Friday

Maitland - The City Of Excitement

 

This is proof that Maitland was once called The City Of Excitement. The date is circa 1988. Don't ask me  about the nature of the supposed excitement.  

Sunday

FAVOURITE BIBLE VERSE: Mark 17:1-3 (MTV)

 

My favourite bible verse is one that I wrote myself. I am following the tradition of multiple endings to Mark's gospel. It's the Mark Tindall Translation (MTV).

Mark 17:1-3 (MTV) "All things are probable. Try to believe. Really! Try to believe even if it's irrational. Why? Because I said so, that's why! Don't ask questions. Just believe."

Matt Dillahunty - Do "credentials" / qualifications matter?

 

The new atheists aren't like the old atheists who had "credentials" / qualifications in philosophy (and thus logic). It definitely shows! The new atheists tell everyone about their atheism whether you want to know about it or not. Their atheist evangelism becomes incredibly boring and they use the same high school level methodology from atheist blogs and podcasts.

I've just blocked Matt Dillahunty on the Facebook page of a "friend" called "sweet little thing" (name hidden to protect the ignorant).

"sweet little thing" appears to have no other hobby than endlessly posting about atheism. A true atheist evangelist!

Matt Dillahunty went to high school. He is an American atheist activist and former president of the Atheist Community of Austin, a position he held from 2006 to 2013. Between 2005 and October 2022, Dillahunty was host of the televised webcast The Atheist Experience. He formerly hosted the live Internet radio show Non-Prophets Radio and founded the counter-apologetics project Iron Chariots.

Both Matt Dillahunty and "sweet little thing" accused me of "equivocation" for daring to ask if qualifications mattered in science. Here is the quote from Matt Dillahunty I used.

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FROM https://twitter.com/matt_dillahunty/status/436273926654529536?fbclid=IwAR3J01G9UEP5JpG4xd1yFdILlW7OR8STpPrcBeZwr-K1ueOUbsEVSyv47h4 
I've been told there's a reddit discussion about my credentials. Easy. I have none. No degrees. No seminary. Doesn't matter.
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In my country, Australia, the Australian QUALIFICATION Framework (capitals for emphasis) is how credentials are decided. Obviously these geniuses don't understand that verifiable fact.

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FROM https://www.aqf.edu.au/

The Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) is the national policy for regulated qualifications in Australian education and training.

It incorporates the qualifications from each education and training sector into a single comprehensive national qualifications framework.
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The new atheists seem to suffer from the Dunning-Kruger Effect. They think they are experts in fields that they have never formally studied.

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FROM C J Werleman, The New Atheist Threat (The Dangerous Rise Of Secular Extremists), Dangerous Little Books: 2015, Chapter 3 - The Echo Chamber pp 36 -37

In 2014, I shared a bus ride with popular New Atheist Matt Dillahunty. We had a great chat and he’s a terrific fella, but he told me, “As atheists we have to be experts in theology, anthropology, cosmology, geology, and biology.” Two thoughts came to mind: why? and you’re not. That’s not a slight on Dillahunty. It’s merely an observation that one would have to be smarter than Stephen Hawking to be considered a bona fide expert in each of these respective fields. And the only reason I could think as to why he would believe an atheist has to be an expert in all those fields is if he believes atheists need to evangelize their atheism to religious believers. Worryingly, many New Atheists I have debated or spoken to actually boast that they are experts in many or all of those respective fields even when it’s obvious they have no more than a Wikipedia level understanding of theology, for instance.
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Quoting Matt Dillahunty again: "credentials (aka qualifications) ... I have none. No degrees. No seminary. Doesn't matter."

My first question: Do "credentials" / qualifications matter for a person performing brain surgery in Australia?

Doesn't matter?????!!!!!

1. It's illegal in Australia to perform brain surgery without a proper accredited qualification (aka "credential") as per the Australian QUALIFICATION Framework.

2. Supposing it were legal, an atheist car mechanic might claim that he knows everything about brain surgery but, as he has never been assessed as competent to be awarded the relevant accredited qualification, one doesn't know anything about his level of expertise.

My second question: Do "credentials" / qualifications matter for a person doing philosophy of religion (the subject area every time an atheist like Matt Dillahunty mentions God) in Australia?

An atheist car mechanic might claim that he knows everything about philosophy of religion but, as he has never been assessed as competent to be awarded the relevant accredited qualification, one doesn't know anything about his level of expertise.

Matt Dillahunty does philosophy of religion extremely poorly. His main targets are fundamentalist Christians who are easy targets. His methodology consists of asking questions and avoiding questions asked of him. It's high school stuff and it shows.

GIORDANO BRUNO WAS NOT A MARTYR FOR SCIENCE BUT A FOLLOWER OF HERMETICISM

 

FROM https://historyforatheists.com/2017/03/the-great-myths-3-giordano-bruno-was-a-martyr-for-science/?fbclid=IwAR1VCUkoDmtFX2Jr1c_q2018P9uM1XYXB7Wc-hPY2-PJytrW6LWVswwIPuo

"Giordano Bruno was a martyr for science!" is a myth often repeated on social media. Giordano Bruno did no science and was not a scientist. Bruno was a follower of a movement called Hermetism, which was a cult that based its beliefs on documents which were thought to have originated in Egypt at the time of Moses. These writings were linked with the teaching of the Egyptian God Thoth, the God of learning and had arrived in Italy from Macedonia in the 1460s. To followers of this cult, Thoth was known as Hermes Trismegitus, or Hermes the thrice great. The book of Toth placed the sun at the centre of the universe. This is what Bruno followed. No science - only adoption of Hermeticism.

Monday

CHRISTIANITY AND THE 2021 AUSTRALIAN CENSUS

 

The Australian 2021 Census figures show a decline in Christian belief from 52% to 43.9% of our population. This goes along with the steady decline since 1901:

1901 96.1%
1911 95.9%
1921 96.9%
1933 86.4%
1947 88.0%
1954 89.4%
1961 88.3%
1966 88.2%
1971 86.2%
1976 78.6%
1981 76.4%
1986 73.0%
1991 74.0%
1996 70.9%
2001 68.0%
2006 63.9%
2011 61.1%
2016 52.0%
2021 43.9%

The category of "No religion" is up from 29.6% (2016) to 38.9%.

DID JESUS WEAR CLOTHES AFTER HIS RESURRECTION?

 


FROM James McGrath

In the crucifixion accounts the Roman soldiers take Jesus’ clothes.
In the stories about the tomb those who visit it find the grave clothes.
In the Easter appearances, what if anything do you imagine Jesus wearing and why?

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My comment: If Jesus’ clothes are taken and there are grave clothes left behind then Jesus must be naked. If he is wearing clothes then where did the clothes come from?

Friday

T H HUXLEY - MEANING OF AGNOSTIC

 

Agnostic: "one who professes that the existence of a First Cause and the essential nature of things are not and cannot be known" [Klein]; coined by T.H. Huxley (1825-1895),