1. Foreword for the UK edition of 'Letter to a Christian Nation'

Comment #22497 by olly on February 19, 2007 at 11:19 am

just enjoyed my lttle read of all your postings, so im off for my tea and i will look forward to getting sams book

2. Memo: Stop teaching evolution

Comment #22490 by olly on February 19, 2007 at 1:37 pm

Mad, plain raving loopi doop mad

3. The New Naysayers

Comment #380 by olly on September 27, 2006 at 12:00 pm

@John Flemming: Thank you for correcting that, but you can still see my point regarding volume of beliefs held in no way equals validity of belief.

@Peter Bruin: "Millions of people believe it is possible to be virtuous but not religious. That is hardly controversial. A different question is whether there is any objective reason, outside of God, why we ought to behave morally. This is also believed by millions of people, but that doesn't make it true."

There are many moral systems that are not based one iota on supernaturalism of any kind. Too often, those of a religious/mystic persuasion want to characterize morality as a debate between religious morality and atheistic relativism. It's a gross generalization for people to put Atheists in the relativist camp, as I myself am an Atheist, and absolutely opposed to moral relativism.

It is not too difficult ot construct a system of morality, based on natural universal principles, without bringing supernaturalism into the picture.

-olly

4. The New Naysayers

Comment #307 by olly on September 25, 2006 at 11:45 am

"But millions of Christians and Muslims believe that it was precisely God who turned them away from a life of immorality"

This is the typical non-argument we see here. It's not an argument to say that "millions feel that x is true" as if that held some weight. Millions of people thought the earth was flat... should we have deferred to them instead of moving on to prove it wasn't? Just for the comfort that it brought them to believe it?

The only reason that people can't see a way to be moral without supernaturalism is because it's been so ingrained in our culture that supernaturalism is the ONLY route to morality.

-olly