ATHEIST LOGIC - Dusty Smith ( Cult leader of The Cult Of Dusty)

"The bible is nothing more than an ancient monkey text written by primitive screwheads who didn't know hat the fuck the were talking about." - Dusty Smith, Facebook 27/01/2014

A very logical comment by Dusty that is empirically verified ... or maybe not.

What academic qualification does Dusty have in logic or biblical scholarship? Oh, that's right - none. Dusty boasts that his logic and knowledge all comes from Google and YouTube which are hardly definitively true. As a philosopher trained in logic at a university I could tell Dusty about the logical fallacies that atheism is built upon.

First, the rationale for non-belief is that there this is no empirical evidence for God therefore God does not exist. Therefore atheists demand empirical evidence from all believers in God for the existence of a non-empirical God. That is a category mistake. One can never provide empirical evidence for a non-empirical God. The non-empirical is not empirical.

Secondly, it is also a Straw Man fallacy as no contemporary theologian posits an empirical God yet atheists wrongly assume that all theists somehow believe in an empirical God. It is a really good idea to understand the type of God that you are arguing against and not to misrepresent it.

Science cannot measure non-empirical items such as consciousness or beauty or God. There are no empirical units of measurement that one can use on the non-empirical.

Dusty Smith's catch phrase is "Logic."

I have presented logic above by one who has studied at a university and knows logic.

Logic is part of the domain of philosophy. It should be noted that logic does not automatically lead to atheism.

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phi·los·o·phy (fĭ-lŏs′ə-fē)
n. pl. phi·los·o·phies
...
2. Investigation of the nature, causes, or principles of reality, knowledge, or values, based on logical reasoning rather than empirical methods.
...
6. The discipline comprising logic, ethics, aesthetics, metaphysics, and epistemology.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition copyright ©2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

ATHEIST LOGIC - Marcus Mergett case study

It is utterly amazing how many atheists boast of using logic yet have no formal training in logic and have arguments that are quite illogical.

Marcus Mergett (using a clown face for his Facebook profile) is a case in point. Quoting his own words from Facebook on 24/1/2014:

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Anyone who claims to be a scholar of the bible is the scholar of a fictional fairy tale book full of murder, rape, genocide, misogyny etc.... no history classes use it as material..... atheism is the ability to think logically and look at evidence with a skeptical eye.   

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He then posted the first paragraphs of an article by Dr Joel Hoffman in the Huffington Post without attribution thus leaving readers to think that he had written the text himself. Marcus Mergett stated that no church ever mentioned such things. He is absolutely incorrect. Many liberal churches do say exactly the same as Joel Hoffman. See http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-joel-hoffman/the-bible-isnt-history_b_2803409.html This is worth quoting at length ....

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One way to understand the difference between history and fiction in the Bible is through the Old Testament's natural division into three parts:

Sometimes 'believing the Bible' means believing that a story in it didn't happen.

The world and its nature (Adam to Terah).

The Israelites and their purpose (Abraham to Moses).

The Kingdom of Israel and life in Jerusalem (roughly from King David onward).

Even a cursory look reveals a clear and significant pattern. In the first section, characters live many hundreds of years, and in the second, well into their second century. Only in the third section do biblical figures tend to live biologically reasonable lives.

For example, Adam, in the first section, lives to the symbolic age of 930, and Noah lives even twenty years longer than that. Abraham, from the second section, lives to be 175, his son Issac to 180, and Jacob "dies young" at the age of 147. But the lifespans from King David onward, in the third section, are in line with generally accepted human biology. ...

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Marcus Mergett quoted the above paragraphs to prove that the bible was a complete work of fiction and unrelated to history. Marcus failed to either read or comprehend the next part of the article which contradicts everything that Marcus previously stated. I quote again (captials for emphasis):

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... Furthermore, HISTORIANS mostly agree that only the third section represents actual HISTORY. ... HISTORY and fiction mingle throughout the Old Testament ... Jeremiah's HISTORICAL description of the siege on Jerusalem is not the same as Ezekiel's non-historical vision of the dry bones, just as there are HISTORICAL elements (like the invention of fire-hardened bricks) even in the non-historical account of the Tower of Babel. ... The New Testament similarly offers more than just stories, and, as with the Old Testament, only some of the stories in the New Testament were meant as HISTORY. Others were intended to convey things like theology and morality. ...

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Marcus Mergett fails in logic on all the points he mentioned:

1. "The bible is a fictional fairy tale."

Incorrect. The bible is a collection of books by different authors and at different times that has been edited. It contains some history.

2. "No history classes use the bible as material."

Incorrect. Many universities use the bible as source material for the history of ancient Israel.

3. "Atheism is the ability to think logically and look at evidence with a skeptical eye."

