Vic Stenger - The NEW Atheism (Part 03 of 10), Millsaps College, 2009

[martmelee]

what happened to part 2?

[somor98]

Im from Denmark. Its not that great!

[FIGHTFANNERD3]

@somor98 im from there 2 and its great down there

[Tierdaen]

@SelfPromoting It's not valid evidence when it's patently dishonest. They leave little loopholes like their unclear definition of "war" and emphasize "democide" (government-sanctioned), so they can exclude numbers like the 20 million that died in China from the Christian Taiping Tianguo sect's uprising in the 19th century. It even lists a war (Thirty Years' War) that was deeply religious (excluding a few latecomers) but labels it non-religious.

You can believe bad scholarship all you like.

[Tierdaen]

@SelfPromoting You're right that a causal link is not a necessary conclusion of a correlation. I did not imply that, and I did not suggest that recidivism studies would do the same thing. Their results would be interesting, but not conclusive to anyone's agenda.

Sending people to a dishonest apologetics website is not a great way to show your "irrefutable proof" either. The data and presentation given there are rubbish, even though I agree in part that religion isn't the only source of evil.

[Tierdaen]

@SelfPromoting Prison populations in the USA are quite a bit more religious than the general population. I do not know of any studies done to compare nonreligious criminal rehabilitation with religious criminal rehabilitation, but they may be out there, and if not, they'd be interesting to see. Mother Theresa was a monster, but there have been good people of faith, and some features of delusional religious belief have had some positive effects. Some people are happier when drunk too.

[cajal6]

This was a terrible talk by Dr. Stenger He just babbles from one topic to another. He comes across sounding like an unprepared undergraduate.

[RichieJohnSauls]

"Hate the belief, but love the believer." Nice.

[misterzonker2584]

This guy really needs to expand on some of his points, especially when he mentions Jesus. I'm not saying I disagree with him, necessarily, but some of his assertions are too cursory.

[SvendsenAtheist]

Love this guy

[threequarcks]

too bad a supposed believer in rationality can be such an idiot in regards to economics - an atheist capitalist

[Cerulean0987]

@threequarcks Our recent economic crisis and the Bush tax cuts would suggest you sir are the idiot.

[Katalyzt]

★★★★★