Monthly Archive for October, 2010

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The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 2

Published by davinci on October 23, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , .

(Part 1 is here.)

This lack of corroborating evidence for an event for which there ought to have been plenty of evidence, within the very book (or rather, collection of books) in which it is recorded, is bad enough. But the problem only gets much, much worse, the further away one moves from the immediate geographic area of a religion’s influence. The religious expressions and observations of people in the border regions between two religions become fuzzy and blended, and can be molded to accommodate either side. In the heartland of one religion, however, no trace of any evidence supporting another can be found… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 12
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 5
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 18
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The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1

Published by davinci on October 22, 2010 in reflections on religion, religion and social issues. 5 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

I consider this argument to be one of the strongest for the thesis that religions are created by human beings. It’s also an argument that every person I have ever known who became an atheist as a result of an in-depth study of religion has come up with on his or her own. From this, I infer that this argument is ubiquitous amongst atheists who had once been theists, and yet scant attention has been paid to it in writing. This is probably because it is “too obvious”, but this is one of those observations which are really obvious only in retrospect. It is not obvious to religious believers who have never been seriously exposed to another religion nor to the study of the history of religion outside of a pious “Church history” or its equivalent… » [Expand post] [Permalink]

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, conclusion and overview
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 16
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 14
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  5. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
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Why I am Not a Non-Buddhist

Published by davinci on October 22, 2010 in reflections on religion and religion. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

If I ever write a book explaining my religious views, that’s what it will (not) be called.

In the mean time, I am writing a series of posts about religion. This was prompted partly by a spate of recent popular books on atheism, which I think made the case rather poorly.

A number of people have asked me to specifically write about the relationship between the West and Islam, and what I think about how educated Westerners should discuss Islam with Muslims.

There are a number of other topics in religion I can write about, but I’ll start with those. It’s not as if they’re not challenging enough.

– davinci

If you like this post, you might also like:

  1. The geographic and temporal spread argument for religion as a human creation, part 1
  2. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 11
  3. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 9
  4. The geographic and temporal spread argument, part 15
  5. Islamic societies and the economics of ignorance, part 2
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