My Purpose in Posting

I'd like to lay some cement here in terms of my posting. First off, I want everyone to understand that I am an atheist. However, I am an intrasigent atheist; this means that I am an uncompromising, to-the-deathbed, staunch atheist. I am not a militant atheist. Just to be clear, I am fighting for reason, freethought, and rational skepticism. I am not out to attack or destroy religion, if we take this to mean deconverting people. I am not out to challenge, destroy, or deconvert the faith of people. My purpose here in "debunking" Christianity is not to be understood in the sense of militant skepticism and active evangelical atheism. My purpose is to help educate other Skeptics, not necessarily to deconvert people from the Christian faith. My contributions should be understood as being mostly thoughtful, intelligent, and schoarly critiques of various Christian doctrines or creeds.
I may, for instance, post an essay about the Trinity and some intellectual problems I may have with it or, perhaps, about why I feel the doctrine of inerrancy is badly flawed.

My chief purpose on here is to help serve as a source of counter-apologetics. I wish to provide "the other side" so to speak. I want to provide answers to Christian arguments so Skeptics can have something to rebut and counter the tactics and arguments of would-be evangelists who are trying to convert them and perhaps even militant apologists who are determined to argue, and perhaps even intellectually bully, a nonbeliever or Skeptic into the Christian faith. I also want to reach out to those who are undecided and give them some information and arguments so they can make an educated and well-informed decision. It's precisely this reason that I am a participant in Tekton's "Scholarly Diplomacy Series".

Look, I see no reason to be a militant Skeptic or evangelical atheist, at least not yet. I haven't any desire to argue with anyone. I am very content just to live in peace with others and help to foster understanding and respect. This means that I am willing to do it even if respect isn't exactly mutual. The chief reasons for my posting here are that I like working with apostates who have some advanced training or academic education such as John Loftus and others on here and I want to engage in counter-apologetics. I just want to get feedback on counter-apologetic arguments and see if there are any flaws in my reasoning.

With respect!

Matthew

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I am surprise to read that you "see no reason to be a militant Skeptic or evangelical atheist, at least not yet." I think there is plenty of evidence that suggests that a concerted effort is needed to publicly address religious mythology, with the goal of lightening the impact of religion on society. I think it is okay to call this outreach "de-conversion"

A leader from the Southern Baptist Convention has called for a take-over of the public school system. "What is needed," Gamble continued, "is a new 'public' school system, one that is open to the public but owned and operated by the Body of Christ."

http://www.ethicsdaily.com/article_detail.cfm?AID=7021

There is a "culture wars" going on. Fundamentalists are moving toward radically changing the institutions and character of this country. If the non-religious are unsuccessful in stopping the spread of Biblical literalism in this country, then we are headed toward a theocracy.

Anonymous said...

Actually, each one of us has somewhat different motivations for being here, so it's good for you to state yours. I've pretty much stated mine in the "our policy here" side bar link.

I personally can't wait to see what you have to say.

Bruce said...

I agree with brad, there is definitely a culture war occuring in this country. Although I think that a majority of people in this country would agree with the basic tenents of a Humanist philosophy, there is a minority of religious conservatives who are able to assert their influence and gradually impose their Christian fundamentalist agenda on the rest of us.

How are they able to do this? I agree with Sam Harris on this issue, we tend to give religion a pass. We have no problem criticizing economic policies or political ideologies, but when it comes to religious belief, most people are not only hesitant to criticize but assume that religion is a "good thing" and thus can't cause any harm.

This is why it is not just okay to be critical of religion and even strive for de-conversion, it is imperative if we are going to stop the intrusion of religion into our government and personal lives.

Anonymous said...

what a sad bunch of people you are thank goodness the lord has hidden it from the wise (in their own eyes ) and revealed himself to babes.jesus said to Thomas "blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe" yes thats right its a gift why dont you repent of your unbelief ask him for it and marvel that he would be pleased to open your blind eyes

Anonymous said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.