Iron Chariots Wiki - New pages [en]

Argument from Intimidation

2013-04-08T19:32:30Z

Daniel McKnight: The "overview" section contained too little to be necessary

'''Argument from intimidation''' (related to [[argumentum verbosium]]) is the attempt to circumvent logic by questioning an opponent's character using his or her argument.

== Example ==

:"Only the immoral can fail to see that Candidate X’s argument is false."

Candidate X's argument is deemed false only by asserting that he or she is immoral.

{{Logical fallacies}}

[[Category:Arguments]]
[[Category:Logical fallacies]]

Irreligion

2013-04-02T21:24:48Z

Keith Penrod: created article with brief definition and examples

'''Irreligion''' is the state of not belonging to or affiliating with any particular religion, or the concept of religion in general. A person who is irreligious generally feels apathy toward religion, or simply may not think about religion very often at all. Sometimes the term is also used to include people who are hostile toward religion or religious people. Such people are more commonly referred to as [[antitheist]].

Irreligion does not necessarily imply atheism. A person may believe in supernatural phenomena and yet simply not subscribe to any particular dogma of one religion or another. That is, a person may feel that there is some super-powerful being out there, or that there is a spiritual connection of some sort which binds all of us together, and yet not belong to any particular religion. Typically, this kind of person is a "practical atheist" in the sense that the day-to-day choices this person makes are unaffected by his/her spiritual or supernatural beliefs. This is in contrast to most religious people who, in keeping with the dogma of their religion, make many personal choices which are directly affected by their religion.

Since atheism is not a religion, atheists are by definition irreligious. This includes antitheists.

Fallacy of reification

2013-03-28T18:39:43Z

Kurt Burger: Examples and counter examples

To reify (thing-ify) something is to "make it a thing." In a theological argument this may be as simple as saying "I can talk about God therefore He exists." The support for this argument is that in referring to a thing you make it into the object the words refer to. We can talk about the million dollars in my pocket, but that won't make it a real thing.

Liberal christianity

2013-03-22T23:58:52Z

Lausten: /* Arguments for the existence of God */

Liberal [[Christianity]] is a subjective term that does not refer to a specific denomination. Individuals may self-identify or use the term to refer to their church or theology.

==Disambiguation==
;The Liberal Catholic Church
:This is an actual denomination not affiliated with the emergent church or the Catholic church. It has been around since the early 20th century.
;[[Emergent church]]
:This is a movement within the Evangelical Church
;Progressive Christianity
:Can be considered interchangeable with liberal
==History==
===Early Christianity===
There were several competing sects of Christianity for the first 300 years. Any claims of political persuasion are tenuous.
===Selected Church Fathers===
*Origen (185-254) Interpreted Genesis metaphorically.
*Augustine (354-430) Interpreted Genesis metaphorically. Created “Just War Theory” which is arguably liberal and certainly preferable to nationalism and genocide.
*John Chrysostom (347-407) Known for denouncing the abuse of authority by ecclesiastical leaders.
===Later Significant Leaders===
*Aquinas (1225-1274) Agreed with the prevailing view of the time that Christians should be pacifists. Attempted to reconcile the ideas of reason in the recently recovered documents of Greek philosophers with the revealed truth of Christianity.
*Martin Luther (1483-1546) Led a movement to reform the Catholic church. Spoke out against corruption. Not all of views can be considered liberal.
*Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus (1466-1536) Catholic priest who was an early proponent of religious toleranace and a humanist.
===Age of Enlightenment===
*Baruch Spinoza (1632-1677) Jewish philosopher who laid foundations for the Enlightenment. Believed scripture should be interpreted and studied.
*Jean Astruc (1684-1766) One of the first to put forward theories about multiple sources behind the early books of the Bible, known as Higher criticism.
===Contemporary Theologians===
*[[Robert Green Ingersoll]]
*Albert Schwietzer (1875-1965) In 1906, applied historical methodology to attempt to discover who Jesus was and criticized early works on the “Historical Jesus”.
*Teilhard DeChardin (1881-1955) A Jesuit priest and paleontologist. His scientific ideas came into conflict with the Catholic Church. Some of his ideas influenced the New Age movement.
*Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945) German Lutheran pastor who resisted the Nazis.
*Paul Tillich (1886-1965) Revived earlier mystic notions of God. Accused by conservatives of being an atheist.
*Rudolf Karl Bultmann (1884-1976) Lutheran theologian who interpreted the mythological elements of the New Testament.
* Martin Luther King (1929-1968) A Baptist minister who advocated for civil rights.
==Apologetics==
===Arguments for the value of Christianity with responses===
* We are not [[Fundamentalism|fundamentalists]]
:This is a blanket response to any argument that uses the actions of one Christian to judge someone else who claims the label. It is true that no one should engage in this type of prejudice. It is also does not address any particular concern or inform us of how the person stands.
* The overall message of the Bible is peaceful, so any violent passage should be reinterpreted as peaceful.
:This comes from Augustine in a time when very few people could read and the elite interpreted the Bible for everyone else. Currently it is promoted by Karen Armstrong and others. We can listen to experts and rely on authorities, but in the end, each individual is responsible for how he or she interprets anything. We should not allow someone else to tell us what the Bible means or apply general rules that attempt to gloss of moral problems within the Bible.
* Christians are a force for good.
:Moral codes and moral leadership existed long before Christianity and have existed since without Christianity. Christian leaders have not acted consistently making proof for this statement difficult. Christian churches have the advantage of tax breaks and the historical advantage of an institution that is supported by successive generations based on tradition, not necessarily on merit. Their administrative costs are high, but this is not questioned as most non-profits are.
* We aren’t hurting anyone, we should be able to express our spirituality freely. Similar to [[Why can't everyone just have their own beliefs?]]
:Freedom to worship is a liberal value. It is included in the United States constitution and has been refined by the Supreme Court. If they are following those laws and not harming anyone in any other way, there is no counter for this. This should extend to indirect consequences. Also see "Paranormal Phenomenon", reason #2 in [[50 reasons to believe in God]].
* Jesus had good things to say.
:There are many philosophers and prophets throughout history. Their value is not always directly related to the values of the organizations that form around their teachings.

