Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Athens and Jerusalem

  • 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…

  • Deserving Immortality

    I lately aphorized: Which is better: to inquire whether there is immortality, or to live in such a way as to deserve it? Both are good, but the second is better. A childhood friend and committed Christian offers this well-crafted comment: You are meant for immortality but cannot live in such a way as to…

  • Stumbling Block or Stepping Stone?

    One man's stumbling block is another's stepping stone.  The philosopher, the believer, the cross.

  • Literal or Antiphrastic?

    Elliot writes, When I began to read your “Who doesn't need philosophy?” post, I immediately started to think of reasons why adherents of religious and nonreligious worldviews need philosophy as inquiry. Indeed, one can think of many good reasons why such adherents (especially the dogmatic ones) need philosophy. However, as I continued to read, I…

  • The Divine Job Description

    For Spencer who, though he no longer believes that the Mormon God concept is instantiated, yet believes that as a concept it remains a worthy contender in the arena of God concepts. What jobs would a being have to perform to qualify as God? I count four sorts of job, ontological, epistemological, axiological, and soteriological,…

  • Monasticism and the Monks of Mount Athos

    Back in April, 60 Minutes had a segment on the monks of Mt. Athos.  It was surprisingly sympathetic for such a left-leaning program. What one expects and usually gets from libs and lefties and the lamestream media is religion-bashing — unless of course the religion is Islam, the religion of peace – but the segment in question…

  • Athens, Jerusalem, and Karl Jaspers

    I stand astride both cities, with a foot in each.  But I favor one leg . . . . Or to change the metaphor:  I do not look down upon the cities from above as from an Olympian standpoint but sight from the perspective of one of the cities, Athens, towards the other, Jerusalem. So…

  • Original Sin in a Darwinian World

    Our old friend Jeff Hodges of Gypsy Scholar e-mails:  I liked the interesting argument that the consequences of belief and nonbelief in original sin are both bad and thus evidence of our fallen natures. But I do wonder what either original sin or fallenness mean in a Darwinian world . . . Jeff has posed…

  • Lev Shestov’s Irrationalist-Existentialist Reading of the Fall of Man

    It is important to distinguish between the putative fact of human fallenness and the various theories and doctrines about what this fall consists in and how it came about.  The necessity of this distinction is obvious:  different philosophers and theologians and denominations who accept the Fall have different views about the exact nature of this event or state.…

  • Serious Faith

    A serious faith, a vital faith, is one that battles with doubt.  Otherwise the believer sinks into complacency and his faith becomes a convenience.  Doubt is a good thing.  For doubt is the engine of inquiry, the motor of Athens.  Jerusalem needs Athens to keep her honest, to chasten her excesses, to round her out, to…

  • James Rachels’ Argument from Moral Autonomy Against the Existence of God*

    A guest post by Peter Lupu.  Minor edits and a comment (in blue) by BV. In an intriguing paper “God and Moral Autonomy”, James Rachels offers what he calls “The Moral Autonomy Argument” against the existence of God. The argument is based on a certain analysis of the concept of worship and its alleged incompatibility…

  • Still More on the Morality of Celebrating the Death of Evildoers

    It is not just some Christians who feel the moral  dubiousness of joy and celebration at the death of evildoers.  Here is Rabbi Shmuel Herzfeld.  "So our tradition is clear: Public rejoicing about the death of an enemy is entirely inappropriate."  Here is a delightfully equivocal statement by Rabbi Tzvi Freeman. Interestingly, Dennis Prager is still…

  • Is Osama bin Laden in Hell?

    Jeremy Lott, Osama bin Laden in Hell: To keep Osama's purported martyrdom from inspiring others, the point needs to be made, loudly and repeatedly, that killing innocent people is not the path to heaven. This will put the US government, and Barack Obama in particular, in an an awkward spot. It is undoubtedly a theological…

  • The God of Philosophy and the God of Religion

    Steven Nemes by e-mail:   In posts of months past you claimed there was no distinction between the God of the philosophers and the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; they're the same thing, if God can be called a thing at all; you asked for an argument that they were [not the same], if…

  • Pope Benedict’s Regensburg Speech and Muslim Oversensitivity

    This is a slightly redacted version of a piece first posted on 18 September 2006 at the old PowerBlogs site.  I repost it not only to save it for my files, but also because it it important to remember not only the successful and unsuccessful acts of Islamist terrorism worldwide, but also the many incidents which…