Category: Atheism and Theism
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Knowing God Through Experience
A mercifully short (9:17) but very good YouTube video featuring commentary by name figures in the philosophy of religion including Marilyn Adams, William Alston, William Wainwright, and William Lane Craig. Craig recounts the experience that made a theist of him. (HT: Keith Burgess-Jackson) As Marilyn Adams correctly points out at the start of the presentation,…
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How Not to Define ‘Atheism’
Nonsense, say I. Note first that atheism cannot be identified with the lack of theistic belief, i.e., the mere absence of the belief that God or a god exists, for that would imply that cabbages and tire irons are atheists. Note second that it won't do to say that atheism is the lack of theistic…
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Where Are the Honest Atheists?
Damon Linker: Does the world really need another "new atheist" manifesto? Another attack on the ludicrousness of religion and the childishness of belief in God? Another paean to the spiritual and intellectual satisfactions of secularism, materialism, and humanism? Do the efforts of Sam Harris, Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, the late Christopher Hitchens, and their many…
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Does the Atheist Deny What the Theist Affirms? Reply to a Comment
Dr. James Anderson writes, I appreciated your recent post with the above title. However, I note that you didn't connect your comments there with your ongoing discussion with Dale Tuggy. From point 3 of your post: Ryan seems to think that to believe in God is to believe that there is a special object in…
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Does the Atheist Deny What the Theist Affirms?
It seems to me that there is a sort of 'disconnect' in theist-atheist debates. It is as if the parties to the dispute are not talking about the same thing. Jim Ryan writes, The reason I'm an atheist is straightforward. The proposition that there is a god is as unlikely as ghosts, Martians amongst us, and…
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Atheism and Ontological Simplicity: A Retraction and a Repair
Chad McIntosh spotted the sloppiness in something I posted the other day. A retraction is in order. And then a repair. A Retraction I wrote, The simple atheist — to give him a name — cannot countenance anything as God that is not ontologically simple. That is, he buys all the arguments classical theists give…
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The Simple Atheist, the Classical Theist, and the Ontic Theist
The simple atheist — to give him a name — cannot countenance anything as God that is not ontologically simple. That is, he buys all the arguments classical theists give for the divine simplicity. It is just that he finds the notion of an ontologically simple being incoherent. He accepts, among others, all of Plantinga's…
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Soloveitchik on Proving the Existence of God
Joseph B. Soloveitchik's The Lonely Man of Faith (Doubleday 2006) is rich and stimulating and packed with insights. I thank Peter Lupu for having a copy sent to me. But there is a long footnote on p. 49 with which I heartily disagree. Here is part of it: The trouble with all rational demonstrations of the…
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Aquinas and Why the New Atheists are Right
A recent talk by Fr. Robert Barron delivered at the University of St. Thomas. Serendipitously relevant to the discussion thread directly below on this blog. Fr. Barron is introduced by our friend Tim Pawl. What are the New Atheists right about? That a God who is a being among beings does not exist. Fr. Barron…
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God: A Being among Beings or Being Itself?
Last Wednesday morning, just as Old Sol was peeping his ancient head over the magnificent and mysterious Superstition range, I embarked on a drive down old Arizona 79, past Florence, to a hash house near Oracle Junction where I had the pleasure of another nice long three and one half hour caffeine-fueled discussion with Dale…
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William Lane Craig Debates Lawrence Krauss
Here. (HT: Jim Slagle) Some posts of mine critical of Krauss here.
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Atheist Ireland Outfit Dissociates Itself from PZ Myers
This is good news. (HT: Mike Valle) People on one's side will tolerate a little scumbaggery, but not a lot, as both Brian Leiter and PZ Myers are learning the hard way. Here is one of the articles in which Michael Nugent of Atheist Ireland documents Myers' viciousness. After reading through the examples Nugent adduces,…
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Michael Walzer on Religion
At least one lefty gets religion. Actually, the preceding sentence is ambiguous. The thought is that at least one leftist understands that religion has far deeper roots in human nature than a typical leftist analysis can expose, let alone eradicate. The following quotation borrowed from the weblog of Keith Burgess-Jackson: The left has always had…
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Nietzsche and the New Atheists
The following quotation from a very interesting Guardian piece by John Gray entitled What Scares the New Atheists (HT: Karl White): [1] The new atheists rarely mention Friedrich Nietzsche, and when they do it is usually to dismiss him. [2] This can’t be because Nietzsche’s ideas are said to have inspired the Nazi cult of…
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Theism Meets Metaphysical Naturalism
The following is an excerpt of an e-mail from the Barcelona lawyer, Daniel Vincente Carillo. As I mentioned to him in a private e-mail, I admire him for tackling these great questions, and doing so in a foreign language. The pursuit of these questions ennobles us while humbling us at the same time. Carillo writes,…