Imagine no Religion...

This news breaks my heart. We are living in the 21st Century. However, in Somalia on October 28 a woman who was raped was found guilty of "adultery" by Islamic courts, buried to her neck, and STONED TO DEATH. All of this occurring in a soccer stadium in front of a crowd of thousands...

Why do I, an atheist, care about religion?

Because of stories like this. Stories of people who might otherwise be good, be so manipulated by "infallible dogma" that they can commit heinous evil.

And before the Christians can claim a moral high ground, I would recommend they check out the following verses in their bibles:
First: Mat 5:18-20 to establish the fact that the Law stands... every "jot and tittle" straight from Christ's supposed mouth.

Let's take a look at the Law the "perfect, all knowing, all good, all powerful God" commanded:
Deuteronomy-
17:2-7 <--Kill everyone who has religious beliefs that are different from your own.
24:10-23 <--Whoever curses or blasphemes must be stoned to death.
A man curses and blasphemes while disputing with another man. Moses asks God what to do about it. God says that the whole community must stone him to death. "And the children of Israel did as the Lord and Moses commanded."

Who else should be killed, Lord?
Homosexuals should be stoned: Leviticus 20:13
Children that Curse their parents: Leviticus 20:9 Exodus 21:17
If women being raped don't scream loud enough: Deuteronomy 22:23-24
A woman if she isn't a virgin on her wedding night: Deuteronomy 22:13-22

Don't pretend for a second that Christianity is any better... just don't.

However, I can pre-empt a popular response. If you turn your bibles to John 7:53-8:12 you can read the story of Jesus and the Woman taken in adultery. it's everyone's favorite verse, "Let the one who is without sin among you be the first to cast a stone at her." Powerful stuff. Then, he actually lets the girl go and doesn't condemn her (possibly because she's actually innocent, because he's never let a guilty person off the hook without a good chastising in any of his other accounts). It raises some questions... does Jesus really think the Law of God given by Moses was no longer in force and should not be obeyed? Did he think her sin should not be punished?

Doesn't matter, actually because here's the kicker: it was not originally in the Gospel of John. In fact, it was added later by scribes. The story is not even found in early manuscripts of John; such as the two 3rd century manuscripts of John's gospel (P66 and P75 for "papyrus 66 and 75") as well as the 4th century Codex Vaticanus and Codex Sinaiticus where we get more or less the best and most complete early version of John's gospel. No, the story mysteriously pops up circa 400 AD in Codex Bezae. The vast majority of textual scholars even admit that this story was made up.

For the laypeople, here's a wikilink:
Pericope of the Adulterer

The Good Person Test

I took the “Good Person” test the other day. Have you ever heard of it? It’s an evangelical tool created by Ray Comfort’s “Way of the Master” series of apologetics/evangelizing organization. Ray Comfort, some of you might know, is the ignoramus who suggested the banana is evidence of a divine creator (enjoy this entertaining source video with included rebuttal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLqQttJinjo).

Anyway, this guy has created the “Good Person” test. It’s a relatively clever series of questions that get the interviewee to admit to a slew of sins, or crimes against God, and force the person into the uncomfortable realization that, according to his own admission, he should probably be going to hell.
Here’s an example of Comfort using this method on a poor, and unwitting kid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umn3iCn90IY

Typing in “good person test” in YouTube yields a number of examples with some, more charismatic, evangelists pointing out that a person who steals is a “thief” and not a “stealer. The Steelers are a football team.” Quid pro quo, you feisty theists!

Needless to say I was fortunate enough to run by a booth of campus crusaders running the “Good Person” test and giving away free bibles. So, I took it. Under one condition: I would take the test exactly the way they wanted if they were able to answer a few of my questions afterwards.
By the end of the test, I came to the conclusion that most people do: I am a liar, adulterer, murderer (this is debatable depending on how angry you have to be at someone for it to qualify as hatred), thief, blasphemer, and disobedient child. They didn’t bother asking, but I also don’t keep the Sabbath holy, probably qualify as an idolater, and certainly haven’t kept the first (most important) commandment.
At this point he was put off with how candid and unapologetic I was. “Doesn’t it bother you that you are going to Hell by your own admission? How come you are smiling?”
“The night is young…” I replied (In fairness, I was a bit too smug).

