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Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Dan the Dipshit

Dan the Debunker is being an immature asshole. On Amazon.com, Dan has inserted a picture of himself under the book Why I Became an Atheist by John W. Loftus. He attached the following caption to the picture:
Are you sure you want to go down the path John chose? Eternity is a very long time, you do understand. Your choice, the religion of atheism or follow the Creator of all called Christianity.
Instead of actually purchasing the book and writing an honest review, Dan is using scare tactics to hurt the sales of the book. On his blog, Debunking Christianity, Loftus points out that sales of the book have gone down since the image was uploaded.
And my book is being attacked quite a bit on Amazon. There are three poor reviews of it from Christians who never even read it, one calling me a "liar" simply because I deny the existence of God. On the 17th of this month my book was ranked around 3,000th but a Christian placed an image there and slowly it dropped to 22,000th by today.
Thus, I would like to ask Dan to do the right thing and please delete the photo and the caption. If you've read the book and find the arguments to be weak, then write a review stating your case. If you have not read it, then it is intellectually dishonest of you to comment on the book or the arguments it presents. Trying to scare people into not purchasing the book with threats of Hell is immature. 

Update:  The photo has been removed from Amazon. Hopefully, Dan was kind enough to remove it. BTW, I think you owe Mr. Loftus an apology. 

16 comments:

  1. I'm hoping to get my copy in the mail this week. I'll let you know what I think of it.

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  2. I saw that image and thought the book was by a Christian apologist trying to sucker atheists into thinking it's a book debunking Christianity.

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  3. I am currently reading that book. It's quite good, though pretty deep, philosophically speaking. I just started reading philosophy, so some of it is over my head. The part about his deconversion and arguments against Christianity are very sound. Though for an easier read on the subject I'd recommend "Godless" by Dan Barker. It's got a great section about biblical contradictions and how the Jesus "legend" evolved.

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  4. I liked "Godless" a lot and would highly recommend it. Another good read is "Atheist Universe" by David Mills.

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  5. OH!

    And I've tried to sign up for the survey twice and never get an email link.

    :(

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  6. Dan is a master at sidestepping questions. He simply ignores some comments.
    It is funny when he resonds to a comment with his classic answer, "argument failed" with no explaination whatsoever.

    He operates on somewhat the same level as Vera. Totally delusional.

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  7. I didn't see the image at Amazon, and I saw that John Loftus posted at the Debunking Atheists blog. I guess he removed it. Sounds like a Terry Burton kind of trick, which is no surprise. Dan is using the same Simon Greenleaf argument that Terry was so fond of.

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  8. Liz, sorry, I wonder if some of the email hosts blocked them as spam, try this link it's especially for you

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  9. My respect for him (which equated to agreeing to disagree) has taken a serious hit. I was annoyed when was being a SCMike fanboi (just to be annoying), but this is malicious.

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  10. Yeah, apparently Dan isn't simply misguided like we had originally thought; he seems to be just like the other creationists our there: dishonest and unfair.

    I stopped reading his blog once he started deleting all my comments (even though they violated no rules).

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  11. Thanks everyone. I haven't heard why the image was removed. People reported it as abuse AND I contacted my publisher who contacted Amazon about it.

    In any case it's gone.

    Fear tactics, why not? It's one major reason Christians believe.

    The good news is that Dan will be receiving a copy of my book. Why is that good news?

    Wait and see. The whole reason why I'm an atheist is because I could not answer the arguments of the skeptics, and I have studied these arguments as a former apologist. I don't think he has the intellectual muscle needed to deal with them honestly without exercising a great deal of mental gymnastics. Mental gymnastics. That's what he'll have to do to continue believing. But deep inside he'll have some doubts. Doubts. That's what I predict.

    ;-)

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  12. One of the guys from this site, well ok, and me also have been debating Dan sometimes on his blog. I can't wait to see what his reaction is.

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  13. Hey John, welcome to the Raytractors!

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  14. Dan is a douchebag. The whole reason I started debating him on his blog was because while deluded, he was at least marginally honest.

    Unfortunately, his honesty has consistently evaporated, and the douchebag shell underneath is becoming more and more obvious. His penchant for ignoring arguments, for hand-waving, and for outright lies, has defeated his positions more effectively than virtually anything we have said in retort, and with this latest stunt -- which he has admitted -- he has the audacity to suggest that it was all in fun and that there was no harm done.

    Like any fool, when provided enough rope, he hangs himself quite effectively.

    --
    Stan

    P.S. - nice blog here; I'm always hesitant to post on Comfort's blog for the simple fact that I refuse to adhere to his capitalization rules.

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  15. Atheists would never do something so awful because they are the true saints here.

    From a comment on my blog I said:

    "Silver lining in this: Negative press is still press, none the less. Any press at all gets the name out there. So anyone in Public Relations would tell you that this is a positive for John to get the word out about his book. It was also good for John to stir things up here to get people talking about his book. I am sure John owes you a thanks for perpetuating the conversation. This is why the publisher, brilliantly, thought it would be a good idea to give me a copy for review and they will be sending me a free copy soon, you know for the press (+ / -). Not to mention the aching anticipation that people will have, that I will be reviewing the book. It's all good for John. Are you sure you want to go down the path John chose? Eternity is a very long time, you do understand. Your choice, the religion of atheism or follow the Creator of all, called Christianity. Stay tuned!"

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  16. An advert that says probably no God is "awful"?

    If you do believe this, then you have to concede that others should be able to claim the same about Jesus is Lord...

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