigidly, that “thinking outside the Catholic box” was never an option for her later in life. I have no doubt whatever that she is a good person, but fanatically holding on to ancient superstitions is not a great benefit for humanity.

On Sunday, November 1, 1755, in Lisbon, Portugal, a great earthquake took place while Christians were worshipping their good all-powerful God. Since it was All Saints Day more Christians were in church than on other Sundays. Known as the Great Lisbon Earthquake it shattered and destroyed church buildings, which fell down on, and killed worshippers in their favorite pews. Along with subsequent fires and a tsunami generated by the earthquake, it killed an estimated 60,000 people in Lisbon alone. If there was ever a message God might want to send his own people, this was not it! Who could have imagined that such a horrific event would still be told (by me) 270 years later, in 2025? It has surely turned believers away from their faith over the years.

God had plenty of ways to avoid such an utterly devastating tragedy. If he’s infinitely powerful and knowledgeable he didn’t have to create the earth with a moving crust and upper mantle, which is divided into several major tectonic plates that move relative to each other. This movement, known as plate tectonics, occurs at rates of about 10 to 40 millimeters per year (0.4 to 1.6 inches/year). As the plates move they produce earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Surely a God who reveals truth could warn people not to build cities on top of the faults in the earth’s crust, and tell us exactly where they are located. It could be written in a science book located as the final one in the New Testament itself. Instead, the earth’s fault lines attract us to build our cities on or near them, since that’s where we built our castles, and cities, near water, and other precious minerals.

If nothing else a miracle working God could have stopped the Lisbon earthquake from happening. Had he done so no one would know that he did, because it didn’t happen! God could have remained hidden for some hidden reason, and saved thousands and thousands of lives. Then, with a perpetual miracle God could make sure this earthquake would never take place, so long as the city of Lisbon existed. Oh, come on now, seriously, at the very least an infinitely powerful God could have kept it from happening on All Saints Day at the time of worship!

Out from the ashes came one of the most important counter-apologetics books to be published, Candide. Witten by Voltaire in 1759, it was provoked by the Seven Years’ War in 1756-1763, which was a conflict involving major European countries, along with the Lisbon earthquake in 1755. In it Voltaire made fun of the theodicy of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, who had argued “this is the best of all possible worlds.” This satirical fictitious novel depicted the character Candide as a young man who had been indoctrinated in the doctrine of Leibnizian optimism. He gradually becomes disillusioned with this sanguine theodicy after coming to grips one terrible event after another. It shows him being expelled from his home, leaving him to fend for himself in a harsh world with war, poverty, and general cruelty.

In our day evangelical apologist Norman Geisler defended Leibniz by saying, “this may not be the best of all possible worlds but it is the best way to get us to the best of all possible worlds.” But such a response leaves open the objection that just one instance of needless suffering can refute such a theodicy, and there are millions of them!

This is a final draft of my Preface, Blurbs, Contents, and Introduction to the 2nd edition of "God and Horrendous Suffering" at Academia.edu. CLICK HERE! Enjoy.