Fear of death: the wishful oomph of the god hypothesis
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by ToddAllenGates 2 years ago
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Using the Socratic Method with Christian Proselytizers
Videos 1 through 7 of "Using the Socratic Method w/ Christian Proselytizers."
By Todd Allen Gates, author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer."
An overview of whole series:
1 of 7: a brief overview of videos 2 through 7.
2 of 7: a description of the Socratic Method.
3 of 7: the ground premises that the skeptic needs to establish with the Christian in order to focus on the issue at hand, which is "Are there convincing reasons for me to believe that the Judeo-Christian Bible is the Word of God?"
4 of 7: the skeptic and the Christian read through scriptures and stories from non-Christian religions. Both agree that the following three characteristics are strong clues that a religion was not created by an Infallible Wisdom, but just made up by quite fallible humans: (1) when a religion a cluelessness about the layout of the universe (its stories describe stars as tiny, the moon as a light, the earth as flat, the sun as orbiting our planet, etc.) (2) it contains laws that are barbaric and reflect senseless prejudices (3) history reveals that the religion was pieced together from ideas and stories from pre-existing religions.
5 of 7: the skeptic and the Christian read through the Judeo-Christian Bible, and examine it by the same critical light just held up to non-Christian religions.
5.1 through 5.5: Further details on the origins of the Judeo-Christian bible--how many of its ideas & stories can be found in religions that pre-date the bible by centuries.
5.1 explains why many of the baffling details within the tale of Noah & the Ark make sense once the story is read as a monotheistic version (in which God is said to be Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Benevolent) of a story that was originally polytheistic (in which the gods were none of the above).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9fxvJy9swk&feature=channel_p
5.2 discusses the pre-Christian religious stories from the Greeks, Romans, and Zoroastrians about unions between gods & mortals, miraculous virgin births, and offspring that were both human and god. It also covers the "Satanic pre-plagiarization" explanations from early Church Fathers Justin Martyr and Tertullian on how the pagans knew about these phenomena centuries before the time of Jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ymGDRZfOQ&feature=channel_p
5.3: Richard Dawkins refers to the Christian premises behind the belief that Jesus/God sacrificed Himself to appease Himself as "barking mad." This video looks at each of those premises--Divine Anger, the need for sacrifice, the use of a scapegoat--from the perspective of comparative mythology. A subtitle for this video would be "Richard Dawkins meets Joseph Campbell."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDJ-azGoBt8&feature=channel
5.4: the evolution of the afterlife. Stage One - the 37 out of 39 Old Testament books that either don't mention, or even deny, an afterlife. Stage Two - the 2 Old Testament books that say there IS an afterlife. Stage Three - The New Testament, in which the afterlife, complete with Judgment Day & Heaven & Hell, becomes one of Christianity's main selling points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6_XJjJiVAY&feature=channel_p
5.5: A discussion of the evidence that Christianity's "Satan" comes more from Zoroastrianism than Judaism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hYgNfKBg4H0&feature=channel_p
6 of 7: a review of some of the common counterarguments from Christian apologists
7 of 7: why I don't find the Christian apologist's answers very convincing.
* * * * * * * * * *
This series is an overview of the approach I outline in my book, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic).
For free PDF sample chapters from "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer," see http://www.booklocker.com. (This link will bring you right to the page where you can find the PDF file--just scroll down to #5: http://search.booklocker.com/search-bl.cgi?q=dialogue+with+a
For customer reviews, see http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1601450893/ref=dp_top_c
My four YouTube channels:
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer"
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")
- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano - where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists."
25 videos
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5.3: God sacrifices self to appease self--"barking mad?"
Richard Dawkins refers to the Christian premises behind the belief that Jesus/God sacrificed Himself to appease Himself as "barking mad." This video series looks at each of those Christian premises--Divine Anger, the need for sacrifice, the use of a scapegoat--from the perspective of comparative mythology.
The subtitle: "Richard Dawkins meets Joseph Campbell."
3 videos
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5.4: The evolution of the Bible's depiction of the afterlife
STAGE ONE: the 37 out of 39 Old Testament books that either don't mention, or even deny, an afterlife.
STAGE TWO: the 2 Old Testament books that say there IS an afterlife.
STAGE THREE: the New Testament, in which the afterlife, complete with Judgment Day & Heaven & Hell, becomes one of Christianity's main selling points.
By Todd Allen Gates, author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer."
