Debunking Christianity 2014 on the fact that the First Letter of John tells Christians they need no teacher for they have the holy spirit to teach them
It is good to remember that teachings about the Holy Spirit saving you the
trouble of looking for teachers, is dangerous. It leads to arrogance and
sectarianism. If Christian A contradicts Christian B and both claim to be guided
by God then clearly one has to accuse the other of being a fake or of been
fooled by a being pretending to be the Holy Spirit. I just wanted to make that
point for I think it is helpful to point out the dangers of a doctrine and not
just the silliness of a doctrine. It attracts Christians to the truth - that
Christianity is another Mormonism, a pack of lies and errors and
rationalisations.
JOHN LOFTUS
John Loftus said, "I'm not a specialist myself, nor do I have a Ph.D. I am a
generalist. Someone has to be an expert in all things Christian, as much as
possible. That's my goal. I think having a Ph.D. is a slight factor since having
one gains a person some instant credibility. But when I look at some of the
scholarly atheist works available I don't think it's much of a factor. Some of
their works are not selling any better than mine."
Personally I feel that having the credibility that comes with a Ph.D can
lead to some abusing the credibility. It is remarkable how people regarded as
extremely well educated can believe rubbish. Then again they only say they
believe it. Or is it a case where they don't care about the truth but about
their glory for their credibility guarantees them a reasonably sized audience? I
include those theologians who try to justify God commanding violence and murder
in the Bible as among those kind of manipulators. Surely if one has people
believing the nonsense one preaches just because one is thought to be highly
educated then one is going to get a ego boost that does not come from simply
passing truth on to a person when truth speaks for itself. Truth is its own
thing - it is truth no matter who says it is or isn't. It is its own authority
and there is no ego boost in putting the truth out there. And also, no matter
who says something we have to think it through for ourselves.
At the end of the day, good thinking habits matter more than any Ph.D and I find
John's books excellent examples of them.
December 13 - Posted on Debunking Christianity in response to a comment that
people believe what they want to believe and there is no point in trying to
change their minds.
It is not true that people always believe what they want to believe. Do all
besotted wives deny the evidence and proof of their husband's infidelity? Some
do and some don't. Those that don't believe what they really do not want to
believe. Often people feel things are true and mistake this feeling for
believing. But you can feel omnipotent though you know or believe you are not.
There is a word for a person who only believes what he wants - psychotic is that
word.
BIBLE QUOTATIONS FROM:
The Amplified Bible
BOOKS CONSULTED
A Critical Review of Humanist Manifestos 1 & 2, Homer
Duncan MC, International Publications, Lubbock Texas.
A Shattered Visage The Real Face of Atheism, Ravi
Zacharias, Wolgemuth & Hyatt, Tenneessee, 1990
A Thief in the Night, John Cornwell, Penguin, London,
1990
A Woman Rides the Beast, Dave Hunt, Harvest House,
Eugene, Oregon, 1994
All Roads Lead to Rome, Michael de Semlyen, Dorchester
House Publications, Bucks, 1993 (page 120 recounts Cardinal Konig of Vienna’s
testimony that the Vatican helped Nazi war criminals to escape)
Apologetics and Catholic Doctrine, Part 1, Most Rev M
Sheehan DD, M H Gill & Son, Dublin 1954
Apologetics for the Pulpit, Aloysius Roche Burns Oates
& Washbourne Ltd, London, 1950
Blind Alley Beliefs, David Cook, Pickering & Inglis,
Glasgow, 1979
Catholicism and Fundamentalism, Karl Keating, Ignatius
Press, San Francisco, 1988
Christianity, David Albert Jones, OP, Family
Publications, Oxford, 1999
Convert or Die, Edmond Paris, Chick Publications,
Chino, California, undated
Correction and Discipline of Children, John R Rice,
Sword of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1946
Crisis of Moral Authority, Don Cupitt, SCM Press,
London, 1985
Documents of the Christian Church, edited by Henry
Bettenson, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1979
Does America Need the Moral Majority? William
Willoughby, Haven Books, New Jersey, 1981
Does Conscience Decide? Bishop William J Philbin,
Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, Dublin
Ecumenical Jihad, Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press, San
Francisco, 1996
European Union and Roman Catholic Influence In
Britain, David N Samuel, The Harrison Trust, Kent, 1995
Fascism in the English Church, A London Journalist,
Henry E Walter, London, 1938
Fifty Years in the “Church” of Rome, Charles Chiniquy,
Chick Publications, Chino, California, 1985
God and the Gun, The Church and Irish Terrorism,
Martin Dillon, Orion, London, 1998
God Is Not Great, The Case Against Religion,
Christopher Hitchens, Atlantic Books, London, 2007
‘God, That’s not fair!’ Dick Dowsett, OMF Books,
