Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Atheism and Theism

  • From the Mail: Bryan Magee on Kant and the Theistic Proofs

    Dear Dr. Vallicella, I am of the understanding that one of your post-graduate degrees focussed on Kant. With your knowledge of said philosopher I wonder if I might trouble you to answer a few questions for me? These questions pertain to Kant's criticism's of the cosmological argument for God's existence. I know that this argument…

  • Evil As it Appears to Atheists and Theists

    In the preface to his magnum opus, F. H. Bradley observes that "Metaphysics is the finding of bad reasons for what we believe upon instinct, but to find these reasons is no less an instinct." (Appearance and Reality, Oxford 1893, p. x) The qualifier 'bad' is out of place and curiously off-putting at the outset…

  • God, Evil, Matter and Mind: How Both Theists and Materialists Stand Pat in the Face of Objections

    It is a simple point of logic that if propositions p and q are both true, then they are logically consistent, though not conversely. So if God exists and Evil exists are both true, then they are logically consistent, whence it follows that it is possible that they be consistent. This is so whether or…

  • God and the ‘No Angry Unicorn’ Argument

    This from an astute reader commenting on the Hell post: 'No angry unicorn on the dark side of the moon' Does this not refer to doxastic uncertainty rather than a fatuous equation of God with something material? This is how I interpreted it when I read it. More in the vein of: why venerate something…

  • The Problem of Evil and the Argument from Evil

    (A reader found the following post, from the old PowerBlogs site, useful.  So I repost it here with minor modifications and additions.) It is important to distinguish between the problem of evil and the argument from evil. The first is the problem of reconciling the existence of God, as traditionally understood, with the existence of…

  • A Modal Ontological Argument and an Argument from Evil Compared

    After leaving the polling place this morning, I headed out on a sunrise hike over the local hills whereupon the muse of philosophy bestowed upon me some good thoughts.  Suppose we compare a modal ontological argument with an argument from evil in respect of the question of evidential support for the key premise in each.  This post…

  • More on Whether Atheism is a Religion

    Peter Lupu e-mails: Your post provoked these thoughts: I agree with you that most religions include as indispensable certain core metaphysical tenets about some kind of transcendental existence that is vital for the understanding of the nature and identity of our own self and that these core tenets distinguish religious ideologies from secular ideologies such…

  • Is Atheism a Religion?

    From the mail: Just read your On Religious Pluralism and Religious Tolerance entry, and I have one concern. Is it really right to view the New Atheists, and atheists in general, as "not religious"? I imagine this really depends on how you yourself define religion, and I admit to not knowing that. [. . .]…

  • Gutting, Dawkins, and Russell’s Celestial Teapot

    In his recent NYT Opinionator piece, On Dawkins's Atheism, Notre Dame's Gary Gutting writes, describing the "no arguments argument" of some atheists: To say that the universe was created by a good and powerful being who cares about us is an extraordinary claim, so improbable to begin with that we surely should deny it unless…

  • Against Politically Correct Atheism

    If contemporary Christianity and contemporary Islam are judged by their fruits, which is more conducive to human flourishing, or, if you think nothing good comes from religion, which is less conducive to human misery?  I hope you are clearheaded and unprejudiced enough to see that the religion of 'peace'  is far worse than Christianity, at…

  • “Some of Us Just Go One God Further”

    I've seen this quotation attributed to Richard Dawkins. From what I have read of him, it seems like something he would say. The idea, I take it, is that all gods are on a par, and so, given that everyone is an atheist with respect to some gods, one may as well make a clean…

  • Atheism, Materialism, and Intellectual Respectability

    Joseph A.  e-mails: Just a quick question. You recently posted that you think atheism can be intellectually respectable. Fair enough. But wouldn't you agree that intellectual respectability in general seems to be assumed more often than it should be? To put a point on the question: Do you think materialism is intellectually respectable? I seem…

  • Is Atheism Intellectually Respectable? On Romans 1:18-20

    Joe Carter over at First Things argues that "We have to abandon the politically correct notion that atheism is intellectually respectable."  My own view is that  theism and atheism are both intellectually respectable.  Carter makes his case by invoking St. Paul: In Romans, St. Paul is clear that atheism is a case of vincible ignorance: “For his…

  • Karen Armstrong Versus Sam Harris

    Two lightweights battle it out. Here and here.  Not particularly edifying.

  • Is There a ‘No God’ Delusion?

    A certain popular writer speaks of a God delusion.  This prompts the query whether there might be a 'No God' delusion.  Is it perhaps the case that atheism is a delusion?  Bruce Charlton, M. D. , returns an affirmative answer in Is Atheism Literally a Delusion?  In this post I will try to understand his basic argument and…