I've said it before and will say it again, if all you read are Christian defenses of your faith then you're not really interested in the truth. It would be like a Mormon who read nothing but the Book of Mormon, or Mormon defenses of the Mormon faith. It would be like a Muslim who read nothing but the Koran, or Muslim defenses of the Muslim faith. Get the picture? So if you don't read the books recommended by apostates, those of us who have rejected your faith, then you're not interested in the truth. I say this to jolt Christians into making a conscious choice. Either start reading the books we recommend, the ones that led to abandoning our faith, or admit you're really not interested in the truth. See if this might jar a few of them into reading outside the box. My guess is that it will.
Christian, before you complain about granting your particular faith equal time, the only question is whether or not YOU have read our recommended books. Yes or no? You need not complain about anything to us since we answer to our own consciences. Have YOU read our books? It's a question for you and you alone to answer.
The twin goals of Democratic Socialism are to meet human needs and at the same time produce economic growth. So long as people maintain those goals I don't see how Democratic Socialism can fail. The reason is because it's democratic. It might have setbacks, I know. So excesses to the left or right need their corresponding correctives so that a balance can be maintained between meeting human needs and economic growth. It's a hard balance to sustain for decades. So whenever human needs are not being met the populace will demand a corrective to the status quo. Likewise, whenever economic growth suffers greatly that too will demand a corrective, since it doesn't meet human needs either. Although surely, the more we work at it then the better we get, so we don't have excesses in the first place.
Neither pure socialism (or even communism) nor unbridled laissez-faire economics work. What's left? Call it democratic socialism or socialized democracy if you want, but I'm endorsing Bernie Sanders because of his specific policy proposals. I like them. I think they can work. There is nothing in them that calls for the end of capitalism. It's time for his kind of change.
I wrote a blurb for it, as did a slew of important people.
Link. Phil writes for us here at DC.
BACKGROUND
The New Atheism is a name given to a movement represented by Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, Sam Harris, and Christopher Hitchens, all of whom wrote best-selling books that were highly critical of religion [1].
Although the New Atheism does not eschew the classical arguments against the existence of God, its focus is primarily on the immorality and harmful consequences of religious thinking itself. For some, the New Atheism is not merely atheistic, but also anti-theistic [2].
Another main feature of the New Atheism is a secular apocalyptic outlook born out of the events of September 11, 2001. A secular apocalyptic outlook refers to the view that religion has the potential to destroy humanity and our entire biosphere.
However, many secular and religious critics of the New Atheism have charged the New Atheism with a number of flaws. One is a lack of expertise in scriptural and religious studies that has led Dawkins, Dennett, Harris, and Hitchens to make pronouncements that are rightly viewed as simplistic or inaccurate in some cases.
This situation has led to the perception that the New Atheism has no experts in scriptural and religious studies that could challenge religious counterparts with as much or more expertise. Others have conflated all New Atheists as followers of a neoliberal or capitalist ideology. Still others note that all the representatives of the New Atheism are white males.
Accordingly, there is a need to identify a Second Wave of the New Atheism. Such a need was discussed briefly in Hector Avalos, The Bad Jesus: The Ethics of New Testament Ethics (Sheffield: Sheffield Phoenix Press, 2015), but it received no elaboration [3].
Just as I was beginning to think my book publishing days were over, thinking I had personally written all the books I had in me, I submitted a proposal just to test the waters one last time, and lo and behold it was accepted for publication! This happened just when I was beginning to think Randal Rauser had successfully minimized my influence. *Whew* THAT was a very close call!! NOT! More details will follow in the months to come. It makes me happy to make Rauser happy, and Marshall, and Lowder, and Reppert, and even Parsons!! David Marshall will now have at least two future books of mine to review, er, trash on Amazon, while Lowder will still be bookless to speak of, and will still be pleading for William Lane Craig to debate him. Dr. Craig, debate him for Pete's sake. Make that BS in computer science stop whining! Maybe I'll just keep on publishing books to keep them all happy...especially Marshall.
For the record I do not take kindly to bullies. Never have, never will. If you want my disdain then try bullying me. It motivates me. It really, really does motivate me. I can't explain why, maybe it comes from my potty training days. ;-) What I know is that I was born for this, for if this is not who I am, I wouldn't be doing what I do. All I can say is keep it up. It's like pouring gasoline on the fires of my passion. You should all be congratulated, or something!