It apparently doesn’t occur to Craig that these are folks who have abandoned their faith already and are seeking support in dealing with the sometimes harsh criticisms and rejection of believers for simply changing their minds. They are not looking for someone who will force them to go through all the useless apologetics and refute each one in detail before they can justify their loss of faith. According to Craig, “…it seems the secular group thinks that the traditional arguments for  God’s existence are now passé and so no longer need refutation? If so, they are  naïve.” Craig thereupon declares that the help line should be disconnected since it is a “wrong number”. No, I think they are right in that none of the arguments has any established legitimacy and it is time to move on. The help line won’t be talking anyone out of their religion, that has already started or been completed. They are just looking for help in handling the consequences.

Craig has never been one for understanding pain and difficulty. He lives in a world where the seductive simplicity of certainty rules and has taken on the emperor’s fashion style and doesn’t realize he is naked too.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/18/michael-burgess-abortion_n_3459108.html

I shall simply post the article exactly as it was printed off (with minor adjustments to number 5) because I don’t remember where I found it originally.

Gray, Tennessee: Carletta Sims joined a financial firm in June 2001.  Shortly afterward, two Baptist coworkers took offense upon learning that Sims was an atheist.  Management granted the coworkers’ request to be assigned workspaces further from Sims.  When Sims complained about a picture of Jesus left on her computer, management discharged her.  Sims filed suit, seeking $250,000; U.S. District Judge Thomas Hull ruled that “religious discrimination (or preferential treatment of Christians) can be inferred.”  In January 2004, the major bank that had since acquired the firm settled with Sims for an undisclosed amount.

Ada, Oklahoma: A Baptist student told a local newspaper she wouldn’t take professor William Zellner’s classes because he was an atheist, triggering a flurry of abuse.  Zellner received harassing notes and telephone calls, some threatening.  His car was vandalized, for a time on a daily basis.  A local church sold “I am praying for Dr. Zellner” buttons.  His children experienced shunning and beatings from religious children.

Minneapolis, Minnesota: First-grader Michael Bristor, an atheist, was denied an honor roll certificate when he refused to participate in an unconstitutional “prayer time” at a public school.  For three years, administrators ignored the family’s complaints until a lawsuit was filed.

Caro, Michigan: In December 2001, Anonka–an open atheist who maintains a museum of Christian religious atrocities–appeared before the Tuscola County Board of Commissioners to challenge a nativity scene placed on public land.  Commissioners responded angrily, saying she had no right to be present and proceeding to ridicule her.  Anonka and her family suffered repeated harassment including annoyance calls, threatening calls and letters, and vandalism.  In February 2004, the county settled in U.S. District Court, agreeing to pay an undisclosed sum and to issue a “public expression of regret.”

Pocopson, Pennsylvania: [The author's] atheism came to prominence when [he/she] became involved in a legal challenge to a Ten Commandments plaque on the wall of the Chester County, Pennsylvania, courthouse.  Neighbors organized a shunning campaign, some area merchants refused to do business with [him/her], and [he/she] received threatening letters and phone calls.  The depth of public animus against [him/her] became a subject of local news and magazine coverage.  [He/She] was forced to close [his/her] interior decorating business because of death threats that compelled [him/her] to stop visiting the homes of persons unknown to [him/her]

Calgary, Alberta: An eleven-year-old boy (name withheld) experience daily physical attacks and threats against his life by schoolmates–notably the sons of three local pastors–after protesting intercom readings of the Lord’s Prayer in a public school.  He was repeatedly body-checked into hallway walls and attacked in restrooms.  One pastor’s son stalked him with a butcher knife in an empty portable classroom.  Despite the seriousness of this incident, no action was taken.  The boy’s parents transferred him to another school for his own safety.

Many Americans don’t realize it, but Islamic civilization was once far more advanced than that of Western Europe.  As Pinker puts it:

“During the Middle Ages, Islamic civilization was unquestionably more refined than Christendom.  While Europeans were applying their ingenuity to the design of the instruments of toture, Muslims were preserving classicl Greek culturre, absorbing the knowledge of the civilizations of India and China, and advancing astronomy, architecture, cartography, medicine, chemistry, physics, and mathematics.”

The Islamic world was also far more tolerant than its neighbors to the North.

So what changed?  As historian Bernard Lewis put it in the title of a book,what went wrong? To return to Pinker:

“Why did Islam blow its lead and fail to have an Age of Reason, and Enlightnment, and a Humanitarian Revolution?  Some historians point to bellicose passages in the Koran, but compared to our own genocidal scriptures, they are nothing that some clever exegesis and evolving norms couldn’t spin-doctor away.

