I really enjoyed watching the video below of a British atheist named Pat Condell. Supposedly addressed to "angry Christians," the video is actually more illuminating about atheists. Condell is ostensibly chastizing Christians for burning with inward rage and for secretly wanting people to burn in hell. Actually, I don't know a single Christian who fits this description, although perhaps there are some.
What is obvious for all to see is what a smug, self-satisfied character Condell is. On his website he boasts, "Hi, I'm Pat Condell. I don't respect your beliefs and I don't care if you're offended." Religion has its uses, he concedes. "I turn to it whenever I want my intelligence insulted." Ordinarily I wouldn't pay much attention to this guy, but in a strange way I think his attitude mirrors that of the big-name atheists like Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens. If the televangelists are guilty of producing some simple-minded, self-righteous Christians, then the atheist authors are guilty of producing self-congratulatory buffoons like Condell.
Only Condell doesn't know he is a buffoon. He regards himself as super-sophisticated, a man of knowledge. Yet consider his argument in the video that Christ probably didn't exist. Condell says Christ's historicity is based on "hearsay." But all historical evidence is "hearsay," including the evidence for the existence of Voltaire and George Washington. In reality there is more evidence for Christ's existence than there is for the existence of most of the figures of the ancient world. Do you believe that Socrates existed? Alexander the Great? Julius Caesar? Think about this: we only know about Socrates because of Plato and Xenophon, and there are only a couple of sources for Alexander and Caesar. The documentary evidence for these men is limited to very few manuscripts which are sometimes dated centuries later. Yet no historian doubts that these men existed.
By contrast, Christ's existence is attested not only by the writers of the gospels and the Acts of the Apostles, who wrote in the first hundred years after Christ's death, but also because of Jewish, Greek and Roman sources, such as Josephus, Suetonius, Pliny, and Tacitus. There are innumerable early manuscripts of the gospels and they have been assiduously compared to establish their authenticity. The early church and its martyrs who risked death rather than renounce Christ all suggest that there was a man behind it all, a man who was crucified and who was believed by his disciples to have risen. Whatever you think of the miracles, no serious historian questions the historicity of Christ.
Next month my book What's So Great About Christianity hits the shelves, and atheists are going to find that they no longer have the public field to themselves. In fact, I'm scheduled to debate Christopher Hitchens in New York city October 22. So far Hitchens has been foraging around around the country beating up pastors who are unaccustomed to dealing with spear-chuckers like him. Mine is a book that will empower believers and challenge unbelievers. It meets skepticism and atheism on its own intellectual ground, which is the ground of reason and evidence. Michael Shermer, editor of "Skeptic" magazine, says of my book, "It takes the debate to a new level. Read it." And here is my old debating rival Stanley Fish, a noted scholar who hardly shares either my theology or my politics: "The great merit of this book is that it concedes nothing. Rather than engaging in the usual defensive ploys, D'Souza meets every anti-God argument head on and defeats it on its own terms. Infinitely more sophisticated than the rants produced by Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, What's So Great About Christianity leaves those atheist books in the dust." If you are ready for the challenge, preorder the book here.
Reader Comments ( Page 60 of 62)
886. Well, ha- hmm,
I figured that its a place where we are these king things, ha- hmm, and queens. Or whatever. And we rule an that. And we use golden sinks, not gold- plated mind you. And we still are the same people. I still dont comepletely comprendo though. Mystery remains. Thats life. Its where I last put it.
Michelle at 10:31PM on Oct 6th 2007
887. Yoo ho?
Michelle at 10:44PM on Oct 6th 2007
888. um whoo, not ho, but you knew what I meant?
Michelle at 10:45PM on Oct 6th 2007
889. Aqui esta usted?
Michelle at 10:58PM on Oct 6th 2007
890. Well then,
austa lavista.
Michelle at 11:14PM on Oct 6th 2007
891. HA! HA! HA! HA!
The sound of laughter that you can imagine hearing from is from my arsehole, Dinesh.
