Arithmetic of Souls
June 26, 2022 by 2 Comments
There are two kinds of minds. One kind of mind can be reached with new evidence, and is capable of rational persuasion — even on subjects of ardent belief. The other kind of mind will not be persuaded, regardless of evidence or reason. It simply parrots, “this is my belief,” as a talisman against fear, learning and growth.
I cannot help the second kind of mind, but there are people of good will in this world who are reachable. For those folks, I offer this excerpt from Sam Harris. Some years ago, his writings presented me with evidence, of which I had been unaware, on the subject of abortion. I became persuaded that my views were, at best, primitive and uninformed. Perhaps this information can help others.
For context, this excerpt is taken from Letter to a Christian Nation, in which he was discussing anti-abortion arguments against stem cell research:
[Read more…]Twitter Rage Antidote, by Sagan
June 18, 2021 by 11 Comments
I recently perused a relative’s Twitter feed, surveying the particular brand of rage that seems to fuel his worldview. And more recently still, I saw an interview with a professor who does research on the addictive nature of outrage, and how the anger products being offered online come to create a junkie-itch in their audiences. Rage becomes a need and a want. There are so many for whom this engine of corrosion is a financial boon. People have their anger because it is profitable to a particular industry. I wish there was more that bystanders could do to help their family and friends. Because the outrage and malice out there points ever more strongly toward growing division, decay, violence, and conflagration.
As a possible antidote, I offer the poignant observations by Carl Sagan as relayed in the video below, penned long before there was such a thing as Twitter. The context for his words is described on Wikipedia:
Pale Blue Dot is a photograph of planet Earth taken on February 14, 1990, by the Voyager 1 space probe from a record distance of about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles)…
In the photograph, Earth’s apparent size is less than a pixel; the planet appears as a tiny dot against the vastness of space, among bands of sunlight reflected by the camera…
Voyager 1, which had completed its primary mission and was leaving the Solar System, was commanded by NASA to turn its camera around and take one last photograph of Earth across a great expanse of space, at the request of astronomer and author Carl Sagan.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot
Original Image:
Justifiable Belief
May 9, 2021 by 10 Comments
It is wrong always, everywhere, and for anyone, to believe anything upon insufficient evidence.
~ William Kingdon Clifford, 1877
Taking Easter Seriously, an Infographic
March 28, 2021 by 8 Comments
It is that time of year again, and so I am reposting the popular “Taking Easter Seriously” infographic.
Many Christians read the Easter stories year upon year, as I did for several decades, yet we never compare them in detail. As a consequence, we often do not realize that they are not telling the same story. There are indeed contradictions in the texts, but it is very important to move beyond “mere contradiction” — the issues with the gospels are far more extensive than that. Comparison against the historical record and assessing the gospels for trends of legend development are probably far more crucial. As with many non-believers, I left Christianity specifically because of the Bible, and because I considered and examined its content very seriously indeed.
Perhaps it is time for more Christians to take the Bible and our Easter stories seriously.
[Click Image for Full Size Version (PNG), Use Ctrl+ and Ctrl- to adjust zoom.] or [PDF Version ] or [Greek Version]
I am indebted to scholars like Bart Ehrman, Marcus Borg, Richard Carrier, and many others, without whom I would no doubt continue in my own past failures to take Easter seriously. And as always, I look to improve the accuracy of my work wherever possible. Please reply with any factual errors found, and I will correct appropriately. Thanks.
Also See: Infographic for New Testament Timeline
(C) Copyright 2015, JerichoBrisance.com
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
[In other words, feel free to pass along, distribute, etc., just don’t repackage it and sell it. Thanks!]
~
References: [Read more…]
Is Science Hard on God?
February 24, 2021 by Leave a Comment
I had an long interchange with a recent visitor about climate change, and I have excerpted one part of that dialogue here (edited, enhanced, and slightly expanded for clarity). Science and math nerds: I’m taking liberties with the use of the word “proof” for accessibility reasons.
The Objection
The following basic objection was raised:
Science has spent years trying to prove the nonexistence of god. If god doesn’t exist, there is no need to try to prove he doesn’t…
My Response
There really isn’t a science journal out there dedicated to the field of disproving god. Nor does science in principle disprove the existence of anything. Science has the opposite bias. The positive claimant bears the burden of proof. If you claim the existence of a deity, the proof must come from you. Just to make sure this isn’t missed, and to underscore how baked in the burdens of proof are, consider this scenario…
You have lost your car keys. You think about where they could be. You conjure several possible explanations.
- They fell into the couch cushions.
- They are in your jacket pocket, hanging in the closet.
- They fell out in the parking lot and are on the ground by your car.
- Your neighbor took them from your counter top when he visited last.
- Aliens stole them.
