Category Archives: critique of religion

C Rulon: Fascism is Political Fundamentalism – Fundamentalism is Religious Fascism‏

In recent years, the term “Islamo-fascism” has appeared in editorials and op-ed pieces. But what exactly is fascism? In an essay titled “Fascism Anyone?” Dr. Lawrence Britt, a political scientist, identifies social and political agendas common to fascist regimes. . . much of it [also] mirrors the social and political agenda of religious funda­mentalisms worldwide.

C Rulon: The Christian Right, Atheists & Societal Dysfunction

Religious beliefs have led many Christians over the centuries to commit a long litany of what today would be considered horrendous crimes — from the slaughter of all women and children in enemy villages, to the Crusades and the Inquisition, to the Thirty Years War, to the burning of witches, heretics and Jews.
On the other hand, millions of non-theists live moral lives. Sweden (where only 20% believe in a personal god) has one-sixth the teen preg­nancy rate as we do. Its citizens also give ten times as much money per capita to help the world’s poor as do Americans.

C Rulon: The Scientific Method vs. religious “truths”

The Scientific Method has turned out to be the most powerful and widely used method of inquiry humans have ever discovered for un­der­stand­ing how our bodies, our world and our uni­verse work—not the way we might want things to work, not the way we believe things should work, but the way things actually seem to work. It’s a way of discovering which hypothe­ses among many possi­ble explana­tions are wrong, thus hom­ing in on the right ones. Correct expla­na­tions open doors to ever deeper and more profound discoveries; wrong explana­tions lead to blind alleys.

A Christian Philosopher’s Faulty Arguments: On the Need for God as Basis for Morality – Part II

William. L Craig (Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California) argues that objective morality requires a theistic base. In the process of so arguing, Craig commits a variety of errors, false assumptions, invalid inference, and offers a rather weak argument. I will show this by a two-part critique of his article.

A Christian Philosopher’s Faulty Arguments: On the Need for God as Basis for Morality – Part I

In a long article, “The Indispensability of Theological Meta-ethical Foundations for Morality,” William. L Craig (Research Professor of Philosophy at Talbot School of Theology in La Mirada, California) argues that objective morality requires a theistic base. In other words, without God humans do not have an objective basis for moral values and moral judgments. In the process of so arguing, Craig commits a variety of errors, false assumptions, invalid inference, and offers a rather weak argument.

Gods, religions & active imaginations

Active imaginations; many gods: Over the millen­nia, humans have created thou­sands of supernatural belief sys­tems and have wor­ship­ped everything from the Egypt­ian scarab beetle to the Hindu elephant; from the Sun god to gods of the seasons, to mother Earth; from sex gods and goddesses to spirit trees, to scary mythical creatures, to everything being god. In fact, the idea of mono­­theism, one god, was a relatively recent invention in a very long his­tory.

Evil and human suffering – Philosophical/theological problem or human tragedy?

Many studies of the philosophy of religion include the “problem of evil,” which can be treated either as an intellectual problem, one which raises logical and epistemic issues, or as an existential problem of human tragedy. Philosophers and theologians take on the challenge of trying to show that one can consistently affirm God’s existence and the fact of evil in the world. But the intellectual problem arises from the “existential problem”, one concerning human experience of suffering and evil, and human attempts to make sense of such suffering and evil

C Rulon: By accepting God, I have everything to gain and nothing to lose…or do I?

Pascal’s Wager: “How could I give up eternal salvation by choosing not to believe in God?” I’ve been asked. “By accepting God you have everything to gain and nothing to lose. It’s a no-brainer.” Here’s my response: Which god? There are a great many diff­er­ent gods and religions worshiped today, each with diff­erent dog­mas and beliefs regarding just about everything. Obviously they can’t all be right. But since there’s no rational way to deter­mine which ones are wrong, if not all of them, how can I choose?

C Rulon: Japan’s destruction and God’s wrath

In March 2011, a magnitude 8.9 earthquake and resultant tsunami devastated Japan. Within days, dozens of countries were sending help and supplies. But also within days numerous people were blaming the Japanese and their “rampant atheism” for incurring God’s wrath. . Scientists have natural expla­nations for earthquakes and tsunamis. Yet, many religious people still cling to medieval beliefs that such disasters are expressions of their deity’s anger for human sin.