Dan Barker is one of the world's most famous atheists, but he hasn't always been so well known. In fact, for over seventeen years he toiled in relative anonymity as a Christian evangelist, receiving virtually no fame or fortune in compensation for his efforts. Now today Dan runs the Freedom From Religion Foundation (FFRF), one of the most zealous and successful special interest groups dedicated to opposing religion in the United States. He now has millions of dollars at his disposal -- the FFRF currently boasts of holding $11.5 million dollars in assets on their balance sheet. Obviously, atheism pays a lot better than honest evangelism. Dishonest evangelism is something else entirely -- those "prosperity pimps" really know how to rake in the dough, but that's another story. At any rate, shortly after declaring himself an atheist, Dan was invited as a guest on Oprah Winfrey's television show AM Chicago to speak about what led from preaching to atheism. On the show Dan met future wife (and co-founding partner of the FFRF) Annie Laurie Gaylor, and soon they started on their journey down the road leading to fame and fortune. I've been familiar with the FFRF and Mr. Barker for quite a while now -- once upon a time, he was even a "virtual" friend of mine on Facebook. But I got dumped once Dan figured out that I wasn't an atheist. Only a few years ago, I took and then self-graded Dan's open Bible test -- a clever ploy of his obviously designed to create doubt and confusion in the minds of Christians. The "test" wants the Christian to focus on the relatively minor … [Read more...]
Begging for money
Richard Carrier holds a PhD from Columbia University in ancient history. He is a prolific author -- his work includes books with provocative titles such as On the Historicity of Jesus, Proving History, Sense and Goodness without God, Not the Impossible Faith, Why I Am Not a Christian, and Hitler Homer Bible Christ. According to his website, Dr. Carrier is also a very busy and highly sought "world-renowned author and speaker." So naturally I became curious: why is this guy practically panhandling for money on his website that has not one or two, but six different ways you can "Help Support Dr. Carrier?" Seriously? Exactly how many mouths does this man have to feed? Admittedly, the first option we're offered seems reasonable enough -- Dr. Carrier wants you to buy one of his books. As a fellow author with my own books and novels promoted here on this very website, it would be rather hypocritical of me to criticize another author for trying to market his own work. So no problems with option #1. Visitors to his website are also offered a second option, which is buying a book recommended by Dr. Carrier through a link provided. He apparently earns a small percentage of the sale. That also sounds like a fairly decent way to bolster one's income -- something I admit that I wouldn't mind learning how to do myself. The third option we're offered is where things begin to get sketchy -- we are invited to send "Dr. Carrier" a donation via Paypal, ostensibly just because he's a swell guy and needs the money more than we do. But why? For what? Apparently, as we'll … [Read more...]
An experiment in wealth redistribution
Dan Price apparently had the best of intentions. He wanted his employees to stop worrying about petty problems like their mortgages and car payments, so Dan one day called a company meeting and announced that going forward, everyone would receive the same pay. Even his own salary would be slashed from seven figures all the way down to $70,000 -- the arbitrary "minimum" (and maximum) wage for every employee of Gravity Payments. Now everyone should be happy, right? What could possibly go wrong? Well...everything. First, Dan's two best employees quit. “He gave raises to people who have the least skills and are the least equipped to do the job, and the ones who were taking on the most didn’t get much of a bump,” said former Gravity financial manager Maisey McMaster. When she complained, Price called her selfish and naturally, she resigned. Web designer Grant Moran observed, "Now the people who were just clocking in and out were making the same as me,” and he also quit. Then Dan's big brother filed a lawsuit against him that may bankrupt the company. However, "We don't have the margin of error to pay those legal fees," Dan told the New York Times. Well, Shazam! Apparently it never occurred to Mr. Price that there might be some blowback to his plan to redistribute the wealth of the company's investors by ludicrously increasing their salary expenses. This story should become the classic case study that illustrates the value of capitalism and a free market system. It would be easier to feel sorry for Mr. Price -- he's renting out his house, no longer … [Read more...]
Jon Snow and Game of Thrones
The HBO series Game of Thrones is famous for brutal, gory sword fights mixed in with dire wolves, dragons, and quite a bit of kinky sex. Based on the A Song of Ice and Fire series of novels written by George R. R. Martin, the television adaptation has largely remained faithful to the books thus far. And for the most part, the television shows have been dazzling. Martin has published five novels. The television series has now run for five complete seasons. However, the novels and "seasons" of the show haven't matched up perfectly -- events occurred in the most recent novel that have not happened onscreen, and not everything in the books made it onscreen. In the final episode of season 5,, one of the few remaining heroes in the broad saga, Jon Snow, was murdered, which (according to my wife and son, who read them) also happened in the most recent novel. Readers of the books will remember that Jon was brought back from the dead in that same novel in which he was killed, because he's become an essential character in the overall story. Clearly, the word "ice" in the title for the series refers to Jon Snow, just as "fire" refers to the dragon queen Daenerys Targaryen. Yet in response to speculation coming from fans of the books, HBO president of programming Michael Lombardo has been quoted by Deadline Hollywood as saying, "Dead is dead as dead as dead. He be (SIC) dead. Yes. From everything I’ve seen, heard, read, Jon Snow is indeed dead." The problem is that the show really won't make any sense or have much of a future without Jon Snow. Therefore, I … [Read more...]
Why Atheism?
I've discovered that some of my non virtual friends in the real world believe I'm being sarcastic when I refer to my "atheist friends", but that isn't always true. I am being quite sincere when I say that there are people who call themselves atheists that I honestly consider to be my friends, even though we may have never met in person. My friend David is a humanist. He and I have respectfully disagreed about many topics of mutual interest, but if I ever visit New Zealand or he ever comes to the U.S. I fully expect to shake his hand, buy him a beer, and for us to finally have a face-to-face conversation after several years of pleasant long-distance correspondence. Philosophy professor and atheist author George H. Smith likewise has graciously accepted my friendship on Facebook. I'm also sure that he and I could have a friendly conversation over a beer, a single malt scotch, or even a glass of water, should we ever met in person. Although Professor Smith and I do not appear to agree very often when the topic of conversation is religion, we agree most enthusiastically about the philosophy of Libertarianism. My favorite book written by an atheist remains An Atheist Defends Religion by Bruce Sherman. It would be difficult to claim another book has supplanted it as my all-time favorite book written by an atheist, because so much of Sheiman's philosophy echoed my own. Basically, Sheiman made the same overall point about probability that was hammered home so well that I quoted him in my own book, Counterargument for God, after he wrote: The propensity for matter … [Read more...]
