It is good to remember that teachings about the Holy Spirit saving you the trouble of looking for teachers, is dangerous. It leads to arrogance and sectarianism. If Christian A contradicts Christian B and both claim to be guided by God then clearly one has to accuse the other of being a fake or of been fooled by a being pretending to be the Holy Spirit. I just wanted to make that point for I think it is helpful to point out the dangers of a doctrine and not just the silliness of a doctrine. It attracts Christians to the truth - that Christianity is another Mormonism, a pack of lies and errors and rationalisations.
JOHN LOFTUS
John Loftus said, "I'm not a specialist myself, nor do I have a Ph.D. I am a generalist. Someone has to be an expert in all things Christian, as much as possible. That's my goal. I think having a Ph.D. is a slight factor since having one gains a person some instant credibility. But when I look at some of the scholarly atheist works available I don't think it's much of a factor. Some of their works are not selling any better than mine."
Personally I feel that having the credibility that comes with a Ph.D can lead to some abusing the credibility. It is remarkable how people regarded as extremely well educated can believe rubbish. Then again they only say they believe it. Or is it a case where they don't care about the truth but about their glory for their credibility guarantees them a reasonably sized audience? I include those theologians who try to justify God commanding violence and murder in the Bible as among those kind of manipulators. Surely if one has people believing the nonsense one preaches just because one is thought to be highly educated then one is going to get a ego boost that does not come from simply passing truth on to a person when truth speaks for itself. Truth is its own thing - it is truth no matter who says it is or isn't. It is its own authority and there is no ego boost in putting the truth out there. And also, no matter who says something we have to think it through for ourselves.
At the end of the day, good thinking habits matter more than any Ph.D and I find John's books excellent examples of them.
December 13 - Posted on Debunking Christianity in response to a comment that people believe what they want to believe and there is no point in trying to change their minds.
It is not true that people always believe what they want to believe. Do all besotted wives deny the evidence and proof of their husband's infidelity? Some do and some don't. Those that don't believe what they really do not want to believe. Often people feel things are true and mistake this feeling for believing. But you can feel omnipotent though you know or believe you are not. There is a word for a person who only believes what he wants - psychotic is that word.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS FROM: The Amplified Bible BOOKS CONSULTED A Critical Review of Humanist Manifestos 1 & 2, Homer Duncan MC, International Publications, Lubbock Texas. A Shattered Visage The Real Face of Atheism, Ravi Zacharias, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Tenneessee, 1990 A Thief in the Night, John Cornwell, Penguin, London, 1990 A Woman Rides the Beast, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1994 All Roads Lead to Rome, Michael de Semlyen, Dorchester House Publications, Bucks, 1993 (page 120 recounts Cardinal Konig of Vienna’s testimony that the Vatican helped Nazi war criminals to escape) Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, Part 1, Most Rev M Sheehan DD, M H Gill & Son, Dublin 1954 Apologetics for the Pulpit, Aloysius Roche Burns Oates & Washbourne Ltd, London, 1950 Blind Alley Beliefs, David Cook, Pickering & Inglis, Glasgow, 1979 Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1988 Christianity, David Albert Jones, OP, Family Publications, Oxford, 1999 Convert or Die, Edmond Paris, Chick Publications, Chino, California, undated Correction and Discipline of Children, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1946 Crisis of Moral Authority, Don Cupitt, SCM Press, London, 1985 Documents of the Christian Church, edited by Henry Bettenson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979 Does America Need the Moral Majority? William Willoughby, Haven Books, New Jersey, 1981 Does Conscience Decide? Bishop William J Philbin, Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, Dublin Ecumenical Jihad, Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996 European Union and Roman Catholic Influence In Britain, David N Samuel, The Harrison Trust, Kent, 1995 Fascism in the English Church, A London Journalist, Henry E Walter, London, 1938 Fifty Years in the “Church” of Rome, Charles Chiniquy, Chick Publications, Chino, California, 1985 God and the Gun, The Church and Irish Terrorism, Martin Dillon, Orion, London, 1998 God Is Not Great, The Case Against Religion, Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic Books, London, 2007 ‘God, That’s not fair!’ Dick Dowsett, OMF Books, Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Belmont, The Vine, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3TZ] Kent, 1982 Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, Monarch, East Sussex, 1995 Human Rights, Michael Bertram Crowe Veritas, Dublin, 1978 In God’s Name, David Yallop, Corgi, London, 1987 Is the Roman Catholic Church a Secret Society? John V Simcox, Warren Sandell and Raymond Winch Watts & Co London, 1946 Is There Salvation Outside The Catholic Church? Fr J Bainvel SJ, TAN, Illinois, 1979 Jesuit Plots, From Elizabethan to Modern Times, Albert Close, Protestant Truth Society, London undated Jesus the Only Saviour, Tony and Patricia Higton, Monarch Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1993 New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of Columbia, 1967 Radio Replies, Vol 1, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1938 Radio Replies, Vol 2, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota 1940 Radio Replies, Vol 3, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota 1942 Religion of Peace? Why Christianity is and Islam Isn't, Robert Spencer, Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington, 2007 - a curious book in that it simply doesn't mention how Christian Scriptures incited believers, eg Calvinists, to attack and destroy other believers who were thought to be heretics and doesn't mention the infallible decrees of the Roman Catholic Church commanding the violent destruction of heretics but wants to give the impression that unlike the Koran, the Christian Scriptures and the Christian religion do not make calls for religious violence Religious Freedom, A Fundamental Right, Michael Swhwartz, Liguori Publications, Missouri, 1987 Roman Catholicism, Loraine Boettner, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1987 Rome – Our Enemy, Clifford Smyth, Puritan Printing, Belfast, 1975 Secular Humanism – The Most Dangerous Religion in America, Homer Duncan, MC International Publications, Lubbock, Texas. Undated. Sex Education in Our Public Schools, Jack Hyles, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1969 Sex, Dissidence and Damnation, Jeffrey Richards, Routledge, London 1994 Spy in the Vatican 1941-45, Branko Bokun, Tom Stacey Books, London, 1973 Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas, Part II, Second Number, Thomas Baker, London, 1918. The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel, Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 2000 The Christian and War, Robert Moyer, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1946 The Church of Rome, Wilson Ewin, Bible Baptist Church, Nashua NH USA The Encyclopaedia of Heresies and Heretics, Leonard George, Robson Books, London, 1995 The End Of Faith, Religion, Terror And The Future Of Reason, Sam Harris, Free Press, London, 2005 The Future of Atheism, Alister McGrath and Daniel Dennet in Dialogue, Robert B Stewart, SPCK, London, 2008 The Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Henry Charles Lea, Citadel, New York, 1963 The Last Temptation of Christ, Its Deception and What you Should Do About it, Erwin T Lutzer, Moody Press, Chicago, 1988 The Pestilence of AIDS, Hugh Pyle, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1987 The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Scepticism, Timothy Keller, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2008 The Rise of the Spanish Inquisition, Jean Plaidy, Star, London, 1978 The Sacred Executioner Human Sacrifice and the Legacy of Guilt Hyam Maccoby Thames and Hudson, London, 1982 The Secret History of the Jesuits, Edmond Paris, Chick Publications, Chino, California, 1975 The Truth About the Homosexuals, Dr Hugh F Pyle, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1978 The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, Watchtower, New York, 1968 The Unequal Yoke, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1946 The Upside-Down Kingdom, Donald B Kraybill Marshalls, Hants, 1978 The Vatican Connection, The Explosive Expose of a Billion-Dollar Counterfeit Stock Deal Between the Mafia the Church, Richard Hammers Penguin, Middlesex, 1982 Their Kingdom Come, Robert Hutchison, Corgi, London, 1997 Unholy Sacrifices of the New Age, Paul de Parrie and Mary Pride, Crossway Books, Westchester, Illinois 1988 Vatican USA, Nino LoBello, Trident Press, New York, 1972 Vicars of Christ, Peter de Rosa, Corgi Books, London, 1993 Walking with Unbelievers, Michael Paul Gallagher SJ, Veritas Dublin 1985 War and Politics The Christian’s Duty, Peter Watkins, Christadelphian Bible Mission, Birmingham What About Those Who Have Never Heard? Radio Bible Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986 Whatever Happened to Heaven? Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Publishers, Oregon, 1988 THE WWW www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/big_blue_books/book_10.html Fascist Romanism Defies Civilisation by Joseph McCabe www.hom.net/~angels/democracy.html Democracy is not a good form of Government by Citizens for the Ten Commandments www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm Is Christianity a Cult?