both
March 17th, 2011
Ladies and gentlemen, put your hands together for the Evidential Problem of Evil.
[CLAP CLAP CLAP CLAP]
Latest book…
Random oldie…
October 17, 2012-
- NICE T-SHIRT (Thank you for not provoking my uncontrollable lust). Currently unavailable.
hehe 🙂 nice one
religion works like management: good comes from above, bad comes from the failings of the implementers (“agile” methodology, anyone?).
Author, you gotta do a special bit for this insipid John 3:16 Day.
Pfh, evil isn’t a problem, it’s easily handwaved away with a circular argument. God is good, therefore whatever god does (which is everything) is good, therefore anything that appears to be evil is really just us failing to understand it. Therefore this is no evidence against a good God.
A some what inferior humanity
Demands a perfect deity
Then oppressive human scums
Take away each others freeedoms
Which is somewhat of a travesty.
Well it’s not quite my scene
and you’re not really mean
But the way your book
makes me more than scared…
So how can I laugh with you brother….
Oh I saw your scam right there….
Why does god allow evil is the wrong question. The right question–whether you are a believer or not–is what are you doing about evil.
Right now? Criticising lying, evil people who use the god created in their image as an excuse for what they do.
No God, no evil.
It’s just a Teflon God. None of the bad shit sticks to Him.
Thanks for the song and the link, Author.
And now I’ve had a chance to sample (not read) the link. Nick Trakakis has way too much time on his hands. He needs to, in the immortal words of that contemporary philosopher, William Shatner, get a life.
Further thoughts on the Shatner reference. It’s been pointed out to me that the arguments Nick Trakakis presents are essentially the same as nerd talk at a Treckie convention. You know, is Data really the most human character in “Next Generation”? Are there farmers in the Klingon race? If they are all warriors, where do they get their food? Christian dogma is a made up story. Christian nerds discuss aspects of it exactly like Treckie nerds. I think the only difference is that no Treckie that I know of has burned another Treckie at the stake for disagreeing with him.
Damn. Trekie, not Treckie. I’m not one. How would I know?
Actually, we prefer to be called Trekkers. Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry was a non-believer. He refused to put a chaplain on the Enterprise. It was his hope that humanity would abandon superstition and create a better world. A world of equals. Religion will always treat some better than others, and he wanted to show us a reason to hope for a better future.
A stated preference for the term “trekker” is the mark of a really serious trekkie. 🙂
Hmmnnnn. Interesting about Roddenberry. I’ve always felt that The Reverend Theo is the weakest character in Schlock Mercenary. Totally smarmy and irrelevant waste of ink, plus representing repressive anti-sex morality that should have died out centuries earlier. But then Howard Taylor is a devout Mormon, besides being the only guy on the planet who causes me to give that religion any respect at all.
So is this show going to be an extremely short one or a nauseatingly long one? I can’t decide.
If you want to know more about Roddenberry’s atheism, there is a great post on daylightatheism.org. Look for “Contributions of freethinkers: Gene Roddenberry. I’d post a link but I never learned how to do that.
@passerby
No God, no evil
Know God, know evil??
Author, I see a Jesus and Mo songbook in the future.
You may want to start tagging the singing comics with a singing tag.
I understand at last! Poor Richard says, “Theology is evil!”
Off topic but can anybody give us an update on Judge Luigi Tosti who was discharged for refusing to serve under a crucifix. I’m reading that he was sentenced to seven months in jail for this offense. http://www.iheu.org/node/1902
Is he in jail now? Anybody up for picketing an Italian consulate?
@Darwin Harmless
I hadn’t been aware of that and find it pretty horrific, but did you note the ddate on the article? Happened 5 years ago. May not be terribly timely to protest now! I’m sure there are more contemporary problems relate to that (awful) law!
@Blakey I think you may be confusing the date of the original notice with the date of the update announcing the jail sentence. I’m getting this news from Marc Alan Di Martino’s blog and it sounds very contemporary to me.
http://marcalandimartino.wordpress.com/2011/03/17/judeo-christian-roots-theres-no-such-thing/
I stand corrected. I still can’t quite wrap my head around the timeline here, though.
@ Blakey Me too. I’ve asked mark for an update and clarification. He’s our man in Italy, it seems.
Found this link on the case (in Italian):
http://www.repubblica.it/politica/2011/03/14/news/sentenza_croce-13601212/index.html
The article (dated March 14, 2011) says that the High Court upheld Tosti’s suspension, he has been struck off the role of the Judiciary for refusing to hold court hearings. According to this piece, he had been offered a court room with no crucifix but refused to go ahead because there were in other halls.
This seems to have been going on since 2006. His prison sentence (also accoring to La Repubblica, which is or used to be a left-leaning liberal paper) was not upheld, and Tosti is still quoted as saying that he will go to Strasbourg.
“according to”, and here’s the earlier article referred to:
http://www.repubblica.it/cronaca/2011/02/08/news/cassazione_crocefisso_tosti_non_pu_fare_il_giudice-12214510/
As far as I know Judge Tosti was removed but has done no actual jail time to date. They found a way of sparing him that indignity, apparently (the milk of human kindness, to be sure.)
If an infinitely powerful god wanted to win converts, he, she, or it could easily stop an earthquake or a subsequent tsunami, so therefore there either is no infinitely powerful god, or at least not one that wants converts. My self, I don’t have much use for converts either, but then I haven’t achieved god status. Yet….
@jerry w Keep working on it, Jerry. We’re all awaiting your coming.
@Nassar Ben Houdja — Nobody’s perfect… and I guess that includes god.
Only, I thought that was part of the very definition of god? Isn’t god supposed to be perfect? In that case, what is wrong with demanding that attribute be true before accepting god’s existence? And if god is perfect, then one would expect he would have come up with a better plan. Hell, the A-Team had better plans.
@Jerry w — I seem to recall a documentary that showed Kali stopping a tsunami… or, wait, that might have been an episode of Sanctuary on the Syfy channel. Still, it seemed a lot more real than anything I’ve seen from either Jesus or Mo.