Category: Atheism and Theism
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Agnosticism and Religiosity
There is an element of agnosticism at the heart of true religiosity. The atheist knows the god he denies; the theist hesitates to claim knowledge of the God he affirms. The god of a Christopher Hitchens is a cartoonish construct that lies open in every respect before the mind of the cartoonist. But the god…
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How Not to Define ‘Atheism’
Top o' the Stack.
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Trotsky’s Faith in Man
On 20 August 1940, the long arm of Joseph Stalin finally reached Trotsky in exile in Mexico City when an agent of Stalin drove an ice axe into Trotsky's skull. He died the next day. It makes no sense to put your faith in Man, as I argue in a 2021 Substack entry.
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Debate, Disagreement, and the Limits of Rational Discourse
I wrote a few months back, . . . the wisest policy is not to debate leftists. Generally speaking and admitting exceptions, leftists need to be defeated, not debated. Debate is worthwhile only with open-minded truth seekers. Truth, however, is not a leftist value. At the apex of the leftist's value hierarchy stands POWER. That…
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The Futility of Debating Atheists
Would you discuss music with the tone deaf or colors with the color blind? Literature with the illiterate? Poetry with the terminally prosaic? Number theory with the innumerate? Conscience with a psychopath? Would you discuss anything with anyone who lacked the experiences pertaining to the relevant subject matter?
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Is it Worth Arguing with Atheists?
Patrick Flynn over at Substack supplements some thoughts of mine.
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Countering the Absurd with an Argument from Desire: Preliminaries
Vito Caiati comments: I have been thinking about your intriguing post in which you write: “For the absurd is not simply that which makes no sense; it is that which makes no sense, but ought to, or is supposed to. To say that life is absurd is not merely to say that it has no…
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Berdyaev on the Moral Source of Atheism
Substack latest.
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Can an Atheist be Moral?
Yes, but would he have a reason to be? Substack latest.
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Is Classical Theism a Type of Idealism?
I return an affirmative answer. If God creates ex nihilo, and everything concrete other than God is created by God, and God is a pure spirit, then one type of metaphysical realism can be excluded at the outset. This realism asserts that there are radically transcendent uncreated concrete things other than God. 'Radically transcendent' means…
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Three Theisms: Ontic, Alterity, and Onto-Theological and their Liabilities
There is a problem that has occupied me on and off for years. One way into the problem is via the following aporetic triad: 1. There are things other than God that exist, and they all depend on God for their existence. 2. For any x, y, if x depends for its existence on y, and…
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Of Russell’s Teapot and Abbey’s Angry Lunicorn
Does the angry unicorn on the dark side of the Moon manage his anger by sipping herbal tea from Russell's teapot? Substack latest.
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Parallel Problems of God and Evil, Mind and Matter
For Bradley Schneider. ………………………………….. It is a simple point of logic that if propositions p and q are both true, then they are collectively logically consistent, though not conversely. So if God exists and Evil exists are both (objectively) true, then they are collectively logically consistent, whence it follows that it is possible that they be collectively logically consistent. This…
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Are Atheists Vincibly Ignorant? (2021 Version)
In Catholic thought there is what is called vincible ignorance. Here is a definition: Lack of knowledge for which a person is morally responsible. It is culpable ignorance because it could be cleared up if the person used sufficient diligence. One is said to be simply (but culpably) ignorant if one fails to make enough effort to learn…