June 3, 2010
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(updates) Another "Christian Delusion" Prophecy Comes True
Oops. Called it again. See Randal Rauser's: Versus my heads up on the issue:
Loftus fails to frame his introduction to TCD: Are there no mainstream Christians?Loftus attempts to shuffle mainstream Christianity out of the deck to make it look like skepticism has made much more headway than it actually has.It was pretty obvious that argument was going to fall apart on impact. If he wanted to say that Christianity hasn't really stood the test of time against skeptical attacks, maybe Loftus in his introduction should have addressed the mainstream with something like this to help frame the arguments in the book instead:
I respond to Christian sensibilities: Do atheists need new arguments?Many of the old arguments still apply. Theists just think they got over them.What about what Loftus does get right in his intro? Rauser even says:
Folks, read the intro. Loftus provides a good survey of the material.Which is pretty much what I said:
...that is otherwise a good inventory of Christian diversity of opinion in confrontation with rational criticism...So, the lesson of the story here again: Content good. Framing...bad. When you frame things poorly, you end up talking more about that than anything else, since you didn't set yourself up properly.
I also added a response in the random section in my review of Loftus' introduction:
I respond to Christian reviewer, Randal Rauser: Is Christian philosopher Alvin Plantinga being irrational with his theistic properly basic beliefs?Short answer: Yes. Plantinga is making an implausible exception when we compare theistic properly basic beliefs to the intimate checks and balances we place on other properly basic beliefs.And I provide links there to various random issues about naturalism he brought up.
Ben
