IDHEFTBAA - Foreword - Rebuttal part 1

My copy of I Don't Have Enough Faith To Be An Atheist has a foreword by David Limbaugh.

Limbaugh reads like a stereotypical ultra-Conservative, and if you're wondering where you may have heard the Limbaugh name before, it's because David is the brother of American ultra-Conservative radio host and political commentator Rush Limbaugh.

Among some of the lines that Limbaugh uses to espouse his appreciation for this book are these, with my rebuttal included:

"There is an abundance of evidence for the reliability of scripture, for the authority of the Bible as the inspired word of God, and that the Bible accurately portrays the historical events it covers, including the earthly life of Jesus Christ."

There is evidence aplenty if you're looking for evidence to back up a prejudiced conclusion. I, for example, could equally as validly say that:

"There is an abundance of evidence for Bigfoot", or "There is an abundance of evidence for Russell's Teapot", and then present a list of 'evidences' that can be easily refuted with good methodology and epistemology.
0 + 0 + 0 ... + 0 doesn't magically equal to 1.

"Proof, of course, is no substitute for faith..."

In what other field of endeavour in life do suddenly begin applying faith (and by faith, I mean the religious definition, not the social definition) when we decide we don't want to look for evidence or answers?
Imagine if rocket scientists started substituting faith when they couldn't make the aerodynamic work out.
Imagine if doctors started administering prayer instead of medicine and treatment when their training was over?
Imagine if psychologists, driven by a religious agenda, started advising their clients to expel demons instead of undertaking treatments that have thorough scientific backing?

It should be the other way around - faith is no substitute for proof!

"In times past nonbelievers had to decide whether Christianity was the one true religion...they were generally not saddled with the burden of determining whether there was such thing as truth."

In times past, such as in Salem during the 1600's, you had to believe Christianity was the one, true religion or else be burned at the stake...or be forcibly drowned...or be tortured into false confessions.

Or should we look at the Spanish Inquisition, otherwise called The Tribunal Of The Holy Office Of The Inquisition, where approximately 1600 people were executed for not believing in the one, true religion.

Nonbelievers had to decide because not only their lives, but the lives of their loved ones were at stake on the question.
Just do a Google search on "mediaeval torture devices" to see how far the church and the people of God were willing to go and what they were willing to do to ensure you stayed in your box and did what was expected of you.

"Our postmodern culture has done a number on the idea of truth..."

Spoken like a true culture warrior - "If you don't agree with me, then you don't believe in TRUTH!".

But as Aron Ra famously said, "The truth is what the facts are". And how do we determine truth? By having a sound method for observing, measuring and interpreting the data that we see from the natural world around us, otherwise known as science.



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Part 2 coming up soon.

Until then, be good to each other and to yourself.


-Damien