Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Religion

  • Hitchens on Conversion

    Christopher Hitchens, Mortality, Twelve, 2012, p. 91: If I convert it's because it's better that a believer dies than that an atheist does. Witty unto the end.  But in the end, what does wit get you? One last vain flash of brilliance and then extinction — or judgment.

  • Overbelief and Romans 1: 18-20

    I met with S. N. in Tempe yesterday for philosophy and chess. While we were talking about overbelief, it occurred to me that Romans 1: 18-20 is another good example of overbelief.  Now there is an issue that the budding theologian S. N. made me aware of, an issue that the philosopher in me desires…

  • Unusual Experiences and the Problem of Overbelief and Underbelief

    One day, well over 30 years ago, I was deeply tormented by a swarm of negative thoughts and feelings that had arisen because of a dispute with a certain person.  Pacing around my apartment, I suddenly, without any forethought, raised my hands toward the ceiling and said, "Release me!"  It was a wholly spontaneous cri du coeur,…

  • C. D. Broad on Religious Experience

    The following is reproduced from Keith Burgess-Jackson's weblog: [W]hen persons without religious experience regard themselves as being on that ground superior to those who have it, their attitude must be treated as merely silly and offensive. Similarly, any theories about religious experience constructed by persons who have little or none of their own should be…

  • Sam Harris on Rational Mysticism and Whether the Self is an Illusion

    London Karl brings to my attention an article by Sam Harris touching upon themes dear to my heart. Harris is an impressive fellow, an excellent public speaker, a crusader of sorts who has some important and true things to say, but who is sometimes out beyond his depth, like many public intellectuals who make bold…

  • The Devirilization of Priest and Liturgy in the Novus Ordo Mass

    I  would like to return to the practice of the religion of my youth, I really would.  Nothing of the usual sort holds me back: not the sex monkey, not illicit loves or addictions, not worldly ambition or the demands of career,  not the thoughtlessness of the worldling mesmerized by the play of transient phenomena,…

  • How Some View Religion

    Religion is for old women, children, and womanish men. Without this clientele it would wither away.  It is for the weak.  The strong are able to face life without its false comforts and childish superstitions.  It is used by priests and other religious professionals to exploit the gullible.  It is a form of social control, an…

  • From Religion to Philosophy: A Typology of Motives for Making the Move

    People come to philosophy from various 'places.'  Some come from religion, others from mathematics and the natural sciences, still others from literature and the arts.  There are other termini a quis as well.  In this post I am concerned only with the move from religion to philosophy.  What are the main types of reasons for…

  • Man’s Greatness Deducible From his Wretchedness

    Blaise Pascal (1623-1662): Man's greatness is so obvious that it can even be deduced from his wretchedness, for what is nature in animals is wretchedness in man, thus recognizing that, if his nature is today like that of the animals, he must have fallen from some better state which was once his own. (Pensées, Penguin,…

  • The Essence of Religion

    There is more to a religion than its beliefs and doctrines; there are also its practices.  They, however, are informed and guided by certain constitutive beliefs.  So the importance of the latter cannot be denied. Religion is not practice alone.  It is not a mere form of life or language game.  It rests, pace Wittgenstein,…

  • 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,…

  • Schopenhauer on Islam, “The Saddest and Poorest Form of Theism”

    Arthur Schopenhauer, The World as Will and Representation, tr. E. F. J. Payne, vol. II (Dover, 1966), p. 162. This is from Chapter XVII, "On Man's Need for Metaphysics" (emphases added and a paragraph break): Temples and churches, pagodas and mosques, in all countries and ages, in their splendour and spaciousness, testify to man's need…

  • Ashes to Ashes, Dust to Dust

    "Remember, man, thou art dust and unto dust thou shalt return." Memento, homo, quia pulvis es et in pulverem reverteris. This warning, from the Catholic liturgy for Ash Wednesday, is based on Genesis 3, 19: In sudore vultus tui vesceris pane, donec revertaris in terram de qua sumptus es: quia pulvis es et in pulverem…

  • Morality, Religion, Law

    The positive law codifies moral judgments the chief vehicle of which is religion.  Attacks on religion therefore tend to undermine morality, and with it, the rule of law and respect for the rule of law.  Is this thesis supportable? Religion could be kept private  and out of the public square.  Many think that it should…

  • A Question for the Militantly Anti-Religious

    Once you have removed every vestige of religion from the public square,what will you put in its place?  The dogmas of the 'religion' of leftism?  You want church-state separation, but you make an exception for the 'church' of leftism?  Double standard! Related articles Leftism: The World's Most Dynamic Religion? Whether Atheism is a Religion Leftism Not…