When Team Loyalty Skews Moral Logic
January 31, 2021 by 3 Comments
It is interesting to ask Americans whether they think the Boston Tea Party was a morally acceptable act. This was a polarizing question for the contemporaries of the time — Samuel Adams and Benjamin Franklin had starkly opposing views. For those who may not recall the details, the Wikipedia entry makes good reading. It was an act of high-dollar, coordinated, mob-driven vandalism, conducted by citizens dressed up like minorities/indigenous peoples. But because they were Americans (i.e., the home team), and because of their politics, many of my countrymen give this bit of anarchy a pass, and indeed hail the Tea Partiers as heroes to be emulated.
[Read more…]Jesus & Insurrection, and Why Some Christians Struggle with Right & Wrong
January 8, 2021 by 5 Comments
Martyr, or Insurrectionist?
I know Christian conservatives right now who cannot, at least for the moment, seem to find the right side of the Capitol riot that occurred on January 6th. One relative has posted a video lionizing the woman who was shot and killed, painting her as a martyr — an unarmed protestor, slain without cause. It is not hard to find information about the victim, or to discover what she did or why she was doing it. Her Twitter feed made her motives clear:
Less than a day before she joined the Trump loyalist protest, Babbitt, an avowed and public Trump supporter as well as a subscriber to a number of alt-right conspiracy theories, had vowed the insurrectionist movement could never be halted. “Nothing will stop us … they can try and try and try but the storm is here and it is descending upon DC in less than 24 hours … dark to light!” she wrote on Twitter.
~ The Guardian
The circumstances of her death have also been reported upon (same article):
Babbitt, 35, was reportedly shot as she and other rioters tried to break through a barricaded door in the building where Capitol police officers were armed on the other side.
A video of the incident is here.
No doubt we will find more details emerging over time, but at present, this woman does not appear to be a good candidate for sainthood. She was killed while taking part in a violent insurrection, which is the most serious of criminal acts.
[Read more…]Working Definition of Faith-Based Claims, for Religion, Politics, and Life
September 27, 2020 by Leave a Comment
Working Definition
Faith-based claims are more frequent and pervasive than most people think. Most people probably connect this phrase with religion, but I believe this is too limiting. Faith-based thinking is a method of thought, an algorithm for truth claims, and humans apply this algorithm well beyond the fence-line of religion. As a prelude to subsequent posts on a few topics, I’m going to propose a working definition for faith-based claims. Working definitions should be simple, and I propose the following two characteristics:
- Faith-based claims are grounded in belief without proof and/or sufficient evidence.
- Faith-based claims are not open to revision based on contrary evidence.
To qualify, a truth claim or assertion must contain both aspects. Hypotheses in science satisfy Condition 1, because they are guesses ahead of conclusive evidence; but they are tentative and discarded if they fail to survive experimental testing; thus they do not satisfy Condition 2. Much of of our working knowledge in life functions in a similar way. We may or may not know much about the evidence behind a lot of what we are taught or learn. There is nothing wrong with that. But if those views are held dogmatically for any reason, and we are closed to revision, they function as faith-based claims about the world. [Read more…]
Hitch-ing the Supreme Court
September 25, 2020 by 8 Comments
The situation with the Supreme Court in the United States has caused no end of commentary, hand wringing, and gloating along different points of the political spectrum. It all reminded me of a Hitchens quote that boiled things down to the ugly little stone sitting at the bottom of the pot. But first, a bit of context.
[Read more…]Shahadah, Revised & Updated for Accuracy
September 21, 2020 by 2 Comments
There is no god but Physics,
and Mathematics is her messenger.
Plot Twist on Ehrman vs Wallace Debate
May 15, 2020 by 6 Comments
This article in the Atlantic tells a fascinating story of antiquities theft, cover-up, and fraud. The basic topic was attention grabbing. But I was positively arrested by the opening scene, because I remember watching it quite distinctly:
[Read more…]Guidance for the Perplexed Regarding the Exodus
December 23, 2016 by 2 Comments
For those who may feel lost about the Exodus question, I’ve briefly collected a few helpful links and references here. I’ll start with a bottom-line summary, then provide articles, YouTube lectures, and books below.
Bottom-Line Summary
Those who simply want an evangelical crutch to give assurance of Biblical accuracy will find the gate wide and road broad. I leave such readers to brace their insecurities as they wish. But for those who want to understand the state of knowledge and agreement within the overall community of evidence-based research, I offer the concise summary of the moderate scholar William Dever, given in a 2013 lecture:
To make a long story short, today not a single mainstream biblical scholar or archaeologist any longer upholds Biblical Archaeology’s “Conquest Model.” Not one. Various theories of indigenous origins [for the people of Israel] prevail, in which case there is neither room nor need for a Biblical Exodus — at least of that [Biblical] proportion.