Incorrect.  One does not automatically become logical by being an atheist. Nor does logic automatically lead to atheism. "The ability to think logically and look at evidence with a skeptical eye" is the domain of philosophy and not atheism.

A female Christ?

Think about the possibility of Christianity with a Christ named Jessica, the Daughter of God. What would Jessica Christ say about the male dominance in Christianity? Would you want to wear a crucifix featuring a crucified Jessica around your neck? Would a Jessica Christ be beautiful and sexy? Or would she be ugly? ( See Isaiah 53:2 adapted "when we shall see HER, there is no beauty that we should desire HER.") Would a resurrected Jessica come back to vanquish all Christian foes in a huge bloody battle of Armageddon? Is Jessica Christ a type of female Amazon warrior? Would males want to follow a female Lord Jessica? Would you want to eat Christ Jessica's body and drink her blood in remembrance of her? Would Christian males want a women to rule them considering Colossians 3:18, Ephesians 5:22-24 & 1 Peter 3:1? Would the Catholic church then decree that only women could become priestesses? How would males feel about that?

Jessica Christ would change everything.

ST PETER'S MAMMA

It's been said that St Peter's mamma was a miser through and through. Never did she give to charity or spend a penny on her fellow man. One day while she was peeling leeks, a poor woman came by begging. "Will you give me a little something, good woman?"

"That's right, everybody comes to me begging ... Well, take this, and don't ask for any more!" And she she gave her one leaf of a leek.

When the Lord called her into the next life, he sent her to Hell.  The head of Heaven was St Peter, and as he sat on the doorstep, he heard a voice. "Peter! Just look at how I am roasting! Son, go to the Lord, talk to him, get me out of this misery!"

St Peter went to the Lord. "Lord," he said, "my mother is in Hell and begging to be let out."

"What! Your mother never did a good turn in her whole life! All she has to her credit is one little leek. Try this. Give her the leek leaf to catch hold to, and pull her up to Paradise by it."

An angel swooped down with the leek leaf. "Grab hold!" ordered the angel, and St Peter's mamma caught hold of the leaf. She was about to be pulled up out of Hell, when all the poor souls there with her and seeing her rise, latched on to her skirts. So the angel drew up not only her but all the others as well. Then that selfish woman screamed, "No! Not you all! Get off! Just me! You ought to have had a saint for a son, as I did!" She kicked and shook them from her, jerking about so much to get free, that the leek leaf broke in two and St Peter's mamma went plummeting to the bottom of Hell.

Tindall Family Motto

The Tindall family motto is “Nosce te ipsum” which is the Latin translation of the ancient Greek aphorism γνώθι σεαυτόν, meaning “Know thyself”. It was inscribed above the entrance to the Temple of Apollo at Delphi.

Plato employs the maxim 'Know Thyself' extensively by having the character of Socrates use it to motivate his dialogues.Plato makes it clear that Socrates is referring to a long-established wisdom. Benjamin Jowett's index to his translation of the Dialogues of Plato lists six dialogues which discuss or explore the saying of Delphi: 'know thyself.' These dialogues (and the Stephanus numbers indexing the pages where these discussions begin) are Charmides (164D), Protagoras (343B), Phaedrus (229E), Philebus (48C), Laws (II.923A), I Alcibiades (124A, 129A, 132C).

PRAY YOUR STRAIGHT AWAY - HETEROSEXUAL CONVERSION THERAPY

We need homophobic Christian volunteers to undergo "heterosexual conversion therapy" in order to make them homosexual. This would provide definitive scientific evidence that sexual orientation can be changed.

We know from science that "gay conversion therapy"  does not work and that you cannot "pray the gay away" yet it may be possible to change heterosexual homophobic Christians to homosexuality as that has not yet been attempted.

"Heterosexual Conversion Therapy" would have steps such as:

(1) Participate in art museums, opera, symphonies, etc.

(2) Avoid activities considered of interest to heterosexuals, such as sports activities.

(3) Avoid men unless it is for romantic contact.

(4) Increase time spent with homosexual men in order to learn to mimic homosexual male ways of walking, talking, and interacting with other homosexual men.

(5) Avoid church and join a gay community group

(6) Attend heterosexual reparative therapy group to discuss progress, or slips back into heterosexuality.

(7) Become more assertive with men through flirting and dating,

(8) Begin homosexual dating,

(9) Engage in homosexual intercourse.

(10) Enter into heterosexual marriage (when it becomes legal in your country).

RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE: Atheists / Theists / Agnostics / Etc - Facebook Group

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RESPECTFUL DIALOGUE is a safe haven for respectful dialogue between atheists, theists, agnostics etc.

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2. No insult of deities / prophets / spokespeople
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Not adhering to the rules will result in a permanent ban.