Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Religion

  • The Stove ‘Dilemma’ and the Lewis ‘Trilemma’

    This from R. J. Stove, son of atheist and neo-positivist, David Stove: When the possibility of converting to Catholicism became a real one, it was the immensity of the whole package that daunted me, rather than specific teachings. I therefore spent little time agonizing over the Assumption of Mary, justification by works as well as…

  • Animal Sacrifice

    I recently presented an alternative to the conceit shared by both atheists and immature religionists that religion is static, a closed system of doctrines and practices insusceptible of development and correction and refinement. The following is a bit of evidence for the alternative. The ancients sacrificed animals outside them on the altar of divine worship.  Progress was…

  • Religion Always Buries its Undertakers

    Christopher Hitchens has been dead for over a year now.  He will  be joined by Dennett and Dawkins, Grayling and Harris, and the rest of the militant atheists.  Religion, like philosophy, always buries its undertakers. It was Etienne Gilson who famously remarked that "Philosophy always buries its undertakers."  That is the first of his "laws…

  • 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…

  • Eben Alexander: “We Are Conscious in Spite of Our Brains”

    I am at the moment listening to Dennis Prager interview Dr. Eben Alexander. Prager asked him whether he now maintains, after his paranormal experiences, that consciousness is independent of the brain.  Alexander made a striking reply: "We are conscious in spite of our brains."  And then he made some remarks to the effect that the brain…

  • Ego, Sin, and Logic

    Ego is at the root of sin, but also at the root of obsessive preoccupation with one's sinfulness. If the goal is to weaken the ego, then too much fretting over one's sins in the manner of a Wittgenstein is contraindicated. There is such a thing as excessive moral scrupulosity. Though Wittgenstein's ego drove him…

  • Bill O’Reilly: Christianity not a Religion, but a Philosophy

    Bill O'Reilly does a lot of  good, but he made a fool of himself last night on his O'Reilly Factor.  It was painful to watch. In the course of a heated exchange with David Silverman, president of American Atheists, O'Reilly claimed that Christianity is not a religion, but a philosophy.  At first I thought I…

  • A Non-Coercive Attempt to Dissuade Me From Religious Belief

    MavPhil Cairo correspondent, Spencer C. writes, I've continued to think on one of our old disagreements, the one about religion and zealotry, and I'd like to continue the discussion. Previously, I'd put forward the argument attempting to show that religious belief is rationally unacceptable. Now, I'm thinking it might be profitable to repackage the argument…

  • 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…

  • What Does Abortion Have to Do with Religion?

    The abortion question is almost always raised in the context of religion.  The Vice-Presidential debate provides a good recent example.  The moderator  introduced the topic with these words: “We have two Catholic candidates, first time, on a stage such as this. And I  would like to ask you both to tell me what role your religion…

  • Is Neuroscience Relevant to Understanding Prayer and Meditation?

    One aspect of contemporary scientism is the notion that great insights are to be gleaned from neuroscience about the mind and its operations.  If you want my opinion, the pickin's are slim indeed and confusions are rife. This is your brain on prayer: A test subject is injected with a dye that allows the researcher to study…

  • Realms of Experience Beyond the Natural

    This from a reader: I was reading your post on Religious Belief and What Inclines Me to It and was struck by a statement you made at the end regarding "mystical glimpses, religious vouchsafings, paranormal experiences."  By this you seem to confirm a developing series of thoughts I have had for a few years.  As…

  • No Religion? Then No Solution

    "Imagine no religion," John Lennon sang.  Suppose we could take it a step beyond imagination and make religion disappear.  Would we thereby eliminate the problems to which religion is supposed to be the solution? Of course not.  Suppose we destroyed all the hospitals, old folks' homes, and mortuaries.  Would we thereby remove from the world sickness,…

  • What is Religion? How Does it Differ from Superstition?

    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,…

  • 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…