On Revising My Book, Cancel Culture, and De-Platforming Authors

The good news is that we are revising my anthology God & Horrendous Suffering!! I'm excited about that, big time. This is a second edition from the earlier hardback published in 2021. So what is different? It’s being put out in paperback so it is less expensive. It has a horrendous looking contorted tree on the cover. I’ve rearranged the chapters into a better outline. A new chapter has been added by David Madison on World War I. Every author was given the chance to revise their chapters, and their revisions make this book better. I revised everything I wrote for this edition. It has also been thoroughly proofread, so hopefully we’ve rid ourselves of typographical and grammatical errors.

Dr. Robert M. Price will again have his excellent chapter in it from the first edition, "Theodicy: The Idiocy." GCRR President Dr. Darren Slade and I thought about this choice and decided to go with it, against the methods of cancel culture. Here's my explanation:

I'm a progressive democrat and I vehemently disagree with Price’s conservative socio/political/economical views. I suspect the other authors in this book disagree too, especially with Price's support of ex-President Trump, a malignant narcissist. Even Bill Barr thinks this of Trump, a former Attorney General who served under him. Barr said it best on Face the Nation (June 18, 2023). "Trump is a consummate narcissist” who “constantly engages in reckless conduct” and will “always put his own interests and gratify his own ego ahead of everything else, including the country’s interests. There’s no question about it.”

Be assured, Price’s conservative views do not surface in any of the chapters he has written for any of my anthologies, including this one. Price is one of our experts in theology and biblical studies. On these subjects his knowledge is worthwhile and important, despite his ignorance on other important issues. What Price doesn't yet realize, if he ever will, is that by debunking Christianity like he does, he also undermines the conservative agenda! It removes the theological support for anti-abortion, anti-LGBTQ+, sexism, capital punishment, racist bigotry, and the radical individualism of unbridled capitalism.

A good analogy at this point is to look at the origins of modern science. Christians argue that Christianity is true because most scientists were Christians at the time of the scientific revolution. Of course, one might as well count heads and declare Christianity is true because it's currently the world's leading religion with the most people who believe it, a known fallacy. But if we take a serious look at the data, the truth is that no matter what the origins of modern science were, the methods of science undermine the Christian faith at every crucial juncture. See my book, Christianity in the Light of Science for more. That's what Price is unwittingly doing with Christianity, and I don't mind all that much helping him do so.

I am a staunch supporter of Bernie Sanders and his progressive socio-political policies. However, I have mixed feelings about cancel culture. To be sure, cultures move on. Values change. Each successive culture decides what it will value. So every bit of progress in today's world will, of necessity, involve a clash between generations, genders, race, ethnicity, the rich vs the poor, and so on. As a culture, we are in the midst of an intense period where we’re deciding what those values will be. I support the issues that cancel culture espouses, most emphatically. There are some ideas we shouldn’t provide an audience for, or debate, for it helps to legitimize them.

That being said, I abhor violence toward others who disagree, especially bloodied noses, broken bones, bloodshed, and murder. When the conflict of ideas pushes the United States to the brink of a civil war it’s time to back off. Experts now say that the indicators show we're on the verge of a civil war, which will be a much different war, but a war just the same. I can’t say how much we should back off, nor how, or on which issues. But when our culture clash approaches violence, we need someone on our side to slow us all down by debating the issues, even the abhorrent ones. That's already being done by Peter Boghossian, James Lindsay, and others. I think we should be tolerant of people on our side who are willing to debate these issues, even as we show support for those who use force in support of the issues through protests, civil disobedience, non-bodily harmful actions like the removal, desecration and toppling of some statues, and/or renaming of cities. Again, Price’s conservative views do not surface in any of the chapters in my anthologies. This is the line of demarcation for me as an editor. I think it should also be the one point many of us can agree on.

Way back in 2011 I had written about some historically bad secular/atheist intellectuals, who had changed the world. Intellectuals like Marx, Tolstoy, Sartre and Chomsky. I wrote about this before the Elevator Gate Scandal, the Me Too Movement, Black Lives Matter, and the Rise of Christian Fascism to power. I had mentioned some contemporary secular/atheist intellectuals who have now shown themselves to be bad people in varying degrees. I had said at the time:

The reality is that I see no significant relationship between one's personal life and the ideas he argues for much at all. The arguments should stand on their own merit. If we dismiss a person's argument because his personal life is a mess then we should dismiss a great many people's arguments for the same reason.

I know people will disagree, so let's hear it in the comments. Is a disagreement on this issue, the one where Price's chapter is included despite vehemently disagreeing with his socio-politics, an issue in which he also should be cancelled as an author?

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John W. Loftus is a philosopher and counter-apologist credited with 12 critically acclaimed books, including The Case against Miracles, God and Horrendous Suffering, and Varieties of Jesus Mythicism. Please support DC by sharing our posts, or by subscribing, donating, or buying our books at Amazon. As an Amazon Associate John earns a small amount of money from any purchases made there. Buying anything through them helps fund the work here, and is greatly appreciated!