Bringing it home. Debating Apologists on what counts.

The good news is that today’s apologists find their own core belief indefensible. This is leading to an attempt to draw the debate away from the many core logical absurdities found in the “gospel”, and to a focus on arguments absent from what has lead most of them to their faith. These are just a decoy. Any proposal of a spherical cube of gold can be immediately dismissed due to the impossibility of a spherical cube, evidence of gold not withstanding. In like manner, any proposal of the logically impossible Christian god can be dismissed based on the impossibility of that god, in spite of proffered evidence of “changed lives” or “fine tuning” or perceived weaknesses in evolutionary theory or the need for “objective purpose”. Whatever gods may exist, the logically impossible god of the Bible is disqualified as a candidate due to his logical incoherence. Let’s avoid the intentional distractors, and bring the argument home to the apologists, smack-dab in their incoherent backyard of redemption.

The Irrational Foundation of Faith

They were passing out bibles just outside Shibuya Station the other day, and I thought I’d stop by for a chat. The young American man heading the operation (we’ll call him Tom) was kind enough to engage me in dialog, and soon both of us were presenting our positions on the question of the existence of the biblical god.

I began by questioning the very notion of faith, suggesting that, unless the degree of belief matches the degree of the evidence, the belief is irrational and certainly not anything any creator of rational humans would consider virtuous.

Tom countered by suggesting there was more than sufficient evidence to

The Value Of Competition

Only for statistical dynamics geeks. An experiment I did on a spreadsheet. In the 2nd chart, the selection range for a random number shifted upward only 2%, and only when there was a superior neighbor on the left, yet note that even this modest increase in competitiveness significantly affected overall results.

Results Of The Faith Survey

I posted a survey on faith that several of my theist friends responded to. Below are the results. Thanks to all who participated. I intend to use a more informative survey software utility next time.

---

Faith Survey

The following is a link to a survey on Christian faith I put together. If you are a Christian and would like to participate, it would be much appreciated. I will post the unadulterated results once I have around 20 responses. Thanks. -phil

---

Faith Survey

---

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

Crunchy numbers

A Boeing 747-400 passenger jet can hold 416 passengers. This blog was viewed about 9,100 times in 2010. That’s about 22 full 747s.

In 2010, there were 43 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 233 posts. There were 104 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 20mb. That’s about 2 pictures per week.

The busiest day of the year was January 7th with 577 views. The most popular post that day was Ignore Money.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were facebook.com, youtube.com, thefaithheuristic.com, psnt.net, and en.wordpress.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for phil stilwell, chaos theory documentary, reason for deconversion just thinking, matt dillahunty ontological, and reasons for my deconversion.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

Ignore Money September 2009
6 comments

2

Reasons for my Deconversion December 2008
63 comments

3

The Atheist Experience Gets It Wrong August 2010
21 comments

4

Heartland Photo Exhibit January 2009
2 comments

5

Science And Faith September 2009
44 comments

Over-Projecting

This post is devoid of opinion, and simply relates 4 personal anecdotes. Feel free to respond with relevant opinions.

1. A few years ago, a friend suddenly accused me of hitting on his girlfriend. A few days after assuring him I had no romantic interest in his girlfriend, my girlfriend informs me he had hit on her.
2. Last summer I was in pretty good shape for a 49-year-old. A team of rugby players asked me about my “regimen”. I told them about my short, systematic workout every morning. They replied “riiiiiight”, then winked. Only later did I realize they thought I was taking steroids as many of them might have been.
3. A decade or so ago, my girlfriend asked me whether I ever thought about leaving her. I thought she simply needed reassurance, and I told her honestly that I had never considered leaving her. She left me a few weeks later.
4. When I was an innocent 19-year-old virgin, I was in love with a very lovely girl whose father pulled me aside, smirked, then informed me he knew what I was really after. A year later it was revealed that he had been molesting her.

---