~ William Dever, UC San Diego Exodus Conference, June 1, 2013 (YouTube)
Yale Lecture Series on Hebrew Bible
March 27, 2016 by 93 Comments
My friend Archaeopteryx was good enough to share the YouTube lecture series by Yale Professor Christine Hayes, “Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible)”. After watching the first video in the series, I believe this will make a good resource for serious seekers who want to understand the historical events, cultural forces and literary composition of the Old Testament. I read many volumes written by various historians during my own investigations, and I suspect this video series would shorten the learning arc for others.
I’m linking the first video here, which I have cued to mid-lecture as Prof. Hayes discusses 5 common myths about the Hebrew Bible that most Americans do not understand. If you have another 15 minutes, feel free to back it up for full context. I’ll also be adding a link in the sidebar under Rapid Resources, though these lectures are admittedly a bit long to be considered truly rapid. Cheers!
Good Friday Off!
March 25, 2016 by 40 Comments
Sometimes my kids get the day off school in observance of a national leader’s birth. But today they get the day off because long long ago, in a third world country far far away, somebody was tortured to death in front of his friends and family. Austin ISD, among others, nods to the cultural inertia and takes the day off. And all the children of Texas, irrespective of their beliefs, are led to associate this observance with the adjective “good.”
It would probably be a sick thing to observe MLK’s assassination every year and refer to it as good. [Read more…]
Hug the Shrug
February 6, 2016 by 38 Comments
Last week my oldest son, Jack, had a high school project that involved making text/graphic description of himself and his life. Among the many points of identity and culture in the project, there was a section in which he was supposed to talk about his religion. My wife told me that Jack had simply put himself down as an atheist. That’s not surprising, as he has been pretty open about being non-religious among his friends. In this case, however, he included two graphical illustrations to go along. One was an internet meme about believing in “one god fewer,” and the other was my infamous Easter Infographic. Jack didn’t mention it to me, of course, because Jack strides a mellow sort of cadence through life that doesn’t usually dip a toe in dramatic waters.
[Read more…]Infographic – Family Tree of Christianity (Reblog)
April 11, 2015 by
Evan T. at On the Way to Ithaca has gone to an incredible amount of work to develop an infographic showing the family tree of Christianity. Click the image below to get web and print versions of the graphic at his site. The comprehensive scope of this graphic has made some points of info verification challenging for Evan, to say the least, and he hopes that the community can potentially provide feedback, error-finds, or corrections that will lead to even better accuracy in the details. Kudos for the excellent work.
A Recent Resurrection to Consider this Easter: Reblog of “The Curious Case of Alireza M.”
April 5, 2015 by 1 Comment
This Easter, advocates of the traditional Jesus tale might consider a more recent example of “resurrection” that foiled a professional execution in the most startling way. The following was a blog post I originally wrote 18 months ago, though the ending has been appended. We now know how the story really ends.
October 18, 2013
An astonishing news story was posted by CNN this morning, with the following highlights:
Convicted by an Iranian court of possessing a kilogram of crystal meth, the 37-year-old man was sentenced to death by hanging at Bojnurd Prison in northeastern Iran, according to Jam-E-Jam, an official newspaper that offered this wince-inducing account:
On the morning of October 9, Alireza M. was taken from his cell to the gallows, where the judge who had issued the order read his sentence aloud and official papers were signed.
Then, a rope was placed around his neck and he was hanged for 12 minutes, after which his body was lowered and a doctor declared he was dead. The doctor, the judge and the prison head then signed the death certificate, and the body of Alireza M. was taken to a morgue for delivery the following day to his relatives.
But the next day, a worker at the morgue noticed that plastic encasing one of the bodies had steam in front of the mouth.
Consider the tally:
- Executed by suffocation…
- By professionals that carry out such executions for a living…
- Death witnessed by multiple people…
- Dead body lowered and inspected…
- Carried away, wrapped, and laid on a flat surface
I can think of one notable case where this sort of thing happened before. [Read more…]
Easter Infographic Now in PDF Format
April 3, 2015 by
Per visitor request, I have created a PDF version of the infographic. It is available as a link above picture on the infographic page.
Pontius, Our Pilot – Part 1
April 3, 2015 by
Resurrecting the Pontius Pilate series for Easter.
To those who have, of late, recited to me our old evangelical adage – that the scriptures of the Bible are, despite their manifold authors, truthful and without contradiction – I have countered with my standing response: where would you like to begin?
Today we shall turn to one of our preeminent but unacknowledged allies, one who stands as exemplar of the sorrowing fact that the biblical writers were rather making it up as they went along – our old dear villain, Pontius Pilate. Just like Lazarus and Paul, Pontius can help us to pilot up-current, back through the Channel of No Return, to break the siren spell of rose-tinted apologetics.
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Jericho Brisance 