Keith Parsons's Blog, page 19

Time Out for Some Laughs

While defeating the forces of religious dogma is no laughing matter, a lot of fun can be had with religious traditions.  As the son of an orthodox rabbi, I grew up with some very funny incidents.  For those of you with a Jewish background, or those of you who just have a good sense of humor when it comes to skits about religious traditions, here is a very funny short video. http://screen.yahoo.com/rabbi-burger-30061110.html?pb_list=f98d7405-694c-44f4-99c7-e6d7f1032375




                             Eddie Tabash

Potential Hypocrisy in American Atheist Billboard Campaign?

It seems like virtually atheist site with a focus on the culture ways has been happy to report an increase in the percentage of Americans willing to vote for an atheist for President. Presumably virtually all atheists would like all Americans, atheist or not, to be willing to vote for an atheist for President.





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American Atheists Doesn't Speak for This American Atheist

CNN.com this morning reported on the latest billboard ads paid for by American Atheists. Here are the ads.







What was the purpose of the ads? Here is Dave Silverman, President of American Atheists.

"Presidential conventions are for ideas, not ideology –
platforms, not platitudes," Silverman said. "If a person believes stupid
things, we have every right to question his or her judgment, and that
directly impacts how the nonreligious voter votes.”

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Index: Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence

"Part 1: The Bayesian Interpretation of ECREE": a Bayesian interpretation and defense of ECREE

"Part 2: Is ECREE False? A Reply to William Lane Craig": Craig's objection to ECREE is based upon an misinterpretation of ECREE.

"Part 3: Is ECREE False? A Reply to Kurt Jaros": ECREE emphasizes the common sense notion that the more implausible
(i.e., antecedently improbable) we initially regard a claim prior to
considering the evidence, the greater the evidence we will require to
believe the claim.

"Part 4: NT Reliability, Extraordinary Claims, and the Base Rate Fallacy": arguments for miracles based solely on the general historical reliability of the New Testament commit the base rate fallacy.

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence (ECREE), Part 4: NT Reliability, Extraordinary Claims, and the Base Rate Fallacy

I want to re-visit the issue of "extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence" (ECREE), by considering a type or class of argument for miracles based upon the historical reliability of the New Testament (NT), hereafter "the argument." According to this argument, the general historical reliability of the NT provides sufficient evidence to make the historicity of NT miracles more probable than not. I shall argue, however, that this argument commits the base rate fallacy and therefore is inductively incorrect. While the base rate fallacy is not a new idea, its possible application to the argument is, so far as I can tell, a neglected topic in discussions about NT miracles.



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Rationally Speaking: The Community of Reason: A Self-Assessment and a Manifesto

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Jehovah is a Sexist - Part 4

In previous posts on this topic here at the Secular Outpost I have not attempted to build a case for the claim made in the title.  Instead, I have discussed the meaning and implications (i.e. Jesus is a false prophet and Christianity is a false religion) of the claim.  However, on my own blog I have written a few moderately long posts in defense of the claim that 'Jehovah is a sexist':








http://crossexamination.blogspot.com/2012/07/is-islam-evil-part-4.html




http://crossexamination.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-islam-evil-part-5.html




http://crossexamination.blogspot.com/2012/08/is-islam-evil-part-6.html





My plan was to work my way through the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament, traditionally attributed to Moses, discussing each significant passage that promotes a sexist belief or practice.  But in the above three posts I only made it to the second chapter of Genesis, so following my original plan would take me months and many, many posts.  




Instead of carefully working through the Pentateuch,  I will finish up my more detailed discussion of the opening chapters of Genesis, and then shift to a more compressed mode, where various key passages will be quoted, and I will make only brief comments on the sexist implications of each passage.

Fundamentalist Kidnapping Scheme

http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/08...

How about an underground railroad to remove innocent children from the homes of fundamentalist morons?

Are You a Current or Former BSA Member? If So, MSNBC Would Like to Hear From You

A journalist at MSNBC is interested in hearing from current or former members about the membership policies of the Boy Scouts of America. Since her reporting up to this point has focused on the BSA's exclusion of homosexuals, I think it would be valuable for her from current or former members about the BSA's discrimination against nontheists also.



Her contact info is at the end of the article here:



http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/08/02/13074659-eagle-scouts-return-badges-to-protest-policy-banning-gays?lite

Unreasonable Faith: Failing as a Parent

So much for "love the sinner but hate the sin," eh?



As the father of two young children myself, I cannot even imagine ever writing a letter like that to either of my children.



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