Ex-Christadelphians: 08/01/2013

WILLIAM LANE CRAIG ON WHY THERE MIGHT BE NO GOD

Life, the Universe and Nothing Part 1: "Has science buried God?" And Part 3 "Is it reasonable to believe in God."

Life could have started on Mars

Life may have started on Mars before arriving on Earth, a major scientific conference has heard.

New research supports an idea that the Red Planet was a better place to kick-start biology billions of years ago than the early Earth was.

The evidence is based on how the first molecules necessary for life were assembled.

The September 2013 Christadelphian magazine has nothing to offer their readers on the pressing issue of the day - the imminent Western attack on Syria. Their old fashioned print version of the magazine was probably prepared earlier in the month before the chemical weapons attack on civilians became world news.

SAM HARRIS EXPLAINS WHY FREE WILL IS AN ILLUSION

In 2012, friends and prominent public intellectuals Richard Dawkins and Lawrence Krauss launched a sold out global speaking tour to promote the advancement of science and reasoning in the modern world. Their combined knowledge from the fields of evolutionary biologist and theoretical physics brings new insights to a range topics, from education to religion to the origins of the universe.

Leading Scientists, Cosmologists and Theoretical Physicists around the world are filling in the gaps of our understanding about how our universe came into existence by natural means. As the boundary between Quantum Mechanics Theory and General Relativity Theory become better understood; some form of Unified Theory of Everything, or an alternative explanation of how they work together, edges closer.

RICHARD FEYNMAN ON SEEKING TRUTH

One of the smartest scientists that have ever lived gives us some excellent advice about seeking truth

DARE YOU TEST YOUR FAITH?

What is the biggest thing that supports your conviction in the truth of the Bible and the existence of God?

Is it the evidence for the resurrection? Or the return of the Jews to Israel? Or other Bible prophecy like Daniel or Tyre? Or fulfilled prayer? Or the internal consistency of the Bible? Or the moral teaching of the Bible? Or the wonder of natural things around us? Or something else?

"OUR BEHAVIOUR IS THE RESULT OF PHYSICAL PROCESSES IN THE BRAIN"

Steven Pinker on why we do not have free will

LAWRENCE KRAUSS TALKS ABOUT NOTHING

LAWRENCE KRAUSS

A VERY BIG THANK YOU!

All of the money required to pay for an attempt to win a 2014 Oscars award for The Unbelievers movie has now been raised. A big thanks to the generosity of readers of this blog who have pledged a quarter of the total! An especial thank you to the reader in Sydney who pledged a huge amount. That was very generous of you. Also thanks to the person in America who is not a reader, but who chipped in the remaining 75% on his own!

I want you to read the following excerpts from a Christadelphian written book and at the end, guess who was the editor of this nonsense. Clue: Pay particular note to the frequent use of the word "Unbeliever."

On his blog, Ken Gilmore has accused me
of posing for a picture next to Lawrence Krauss. :)

CARTOON

On his blog, Ken Gilmore is fighting
a losing battle against nothing. :)

CARTOON

Lawrence Krauss is the author of the book
'A Universe from NOTHING'
that shows that God did not create the Universe

ORIGINS

The origin of the Universe
is becoming more clear to scientists

Let's be clear about this: We are a long way down the track of explaining all origins. The Yahweh God of the primitive Canaanite Hebrew tribe does not feature in any of the answers. Here is a brief overview of where we are at August 2013.

1. The top theoretical physicists in the world are building a foundation for our understanding of why there is something rather than nothing and how our universe and others came into existence spontaneously.

God does not feature in this process.

Congratulations to XXXX who resigned this week.

You did the right thing my friend and we Unbelievers are proud of your courage.

You made a stand for rational thinking and intellectual honesty. You have helped to forward the cause of humanity by rejecting faith based nonsense and instead you placed your trust in reason.

Well done!

'THE UNBELIEVERS' MOVIE

I had a sneak preview of "The Unbelievers" movie yesterday, thanks to Lawrence Krauss. It is quite fantastic. I want everyone on the planet to watch it. I told LMK that I'd pay for it to be shown in the Melbourne Town Hall and in the other Australian capital cities. He is going to see what can be arranged; perhaps for November 2013. Christadelphian Unbelievers are going to love it.

Cosmologists are in almost complete agreement that our universe is expanding from an original explosion ("Big Bang") and subsequent inflation. This is evidenced by the fact that all of the galaxies are moving away from each other like the dots on the skin of an inflating balloon. Wind the film backwards and you arrive at an original point from whence the universe originated. Nuclear physicists tell us that point would have been microscopically small.

Lawrence Krauss

On his blog, Ken Gilmore has made another attempt to defend his Iron Age, faith-based Christadelphian family religion against modern science.

This time it's a critical "review" of the book "A Universe From Nothing" by eminent American theoretical physicist Lawrence Krauss. Click here to read Ken's article on his blog.

There are no more "gaps" in which
the "God of the gaps" can hide

"As I have defined it this far, the relevant "nothing" from which our observed "something" arises is "empty space." However, once we allow for the merging of Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity, we can extend this argument to the case where space itself is forced into existence."

- Lawrence Krauss "A Universe from Nothing."

Click here to buy the book.

HOW SHOULD AUSTRALIAN CHRISTADELPHIANS VOTE IN THE 2013 ELECTION?

