Addressing The Rant By Doug Giles

The Atheists days are numbered, According to Doug Giles (Yeah, I've never heard of him either). But why, You ask. Is it because organised religion has found some testable evidence to support the idea of god? Is it because they have found the keystone holding up Darwinian evolution and pulled it out? or is it because they have found a prediction in the bible that could only have been made by a supreme being? it's much worse than that! A couple of christians have written two books regurgitating every argument ever used by religion. yes, The same arguments we have kicked to death over and over.

According to Doug, these two books are going to provide answers that christians can use to "shut Atheists up", Though skimming through Dougs post it seems the books are more of a collection of facile points that have already been proven incorrect.

And if that wasn't enough to get you shaking in your little Atheist boots, One of the books is written by Dinesh D’Souza - A quick look through some of his blog posts at AOL will show you what kind of opponent he is going to be against the likes of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Christopher Hitchens. D’Souza's arguments seem to exclusively hide behind the fact that Atheists can't disprove god.

Although Doug Giles' tone and approach to reasonable discussion leads me to suspect he is a bit of a plastic christian, You know the type, Only wear their religion as a badge when they are looking for justification to rant mindlessly, It's only fair that i address some of the fallacious arguments regurgitated by him.

When the pissy God haters tell you the Bible condones slavery, you can remind them that slavery was abolished only when devout Christians, inspired by the Bible, launched a campaign in the early 1800s to abolish the slave trade.

In true christian style Doug is fast out of the blocks with a plain faced lie. If he had done even the slightest amount of research on the subject (i.e. Paid attention in school) he would know that slavery was abolished in the US largely due to it's opposition by the Free Soil Party and in the UK by William Wilberforce. He is right on one thing, The inspiration for the abolition of slavery did come from a book. Unfortunately for Doug that book happens to be "The rights of man" written by Thomas Paine, A staunch opponent of christian doctrine.

So not only has Doug decided to ignore the fact that the bible (his god) explicitly condones slavery, He has gone so far as to accredit it's abolition to the very book which at the time gave complete justification for slavery.

When the screechin’ teachers tell you the Bible has been proven false by archaeology, hark back and show them that each year a new archaeological discovery substantiates the existence of people, places and events we once knew solely from biblical sources, including the discovery of the Moabite stone in 1868, which mentions numerous places in the Bible, and the discovery of an inscription in 1961 that proves the existence of the biblical figure Pontius Pilate, just to name a few.

Don't you just love this logic? According to Doug if a book contains a few truths, it all must be true! The bible mentions real places, ergo, Jesus is the son of god. It amazes me that these claims can be made with a straight face. You are joking Doug, Right? Do the religious have logical thought surgically removed shortly after indoctrination?

When they tell you that Christianity and the Bible justify war and genocide, unsympathetically remind them that societies which rejected biblical morality in favor of a more “rational” and “scientific” approach to politics murdered millions upon millions more than the Crusades or the Inquisition ever did. ...... “The Crusades, the Inquisition, the Galileo affair, and witch hunts together make up less than 1% of the murders that have occurred during modern atheist regimes like Stalin, Hitler, and Mao.”

This is my favorite. Not because it's the point that has been most kicked to death by Atheists, Not because it tries to brush the murder and torture done by christianity under the carpet by comparing it to oppressive, Fascist regimes, But because Doug, Like every other christian, Has made the false claim that Hitler was an Atheist! What planet are you on Doug? Hitler was a devout catholic who, On many occasions, Justified his attempted eradication of the Jews by comparing his plight to Jesus' battle against "Jewish poison", He met the pope on many occasions and even had "God with us" on the belt buckle of every Nazi soldier. I had previously written a whole blog post on Hitlers christian belief, So i will move on.

You mention Stalin and Mao as well. I will grant that they were atheists, And they killed a lot of people. but their killing wasn't done in the name of Atheism. They killed because they ran oppressive regimes and they were dictatorial fascists. And if there is one thing a dictatorial fascist doesn't want it is people believing there is a god which is higher than he is. They want absolute control.

No bout the same facile arguments will continue to be presented by the religious and no doubt us Atheists will be obliged to kick each and every argument to death ad nauseam like we have done for the last 100 years. But i just wish they would come up with something new. It's bad enough when they are reduced to regurgitating scripted questions, But i feel cheapened every time i am forced to regurgitate scripted answers.