6 videos
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5.5: The incoherence of Christianity's 'Satan'
A discussion of the evidence that the character called "Satan / the devil" in the New Testament is not the same character as "Satan" in the Old Testament, and why I believe that the New Testament's authors' ideas about Satan were influenced more by surrounding pagan religions than by Judaism.
This video is a monologue adaptation from my book, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic).
LINK TO CUSTOMER REVIEWS ON AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1601450893/ref=dp_top_c
For free PDF sample chapters from "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer": http://assets.booklocker.com/pdfs/2739s.pdf (currently the 2008 version: update to the 2010 version still pending)
This video is numbered "5.5" because it's an extension of part 5 of 7 of my video series called "Using the Socratic Method with Christian Proselytizers. "Here's an overview of whole series:
1 of 7: a brief overview of videos 2 through 7.
2 of 7: a description of the Socratic Method.
3 of 7: the ground premises that the skeptic needs to establish with the Christian in order to focus on the issue at hand, which is "Are there convincing reasons for me to believe that the Judeo-Christian Bible is the Word of God?"
4 of 7: the skeptic and the Christian read through scriptures and stories from non-Christian religions. Both agree that the following three characteristics are strong clues that a religion was not created by an Infallible Wisdom, but just made up by quite fallible humans: (1) when a religion a cluelessness about the layout of the universe (its stories describe stars as tiny, the moon as a light, the earth as flat, the sun as orbiting our planet, etc.) (2) it contains laws that are barbaric and reflect senseless prejudices (3) history reveals that the religion was pieced together from ideas and stories from pre-existing religions
5 of 7: the skeptic and the Christian read through the Judeo-Christian Bible, and examine it by the same critical light just held up to non-Christian religions.
5.1 through 5.5: Further details on the origins of the Judeo-Christian bible--how many of its ideas & stories can be found in religions that pre-date the bible by centuries.
5.1 explains why many of the baffling details within the tale of Noah & the Ark make sense once the story is read as a monotheistic version (in which God is said to be Omniscient, Omnipotent, and Benevolent) of a story that was originally polytheistic (in which the gods were none of the above).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9fxvJy9swk&feature=channel_p
5.2 discusses the pre-Christian religious stories from the Greeks, Romans, and Zoroastrians about unions between gods & mortals, miraculous virgin births, and offspring that were both human and god. It also covers the "Satanic pre-plagiarization" explanations from early Church Fathers Justin Martyr and Tertullian on how the pagans knew about these phenomena centuries before the time of Jesus.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-ymGDRZfOQ&feature=channel_p
5.3: Richard Dawkins refers to the Christian premises behind the belief that Jesus/God sacrificed Himself to appease Himself as "barking mad." This video looks at each of those premises--Divine Anger, the need for sacrifice, the use of a scapegoat--from the perspective of comparative mythology. The subtitle for this video is "Richard Dawkins meets Joseph Campbell."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDJ-azGoBt8&feature=channel
5.4: the evolution of the afterlife. Stage One - the 37 out of 39 Old Testament books that either don't mention, or even deny, an afterlife. Stage Two - the 2 Old Testament books that say there IS an afterlife. Stage Three - The New Testament, in which the afterlife, complete with Judgment Day & Heaven & Hell, becomes one of Christianity's main selling points.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6_XJjJiVAY&feature=channel_p
5.5: A discussion of the evidence that Christianity's "Satan" comes more from pagan religions than Judaism.
6 of 7: a review of some of the common counterarguments from Christian apologists
7 of 7: why I find the Christian apologist's answers unconvincing.
2 videos
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Why the bible is not the greatest story ever told
Aspects of great literature that are missing in the Bible:
(1) No compelling reason for the main protagonist (God) to experience conflict
(2) God has no worthy antagonist
(3) Satan is a two-dimensional bad guy
(4) The Bible's characters do not operate at maximum capacity: they fail to solve their problems as cleverly and efficiently as they can.
One of the ironies of the bible is that when read from the religious perspective, much of it is nonsensical; but when read from the secular perspective (which frees us from having to interpret every single story through a lens in which God is supposed to have infinite knowledge and infinite power and infinite goodness), we *can* find great literature.
This video series looks at the two stories within the Book of Job as an example.
Links to mentioned videos:
Eddie Murphy's 1983 "Delirious" clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96s1M8IyrUQ
KalSolarUK's "Jesus Kills a Fig Tree—Go fig-ure! - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zytsOLAaiyo&feature=channel
KalSolarUK's "Cross with Jesus" (in my downloaded excerpt, the audio lags behind the visual: check out Kal's channel for the high-quality original!) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fp52CUgoUs
"The Book of Job: an awkward combination of two separate tales" -
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJQS-6BEhSI
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
My four YouTube channels:
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer"
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")
- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano - where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists."