How you vote in the 2013 election will decide your future.

Will you vote for the incumbent party who have made your religion out-dated and irrelevant to modern society? Their divided leadership is bickering over Evolution, the age of the Earth, the origin of the universe and many other issues. They are hidebound by tradition and have no clear vision for the future of Christadelphianism. Their intellectuals seem to despise their own community and spend most of their time studying the websites of other religions or deconverting. If our page view counter is an opinion poll, the Christadelphian Theist Party are heading for a landslide defeat.

How should you vote? Click "More" for the answer.

AN APPEAL TO INTELLIGENT CHRISTADELPHIANS

I have just read online the Christadelphian preaching booklet "Creation or Chance" on the Coventry Grosvenor Road Christadelphian Ecclesial website.

If you have not already read it, you can scan through it here:

http://www.coventrychristadelphians.org.uk/creation.htm

What is up with you guys? How can you remain in a religion that publishes garbage like that? That booklet is even worse than the Evangelical Church material that it copies.

Look at our page views, they are soaring! Six months ago they were 3,000 per 30 day period. See the live page view counter on the right sidebar for the latest numbers.

The recent shock deconversion and resignation of brother Rod Hyndman doubled our page view numbers overnight and we are keeping those new readers.

Several correspondents and commenters on this website have written to complain that it's taking far too long to deconvert using our existing techniques. There is so much material to read on this and on other Christadelphian deconversion websites that it can take years to read it all. Even our new Fast Track Deconversion Service is much too slow for some enthusiastic Christadelphians. For example one elderly sister wrote to say:

ANSWER TO BIBLE QUESTION 2

The answer is that Jeremiah wrote the last six chapters of Zechariah and some post exilic forger tacked Jeremiah onto the end of Zechariah (which comes to a natural end at the conclusion of chapter eight) in an effort to turn the book of Zechariah in to a post exilic apocalyptic work. He succeeded and the Christadelphians fell for it. They think that Zechariah 12 - 14 refers to the return of Christ; which of course is nonsense.

Yet another change of name for this website. I've never been happy with the "Atheism" tag because I agree with Lawrence Krauss that "we should not buy into absolutes."

Looking at things from a scientific perspective, things are either likely or unlikely. I think that it is extremely unlikely that there is a God, or that the Bible is inspired. But to shut the door on a possibility is not intellectually honest. That is NOT how the scientific method operates.

WILL EVERYONE PLEASE STOP COMMENTING AS "ANONYMOUS"

You guys are driving me nuts! Just about everyone signs in as "Anonymous" when they make a comment and this causes endless confusion.

Instead of being "Anonymous" please use the drop down menu and chose "Name/URL". Disregard the "URL" part and give yourself a name.

I know that you know that your faith is no longer defensible. Our recent celebrity deconvertant obviously thinks the same way.

Matthew 27:9 says that Jeremiah wrote Zechariah 11:13.

MATTHEW
Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him that was valued, whom they of the children of Israel did value; And gave them for the potter's field, as the Lord appointed me.

No one got the answer to "BIBLE QUESTION" at:

http://www.ex-christadelphians.com/2013/08/bible-question.html

- so here is the answer.

Another great article from one of my Christadelphian heroes, brother Ken Gilmore, over at his excellent Facebook page.

Visit Ken's site and give him some support and thanks for all the wonderful work that he is doing to promote rational thinking amongst Christadelphians.

Also see my comments at the end.

Editor's Note: Another letter contributed by one of the finest Christadelphian sisters that ever graced an ecclesial hall. Her real name is Dawn and you all know who this wonderful sister is in real life.

Frightened to tell your Arranging Brethren that you want out? Worried that they might cause problems if you resign?

Now with our new Fast Track Deconversion Service we've made it easier than ever to leave the Christadelphians.

Source:

http://koshurpinta.blogspot.com.au/2011/11/rethinking-religious-conversions-in.html

Professor Jim Al-Khalili Explains Humanism

Start at 2.55 to skip the boring introduction Enjoy!

BIBLE QUESTION

This one is for the Christadelphians. Our science readers won't be able to get it and the Ex-Christadelphians won't care what the answer is; much less try to work it out. :)

The answer has nothing to do with this picture

What did both Darwin and Richard Dawkins believe was the single strongest piece of evidence known to man that proved the truth of Evolution?

There is no record of a Creationists ever even attempting to answer this proof. They don't even try.

Only one thing can travel faster than the speed of light. This thing could theoretically travel much faster than the speed of light and still not violate Special Relativity or General Relativity.

What is it?

Answers in the comments below please. If you don't get it, I'll tell you the correct answer in three days time.

SUPPORT LAWRENCE KRAUSS 16 AUGUST 2013

Lawrence Krauss

In my opinion Lawrence is facing an Evangelical Church ambush at his 16 August "discussion" (they are not calling it a debate - but it is) in Melbourne. It is likely to be a hostile audience for him.

I appeal to all Atheists to spread the word and buy up the remaining tickets and come along to applaud your support for what is rational thinking about belief in God.

Following years of entrapment in a Nineteenth Century British religion, started by a slave owning medical doctor, based on a book written by Iron Age scribes in Babylonian captivity in the Seventh Century BCE; Christadelphians are finally waking up to the reality that they can escape and return to live normal lives in society.

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