Writing James P Holding Off!

My friends,

I have recently started a thread on the infamous Christian website "theologyweb" pretty much announcing the end of any friendship with J.P. Holding of Tekton Apologetics. I want to take this time to air out my opinion of Holding (should he read this, good!). I thought that I could be an "esteemed skeptic" in the eyes of many Christians. I thought that I could be the "model atheist" by winning Holding's respect and trying to be as diplomatic as I could. I confess to being wrong about this. I don't know what I was thinking in trying to befriend Holding and trying to get on his good side. Loftus called it right: he predicted I would see through Holding and turn against him. I admit to doubting it but John was right. I now see completely through him and I wish for little more to do with him.

The fact of the matter is that while Holding has, arguably, good qualities, in my judgement his damning qualities seem to outweigh any good qualities that he has. For one thing, I consider Mr. Holding to be arrogant. He has a arrogant opinion of his own intelligence that is just nausiating. Holding writes off anyone who seems to disagree with him as being stupid. Holding is always insulting people who seem to disagree with him. It's bad enough that he insults fellow skeptics like John, Ed Babinski, Steven Carr, and Farrell Till, but he's sunken to an all new low by insulting scholars like Richard Carrier, Robert M Price, and Bart Ehrman and showing nothing but arrogant contempt for them.

I cannot handle this. I consider Carrier, Loftus, and Babinski to be among my good friends. I have no problem with Holding disagreeing with them but I do not like Holding's abrasive demeanor to them, insulting them, belittling them, and acting childish with his antics. I consider Holding at this point to be a sanctimonious jerk with serious ego problems. I am glad that he doesn't have a Ph.D. degree or he'd be just as arrogant as Jonathan Sarfati, whom I deem pathologically arrogant.

I very much credit Loftus with opening my eyes towards Holding. I wanted to see mostly good in Holding but it's not there. Further, I consider Holding to be a spin-doctor and a bully. I am sorry I wanted to become good friends with him and I don't know what I was thinking (well I do actually, I just don't know how I managed to rationalize it as I did!). The funny thing is that Holding constantly berates critics of the Bible for critiquing it or critiquing the Christian faith and for lacking the scholarly credentials to do so. I can agree that in some cases the criticism is deserved but I don't think that calls for insulting and belittling people. And Holding's degree is what? A Master's in Library Science?

I do not like the fact that he insults/demeans actual credentialed scholars like Carrier, Ehrman, and Price. Holding does nothing but scoff at them. Yeah, right, like they're just so stupid compared to a hyper-intellectual like Holding. Sure!

I have made a decision to discontinue the Scholarly Diplomacy Series with Mr. Holding until, frankly, he grows the hell up! Perhaps I will never have contact with him again. It's possible that I won't speak to Mr. Holding and anytime I have anything to say will be in a critique of some nonsensical garbage he has written that's too good not to critique.

My friends, I am sorry I defended Holding. My opinion of him now is that he is an arrogant spin-doctor of questionable honesty who enjoys insulting people and arrogantly scoffing at those who disagrees with him. I cannot believe that I even wrote a response to a blog post on here trying to defend him by asking blog members on here not to take him so seriously. I would like to offer a bit of friendly advice to people here: don't take him seriously at all. He's a sad joke! Yes, he's a better exegete, than, say, Norman Geisler, but this just goes to illustrate what nonsense Christian apologetics is. It also goes to illustrate that Mr. Holding is better at being a spin-doctor than Geisler is.

I wish to close this post with a note to Steven Carr if he reads this: Steven, you and I have had our differences. There were times when I regretfully didn't put Holding in his place when he insulted your intelligence. To my deep shame and discredit, I didn't do anything. For this I am very much sorry. I completely retract anything offensive I said about you or Farrell Till. I regret that I will never, again, be friends with Till and I have possibly lost your respect without any redemption. I am sorry this happened. Much of it is to my shame and I accept the shame with my deepest apologies. I am dead serious about this. I would like to start over fresh and offer a hand of friendship to you and Till but I can understand if you wish to decline.

Cheers,

Matthew