Outsider Test for Faith Examined
Recently I began thinking about John Loftus’ Outsider Test for Faith (OTF), and I have serious doubts that it’s the ‘tool’ he believes it is. As a reminder (or introduction), the OTF asks believers to, “test [their] beliefs as if [they] were an outsider to the faith [they] are evaluating”… That “if your faith stands up under muster, then you can have your faith. If not, abandon it…” In other words, the OTF asks religious believers to test their beliefs as objectively as possible, with the presumption of skepticism.1 My initial thoughts are as follows:
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(1) If as a Christian (or a Jew, or Muslim, etc.) I take the OTF and find my beliefs lacking, and as a result of taking the OTF reject these beliefs, then to what position will I ‘convert’? Supposing my aim was to verify the claims of the Christian religion, then I will … (Read more)
Book Review: The Christian Delusion ed. John W. Loftus
Pages: 422
Publisher: Prometheus Books
Year: 2010
Editor: John W. Loftus
This is my review of John Loftus’ The Christian Delusion This portion of the review will serve as a general and very brief overview of the book, and then in subsequent posts I will more critically examine a few of the claims of the book, section by section (rather than chapter by chapter). I was originally going to do only the critical examination, but that didn’t strike me as the best ‘book review’ — so I’ll do both.
The Christian Delusion (hereafter TCD) is a collection of essays, edited by John W. Loftus (ex-Evangelical and primary contributor to the website Debunking Christianity), which attempt to show that Christianity is a delusion. When I first heard of TCD my immediate thought was, ‘here we go again: another book making massive claims it won’t be able to fulfill’. That this turned … (Read more)
Do I Believe in Divine Protection?
John Loftus asks:
Really, do you? Then why is it that God’s divine protection is indistinguishable from chance? And why do you act as if there is none? (http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.com/2010/08/christian-do-you-really-believe-in.html)
Yep, I do.
But here’s a good question: what is chance? One of the definitions provided by Merriam-Webster is,“the assumed impersonal purposeless determiner of unaccountable happenings”. Their other definition (which I like much better) is: “something that happens unpredictably without discernible human intention or observable cause”. As an example; if I throw a piece of dice into the air, we might ask, ‘what are the chances of it landing on six’? (1÷6th) Aside from performing some basic calculations on how many sides to a die there are, we really couldn’t say (I might throw a die as many times as needed, and still not role a six). The ‘chance’ involves how the dice is thrown, … (Read more)
Evangelicals reading to learn?!
Edit* Thom Stark has written a post clarifying his position on John Loftus’ post, as well as his own motives, which you can find at his site http://thomstark.net/?p=1580. Stark clarifies himself as follows:
With that said, THAT IS NOT TRUE OF ALL EVANGELICALS. The term “evangelical” encompasses a wide variety of Christians, and many evangelicals are not guilty of the accusations Loftus has brought against them. I think he knows this too, but he likes the polemics, and that’s fine with me. I’m not writing to condemn what he’s said, but just to clarify what I say.
I have no interest in converting people away from their brand of evangelicalism. I oppose fundamentalism, and I make criticisms of the doctrine of biblical inerrancy, but I do not oppose faith. I wrote my book to try to help Christians who are struggling with the Bible and with fundamentalism to figure out … (Read more)
Really, how honest?
John Loftus, over at his blog Debunking Christianity, has written a post entitled, “People Believe and Defend That Which They Prefer to be True”. In it he says, “The ONLY responses I have gotten from believers are these two: 1) The Ad Hominem Tu Quoque Fallacy which does nothing to address the point… and 2) “No this does not apply to me when I assess the truth claims of Christianity because I am the exception to the rule.”
As I pointed out to him in the comments, I had previously commented on his blog and encouraged him: “John, if your concern is for truth — rather than recognition — and believe yourself to speak on the side of truth, then you haven’t ‘wasted’ your time”. I know a strange thing to do — why would I encourage someone I disagree with? In any case, others began commenting on the wording … (Read more)
“The Christian Delusion”
First it was Dawkins’ The God Delusion, now it is John F. Loftus’ (general editor; you know, the guy who’s always complaining that William Lane Craig won’t debate him) The Christian Delusion. Another book written with the express interest of destroying Christian theism in 500 pages or less. Reading the blurbs for the book, you’d think more people would be impressed. Not the guys at Triablogue, who have written an almost 200 page critique of The Christian Delusion, calling it — perhaps unoriginally — The Infidel Delusion.… (Read more)
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