Jeff’s Picks — 5 Aug 12
The Argument from Evil
- “The Problem of Evil in One Picture“
- “The Narcissism of Thanking God“
- “Why Should an Atheist Care about the Problem of Evil?“
- “Does Everything Happen for a Reason?” by Bruce Gerencser
- “Is Evil Evidence for God?” — by yours truly. A rebuttal to one attempt to use the “turnaround” strategy and argue that evil is evidence for God’s existence.
- “Does the Moral Argument Undercut the Problem of Evil?” by Thrasymachus
- “Why Moral Arguments Don’t Answer the Problem of Evil” by Thrasymachus
- “Evil Shifts the Burden of Proof onto Theism” by Thrasymachus
- “Schellenberg’s Deductive Argument from Evil” — Alexander Pruss critiques Schellenberg’s new ‘logical’ argument from evil against God’s existence
- “If Atheism, Whither Moral Facts? (or Moral Faculties?)” by Thrasymachus
- “Metaphysical Grounding and the Euthyphro Dilemma” by Bill Vallicella
- “Why Do Atheists Answer the Question No One is Asking?” by Greg Gorey
- “Is God Necessary for Moral Absolutes?” by Joe Carter
Apologist Watch
- “Advice for Christians who Discuss Their Faith with Atheists… from an Atheist” by WinteryKnight
- “Atheist Watch” — A new site by Joe Hinman, aka “Metacrock” of the Christian Cadre.
[Editor’s Note (Lowder): Despite its stated purpose (to “sound the alarm against” the bullying of hateful rhetoric from atheists), the scope of the site seems to go beyond that. For example, when I first saw this site, the latest post was “Prayer Studies andthe Echo Chamber.” I didn’t read anything in that blog post which alleges anything to do with hateful rhetoric by atheists. Rather, this post seems to be a run-of-the-mill response to certain atheist critiques of claims about the power of prayer. I found several other examples of articles on the site which appear to have zero to do with hateful rhetoric, but seem to be standard critiques of certain atheistic arguments.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. I just want to point how extremely selective the author appears to be–based on my 3 minutes of skimming the site–in terms of interacting with atheist arguments. My impression is that he spends most or all of his time interacting with the weakest arguments for atheism, but spends little or none of his time interacting with the strongest arguments for atheism.In contrast, on The Secular Outpost and The Secular Web, we regularly go out of our way to interact with the best arguments theists and Christians have to offer. We obviously have a bias, but we at least attemptto interact with the strongest arguments for theism and Christianity.
Miscellaneous
- “Secularism Isn’t Atheism” — by R. Joseph Hoffmann
- “Are God and Aliens Compatible?” by Gabriel McKee
- “Please, Stop Hiring Theologians as Philosophers” — Eli Horowitz criticizes Randal Rauser’s recent critique of the evidential argument from the history of science (AHS) which focused on the definition of metaphysical naturalism
- “Atheism, Lies, and Suppressed Knowledge of God” by Stephen Law
- “Is This Your Brain on God?“
- “When Religious Leaders Complained about Life of Brian, Monty Python Was Ready for Theism” (HT: Friendly Atheist)
- “Theistic Evolution: An Incoherent and Inconsistent Worldview?” by Callie Joubert for Answers in Genesis
Books of Interest
- “The Hubris of Thomas Nagel’s New Book Title” — by Gary Williams, regarding Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False
- “The Battle Over ‘Nothing’” — Salman Hameed talks about Jim Holt’s new book, Why Does the World Exist?
- Why Tolerate Religion? by Brian Leiter
- “Thomas Nagel and Stephen C. Meyer’s Signature in the Cell” — Thomas Nagel reviews Meyer’s book for the Times Literary Supplement
Culture Wars
- “5 Reasons Why the Church Failed Yesterday” — Matthew Paul Turner argues the Christian church “failed” with its support for “Chick-Fil-A Appreciation Day”
- “Okay, let’s talk about abortion” — Massimo Pigliucci provides an excellent summary of philosopher Judith Jarvis Thompson’s pro-choice arguments.
- “Murray Admits School Prayer is Submission to God” — by Ed Brayton
- “Virginia Columnist Slanders Atheists” — by Ed Brayton
Humor
- “What Secularists Never Do” — Ed Brayton reblogs a funny piece from The Onion
Although this really shouldn’t be necessary, the following disclaimer applies: unless explicitly stated, inclusion of a link does not constitute an endorsement of a link’s content.