Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Appearing in Sacramento


I'll be speaking in Sacramento, California, later this month, on Sunday, September 19 (2010). The talk will take place at 3pm in the Fahs Room of the Unitarian Universalist Society of Sacramento (UUSS) at 2425 Sierra Boulevard (Sacramento 95825), sponsored by HAGSA (The Humanist Association of the Greater Sacramento Area).

I'll be discussing the contents and controversy of The Christian Delusion (and bringing up some other stuff related to it from other books of note, including Atheists, The Authoritarian Specter, and The Moral Landscape) and also selling and signing copies of that book as well as my other books (Sense and Goodness Without God and Not the Impossible Faith) after the event. For info and driving directions see the HAGSA Meeting Page. I believe it's free, but donations in support of snacks and coffee are appreciated (or even bring actual snacks to add to the table).

5 comments:

tom said...

DM's comments are periodically deleted en masse. Carrier doesn't police the threads very often though, so in the meantime just ignore the spam.

DM is as crazy and as immune to reason or calls for decency and etiquette as anyone I've seen on the web. Don't bother trying to change him.

Richard Carrier said...

Thanks, Tom. The blogger spam filter ought to have learned by now. Anyway I finally got it all out, but in case it comes back I'm leaving your post up.

merriweatherblue said...

Wouldn't it be better to believe in Jesus, a savior who will redeem us and bring us to heaven to live eternally and be wrong, than to reject Him and find out you're wrong and burn eternally in hell? You're a fool.

Pikemann Urge said...

Merriweatherblue, I trust that your point is made in a good spirit rather than an argumentative one. If that is the case, I hope you will consider the two main reasons why some people cannot accept your conclusion:

1. The choice is not polarized. There are more choices than Jesus or not Jesus. And many in between.

2. Would God punish a man for being honest? Many scientists reject string theory just as many theologians reject the idea of one, true faith.

As a supplementary point, not all Christians accept the doctrine of eternal hell. It isn't well supported in scripture.

Richard Carrier said...

I already refuted merriweatherblue's argument right here, two years ago: see No Need to Believe. Therein, P8-P15 prove that Christianity is either false, or I will not burn in hell for being an atheist. That leaves non-Christian hells (merriweatherblue is a fool for not believing in Allah, because Allah will cast all who reject him into hell for their obstinacy), but Pikeman Urge already made that point. In fact, odds are, only atheists will go to heaven, so merriweatherblue is a fool for believing in any god at all: see The End of Pascal's Wager: Only Nontheists Go to Heaven (2002).