Month: June 2012

LINK: “But Theists Do It Too: An Objection To Plantinga’s EAAN” by Jimmy Licon

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Abstract: In this paper, I present an objection to Plantinga’s evolutionary argument against naturalism called the theistic parity reply. Since traditional theism holds there is a great deal about the thoughts/intentions of God that is unknown to his creations, it could be that God desires that his subjects lack doxastic reliability for some good, unknown … LINK: “But Theists Do It Too: An Objection To Plantinga’s EAAN” by Jimmy Licon

LINK: Nate Shannon on Anderson and Welty’s Ambiguous Necessity

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“In their argument for the existence of God from the laws of logic,* James Anderson and Greg Welty (AW) claim that the laws of logic exist necessarily. Their claim is that the laws of logic possess de re necessity, the type of necessity—metaphysical necessity—predicated of objects. How do they get there? They don’t, in my … LINK: Nate Shannon on Anderson and Welty’s Ambiguous Necessity

LINK: Why Is There Anything At All? A Response To Stenger

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“As someone with sympathies for the Argument from Contingency, and as a non-believer, I am constantly frustrated when I see atheists who should frankly know better completely miss the point of the argument and attack straw-men or simply re-define the word “nothing” so the problem goes away. Philosophers have been quite good at pointing out … LINK: Why Is There Anything At All? A Response To Stenger

The Evidential Argument from Physical Minds (APM)

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Last edited: 13-Jun-12 8:20PM PDT Informal Statement of the Argument  Scientific evidence shows that human consciousness and personality are highly dependent upon the brain. In this context, nothing mental happens without something physical happening. That strongly implies that the mind cannot exist independently of physical arrangements of matter. In other words, we do not have … The Evidential Argument from Physical Minds (APM)

The Best Argument for God’s Existence: The Argument from Moral Agency

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Continuing my theme of summarizing arguments about God’s existence inspired by the writings of Paul Draper, this time I have chosen to summarize an argument for God’s existence, the “argument from moral agency.” Draper’s full argument may be found in his paper “Cosmic Fine-Tuning and Terrestrial Suffering: Parallel Problems for Naturalism and Theism.” (The link … The Best Argument for God’s Existence: The Argument from Moral Agency

Gervais: Finding the Faithless: Perceived Atheist Prevalence Reduces Anti-Atheist Prejudice

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Abstract:Although prejudice is typically positively related to relative outgroup size, four studies found converging evidence that perceived atheist prevalence reduces anti-atheist prejudice. Study 1 demonstrated that anti-atheist prejudice among religious believers is reduced in countries in which atheists are especially prevalent. Study 2 demonstrated that perceived atheist prevalence is negatively associated with anti-atheist prejudice. Study … Gervais: Finding the Faithless: Perceived Atheist Prevalence Reduces Anti-Atheist Prejudice

Gervais and Norenzayan: Reminders of Secular Authority Reduce Believers’ Distrust of Atheists

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Abstract: Atheists have long been distrusted, in part because they do not believe that a watchful, judging god monitors their behavior. However, in many parts of the world, secular institutions such as police, judges, and courts are also potent sources of social monitoring that encourage prosocial behavior. Reminders of such secular authority could therefore reduce … Gervais and Norenzayan: Reminders of Secular Authority Reduce Believers’ Distrust of Atheists