Humans Hard-Wired To Be Generous

[Revision 1. Placed another link to more news like this after the article]
An update on research into morality as an evolutionary adaptation. I'm just waiting for the old "God wrote it on our hearts..." rejoinder....

The problem with that claim is the following.

Atheists Don't Believe in God Because They Think They Are So Smart They Don't Need Him

This is to a addresses a Frequently Asked Question/Frequently Offered Claim that Atheists don't believe in God because they think they are so smart they don't need him.

Should The Atheist Have to Prove There Is No God?

This is to addresses a Frequently Asked Question/Frequently Offered Claim that since the Atheist claims there is no God, they should prove it.

Does The Atheist Want God To Do Tricks?

This is Frequently Asked Question/Frequently Offered Claim. It seems to stem from the Atheist requirement for less subjective evidence of God.

Christians Are Not Stupid or Irrational

This is to address a Frequently Asked Question/Frequenty Offered Claim that Atheists think that Christians are stupid and/or irrational. This is easily shown to be false, at least for the members of DC. There are plenty of demonstrably intelligent Christians, some of them frequent this blog. But how does this perception persist?

Suspension of Disbelief

Changingminds.org is a site devoted to the study of persuasion. A post I discovered today discusses the suspension of disbelief to enjoy a movie or book and how people enjoy this behavior. I think this can be applied to religion to help explain a facet of it.

A Means to Manage Uncertainty

Before I get started, I want say thank you for the kind sentiment, the blessings and prayers.

Why I am an Agnostic: The Bible as a Domain of Knowledge

"In my walk with God, I thought I found him but I was wrong. If he were there I would have found him, unless he were hiding."

The Bible as Truth?

If a truth is real, shouldn't it be able to be verified? Once a truth is verified shouldn't it become a fact? Once a fact is verified as the truth, shouldn't it stand up to scrutiny and always be found to be true?
If we can't verify a fact, should it be a truth? If we can't verify a truth can it really be considered a truth?
(I am updating this article with new links and references as they come to mind.)

The Believers Reasoning Scheme

A fallacy is an argument (aka pattern of reasoning, reasoning scheme, argument scheme) that appears valid but upon analysis is shown to be invalid or misapplied. The phrase "Anything is possible" is an example of one of those reasoning schemes that seems valid but is not. Anything is not possible. This article will discuss why an appeal to possibility should be considered for refutation on its face. It will then go on to discuss the effects this fallacy has in a dialogue. Finally it will discuss the process of sound reasoning, and introduce the phenomenon I call the Believers Reasoning Scheme.

Reasonable Doubt About the Resurrection

I will not be so bold as to say that I can prove the resurrection didn't happen but I will argue that it has not been proven that it happened and there is no reason to believe it happened based on the evidence. There are three other plausible hypotheses two of which are introduced in the Bible itself for what might have happened to the body of Jesus. It might have been stolen, or since Jesus was only on the cross for about six hours, he might not have been dead at all. The Koran tells us that he wasn't. Another plausible explanation is that the story of the resurrection might have been Folklore.

A Double Standard for Morality?

This started out as a response to a commenter but I thought it was important enough to use as a post for an article. I noticed in the recent Loftus-Wood ‘cross-fire’ debate on the infidelguy show, that Wood seemed to be using the argument that God has a different standard for morality than us. I seem to see this argument a lot. In fact, a recent commenter seemed to be using it against John, and then when I countered it, a different commenter defended it. I wonder how can it be justified that the Abrahamic God should not be expected to adhere to the same rules that we are expected to adhere to with respect to morality.

Miracle Watch March 23 - 26, 2007

I have a google news alert for miracles. I've been doing this for years, now I want to share it with you. This is an attempt to find instances of miracles. If Christians are right, and God provides without asking and they have seen at least one prayer answered, then with information at our fingertips, in this day and age, I could conceivably find up to 2 Billion instances of miracles in my lifetime.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are built on a faulty premise

This may be old news to some, but maybe not to others, so here goes!
A valid conclusion is tied to the truth or plausibility of its supporting premises. The truth of the three Abrahamic religions is tied to the presumption that scripture is true.
Premise: The Bible tells us about God.
Premise: The Bible comes from Divine Inspiration, God.
Premise: The Bible must be true.
Conclusion: God Exists.
The faulty premise that I am talking about is the proposition that the various religious scriptures came from Divine Inspiration. To say that "God exists and all we know about him comes from the Bible and the Bible comes from God, therefore it is true" is circular reasoning, AKA begging the question. The argument begs us to accept the presumption that God Exists in order for the propositions to be true.