===Arguments for the existence of God===
In general, liberal Christianity arguments will be toned down versions of fundamentalist arguments. These are a few examples.
*God is everything
:This is simply giving another name for “everything”. No consciousness has been detected from large systems such as planets, solar systems or the universe itself.
*There are universal experiences of something similar to the Christian experience of God. These are all valid and point to the existence of the divine.
:Individual experiences are valid, but they vary widely and are open to interpretation. They have not been consistent enough to stand up to any rigorous standard of evidence.
*You don’t believe in God because you are not open to it.
:Being open minded, listening to other’s evidence and evaluating their reasoning in a fair manner are liberal values. The truth or falsity of someone being open minded cannot be determined based on what they are listening to. This is most likely a form of [[special pleading]]. “Open minded” does not mean accepting ideas without any filtering, that is gullibility. “Open minded” means being receptive to hearing and evaluating ideas.
*I’m not comfortable with their being no consciousness behind the creation of the universe or no purpose.
:This is a softer position than the [[Cosmological Arguments]] but it is not an improvement.

==Counter Apologetics==
*Although individuals or local churches can be liberal, part of their donations go to national organizations, usually with less liberal agendas and inefficient hierarchies.
*Irrationality is always unhealthy. Churches normally involve families so children observe this irrational behavior and are possibly taught it without being provided a context for questioning it.
*Churches do not have good systems for questioning their own dogma or internally reviewing their doctrines. Evidence from outside the accepted traditional sources is not given high value.

I Don't Have Enough Faith to be An Atheist

2013-02-23T19:04:56Z

John Ruttley:

I Don't Have Enough Faith to be An Atheist is a book by Christian apologists Norman Geisler and Frank Turek. It was published in 2004, and frequently makes the claim that it requires more faith to be an atheist than a theist. Norman Geisler has a Ph.D in philosophy from Loyola University. Frank Turek has a number of masters degrees, and a Ph.D in apologetics from the Southern Evangelical Seminar. Many of the typical arguments for the existence of God are presented in the book: including Cosmological, Teleological, Moral and Christological/Biblical historicity arguments. Moreover, it 'addresses' some arguments that the atheist may propose against the existence of God, such as the impossibility of miracles as proposed by David Hume and the argument from gratuitous suffering/evil. The foreword, by David Limbaugh, makes some bold claims. It asserts that there are good reasons to believe in the authenticity of what the Bible was claiming, and that there are good arguments not just for pure deism, or even monotheism, but Christianity. Yet what follows doesn't appear to live up to this claim.
The entire book is refuted in some considerable detail on the below site. Interestingly, the refutation has also been written in a style similar to that of the book.
See this link: http://articles.exchristian.net/2008/03/i-dont-have-enough-faith-to-be.html
Also see these links for more refutations concerned with the book:
http://tucsoncitizen.com/freethought-arizona/2012/07/23/i-dont-have-enough-faith-to-be-an-atheist-book-review/
http://minorthoughts.com/biblical/critiquing-i-dont-have-enough-faith-to-be-an-atheist-ch-1-p-35-39/
The title of the book and other areas of the book also seem to rely on a strawman representation of atheism and an equivocation of two definitions of faith: http://wiki.ironchariots.org/index.php?title=Atheism_is_based_on_faith.

