Month: June 2012

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence (ECREE), Part 2: Is ECREE False? A Reply to William Lane Craig

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In my last post, I offered a Bayesian interpretation of the principle, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (ECREE). William Lane Craig, however, disagrees with ECREE. In a response to philosopher Stephen Law, Craig wrote this. This sounds so commonsensical, doesn’t it? But in fact it is demonstrably false. Probability theorists studying what sort of evidence … Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence (ECREE), Part 2: Is ECREE False? A Reply to William Lane Craig

LINK: Colin McGinn on Atheism

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The Spring 2012 issue of Theoretical and Applied Ethics contains a symposium on Ethics, Atheism, and Religion.  The lead essay is by Colin McGinn and is followed by responses from Edward Feser, Steve Fuller, Ted Peters, and Robert Sinclair.  All the essays can be read online, so go take a look. HT: Edward Feser

Open Question to Theists: Do You Condone the Use of the Phrase a “Murder of Atheists”?

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I just learned about this. Apparently the apologist who runs the site www.truefreethinker.com has described Geisler’s response to The Empty Tomb: Jesus Beyond the Grave as a “murder of atheists.” (See here and here.) To be clear, the author is not calling for the murder of atheists. Rather, he says, I am employing the term … Open Question to Theists: Do You Condone the Use of the Phrase a “Murder of Atheists”?

Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence (ECREE), Part 1: The Bayesian Interpretation of ECREE

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If you read this blog, chances are that you very familiar with the slogan, popularized by the late Carl Sagan, that “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.” What I want to do is to offer a Bayesian interpretation and defense of that slogan. In order to make this a ‘self-contained’ post, I will need to repeat … Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence (ECREE), Part 1: The Bayesian Interpretation of ECREE

Can Theists Be Moral?

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That’s a pretty silly question, isn’t it? I would argue that it is about as silly as the question, “Can Atheists Be Moral?” Even fundamentalist Christian philosophers grant that atheists can know moral principles and behave according to those principles. If someone wishes to deny that theists or atheists can have morals, it seems the … Can Theists Be Moral?