But there is good news, he told me. If I were set before a judge, the good judge would have to condemn me. However Jesus pays my “million dollar fine” (as he put it) and all I have to do is repent and accept his gift of salvation (though, if you read the fine print there are plenty of catches to this arrangement).

Forgetting about our earlier agreement he started to pursue another rhetorical line (about how I might go about receiving this salvation) when I interrupted him. “Wait, I think it’s my turn to ask a few questions.” He nodded, “Sure.”

First, I decided to counter his test question premises. I asked him if, at any point during his childhood if he wet his bed. “Sure,” he said, “all kids do it at some point.” “Okay,” I replied, “what does that make you?” He laughed at this point, “A bed wetter…?” “I guess it does. How about picking your nose. Have you ever done that?” “I don’t do it now.” “Well, have you ever picked your nose, Craig? (his name was Craig, by the way)” “Yeah, I guess I have when I was a kid.” “Okay, what does that make you?” I asked. “It makes me a nose picker?” We were both enjoying the absurd nature of my questions, but I suspected that he was picking up my point when he asked, “What’s important about that, anyway?”

“Because, I don’t think you are a bed wetter or nose picker any more than I’m a thief, blasphemer, or liar. Your argument mistakes permanent or compulsive character attributes with the temporary lapses in moral judgment that we all make. In order for me to honestly say that I’m a liar and that is a defining attribute of my person, I would have to assume some pathology or compulsiveness to the behavior. I don’t naturally assume people are liars unless they frequently lie. There is a big difference between these two things.”

He milled over my point. “Well, okay. But Sin (capital “S”) is broken forever until it’s re-paid by Jesus. (sic, I’m sure he meant to phrase this with more theological eloquence, but you get the point. I’m trying not to alter his words)”

“I’m not sure that it is a morally good thing to receive vicarious fulfillment of punishment. Take your example of the Judge. Let’s say a vicious murderer killed your parents and he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Now, let’s say some self-sacrificing Jesus figure walks into the courtroom and says, ‘Judge, let me take the punishment’ and the judge agrees. Would you say that is just for the Judge to let the murderer go free?”

I could tell he was deflecting his argument when he replied with, “But Jesus forgives you no matter what you did.”

“That’s fine if you believe that, but it doesn’t sound like justice to me. You would probably stand up and demand that the punishment fit the criminal. What’s even more absurd is that you get the same punishment, Hell, for a relatively benign set of crimes such as ogling girls and telling the occasional lie, or stealing a book from Barnes and Nobles.”

“No one gets into heaven who doesn’t want to go to heaven. Sinners don’t want to go to heaven because they’d rather sin.”

“Really?” I asked, honestly incredulous. Had he really thought about this statement before saying it? “I doubt that anyone given a vision of their judgment at the hands of God would choose eternal torment over eternal happiness.”

He was excited to reply to this one, “That’s why we have to repent while we are on Earth and have faith, so we can get into heaven.”

“So if we don’t repent before we die, we’ve sealed our fate?”

“Nothing that man can do can repay the debt of sin.”

“I can think of one example: say you steal one hundred dollars from someone. One way you could repay the debt is by giving the one hundred dollars back with a sincere apology. Besides, you are also presupposing that your God is the judge that we’re facing after we die. Do you keep to the five pillars of Islam? Do you worry about your Dharma? What if you end up in front of a judge you didn’t expect to with a whole list of crimes you didn’t know you committed?”

“I can see this isn’t going anywhere,” he interjected. Right when it started getting good, damn. “Just do me a favor, Jordan. Pray that God shows Himself to you.”

I shook his hand, “Craig, do me a favor and think about it.”

I think I passed.

Addendum:
There are plenty of other logical problems with the good person test. For example, the whole example of the judge falls apart when you accept the Christian premise that we can’t repay our debt. If you are found guilty by our courts, you might face a fine, a misdemeanor and maybe even some jail time or probation. But when you finish out your punishment, you have (according to the philosophy of our legal system) paid off your debt to society. However, the Christian God doesn’t let you do this. “The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ the Lord” Romans 6:23. If you’ve sinned, your only hope is Jesus… and breaking God’s law (of which the Ten Commandments is a part of) is sinning. Doesn’t this strike you as unjust? Why can’t it be that I forgive the man who lies against me, or better yet… forget the occasional and trivial lie and focus on more important moral malfeasance.
This leads to my last point. If you examine the Ten Commandments, only 6, 7, 8, and 9 are actually moral. And while Jesus was a remarkable moral figure who radically improved, for the most part, the moral standards of his progenitors, I have to disagree with the argument that looking at a person with hate is “murder” and a women with lust is “adultery”. This is complete hyperbole and a perfect God should be able to make the distinction that we ALL can make.

