The opening of John C. Wright’s latest column in the Theist vs. Atheist series debate at EveryJoe:
“Our story so far: Mr. Hicks and I have agreed to debate eight questions concerning theism and atheism. The topic for this week is whether religion is necessary for personal ethics.
“Before turning to that question, a brief recap in is order.
“The first question was whether it is worthwhile to reason about religion. Mr. Hicks and I agreed that everyone should reason about his position that he might learn its weaknesses.
“I further said that reason could allay fallacious objections to faith in God, in order to remove an intellectual obstacle to love, albeit obviously was not sufficient to persuade one to love God. No one is talked into falling in love. I also mentioned that deductive reasoning sufficed to prove monotheism in the abstract, but was insufficient to prove specifics of revealed religion (such as Trinitarianism, Christology, and Soteriology), where discursive reasoning was needed instead. The distinction was between two types of reasoning, not between reason and willful self-deception.
“Mr. Hicks contrived to misquote both myself and Tertullian, pretending we claimed that some bizarre mental operation of willful self deception was necessary for faith in God, and was the definition of faith. To the contrary, “faith” is a word that merely means trust in an authority or trust in the testimony of a witness, and maintaining consistency with that decision when despair, but not evidence, tempts you …” [Read more here.]
Here are the links to other columns in the series.
Oh well, it was a nice thought provoking discussion while it lasted. Mr. Wright’s heated attack today ended it, I’m afraid. That was simply painful to read.
Stephen, nice job in this series on your part though. Even though I don’t agree with you or Mr. Wright, you stimulated some new thinking on my part and I appreciate that.
Thanks, Bret.
My reply will be up next Friday, on morality and religion. We’re only halfway through the series of topics, so hopefully there will be some good stuff that emerges.
Well, he is a lawyer. In England, one lawyer prepares the case and another argues it in court. One lawyer didn’t look at the notes until he got to court. In his folder was one piece of paper that said “You have no case. Slander the opposing attorney.”
According to him, you didn’t just misquote. You “contrived to misquote, and you were also “pretending” that he made a claim. Did he offer any direct quotes as evidence? Of course not because there were none.
And he didn’t bother to refute your infinite regress argument, merely calling it a “schoolboy argument.” Argument by Name-Calling. His example of a train is a false analogy that has nothing to do with the infinite regress. You don’t need an infinite number of cars to justify the engine.
The Big Bang HAD TO BE Supernatural? Really? Have all other possibilities been excluded? Again, an unsupported claim.
“We are all aware of the authority of the conscience which condemns wrong action when we do wrong or fail to do right.” Does that apply to all the religious fanatics over the centuries who killed all those who disagreed with them?
“The evils done by polytheistic gods…” Uh, how does he know? Was he there? How about the Bible? It says that believers have to stone to death anyone who tries to convert them to another religion and that it is an “abomination” to eat shellfish.
“The divine source of law cannot also be the source of lawlessness.” How about the over one million people killed in religious wars, or by the Inquisition? He gave these numbers himself!
“The atheist cannot regard the conscience as supernatural. If it is natural, it is non-deliberate, since all natural things are non-deliberate.” Where is his supporting evidence? Are we to just take his word for it?
And if we are to follow a monotheistic religion, which one?
How many Christian denominations are there?
About 34,000.
There are about 34,000 different Christian groups in the world since AD 30. This is according to the World Christian Encyclopedia published in 2001. 1,200 different Christian denominations exist in the United States alone. Some groups classify Christianity into 8 meta-groups, namely Roman Catholicism (the largest), Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and Assyrian Churches, Protestantism, Restorationism, Anglican Communicants, Pentecostal, and others.
http://www.numberof.net/number-of-christian-denominations/