The Secular Frontier

Derrida’s Sauf le nom (Post-Scriptum) begins with a look at apophatic theology (negative theology) and Augustine’s Confessions.  Apophatic theology is the idea that we approach God, not through attribution (e.g., God is all-powerful), but through que ... Read Article

Martin Heidegger did his major study lecture course on Plato's Sophist around the same time as Being and Time, and a major focus is Antisthenes on the question of naming. Let's approach this obliquely with the question on the sciences. Academic fields ... Read Article

Heidegger uses the term phenomenology in Hegel’s sense as "uncovering what is hidden" though always already there inconspicuously: making conspicuous. Hegel says the tearing of the sock phenomenalizes the Category of Unity, "as" a lost-Unity. Hegel, ... Read Article

I've been thinking about Jacques Derrida and deconstruction in previous posts, so I'd like to contrast Derrida with Heidegger briefly “In order to understand, Heidegger says, one must see phenomenologically. He thus invites us to the first exercise ... Read Article

Heidegger talks about the passivity and receptivity of essential thinking, not something the result of your effort.  In German this is “Es Gibt,” “there is” or literally “it gives.”  For example, you might try in futility for hours to solve ... Read Article

One of the striking things about Paul’s letters is they sound like Papal missives or decrees. Paul was a self-made man from Tarsus and a self-proclaimed apostle. But his long and weighty letters make him sound like a Roman provincial administrator. In ... Read Article

Heidegger notes in the history of philosophy as metaphysics from Plato to Nietzsche the central “world” or context the questions are being interrogated in are that of Being, which made scientific reasoning possible. The Greek word for Being, ousia, wh ... Read Article

What I would like to do below is read some key passages from the beginning of chapter two and then illuminate them with some thoughts on Heidegger, Derrida, and AI.  Derrida says: What we are here calling the apprehension of death refers as much ... Read Article

Previous Post New Blog Post Series: Jacques Derrida and the Philosophy of Death One of the great mysteries of philosophy’s contact with religion and death since Kierkegaard is the story of Abraham being told by God to sacrifice his son Isaac. Ther ... Read Article

In the last series I talked in good Heideggerian fashion about how our stance/being toward death is going to establish the way in which the human condition unfolds for us. For example, I summarized that: Death is such a wonderful topic in Philosophy, ... Read Article

Previously: The Meaning of Life Through Death What’s the Point of the Bible? (2/2) What’s the Point of the Bible: Causing Anagnorisis in the Reader (CONCLUSION) What’s the Point of the Bible: What is Faith?  It’s not What you Thin ... Read Article

Previously: The Meaning of Life Through Death What’s the Point of the Bible? (2/2) What’s the Point of the Bible: Causing Anagnorisis in the Reader (CONCLUSION) What’s the Point of the Bible: What is Faith?  It’s not What you Think ... Read Article

I'm continuing with this study of Paul's letter to the Romans. We noted previously that though the pagans did not have the letter of the Law, they followed the Law because the spirit of the Law was written on their hearts.  It was this spirit of t ... Read Article

A recurring theme in the Old Testament is about the inherent flaws or sinful inclinations of the human heart: Genesis 6:5 states: "The Lord saw that the wickedness of humans was great in the earth and that every inclination of the thoughts of their he ... Read Article

I've been thinking a lot about the idea of demon possession and people being forced to sin against their wills, not just Sin as transgression, but having a demonic sinful disposition toward life. I will look at Romans for this next time, but I want to st ... Read Article

Check out Freethinker Podcast host Edouard Tahmizian’s shy-of-an-hour discussion with Richard Carrier about the metaphysical impossibility of libertarian free will. Our actions are aimed at fulfilling our desires; but where did our desires come from? Di ... Read Article

I'm taking my holiday break from Secular Frontier, but here is my holiday post on something essential! Jesus' exorcism of the Gerasene Demoniac, wiki BACKGROUND: Greek had several terms that could describe a person undergoing divine or de ... Read Article

I noted previously that in Romans Paul has a dualistic interpretation of sin dealt with by Christ’s cross. On the one hand, we have substitutionary atonement to pay the fine for man’s transgressions. This balances the books, but what if someone keeps ... Read Article

In the bible faith is not primarily a set of beliefs.  We are told Demons too believe but are not saved.  Rather, it is a special kind of trust.  Jesus says faith can move mountains, which highlighted The Absurd because would Jesus not then move a moun ... Read Article

Last time I talked about the twofold purpose of the New Testament and Christ's death (i) as payment for our sin fine/penalty, and (ii) seeing yourself in those guilty of God's beloved (agapetos) messenger Christ's wrongful death, which breaks the spell th ... Read Article

I talked previously about a two-fold understanding of salvation from sin in Paul's letter to the Romans, one of a substitutionary atonement paying a penalty for your transgressions to avert God's wrath, and by contrast a moral influence cross where seeing ... Read Article

The Quest for the Historical Paul (Part C) The modern quest for the historical Paul, determining who the apostle Paul was and what he said, is in an important way borne out of a real peculiarity in our New Testament sources.  On the One hand, we have ... Read Article

I remember being very impressed (as a disillusioned philosophy student, lol) in finding Nietzsche's "Human All Too Human" 399 very apt: "That maturity is reached is manifested in the fact that one no longer goes to where the rarest roses of knowledge g ... Read Article

Regarding the historicity (being in history) of Jesus, the convergence of multiple lines of evidence is very important in historical assessment and evaluation. I gave the example of multiple lines of evidence converging on the idea the Jewish elite were s ... Read Article

My thanks to the publisher for the review copy. In these posts, I've presented some ideas that have come to mind about the first part of Carrier's book. The methodological program is not radical at all, but very much in line with other disciplin ... Read Article