Test it yourself…
Do you make the distinction?
Let’s say you have to CHOOSE one of the two options.
1. Joe from across the street hates you so much that he’s posted a sign in his yard to that effect, reading “__insert name___ is an asshole. You should hat him too.” To add insult to advertisement, he openly calls you a “fool” every time he sees you in person.
2. Joe kills you with his 12-gague.
Keep in mind that Jesus doesn’t make the distinction between these two scenarios (according to the WOTM evangelists).

Try this other scenario:
1. Your wife or husband eyes your best friend and you catch him/her saying to a mutual friend that he/she would love to jump your friend’s bones if he/she wasn’t married.
2. Your wife or husband has sex with your best friend.
Obviously for both scenarios we wish that there was a third option, “None of the above”. For the fortunate, life works out that neither scenario plays out. But the point stands. I think what Jesus was trying to say, and pardon my non-literal interpretation was: Don’t be a dick and try to tame your horndog tendencies at least for the sake of your significant other.


Think about it.

So, I'm critiquing this book...

The book is called I Don't Have Enough Faith to be an Atheist by Frank Turek and Norman Geisler

I picked up this book only a day before Dr. Turek visited MSU’s campus and spoke to an, unfortunately, small audience on a rainy Thursday night. The book is organized so that everyone can quickly identify the sequence of arguments that the authors make so that the reader eventually sets the book down with at least a healthy respect for the logic behind theism. The book’s arguments are sequential, so each argument rests on the accuracy of the previous one. That is, they first establish whether or not Truth exists. Concluding that an absolute truth does exist the authors then argue that we can know whether it is true that the theistic god exists using four lines of argument:
The Cosmological argument.
The Anthropic Principle (weak and strong anthropic principle)
Intelligent Design
and
The C.S. Lewis "Moral Argument"

After drawing these arguments to their conclusions, the authors submit that this is sufficient evidence for one of the theistic worldviews. The authors proceed to argue for the existence of Miracles, the Historicity of the Bible, and the conformation of Jesus’ miracles to endorse the Christian brand of theism as the truth.

I accept, for the most part, that the earlier conclusions drawn by the authors such as “Truth about reality is knowable” and the “opposite of true is false”. If any fans of Berkely read this criticism and want to take Turek and Geisler on this point, they are welcome. As a scientist, I believe that there is truth in at least the proximal understanding of the material universe and that this reality is knowable.

As a naturalist, I believe that science is the best method for knowing truth and the only method to know anything objectively. This assertion stands to their oft-repeated law of non-contradiction: “If science is the only way to know anything objectively, can we know that objectively?” We can discriminate objective knowledge from subjective knowledge based upon whether or not the conclusions of the method are “discovered” as opposed to “created”. The scientific method is created to protect our knowledge from subjective bias. Through measurable experimental testing, falsifying bad data, and transparency in methodology; science meets this objective standard. While the laws and the language describing them are subjective (the same way “agua” and “water” are words we’ve created to describe something that objectively exists) we have effectively discovered a number of natural laws: fundamental forces, evolution, etc. If there is any doubt to the veracity of these objective discoveries, the method permits anyone the opportunity to falsify and refine what we do know.

For example what we “know” about gravity has changed hands, from Aristotle’s model, to Newton, to Einstein, and now a more unified Quantum Gravity. However, even though our understanding has changed, the physical phenomena that it explained has not.

This review will address the foundational claims of the argument for a theistic god, namely, that the universe and life within it is evidence of an intelligent designer (God) and that we can know about this designer if it exists.

