The first Thursday of the month means Bloggers Drinks! The event for bloggers, blog trolls, blog groupies (bloupies) and blog readers who happen to be in Auckland. Past blogging celebrities in attendance include bloggers and blog readers from: 21st Century Renaissance, And All These Things, Annie Fox, As Yourself Hermitage, Barnsley Bill, Beretta, Blondie, Bowalley Road, The Fairfacts […]
Entries from July 6th, 2011
Auckland Bloggers Drinks – This Thursday
July 6th, 2011 3 Comments
Tags: Bloggers Drinks · Galbraiths
Easy Dupes: Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari “Gay Girl in Damascus”
July 3rd, 2011 7 Comments
Narratives are powerful. They control what we identify as significant data or facts, how we empirically apprehend the data, what interpretations and shades of significance we place upon the evidence, and the conclusions drawn. Absolute objectivity is impossible. Only relative neutrality and disinterestedness are possible. The cut of our jib determines the winds we catch […]
Tags: Amina Abdallah Arraf al Omari · Gay Girl in Damascus · Homosexual Conduct · Islam · Israel · Palestine · Paula Brooks · Syria · Tom MacMaster
Hector Avalos and Careful, Non-Selective Citation of Sources
June 30th, 2011 163 Comments
On Debunking Christianity, Hector Avalos has posted a response to my critique of his post A Reply to Hector Avalos’ “Why Flannagan Fails History”. His latest post is entitled Flannagan Versus Westbrook: Understanding the Problem; it pretty much repeats points I have addressed in my critique, basically Avalos pretends I did not answer them. In […]
Tags: Hector Avalos · Is God a Moral Monster? · John Loftus · Paul Copan · The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails
A Reply to Hector Avalos’ “Why Flannagan Fails History”
June 28th, 2011 49 Comments
It seems my recent Philosophia Christi review of John W. Loftus’ The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails has hit something of a nerve. Professor Hector Avalos, who wrote “Yahweh is a Moral Monster” in The Christian Delusion, has written a response entitled “Why Dr. Flannagan Fails History, Dr. Hector Avalos Responds”. Avalos raises several points which I cannot […]
Tags: Hector Avalos · John Loftus · Paul Copan · Raymond Westbrook · The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails · Yahweh is a Moral Monster
The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails – A Philosophia Christi Review of John Loftus’ Book
June 25th, 2011 305 Comments
On the list of blurbs just inside the cover of The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails, edited by John W. Loftus (Amherst, NY: Prometheus Books) 2010, the following appears: As a result of being published on the blurb of the book, the current edition of Philosphia Christi, Vol. 13, no. 1 – Summer 2011, shows the following […]
Tags: Book Review · David Eller · Edward Babinski · Hector Avalos · Jason Long · John Loftus · Outsider Test for Faith · Paul Tobin · Philosophia Christi · Richard Carrier · Richard Price · The Christian Delusion: Why Faith Fails · Vallerie Tarico
Madeleine Admitted to the Bar
June 24th, 2011 25 Comments
This morning my children and I sat in the Auckland High Court to watch Madeleine be admitted to the Bar. The ceremony had the solemn pomp and formality of Barristers wigs, robes and when Madeleine spoke for the first time in open court as an enrolled Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand she […]
Tags: Law Studies

A common objection to belief in the God of the Bible is that a good, kind, and loving deity would never command the wholesale slaughter of nations. In the tradition of his popular Is God a Moral Monster?, Paul Copan teams up with Matthew Flannagan to tackle some of the most confusing and uncomfortable passages of Scripture. Together they help the Christian and nonbeliever alike understand the biblical, theological, philosophical, and ethical implications of Old Testament warfare passages.





Contra Mundum: Pacifism and Just Wars
July 5th, 2011 27 Comments
Comedian Bill Maher recently berated Christians for being hypocrites for supporting military action against terrorists in his “New Rules” segment on the U.S. TV show Real Time (transcript here). Jesus, Maher contended, was a pacifist; “Jesus lays on that hippie stuff pretty thick. He has lines like, “do not repay evil with evil,” and “do […]
Tags: Bill Maher · Contra Mundum · Investigate Magazine · Just War · Pacifism · War Ethics