“Lewis points instead to the historical lack of separation between mosque and state.  Muhammed was not just a spiritual leader but a political and military one, and only recently have any Islamic states had the concept of a distinction between the secular and the sacred.  With every potential intellectual contribution filtered through religious spectacles, opportunities for absorbing and combining new ideas were lost.  Lewis recounts that while works in philosophy and mathematics had been translated from classical Greek into Arabic, works of poetry, drama, and history were not.  And while Muslims had a richly developed history of their own civilization, they were incurious about their Asian, African, and European neighbors and about their own pagan ancestors.  The Ottoman heirs to classical Islamic civilization resisted the adoption of mechanical clocks, standardized weights and measures, experimental science, modern philosophy, translations of poetry and fiction, the financial instruments of capitalism, and perhaps more importantly, the printing press.  (Arabic was the language in which the Koran was written, so printing it was considered an act of desecration.) …the Humanitarian Revolution in Europe was catalyzed by a literate cosmopolitanism, which expanded people’s circle of empathy and set up a marketplace of ideas from which a liberal humanism could emerge.  Perhaps the dead hand of religion impeded the flow of new ideas into the centers of Islamic civilization, locking it into a relatively illiberal stage of development.  As if to prove the speculation correct, in 2010 the Iranian government restricted the number of university students who would be admitted to programs in the humanities, because, according to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khameini, study of the humanities ‘promotes skepticism and doubt in religious principles and beliefs.’”

http://www.libertynews.com/2013/05/uh-oh-american-soldiers-who-share-christian-faith-may-face-court-martial-from-pentagon/

While in Athens, Craig decided to have a little fun play-acting. Here is what he wrote:

“One of the trip’s highlights for me was baptizing a young woman from our group in the waters of the Mediterranean off Mykonos, the first person I’ve ever baptized. I’m not sure which of us was more nervous! It was also a dream come true for me to deliver publicly Paul’s address on Mars’ Hill just beneath the Acropolis in Athens, with Dave Baggett playing the role of Dionysius the Areopagite! It really made Acts 17 come alive! ”

Well, isn’t this interesting. But there is a problem. After reading about Craig’s aspiring theater career (well, actually, he has been doing theater for decades and is quite good at it), I read Acts 17. It is the chapter where Paul is said to have entered into dispute with various Epicurean and Stoic philosophers (if this is true, they must have wiped the floor with him). It is also the chapter which contains one of the most blatantly anti-intellectual passages in the whole New Testament, if not the entire Bible. In a sneering tone, the author of Acts writes of the philosophers of Athens:

“All the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there spent their time doing nothing but talking about and listening to the latest ideas” (verse 21).

First, this is a bit of an exaggeration. All the Athenians? Really? Even in the glory days of Athens in the 5th century BCE, the majority of Athenians would have been working class folks, most of them basically illiterate, and about thirty percent were slaves. But I guess this author could not resist indulging in what Mark Twain would have called a “stretcher.” What’s more interesting is the dismissive sound of the passage. As if discussing ideas is a bad thing! And notice they were “listening to” as well as “discusssing” new ideas. Listening is something one would expect that Paul was not very good at.

At any rate, with respect to Craig’s little performance which he said makes this passage “come alive,” that claim is a bit suspicious, since Dionysius, while he is mentioned at the end of Acts 17, is not presented as having said anything! Yes, they made it come alive, all right. They made up a part for Dionysius out of whole cloth!

I guess a bit of artistic license is acceptable, as long as one acknowledges that’s what one is doing. And maybe this is a minor incident, and calling Craig’s words into question might be perceived as “nitpicking.” But after having watched that man over and over again make arguments and assertions that are demonstrably false or misleading, this little incident is a reminder that Craig has no compunctions about making things up when they serve his purpose.

The letter writer is concerned with answering the question: “Who is a Christian?” And she provides “basic guidlines for the new believer” from Acts 15:29:

“You must obstain from eating food offered to idols, from consuming blood or the meat of strangled animals, and from sexual immorality.”

Ok. So presumably this writer associates gay marriage with sexual immorality. Right, and it would be perfectly moral if same-sex partners simply had sex with each other without getting married.

But what interests me are the dietary restrictions. Let’s see — last time I ordered chicken at a restaurant, I failed to ask if the bird had been strangled. Am I in danger of hell?

I know for fact that I have never strangled a cow or a pig (too much effort) — am I doing well as a follower of Christ? Am I a — gulp — Christian???

As for idols — well, I don’t know what the exact definition of an “idol” is. I don’t know of any cultic rituals in which statues are worshipped, if that is the meaning, in the immediate area. On the other hand, lots of people watch “American Idol.” I’ve never liked the show — is food offering a part of the program? If I buy Carrie Underwood a burger at McDonalds, am I in danger of eternal fire?

Ok, so lampooning is fun. But to be serious — this has to be the most ridiculus letter I have ever seen in the HR. In a way, I feel bad for saying this, because the writer, who happens to be female, is probably an innocent old lady who means no harm. But the depths of ignorance exhibited are astounding, and the fact that there are people in the 21st century who have such a truncated and impoverished view of reality is astounding.

http://www.cracked.com/article_18757_5-things-you-wont-believe-arent-in-bible.html

http://www.skepticink.com/tippling/2013/06/10/how-to-polish-a-shaft/