Denialism

2013-01-02T13:27:57Z

John Ruttley: Created page with "Denialism is the philosophical position of choosing to deny reality to avoid an uncomfortable truth. For instance, the theist could take their particular religion on faith to ..."

Denialism is the philosophical position of choosing to deny reality to avoid an uncomfortable truth. For instance, the theist could take their particular religion on faith to deny the reality of there not being life after death. As author Paul O'Shea remarks, it is "irrational". On the face of empirical and valid scientific evidence, some proponents of Intelligent Design could be classified as denialists. For instance, Ray Comfort denies evolution when faced with empirical evidence, so could be called an "Evolution Denialist". The denialist position is typically against the principles of science, including methodological naturalism and falsifiability. In the context of history, many deny the Holocaust so are named "Holocaust Denialists"; there are also lesser known categories of denalism such as "Climate Change Denialism" and "AIDS Denialism". Denialists often give appeals to emotion when denying parts of reality verified by science time and time again.

Merology

2012-12-21T16:16:21Z

John Ruttley: Created page with "Merology is a field within the branch of ontology. It is the study of parts; especially in mathematical contexts. For more information, see the below links: http://en.m.wikipe..."

Merology is a field within the branch of ontology. It is the study of parts; especially in mathematical contexts.
For more information, see the below links:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mereology

Russell T Davies

2012-12-21T16:04:11Z

John Ruttley:

Russell T Davies is a Welsh television writer and producer. He is also an admitted atheist. He rebooted the British sci-
fi drama Doctor Who for its new 21st century run; and has created two spinoffs from it. His other works include Queer as Folk, Bob and Rose and the Second Coming. In much of what he writes, religious allegories can be seen, as well as homosexuality activity;
Queer as Folk for instance showed it as a part of life for people and how much it is accepted, unlike the prominent and sometimes disrespectful religous fundamentalism. He is widely praised for his writing; in a 2007 of Doctor Who, there were allegories in there which showed similarities between some aspects of Christian doctrine and dogma and the Doctor.
For more information see the below links:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russell_T_Davies
http://thechristianscribbler.com/2008/07/08/doctor-who-atheism-and-god/

http://freethinker.co.uk/2007/09/14/gay-atheist-dr-who-writer-sparks-religious-discussion/
http://brainz.org/50-most-brilliant-atheists-all-time/
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Who

William Paley

2012-12-14T00:04:26Z

John Ruttley: Created page with "William Paley was in essence, the founder of the teleological argument for the existence of a deity. He used the famous watchmaker analogy to support his argument. For more in..."

William Paley was in essence, the founder of the teleological argument for the existence of a deity. He used the famous watchmaker analogy to support his argument. For more information, see the main Iron Chariots Wiki article on Arguments from Design

For more information, see the links below:

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Paley
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchmaker_analogy
http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Argument_from_design
http://www.biographybase.com/biography/Paley_William.html

Doctor Darrel Ray

2012-12-12T23:01:21Z

Arensb: moved Doctor Darrel Ray to Darrel Ray: On this wiki, people -- even people with doctorates -- get pages with just their name, not their title.

Dr Darrel Ray is an organizational psychologist and author of two popular books, Sex & God (2012) and the God Virus (2009). He lives in Kansas, USA and is 62. He is also a prominent atheist; carrying extensive research into the relationships between sex and religion. He was raised a fundamentalist Christian.