That is what your book deserves.
naamoku osai at 1:18PM on Oct 7th 2007
892. No, Michelle,
I honestly don't imagine that even if we all became mysterious kings and queens... washing our faces in solid gold sinks that we would lose our existential angst.
Now ray two-truths may be smug(and he may not) because he thinks that he has it all figured to his satisfaction...
... and I may be smug(and I may not) because I think that I have it figured..
But you seem to be confused. Why is it not at all likely that humans like all other life on this planet are born, live, and then die... fulfilling(or not) a destiny of having offspring?
Why does it seem unlikely to you that there really is no such thing as free-will...
... even in trivial choices like what you will wear today... you constrain your own choices by 'what is appropriate'... 'what is your own preference' etc.
pboyfloyd at 2:57PM on Oct 7th 2007
893. I enjoyed the Pat Condell's video and am thankful to the person who sent me the link. It is worth mentioning here that I wouldn't have visited D D'Souza's blog had it not been for Condell.
I already know what sort of crap DD has set forth in his new book that originally spouted from the old Christian fraud Eusebius and his cronies. I wonder who pays DD for this ultramodern nonsense!
George Thundiparambil at 6:45PM on Oct 7th 2007
894. The Hoover Institute
pboyfloyd at 7:10PM on Oct 7th 2007
895. The big bang theory,Hmmmm lets see, A bang without
matter, A spark without Element---- The theory of evolution, Life from non - life, Purely natural mutations with in an organism. Remember now it was without life, And then suddenly it had the ability within it's dead non - existent self to come alive and start a process known as natural selection. Do you atheist and evolutionist know how impossible your theorys are on this matter. You serve and worship your gods Darwin and Lemaitre, Pray and let us see if they answer, maybe they will give you the rest of the answeres to your delusions. Talk about a fairy tail you are in one.
keepitreal at 6:55PM on Oct 8th 2007
896. "The big bang theory,Hmmmm lets see, A bang without matter,"
Only because you don't know what you're talking about.
"The theory of evolution, Life from non - life,"
So where did god come from, since life can only come from life? No, god can't always be: life can only come from life. Life can only come from life. Life can only come from life.
"Purely natural mutations with in an organism."
And sometimes from man-made cauases.
"Remember now it was without life, And then suddenly it had the ability within it's dead non - existent self to come alive'
BZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZT! If it was dead, at one point it was alive. IDIOT! MORON!
" and start a process known as natural selection. Do you atheist and evolutionist know how impossible your theorys are on this matter."
No. Please tell me so that I can laugh at your utter stupidity as you quote Kent Hovind, Duane Gish, or Michael Behe.
"You serve and worship your gods Darwin and Lemaitre,"
Really? Care to prove it?
Knight_of_BAAWA at 8:14PM on Oct 8th 2007
897. @ keepitreal...
... you seem to be confusing atheism with science.
pboyfloyd at 8:20PM on Oct 8th 2007
898. ... and keepitreal also..
seems to be confusing science with religion, as if it produces false gods for atheists to worship.
... this confusion seems to lead keepitreal to be confused about atheism as 'no gods'... and puts it in religious terms, which is atheism as 'false gods'.
Now, it seems to me that if you are willing to believe that the Bible is revealed knowledge and that there is a supernatural realm... and therefore you worship Jesus...
...it is then easy for you to imagine that atheists must be worshipping something... themselves...or science... or science heroes.. or whatever.
But... of course atheists don't see it from the Christian worldview... of having to have to worship SOMETHING... and Christians don't see it from the atheist world view... that the word 'worship' itself is meaningless.
pboyfloyd at 2:24PM on Oct 9th 2007
899. pboy/knight
Is that all you Bozo's got.
I strongly recomend another course in science for the both of you Idiot's. Remember life from non-life
If you try you should be able to comprehend the foolishness, in this theory of impossibilitys.
keepitreal at 5:46PM on Oct 9th 2007
900. keepitreal, if life can only come from life, where did god come from?
MORON!
You need to comprehend the foolishness of denying your own premise and expecting people to take you seriously.
IDIOT!
Knight_of_BAAWA at 6:51PM on Oct 9th 2007