Profile
Name:
Todd
Channel Views:
54,551
Total Upload Views:
250,985
Style:
Miscellaneous
Joined:
Jul 28, 2007
Latest Activity:
1 month ago
Subscribers:
3,591
About Me:
* ToddGates - my musician channel
* ToddAllenGates - where I discuss the ideas in my book "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (a dialogue between a Christian proselytizer and a Socratic skeptic)
* 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'?")
* BlasphemyPiano - where I play the piano accompaniment to songs from Nick Gisburne's book of lyrics called "Blasphemy! Anthems for Atheists"
I chose the YouTube category of "Musician" because (1) that was my pre-parenthood career, and (2) by doing so, YouTube allows me the option to provide direct links to the amazon pages for my books (click on the books' pictures at the bottom of this channel description, under the word "Albums").
A book description of "Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" (the basis for most of the videos on this channel):
"Dialogue with a Christian Proselytizer" is a Socratic dialogue between Scott Crates, a skeptic, and Chris Proselman, a Christian apologist who is handing out Judgment Day pamphlets that warn of the eternity of hellfire that awaits the unsaved. The skeptic acknowledges that eternal hellfire is something best avoided, but wants to know exactly why the Christian believes that his knowledge of the Divine is accurate. The book's three themes:
(1) "If you understand why you reject all the other religions, you'll understand why I reject yours." The skeptic starts out not by addressing atheism, but by tentatively accepting---for argument's sake---the premises that there IS a Creator of sorts, that this said-Creator has made some sort of communication effort with mankind, and that the fundamentalists are correct in their assessment that "one religion is from God, the rest are man-made." The two characters then turn to examining non-Christian religions, and the skeptic gets the proselytizer to pinpoint the telltale signs of the human authorship of foreign faiths by three criteria: (a) they're pieced together from pre-existing religions, (b) their holy laws are often based on irrational prejudices and erroneous conclusions about cause and effect, and (c) their stories contain inaccurate and earth-bound descriptions of the universe---stars that are tiny, a moon that shines its own light, a sun that orbits a flat and stationary earth, etc.
The conversation then turns to examining Christianity by the same light held up to the non-Christian religions. Use of this approach means the skeptic does not argue with the Christian, but instead forces the Christian to defend himself against his own accusations: his own description of a religion created not by an Almighty Architect of the Universe, but by the flawed mind of man.
(2) A secular 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, Jainism, Judaism, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism; as well as mythology and folklore from the Aztecs, the Babylonians, Egypt, Greece, Japan, Kenya, the Native Americans, Nigeria, the Pygmies, the Sumerians, the Vikings, 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.
FOR REVIEWS AND BACK-COVER TEXT: See my book's page on amazon and barnesandnoble .com (see the below link, under the word "Albums").
Label Type:
---
Country:
United States
My musician (ToddGates) and "work" channel (TAG2)
|
|
Videos: 39
Channel Views: 16,927
Subscribers: 517
|
Channel Comments
|
JolexDB
(2 months ago)
I really enjoyed your video responses to Epydemic2020 (really good work). He is a smart young man but mistaken, I think. I'm with you.
|
|
MsWhiteIsland
(2 months ago)
Cool!
|
|
MrMehawk
(2 months ago)
any chance we'll get to see your books on Kindle any time soon?
|
|
mikenotify
(2 months ago)
You have a very informative channel.
|
|
TheSanovita
(3 months ago)
Nice page... Keep it up
|
|
MyDavidsun
(3 months ago)
Lovely channel, thanks a lot!
|
|
juliacotic
(4 months ago)
Your videos are the best on the web !Fantastic Channel !
|
|
andreeaweed
(4 months ago)
You have a very informative channel.
|
|
Dawesomeification
(4 months ago)
Subbed!
|
|
rainmancat
(5 months ago)
ToddAllenGates, cool channel!
|
Subscribers
(3713)