The first argument is the Cosmological, or Kalam, argument. Which is as follows:
1. Everything that begins to exist must have a cause.
2. The universe began to exist.
3. Therefore, the universe had a cause.
This is a reiteration of the argument made by the popular apologist William Lane Craig. The book addresses this but makes a more specific argument to support premise 2 above. Specifically:
1. An infinite number of days has no end.
2. But today is the end day of history (history being a collection of all days).
3. Therefore, there were not an infinite number of nays before today (i.e., time had a beginning).
(p. 90)
How do they justify the conclusion from these premises? “How here’s how this proves time had a beginning: since time certainly ends (as the present), the timeline cannot be infinite because something that is infinite has no end. Moreover you can’t add anything to something that is infinite, but tomorrow we will add another day to our timeline. So our timeline is undeniably finite.” (p. 91)

This is a very poorly designed argument. First, it is a bad idea to define time based upon the length of a day. Einstein has shown us that our perception of time depends completely on how it relates to the finite speed of light. This is why time appears to elapse at different rates relative to different observers in motion relative to one another. This means that for different observers, time appears to proceed differently. This results in a philosophically relevant phenomena known as time dilation. Both velocity and gravity have an effect in altering the way time is measured. In 1971, researchers Hafele and Keating placed two cesium atomic clocks (some of the most accurate clocks we have, since we define the “second” as the amount of time it takes 9,192,631,770 cycles of radiation between two hyperfine energy levels of a ground state Cesium 133 atom) around the world in opposite directions. The clocks on the planes had a net loss of time compared to the clock on the ground where the planes took off. Gravitational time dilation, however, accounted for a net “gain” (because they were further away from the gravity well of earth, and therefore more subject to the gravitaitonal distortion of space time than the clock on the ground). However, taking this all into account, time on earth speeds up when you are flying closer to the speed of light in space.

Theoretically, this yields what is known as the “twin paradox”. Say that we have a pair of twins and we send one up into space on a round trip to the nearest star besides the sun which is 4.45 light years away at a speed that is 86.6% the speed of light (so really freakin’ fast). For the purposes of the thought experiment, the ship will be at full speed from departure until landing. The round trip would take 10.28 light years in Earth’s frame of reference (the ship would return to find everyone 10.28 years older). However, everyone on the ship and the flow of time will be slowed by a factor equal to √(1-v^2/c^2 ) , or the reciprocal of the Lorenz factor, which in this case is 0.5. So, the travelers will only age 5.14 years. This is also how the people on the spaceship will perceive the journey (that is, they will think the star is only 2.23 light years away due to length contraction, consistent with general relativity). So if both twins were 10 years old when the experiment was performed, by the time the spaceship lands one will be 20.28 years old and the space faring one will be 15.14 years old.

So what does this have to do with the Kalam argument? Well, let’s re-examine the specific form that the argument takes in Turek’s book:
1. An infinite number of days has no end.
2. But today is the end day of history (history being a collection of all days).
3. Therefore, there were not an infinite number of days before today (i.e., time had a beginning).

The problem that the argument faces when it is put to the scientific litmus test is this:
What is the actual end day of history? It depends on your frame of reference. For the second twin, the “end day” (in this case, the day that the twin sets foot on earth after his journey) of history came twice as quickly than the twin remaining on earth. This refutes the second premise because “today” is a description that is completely relative based upon your frame of reference!

Therefore, the justification: “How here’s how this proves time had a beginning: since time certainly ends (as the present), the timeline cannot be infinite because something that is infinite has no end. Moreover you can’t add anything to something that is infinite, but tomorrow we will add another day to our timeline. So our timeline is undeniably finite (p. 91)” fails, because we cannot know where the theoretical timeline “ends”.
This also has important physical implications. For if space-time did originate in a singularity (which is the position that the book takes, as opposed to the more contemporary theoretical models of the Augustinian epoch including Hartle-Hawking state, string theory, M-Theory, and Ekpyrotic scenarios), the question “What happened before the big bang?” is completely nonsensical because, as far as we know, there was no time before the Big Bang.

Even if there was something before the big bang, our frame of reference (being limited to our universe) prevents us from any knowledge of what that would be.
This also means that Craig’s version of the argument fails in its second premise “the universe began to exist” because it implies time where, as far as we know, there was none.

Later, the authors write, “The problem for the atheist is that while it is logically possible that the universe is eternal, it does not seem to be actually possible. (p. 92)”. This should be re-written as “the problem of the theist is that while it is logically possible that the universe has a beginning, it does not seem to be actually possible.”

Already this book has failed the scientific standard. I'll post more in between medical school duties when I critique the other lines of argument they make...