Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Atheism and Theism

  • The Presuppositionalist Challenge to My Position

    Substack latest.   Do not comment unless you have carefully read the entire article.

  • The Atheist

    Substack latest. A rumination 'inspired' by Paul Brunton. An embedded article confronts Sam Harris, one of the "four horsemen" of the New Atheism, which is now old hat.  As old hat as the expression I just used. There's nothing new under the sun,  saith the Preacher, and in these hyperkinetic times, what's new gets old…

  • Notes on R. C. Sproul, Does God Exist? Part II

    Part I is here. Sproul thinks he can prove that the God of the Christian Bible exists from reason alone.  By 'prove' he means establish with objective certainty.  He begins by listing four possible explanations of reality as we encounter it.  I take him to mean by 'reality' the world as given to the senses.…

  • Notes on R. C. Sproul, Does God Exist?

    Trudy the Calvinist gave me a reading assignment. Herewith a first batch of comments for her and your delectation, discussion, and (presumably inevitable)  disagreement. In Chapter One, "The Case for God," Sproul distinguishes between four approaches in apologetics: fideism, evidentialism, presuppositionalism, and "the classical school" (4)  He comes out against the first three and nails…

  • On Anselmian or ‘Perfect Being’ Theology

    Tom O. writes, I was wondering if you have time to weigh in on the following problem. I take it you subscribe to perfect being theology as a constraint on our theorizing about God’s nature. For example, you write, “God is the absolute, and no absolute worth its salt is a contingent being. No absolute just…

  • Suffering, Evil, and Galen Strawson’s ‘Proof’ of the Nonexistence of the Christian God

    This just in from our old friend Malcolm Pollack: I'm writing because I went to your Substack to read your 2A post, and beneath it was a link to your post about Galen Strawson's audacious letter to the NYT — in which Professor Strawson, in a single paragraph, proves the nonexistence of the Christian God!  …

  • A Design Argument From the Cognitive Reliability of Our Senses: A Proof of Classical Theism?

    You are out hiking and the trail becomes faint and hard to follow. You peer into the distance and see what appear to be three stacked rocks. Looking a bit farther, you see another such stack. Now you are confident which way the trail goes. Your confidence is based on your taking the rock piles…

  • Assuming that God exists, could the atheist’s denial of God be reasonable?

    I say Yes to the title question; Greg Bahnsen, glossing Cornelius Van Til, says No.  Yet it should be clear even to the atheist that if the Christian God exists, it is 'reasonable' to believe in him. (Greg L. Bahnsen, Van Til's Apologetic: Readings and Analysis, P & R Publishing, 1998, p. 124, fn. 108,…

  • Richard Dawkins on Christianity and Islam

    Here (HT: Catacomb Joe): Famed atheist and self-styled intellectual Richard Dawkins shared in a recent interview that he was “horrified” to find that Oxford Street in London had lit up its public signs and displays to celebrate the Muslim fasting period called Ramadan, just days before Easter Sunday. “I have to choose my words carefully: If I…

  • Is Belief in God Rationally Required? Response to a Critic

    S. L. writes,  I will just tell you three quick things about myself in an effort to get your kind response to my question.   1. I am a 70-year-old "evangelical", conservative (in every way), protestant, Christian believer. I put evangelical in quotes because I don't subscribe to all ideas that fit under the rubric of…

  • Theistic Belief and What Inclines Me to It

    Substack post du jour.

  • Is Atheism Intellectually Respectable?

    On Romans 1: 18-20. Substack latest.

  • The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God: A First Response to Flood

    I thank Anthony G. Flood for his The Transcendental Argument for the Existence of God Revisited: Toward a Response to Bill Vallicella.  Herewith, a first installment by way of rejoinder. Convergence upon agreement is not to be expected, but clarification of differences is an attainable goal. In any case, philosophy is a joy to its…

  • The Presuppositionalist Challenge to My Position

    The presuppositionalism of Cornelius van Til, Greg L. Bahnsen, John M. Frame and others sets me a challenge given some long-held views of mine. I will here explain one of these views and then explain why it is incompatible with presuppositionalism. After that, I will begin to explain my reasons for rejecting presuppositionalism. This third…

  • The Holocaust Argument for God’s Existence

    Top o' the Stack. Is there an adequate naturalistic explanation for the unspeakable depth and depravity of moral evil? If not, what might we reasonably conclude? Can one plausibly argue from the depth and depravity of moral evil to the existence of God?   ………………… Yesterday I ordered a book on Amazon and it arrived today.…