See the below links for more information:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrel_Ray#section_3

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_and_organizational_psychology

http://blip.tv/the-atheist-experience-tv-show/atheist-experience-645-the-god-virus-3273699

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology_of_religion

http://blip.tv/the-atheist-experience-tv-show/atheist-experience-790-sex-and-god-6462828

Nominalism

2012-12-12T22:45:39Z

John Ruttley:

Nominalism is the metaphysical position in philosophy which asserts that abstract terms and predicates (predictates is the conflict between two theories of grammar in different contexts) exist, whilst universals or abstract objects do not exist. Often these universals correspond to the abstract terms. There are two main types of Nominalism: one which denies the existence of abstract objects, and one which denies the existence of universals. Many nominalists also maintain that physical particulars exist in space and time, whilst universals exist subsequently to particular things. A rarer version of Nominalism maintains that particulars such as numbers are abstract objects, whilst other objects such as trees and houses, chairs and tables, are concrete and do exist in space and time.

For more information, see the below links:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nominalism#section_1

http://www.reasonablefaith.org/current-work-on-god-and-abstract-objects

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/nominalism-metaphysics/

Leibniz Cosmological Argument

2012-12-12T17:26:07Z

John Ruttley:

This is a form of the Cosmological Argument proposed by Gottfried Leibniz. It is lesser known than the Kalam version, but not any more effective. It has been defended by various apologists and philosophers. The argument is as follows:
P(1): Everything which exists has an explanation of its existence
P(2): If the universe had an explanation of its existence, then the explanation must be God
P(3): The universe exists
P(4): The universe has an explanation of its existence
P(5): Therefore, God exists

See the below links for further information:
http://www.reasonablefaith.org/leibnizs-cosmological-argument-and-the-psr (Gives good information about the argument and its links to the PSR.)
http://debunkingchristianity.blogspot.co.uk/2007/10/leibnizian-cosmological-argument-part-i.html?m=1
http://www.randyeverist.com/2011/09/leibnizs-cosmological-argument.html?m=1
https://bearspace.baylor.edu/Alexander_Pruss/www/papers/LCA.html
http://fatfist.hubpages.com/hub/Leibniz-Kalam-Cosmological-Argument-REFUTED-William-Lane-Craig
http://debunkingwlc.wordpress.com/
http://exapologist.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/hume-edward-pruss-and-leibnizian.html?m=1
http://jwwartick.com/2010/10/06/l-c-a/

Sex & God

2012-12-11T20:39:36Z

John Ruttley:

Sex & God is a 2012 book by Dr Darrel Ray. It analyses the complex relationship between human sexuality and religion. It explains the links between these fundamental aspects of human nature. Indeed, in May 2011, Dr Ray published a survey that analysed this very topic.

http://www.atheismresource.com/2012/sex-god-a-new-and-fascinating-book-by-darrel-ray

http://humanistni.org/filestore/file/sex%20and%20god.pdf

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darrel_Ray

http://blip.tv/the-atheist-experience-tv-show/atheist-experience-790-sex-and-god-6462828

The God Virus

2012-12-11T20:19:23Z

John Ruttley: Created page with "The God Virus is a 2009 book by Dr Darrel Ray that, as the title suggests, documents the many toils and troubles of religion throughout the ages. http://www.thegodvirus.net/"

The God Virus is a 2009 book by Dr Darrel Ray that, as the title suggests, documents the many toils and troubles of religion throughout the ages.

http://www.thegodvirus.net/

Richard Feynman

2012-12-11T18:02:23Z

John Ruttley:

Richard Feynman is a wholly influential theoretical 20th century physicist. He performed extensive work in the field of quantum mechanics; he is well known for his quote "If you think you understand Quantum Theory you don't understand it". He also had an interest in Microbiology. He was an atheist, with some strong views on Christianity in general. Quantum Theory in general proposes some reason to believe that some selected things can occur without a cause. Some of the work Feynman did tested these various hypotheses. Quantum Theory in general, especially those parts of it investigated by Richard Feynman, is a common objection to the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

For more information, see the wikipedia article:
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Feynman

War on Christmas

2012-12-06T06:59:53Z

WhatsAGoodUsername?: /* The War on Christmas */ minor title change. Needs work. Will add more Tommorow. Maybe.

== The War on Christmas: Ignorance of a Holiday Mixed with Self-Righteousness and Fear ==
Every year, Fox News, and every fundamentalist Christian who doesn't know the actual origin of the holiday, starts rambling about how there is a nation-wide campaign to "take Christ out of Christmas!". They often say using the spelling Xmas is "X-ing the Christ out of Christmas", even though x is the first letter in the Greek word for Christ.