[chuck]Well, Kirk Hastings has noticed our recent podcast series. He gave his own book a 5 star review on Amazon, with the following commentary:

★★★★★ READERS PLEASE NOTE!, September 1, 2012
By Kirk Hastings

Please note: For the interests of all fair-minded people out there, I would like to point out that almost ALL of the reviews posted here so far about my book have been put there by a coordinated group of disgruntled atheists at Irreligiosophy.com, a website dedicated to insulting and putting down anyone who believes in God. You will notice that all of these reviews contain nothing specific about what is in my book, but only generalized insults and condescending name-calling, which are the kinds of “reviews” the Irreligiosophy people specialize in. These people are principle-less haters, and full of prejudice, bias, and bigotry. Check out their website if you don’t believe me. Don’t be fooled by this biased hypocrisy.

Note that we’re not unprincipled, just “principle-less.” Kirk has now copy-pasted this “review” as a reply to every 1-star review on his book. Considering the material in the book itself, that seems so … appropriate.

Anyway, look for part 2 of our biased and hypocritical review on Tuesday.

[irrelig]Surprise! Kirk Hastings’ recent email drew me out of (semi-)retirement. After recovering from those withering electronic insults, I sat down with expert Hovindologist Matt W to review Hastings’ magnum opus, “What Is Truth?” We examined his many and varied claims about truthology, and how they relate to science and most especially “Darwinism.” In this episode — part one of a three-part series — we discuss Kirk’s conversion process and his absolutely unshocking failure to grasp even the basic principles of science and mathematics while he attempts to take down Darwinism. This series could also be entitled, “We read Kirk Hastings’ shitty rehashed creationist screed so you don’t have to.”

Kirk does get an A for effort, though, and should he succeed in his quest to demolish Darwin’s theory of evil-ution, he may ultimately end up with a Nobel Prize. History (or maybe the next episode, where we finish talking about the science portion of his book) will have to render a verdict on that score.

[irrelig]In this episode we talk to John Loftus, atheist extraordinaire, author of “Why I Became an Atheist” and editor of “The Christian Delusion” and now “The End of Christianity” anthologies. We discuss Loftus’s trip from believer to atheist, his encounters with theists, and his “Outsider Test for Faith.”

With this episode, we’re going to start our Halloween hiatus early this year — but given the pace of the episodes thus far, I wonder if anyone will notice.

[irrelig]We return with an interview with the inimitable Bob Price, who has recently written an eBook called “Latter-day Scripture,” which is all about Price’s look at the Book of Mormon as a work of pseudepigrapha, or “false writing.” Price compares Joseph Smith’s 19th century work with some of the pseudepigrapha in the Old and New Testament, such as Daniel or the Pastoral Epistles, and emerges with a new appreciation for an old hoax.

No Skunk Dickery this week, unless you count what goes on inside the podcast.

[irrelig]In this episode, we break from crazy Mormon stories and instead take apart the Ten Commandments: what are they, where did they come from, why do we care, and what do they mean? Do they actually form the basis for American jurisprudence? Should they be engraved on monuments everywhere? Do we even have the right ones?

We also give a shout out to fellow Irreligiosophite podcasters Joemma and the Second Law, as well as the Mormon brothers +1 and their anticipatory plagiarizin’ Church of Awesome. And we do some Skunk Dicks, too.

[irrelig]For episode 103, we have selected some of the most basic and oft-repeated crazy-ass stories found in the Book of Mormon, including Lehi’s vision of the Tree of Life, Nephi’s “acquisition” of the brass plates, the origin of GPS devices, and what happens to two atheists in ancient America under the Nephite prophets and judges.

All that, and a new candidate for Skunk Dick of the Year.