For customer reviews of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer": http://www.amazon.com/Dialogue-Christian-Proselytizer-Allen-
For customer reviews of "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames": http://www.amazon.com/Hunting-Gathering-Videogames-Allen-Gat
4 videos
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New Age spirituality: 'all religions are One!'
A discussion of the New Age spirituality philosophy that "all religions are One"--that they may differ from one another on the surface, but underneath, the worlds variety of faiths are like different colors of one big Holy Rainbow: they all come from the same ray of sacred sunlight before being broken into their respective colors.
OUTLINE:
- quotes & excerpts from New Age literature
- my reasons for being a bit hesitant to criticize this philosophy
- why I'm going to criticize it anyway,
- the five different approaches that New Age theologians and philosophers use to defend the "all religions are One" approach, and why I believe that none of these approaches can hold up to scrutiny.
This is a video adaptation from material in my book, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer."
6 videos
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Job: an awkward combination of two separate tales?
This video will present my reasons for why I believe the Book of Job was composed by a minimum of two separate authors: authors who were telling two very different stories, and who had very different ideas about the nature of God.
AUTHOR 1's STORY (found in Chapter 1, most of Chapter 2, and the book's last few sentences): a short tale about Satan's bet with God that pain & suffering will make even the most righteous man abandon his faith and curse God. The experiment is carried out on a man named Job, and when Job doesn't curse God even after he's afflicted with great tragedies, the tale concludes with God rewarding Job by doubling his previous fortune.
AUTHOR 1's THEISTIC PERSPECTIVE: God cares for us and rewards us for good behavior--and even suffering can ultimately enrich our lives when we bear it with strength, patience, and trust in God.
AUTHOR 2's STORY (the last 40 chapters, excluding the last few "happily-ever-after" sentences): Job's complaints about life's injustices and God's indifference. The story concludes with God's overpowering speech from the whirlwind and Job's "no comment" reply.
AUTHOR 2's DEIST PERSPECTIVE: There may be a god, but this god apparently doesn't care about justice or suffering, and as a rule doesn't speak to us. And if He were to speak to us, it would only be to tell us that God is incomprehensible to humans, so we shouldn't even bother trying.
By Todd Allen Gates, author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer."
5 videos
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Suffering - the Supernatural Answers vs. the Naturalistic
A video adaptation of Endnote 32 from "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic).
For free PDF sample chapters from "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer," see http://www.booklocker.com.
For customer reviews, see amazon.com.
The text of this video can be found on the blog site "Clashing Culture."
10 videos
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Problem of suffering: stalemating with Epydemic2020
My response to Epydemic2020's video Atheistic Questions, Theistic Answers, Agnostic Conclusions.
RE: Why nature's indifference to suffering (natural disasters, wildlife suffering, etc.) clashes with Christianity's notion of a Benign Omnipotent Creator, and the theist's resulting cognitive dissonance.
Sources cited in this series:
Epydemic2020's video The Problem of Evil, Is It a problem? Logical and Evidential Formulations Addressed - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ySUoboxsmI&feature=channel_p
His nine arguments:
(1) God's purpose is not to provide us with easy, convenient lives. Humanity's purpose in life is not happiness, but a knowledge of God and relationship with God (an extension of #3, the "suffering benefits us" argument).
(2) God gives us Free Will, and humans cause evil and suffering.
(3) Suffering benefits us (as expanded upon in arguments 1, 4, and 6).
(4) Suffering helps us appreciate pleasure: here on earth, and especially in heaven (an extension of #3, the "suffering benefits us" argument)
(5) We rebel against God and embrace sin (an extension of #2, the Free Will argument)
(6) Temporary suffering can help us later on (an extension of #3, the "suffering benefits us" argument)
(7) Death is actually a blessing: a transition from this life to the next
(8) Moral evils sometimes cause natural evils (an extension of #2, the Free Will argument)
(9) Humans are too finite to comprehend an Infinite God.