Overseas Missionary Fellowship, Belmont, The Vine, Sevenoaks, Kent TN13 3TZ]
Kent, 1982
Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Peter Kreeft and
Ronald Tacelli, Monarch, East Sussex, 1995
Human Rights, Michael Bertram Crowe Veritas, Dublin,
1978
In God’s Name, David Yallop, Corgi, London, 1987
Is the Roman Catholic Church a Secret Society? John V
Simcox, Warren Sandell and Raymond Winch Watts & Co London, 1946
Is There Salvation Outside The Catholic Church? Fr J
Bainvel SJ, TAN, Illinois, 1979
Jesuit Plots, From Elizabethan to Modern Times, Albert
Close, Protestant Truth Society, London undated
Jesus the Only Saviour, Tony and Patricia Higton,
Monarch Tunbridge Wells, Kent, 1993
New Catholic Encyclopedia, The Catholic University of
America and the McGraw-Hill Book Company, Inc., Washington, District of
Columbia, 1967
Radio Replies, Vol 1, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio
Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota, 1938
Radio Replies, Vol 2, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio
Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota 1940
Radio Replies, Vol 3, Frs Rumble and Carty, Radio
Replies Press, St Paul, Minnesota 1942
Religion of Peace? Why Christianity is and Islam
Isn't, Robert Spencer, Regnery Publishing Inc, Washington, 2007 - a curious book
in that it simply doesn't mention how Christian Scriptures incited believers, eg
Calvinists, to attack and destroy other believers who were thought to be
heretics and doesn't mention the infallible decrees of the Roman Catholic Church
commanding the violent destruction of heretics but wants to give the impression
that unlike the Koran, the Christian Scriptures and the Christian religion do
not make calls for religious violence
Religious Freedom, A Fundamental Right, Michael
Swhwartz, Liguori Publications, Missouri, 1987
Roman Catholicism, Loraine Boettner, Presbyterian and
Reformed Publishing Company, Phillipsburg, New Jersey, 1987
Rome – Our Enemy, Clifford Smyth, Puritan Printing,
Belfast, 1975
Secular Humanism – The Most Dangerous Religion in
America, Homer Duncan, MC International Publications, Lubbock, Texas. Undated.
Sex Education in Our Public Schools, Jack Hyles, Sword
of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1969
Sex, Dissidence and Damnation, Jeffrey Richards,
Routledge, London 1994
Spy in the Vatican 1941-45, Branko Bokun, Tom Stacey
Books, London, 1973
Summa Theologica of St Thomas Aquinas, Part II, Second
Number, Thomas Baker, London, 1918.
The Case for Faith, Lee Strobel, Zondervan, Grand
Rapids, Michigan, 2000
The Christian and War, Robert Moyer, Sword of the
Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1946
The Church of Rome, Wilson Ewin, Bible Baptist Church,
Nashua NH USA
The Encyclopaedia of Heresies and Heretics, Leonard
George, Robson Books, London, 1995
The End Of Faith, Religion, Terror And The Future Of
Reason, Sam Harris, Free Press, London, 2005
The Future of Atheism, Alister McGrath and Daniel
Dennet in Dialogue, Robert B Stewart, SPCK, London, 2008
The Inquisition of the Middle Ages, Henry Charles Lea,
Citadel, New York, 1963
The Last Temptation of Christ, Its Deception and What
you Should Do About it, Erwin T Lutzer, Moody Press, Chicago, 1988
The Pestilence of AIDS, Hugh Pyle, Sword of the Lord,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1987
The Reason for God, Belief in an Age of Scepticism,
Timothy Keller, Hodder & Stoughton, London, 2008
The Rise of the Spanish Inquisition, Jean Plaidy,
Star, London, 1978
The Sacred Executioner Human Sacrifice and the Legacy
of Guilt Hyam Maccoby Thames and Hudson, London, 1982
The Secret History of the Jesuits, Edmond Paris, Chick
Publications, Chino, California, 1975
The Truth About the Homosexuals, Dr Hugh F Pyle, Sword
of the Lord, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1978
The Truth that Leads to Eternal Life, Watchtower, New
York, 1968
The Unequal Yoke, John R Rice, Sword of the Lord,
Murfreesboro, Tennessee, 1946
The Upside-Down Kingdom, Donald B Kraybill Marshalls,
Hants, 1978
The Vatican Connection, The Explosive Expose of a
Billion-Dollar Counterfeit Stock Deal Between the Mafia the Church, Richard
Hammers Penguin, Middlesex, 1982
Their Kingdom Come, Robert Hutchison, Corgi, London,
1997
Unholy Sacrifices of the New Age, Paul de Parrie and
Mary Pride, Crossway Books, Westchester, Illinois 1988
Vatican USA, Nino LoBello, Trident Press, New York,
1972
Vicars of Christ, Peter de Rosa, Corgi Books, London,
1993
Walking with Unbelievers, Michael Paul Gallagher SJ,
Veritas Dublin 1985
War and Politics The Christian’s Duty, Peter Watkins,
Christadelphian Bible Mission, Birmingham
What About Those Who Have Never Heard? Radio Bible
Class, Grand Rapids, Michigan, 1986
Whatever Happened to Heaven? Dave Hunt, Harvest House,
Publishers, Oregon, 1988
THE WWW
www.infidels.org/library/historical/joseph_mccabe/big_blue_books/book_10.html
Fascist Romanism Defies Civilisation by Joseph McCabe
www.hom.net/~angels/democracy.html
Democracy is not a good form of Government by Citizens
for the Ten Commandments
www.mindspring.com/~bab5/BIB/lessons.htm
Is Christianity a Cult?
