I realize that atheists aren't that much different than me...as documented in my very first book, Divine Evolution, I described how I very nearly became an atheist myself. In a chapter titled "Personal Experience", I talked about the time when I questioned whether the biblical Jesus was any more real than Santa Claus or the Easter Bunny. Therefore, I can understand how many people become atheists -- especially after struggling with serious issues such as the problem of suffering and death. As my friend Frank Boccia wrote in his essay on rationalism in regard to his experiences during the Vietnam War, sometimes good people were killed and bad people survived. Hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis also claim hundreds or even thousands of innocent lives per year. Bad things happen to everybody, sooner or later. The harder truth to accept is that everyone's days are numbered. We might see the sun rise in the morning, but we also might not. Tomorrow is not guaranteed. We're all going to die, eventually. And I'm obviously not just saying this in an effort to cheer you up... Probably the biggest difference between the average atheist and me (aside from belief in God, of course) is that I will freely admit that I believe supernatural miracles have actually occurred, even though it logically seems to be a point beyond dispute. For example, the creation of this universe from nothing -- meaning the Big Bang anomaly -- was a supernatural miracle. So was the animation of lifeless matter. Yet some people infatuated with science think there are "natural" … [Read more...]
Lying for Jesus
If the ability to annoy atheists actually produced income, my personal wealth might rival that of Warren Buffett and Bill Gates. I don't even have to try hard. Merely expressing my opinion does the trick just about every time. Annoying atheists seems to be a talent that comes quite naturally, about as difficult for me as breathing. Of course, it isn't my intention to anger people that I've more than likely never met face-to-face, but often it can't be helped. My only alternative would be to remain silent about what I believe to be truth and keep my opinions to myself. However, we independent authors are expected to promote our own books, aren't we? How else might readers discover my work? A nonfiction book with a title such as Counterargument for God shouldn't leave much to the reader's imagination about where I stand on the subject of theology any more than Christopher Hitchen's book God is Not Great, or The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins. Now I don't consider myself a Christian apologist (even though I freely admit that I am a Christian) because I rarely if ever use theology to argue against atheism -- I prefer using clear logic, scientific evidence, an understanding of statistics and probability, and good, old-fashioned common sense to illogical arguments and Bible thumping. The (shorter) second section of my book defends my Christian beliefs (and the Bible, to some degree) against the most popular attacks used by prominent atheists like Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation and David Silverman of American Atheists. When I "attack" atheism … [Read more...]
Atheism and the near death experience
Those familiar with my work know that I'm fascinated by certain aspects of the near death experience. However, all NDEs are not created equal. Some reveal more valuable information that other NDEs. And some accounts are fraudulent, of course. No matter what information a specific account may contain, my atheist friends refuse to believe them -- they simply can't afford to believe any of them could be true, because the only thing that could possibly continue to exist after the death of these material bodies is an immortal soul. Instead, the atheist will vehemently protest that every NDE is nothing more than a pleasant hallucination produced by the human brain in order to ease the transition from life into death. According to them, the NDE is evolution's contribution to death to make the experience slightly less unpleasant. But this creates a problem for NDE claims where the person describes a totally miserable experience in hell -- what are we to make of those particular "anecdotes" of dreadful hallucinations? If NDEs are nothing but hallucinations, why would some be pleasant and others unpleasant? Perhaps it is possible not every NDE account is a hallucination, or a lie. In fact, there is a category of NDE phenomena that offers clear and confirmable evidence that the physical brain and spiritual mind can literally separate, called corroborated veridical NDE accounts. This phenomena suggests that the mind can actually learn accurate information apart from the physical brain -- information that can later be independently investigated and either … [Read more...]
Rationalism (written by Frank Boccia)
Editorial note: the content below is unedited. Only format changes have been made to the content to improve readability. This post does not necessarily reflect my own personal views, but those of the credited author. Normally I write everything posted here, but on rare occasions, I've seen fit to make an exception and publish the (properly credited) work of another writer. This happens to be one of those rare occasions...a very pleasant surprise, written and submitted for your consideration by a friend. My friend (and fellow author) Frank Boccia is a very interesting man. His book The Crouching Beast was firsthand account of the Battle in the AShau Valley for Dong Ap Bia -- more popularly known as "Hamburger Hill". Frank's work received rave reviews from the most important critics one can possibly encounter -- people who "have been there" and lived through the experience the writer has attempted to describe. His critics unanimously agreed -- Frank is a great writer with the uncanny ability of being able to put the reader in his shoes. And now without further ado, these are Frank's thoughts on rationalism. I am a rationalist. I was born that way; it's the way my brain is wired. Being a rationalist does not imply that one necessarily has one belief system rather than another. It is simply how we see and evaluate the world. We see cause and effect, in linear paths. But that is all: My father was a thorough rationalist; a man whose occupation involved the formulation of the theories of statistical economics. He was also a devout Roman Catholic to the end … [Read more...]
Dan Barker’s miracle
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...]