My video response called Theists have "answers" to the problem of suffering, but the answers are unconvincing - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d76SG4HC0TY&feature=response_
Epydemic2020's response "Atheistic Questions, Theistic Answers, Agnostic Conclusions" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yypd0kdMGbg&feature=response_
My video series "The Problem of Suffering: the 7 Supernatural Answers vs. the 1 Naturalistic" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4w2pn66VVWk&feature=PlayList&
YouTuber Evid3nc3's video "2.0 Deconversion: The God Concept" - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12rP8ybp13s&feature=channel_p
John Loftus's "Why I Became An Atheist: a former preacher rejects Christianity" - http://www.amazon.com/Why-Became-Atheist-Preacher-Christiani
Lee Strobel's "The Case for Faith: A journalist investigates the toughest objections to Christianity" - http://www.amazon.com/Case-Faith-Journalist-Investigates-Chr
By Todd Allen Gates, author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" - http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1601450893/ref=dp_top_c
My four YouTube channels:
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer"
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")
- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano - where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists."
3 videos
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When science contradicts Scripture: how theists cope
How True-Believing theists cope when science contradicts Scripture: the literalist approach vs. the allegorical approach.
This video is based of the following material from my book, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer":
* Science and "Truth" (endnote 2)
* Christianity vs. Copernicus and Galileo (endnote 9)
* Faith Alone" vs. "Faith & Facts" (endnote 38)
* excerpts of dialogue between the book's two characters: Chris Proselman, the proselytizer; and "Scott Crates," the skeptic.
3 videos
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The Bizarre Disturbing Hilarious Things I Learned when ...
A review of David Plotz's "Good Book: The Bizarre, Hilarious, Disturbing, Marvelous, and Inspiring Things I Learned When I Read Every Single Word of the Bible" - http://www.amazon.com/Good-Book-Hilarious-Disturbing-Marvelo
Review by Todd Allen Gates, author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" - http://www.amazon.com/review/product/1601450893/ref=dp_top_c
My four YouTube channels:
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer"
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")
- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano - where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists."
3 videos
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The Pre-Religion, and Pre-Human, Roots of Morality
A reading of my post on the blog site "Clashing Culture" - http://clashingculture.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/the-pre-reli
This essay, "The Pre-Religion, and Pre-Human, Roots of Morality," is one of the forty-four endnotes in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer." See http://www.booklocker.com for free PDF sample chapters.
(This link will bring you right to the page where you can find the PDF file just scroll down to #5: http://search.booklocker.com/search-bl.cgi?q=dialogue+with+a
My four YouTube channels:
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic)
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")
- http://youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano - where I play the background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists."
3 videos
Play all
5.2: Satan's pre-Christian virgin birth stories
This two-part series discusses pre-Christian religious stories from the Greeks, Romans, and Zoroastrians about unions between gods & mortals, miraculous virgin births, and offspring that were both human and god. It also covers the "Satanic pre-plagiarization" explanation from early Church Fathers Justin Martyr and Tertullian on how the pagans knew about these phenomena centuries before the time of Jesus.
By Todd Allen Gates, author of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer."
This video series is also posted on the Rational Response Squad site, where there's no word/character limitation on the Comments section: see http://www.rationalresponders.com/pre_christian_virgin_birth
2 videos
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Obama's Christianity: sincere, fake, or irrelevant?
This is a reading of my article "Obama's Christianity: why it might be sincere, why it might not, and why it might not matter," a post to the blog site "Clashing Culture" (http://clashingculture.wordpress.com/).
Here's the direct link to the article: http://clashingculture.wordpress.com/2009/01/07/obamas-chris
My four YouTube channels:
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddGates - my musician channel
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic)
- http://youtube.com/user/ToddAllenGates2 - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Hunting, Gathering, & Videogames" (such as "Why do we have to work?" and "Why do we have to use money?" and "How should we define 'success'?")
- http://www.youtube.com/user/BlasphemyPiano - where I provide background piano accompaniment for songs in Nick Gisburne's "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists."
5 videos
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About Todd Allen Gates
The bulk of the videos on this channel discuss the ideas in my book, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer," a Socratic dialogue between a skeptic and a Christian apologist. The book's three main themes:
(1) "If you understand why you reject all the other religions, you'll understand why I reject yours."
(2) A marveling at humans' handiwork in the creation of the world's religions: the stunning range of creativity, cruelty, compassion, ingenuity, and absurdity. Included are scriptural passages from Bahaism, Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism; as well as mythology and folklore from the Aztecs, the Babylonians, Egypt, Greece, Kenya, and more.
(3) Largely through short essays located in the endnotes, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" offers a gentle introduction to atheism: how the non-theistic approach of explaining our origins and ethics makes sense out of life with a clarity and coherence unmatched by any variety of theism.
The bulk of the videos on this channel discuss the ideas in my book, "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer," a Socratic dialogue between a skeptic and a Christian apologist. The book's three main themes:
(1) "If you understand why you reject al...
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