Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Atheism and Theism

  • William Lane Craig: The New Theist

    A tip of the hat to  Joel Hunter for referring me to this article in The Chronicle of Higher Education. Related articles Plantinga Reviews Nagel From the Laws of Logic to the Existence of God The New Theist The value of debates on religion Richard Dawkins v. William Lane Craig (and Daniel Dennett?)

  • Sensus Divinitatis: Nagel Defends Plantinga Against Grayling

    Anthony Grayling writes: The problem with Alvin Plantinga’s defense of theism is a simple but wholly vitiating one [Where the Conflict Really Lies, reviewed by Thomas Nagel in “A Philosopher Defends Religion,” NYR, September 27, 2012]. It is that it rests on the fallacy of informal logic known as petitio principii. Plantinga wishes to claim…

  • From the Laws of Logic to the Existence of God

    James N. Anderson and Greg Welty have published a paper entitled The Lord of Non-Contradiction:  An Argument for God from Logic. Having worked out similar arguments in unpublished manuscripts, I am very sympathetic to the project of arguing from the existence of necessary truths to the necessary existence of divine mind.  Here is a quick sketch of…

  • The New Atheism is Old Hat

    Dawkins has lost.  Hitchens is dead.  And the prognosis is not good for the rest of the strident crew.  But an atheism chastened and temperate will remain with us.  As I have said many times, atheism is intellectually respectable and rationally defensible.  But so is theism. In the end you must decide for yourself what…

  • Jerry Coyne on Religion as Child Abuse

    Coyne writes (emphasis added): Dawkins has taken flak for characterizing religious indoctrination of children as “child abuse.”  Well, look at this picture and deny it.  [The picture depicts a young child holding a sign that reads: Behead all those who insult the Prophet.] True, it’s not the same as beating or sexually molesting one’s child,…

  • Atheists, Anti-Philosophers, and Anti-Idealists: The ‘One X Further’ Meme

    Beloved of cyberpunks and Internet infidels, the 'One God Further' meme invites generalization.  Although it is not an argument but an assertion, the Dawkins attribution suggests an argument.  The argument it suggests to me is the following: 1. All gods are on a par with respect to credibility. 2. All of us find most gods incredible. Therefore 3.…

  • Lent for Atheists?

    Apparently, there are some atheists who are adopting Lenten-type practices without abandoning their atheist beliefs.  This ought to be cautiously applauded: we all can profit morally from a bit of voluntary abstinence.  One cannot live well without (moderate) asceticism.  (See William James on Self-Denial.) Better self-controlled atheists than atheists 'gone wild.' But I would urge these…

  • Mature Religion is Open-Ended Too: More Quest Than Conclusions

    The following is from an interview with A. C. Grayling who is speaking of the open mind and open inquiry: It’s a mindset, he reveals, that “loves the open-endedness and the continuing character of the conversation that humankind has with itself about all these things that really matter.” It’s also a way of thinking that…

  • Theism on Secular Grounds

    A reader inquires: Can one reason from secular premises to a theistic conclusion? Or is any argument that concludes to God's existence non-secular by nature? The reader liked yesterday's abortion post in which I used non-religious (and in that sense secular) premises to support a conclusion which, though not religious, would be accepted by most religionists and…

  • Nagel’s Reason for Rejecting Theism

    This is the second in a series.  My overview of Thomas Nagel's new book, Mind and Cosmos, is here. I agree with Nagel that mind is not a cosmic accident.  Mind in all of its ramifications (sentience, intentionality, self-awareness, cognition, rationality, normativity in general) could not have arisen from mindless matter.  To put it very roughly,…

  • Whether Atheism is a Religion

    Yesterday I objected to calling leftism a religion.  Curiously, some people call atheism a religion.  I object to that too. The question as to what religion is is not at all easy to answer.  It is not even clear that the question makes sense.  For when you ask 'What is religion?' you presuppose that it…

  • The Pragmatic and the Evidential: Is It Ever Rational to Believe Beyond the Evidence?

    Is it ever rational to believe something for which one has insufficient evidence? If it is never rational to believe something for which one has insufficient evidence, then presumably it is also never rational to act upon such a belief. For example, if it irrational to believe in God and post-mortem survival, then presumably it…

  • The Atheist

    Paul Brunton, Notebooks, Volume 12, Part I, p. 96, #14: He alone can be an atheist who has never experienced a glimpse, or who has been caught and become embedded in a hard dry intellectualism, or in whom ethics and conscience have withered. The point is quite defensible if put in less ringing terms.  Most atheists…

  • Atheist Blogger Swims the Tiber

    Formerly atheist blogger Leah Libresco reports that she has converted to Catholicism. That's quite a shift.  Typically,  the terminus a quo of Tiber swimmers is either generic theism or mere Christianity (in C. S. Lewis' sense) or some Protestant sect.  Seismic is the shift from out-and-out God denial to acceptance of an extremely specific conception…

  • Can Theistic Arguments Deliver More Than Plausibility?

    James N. Anderson writes, . . . a good theistic argument doesn’t have to be irrefutable, but surely we should expect the conclusions of our arguments to rise above the level of mere plausibility. If indeed the heavens declare the glory of God (Ps. 19:1), and God’s existence can be “clearly perceived” from the creation…