Happy St. Patricks Day! Leprechauns Exist!

This is a short discussion about argument fundamentals using an example of a debate about the existence of Leprechauns inspired by the Loftus-Wood debate and St. Patricks day. Its also relevant to blog discussions.

The Promise of Prayer

Prayer should be the intersection between the natural and the supernatural. This is a critical discussion comparing and contrasting the promises of prayer in the bible, our expectations and our observations. I use the first person, using myself, or my former Christian persona as an example.

Mugger punches 101-year-old woman on video

• Man breaks woman's cheekbone as he punches her twice, takes purse
• Attack captured by a surveillance camera in apartment building lobby
• Police think same man mugged 85-year-old woman for $32

"God saved my life," she said.

That's one way to look at it.

video:
text:

My Deconversion Story

I deliberately tried to keep this to under five minutes reading time.

Rules for Critical Discussion

Rules for Critical Discussion
by Frans Van Eemeren & Rob Grootendorst,
taken from "Fundamentals of Critical Argumentation" by Douglas Walton,
Cambridge University Press, 2006.

Common Religious Reasoning Schemes

[Draft Copy] Reasoning Schemes are only fallacious when they are unwarranted.
For example an appeal to popularity is not always fallacious, even though the superficial treatment of it in the average university logic book will lead you to believe it is.
Below are some examples
Click "Read more >>" for access.

Notes

Categories
Click "Read more >>" for access.

Topic Heirarchy

Cognitive Science,
  |_Comparative Psychology, Animal Cognition
  |_Epistemology
  |_Decision Making
    |_
       |_

  |_Dualism
    |_Free Will
    |_Morality
    |_Soul
    |_Spirit
    |_Consciousness



    |_

Feedback Please!

Leave me some feedback in the comment section. Thanks in advance!

Suggestions, Requests, Questions? Click Here.

Click on the comments link to add them. I get comments sent to me in real time via email.

Why All the News Posts?

I track and post news articles to sample and display in real time the effect that religious and faith based decision making has on the world.

Why Link to ScienceDaily.com?

I link to ScienceDaily.com because it demonstrates in real time the superiority of the scientific method in acquiring Quality Information and Knowledge.  Science isn't about debunking religions, its about improving our quality of life using the resources at hand. If religions can't keep up, then they need a better strategy.

Scope Of The Blog

The blog treats sacred text as data in a database. It cross-checks sacred text against principles and data from the following fields of study listed below.
+ Anthropology
   - Cultural
   - Linguistics
+ Cognitive Science
   - Bias
   - Biological Bases Of Behavior
+ Communication
   - Relationships
* Complexity Theory
* Decision Theory
* Epistemology
* Game Theory
* Information and Data Quality
* Informal Logic
* Information Theory
+ Philosophy
   - Epistemology
   - of Free Will
   - of Mind
* Probability
* Persuasion
* Statistics

Why Link To Wikipedia?

I link to Wikipedia liberally not because it's authoritative, but because it's a good place to start research and its mostly accurate. I occasionally edit Wikipedia.

Some Articles Look Familiar?

This blog has been constructed from material that I've contributed to other blogs over the years.

Why the Pseudonym?

I use a pseudonym, which I change from time to time, to try to avoid the stalker problem that seems to result from reasoned criticism of Religion. My new pseudonym better represents my personality; Knowledgeable and light hearted. The last pseudonym was a hybrid modeled after Howard Beale from the movie "Network" and someones profile that popped up in google one day so it didn't reflect the "real me". "Can you see the real me?" (Quadrophenia by The Who)

IDQ Dimension Category of Accessibility Labels

IDQ Dimension Category of Representational Labels

IDQ Dimension Category of Contextual Labels

IDQ Dimension Category of Intrinsic Labels

Article Categories and Label Relationships

Data Collector

To enlarge, click on the little box next to the word "slide"

test of spreadsheet

Open Spreadsheet

test of presentation

small presentation below