Category Archives: Site News
Explain this to Me. . .
I didn’t think that it was even possible, but my local library has not one, but FOUR copies of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster. No wonder it’s rated one of the top ten library systems in the nation. It even has books that aren’t worthy of stocking!
Either way, I will obtaining one of the blessed four copies shortly to begin a refutation of it on the new site dedicated to refuting His Noodliness.
We are now a Network of Sites
Recently, I announced that I have consolidated the material refuting John W. Loftus into a network of sites.
I am doing the same thing here. I will soon use the domain “godisnotimaginary.info” to consolidate answers to a variety of parody religions, as well as the sites Why Won’t God Heal Amputees and God is Imaginary. As it stands, the network will consist of the following sites:
- http://www.godisnotimaginary.info – The portal site, listing and linking to all of the other sites.
- http://blog.godisnotimaginary.info – This site, which will report on the other sites.
- http://wwgha.godisnotimaginary.info – Response to Why Won’t God Heal Amputees. (coming soon)
- http://gii.godisnotimaginary.info – Response to God is Imaginary.
- http://fsm.godisnotimaginary.info – Responding to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. (coming soon)
- http://google.godisnotimaginary.info – Responding to the Church of Google. (coming soon)
Keep an eye here for updates!
Market Research
The economy is tanking, and my family (like everyone else’s, I know) is suffering alongside. This blog and all content therein is (and will remain) free. The upkeep (domain name) is not free, however. This means that I am devoting a significant portion of my time to writing and maintaining fresh content on a resource from which I derive no income and actually costs me a nominal amount of money annually to maintain.
In order to keep doing this, I must generate at least some revenue from this venture. Although I have set up a way to receive donations, which has generated some interest, no donations are coming in. After careful consideration, I have decided that producing e-books is the best way to continue this ministry.
That does not mean that I’m shutting down the blog or that I will begin to charge for reading it. Far from. I will continue to update the blog, hopefully as much (or more) as I already do. I want this resource to remain free.
However, I would like to produce e-books in addition to what I’m already doing here. These e-books will both be original as well as expansions of past articles. I have numerous ideas, but I need to focus my efforts where they will do the most good. As such, I have constructed a poll. What follows are all of my ideas for e-books so far. I would like you, the reader, to vote on the ones that you would be most interested in reading.
If you have any questions, send me an e-mail or comment below for all to see.
The Discussion Board is No More
I’ve given up on the Josiah Concept Ministries discussion board idea. Although it seems to get plenty of views, only 3 people have signed up for it–including me. Only I’ve started threads, and one other user has responded only to my introductory post. The third user hasn’t even made a single post.
Therefore, as I finish up proofs for God is NOT Imaginary, I will be enabling the built-in comments section from Google Sites. Hopefully this will generate some discussion. The same will be happening over at the Are Christians Deluded? site. As I finish up my counterpoint articles, I will enable the built-in comments.
To help everyone keep up with Are Christians Deluded? and God is NOT Imaginary, I have added the blog feeds in the sidebar.
Proofs #21 and #30 are Up!
I have numerous projects that I’m trying to work on right now, so updating God is NOT Imaginary has been low on my list of priorities. However, I have managed to get Proofs #21 and #30 all set to go.
The reason that I’ve been putting these off is that, in rewriting the proofs, I want to take the time to address the comments I’ve received from the original site. I don’t know why I worried so much. Reviewing the comments thus far from these two proofs, I really haven’t been getting any that are worth addressing. Of course, as I get set to re-do Proof #1 and #2, that may change. Prayer is one of the biggest bones of contention with skeptics and atheists. Perhaps I’ll see some good argumentation there.
One final note: I’ve given up on the Josiah Concept Ministries discussion board idea. Although it seems to get plenty of views, only 3 people have signed up for it–including me. Only I’ve started threads, and one other user has responded only to my introductory post. The third user hasn’t even made a single post.
Therefore, as I finish up proofs, I will be enabling the built-in comments section from Google Sites. Hopefully this will generate some discussion. The same will be happening over at the Are Christians Deluded? site.
An Ironic Post Count!
According to the stats over at The Blog for WhyWon’tGodHealAmputees, there are 666 posts (as of July 23, 2010).
General Announcements
John W. Loftus seems to have two new books in the works. One is a continuation of The Christian Delusion tentatively titled The End of Christianity. I expect that title to change, as William Dembski recently published a book with that exact title. Truth Be Told has another take on the book’s title.
As Loftus has published abstracts of the chapters appearing in the new book, I will put some tentative responses up on a new site, http://endofchristianity.josiahconcept.org. The final answers (and a spiffier website, perhaps with its own domain name) will be forthcoming when the new book is available, summer 2011. For now, I have some initial thoughts on the first two essays ready to go.
Domain names are getting expensive. Though I was able to purchase godisnotimaginary.info and christiandelusion.info for peanuts, renewing them certainly won’t be as cheap. I could be looking at almost $10 per domain. My plan is to leave those domains active for the next year, but then move the sites to subdomains of my josiahconcept.org domain after that. Therefore, you will be able to access the Loftus refutation at http://christiandelusion.josiahconcept.org and the updated God is NOT Imaginary at http://godisnotimaginary.josiahconcept.org (or, since that’s a mouthful, http://godisreal.josiahconcept.org.) after the other two domains expire.
I’m experimenting with a blog for the God is NOT Imaginary site, as an antidote to select blog entries from the WWGH/GII blog. You can find it at http://blog.godisnotimaginary.info. I’m probably going to end up deleting it, but we’ll see how it goes for right now.
My other blog, Fast Food Management Secrets, is in stasis for the moment. I have a few additional posts to hammer out, but I probably won’t be doing anything further with that blog. Its domain name has been canceled and deleted.
Answer to the Introduction is Up
The first of what I hope to be a barrage of new material has been posted.
I wasn’t even going to do an answer to the book’s introduction, but I changed my mind quickly.
After reading the introduction and suspecting that Loftus had either misunderstood or pulled them entirely out of context, I did some research on Alvin Plantinga and William Lane Craig. Turns out, Loftus was a bit unfair in categorizing his complaints of Plantinga’s properly basic belief and Craig’s exposition of the role of the Holy Spirit in relation to evidence. So I tried to set all of that straight here.
My Copy is Purchased!
I finally broke down, loosed the purse strings, and bought a copy of The Christian Delusion.
So, look for content to be added to the site within the next few days. Hopefully, we can at least add answers for 1 to 2 chapters per week, though that might be a tad bit ambitious considering all of the other writing work that I’m trying to do right now.
Interesting Stats on the Blog for WWGHA
It’s really interesting for me to note that the Blog for Why Won’t God Heal Amputees supposedly bills itself as a way for humans to free themselves from all religions, not just a specific religion. The tagline expresses this: “Exploring God and religion in our world today.” The About Page also expresses that sentiment. The site is supposed to be about religion in general.
Yet, what do we see when we look at the stats? The stats say that, as of June 28, 2010, there are 657 total posts. Of these, 588 are about Christianity! The total posts about Judaism and Islam don’t come anywhere near that total.
That means this site is biased particularly against Christianity, while largely leaving other religions alone. Do I see any posts about Ba’his? What about Buddhists? Anything on that site about the absurdity of Jainism or an attempt to refute theosophy or Scientology?
Nope. And I’m not holding my breath for it either.
Back Rome Again 