Boghossian: Publishing in Phil of Religion = Childish

I confess I had to do a double-take when I read the following tweet from Peter Boghossian.

Being published in the philosophy of religion should disqualify one from sitting at the adult table.

— Peter Boghossian (@peterboghossian) June 15, 2014

Notice what Boghossian is claiming. Boghossian is not just claiming that theists who have had books or articles published in the philosophy of religion should be disqualified from sitting at the adult table. His claim applies equally to nontheists who have been published in the philosophy of religion. Off the top of my head, that list includes all of the following philosophers.

  • Louise Antony
  • Julian Baggini
  • Raymond Bradley
  • Robert Greg Cavin
  • Carlos Colombetti
  • Ted Drange
  • Paul Draper
  • John Earman
  • Evan Fales
  • Antony Flew (included for all of the time he was a nontheist)
  • Richard Gale
  • Adolf Grunabum
  • Arnold Guminski
  • Paul Kurtz
  • Stephen Law
  • John Loftus
  • J.L. Mackie
  • Stephen Maitzen
  • Michael Martin
  • Matt McCormick
  • Delos McKown
  • Bradley Monton
  • Kai Nielsen
  • Graham Oppy
  • Keith Parsons
  • Herman Philipse
  • Massimo Pigliucci
  • John Post
  • James Rachels
  • J. Wesley Robbins
  • William Rowe
  • Bruce Russell
  • J.L. Schellenberg
  • Theodore Schick, Jr.
  • John Shook
  • Quentin Smith
  • Jordan Howard Sobel
  • Jason Thibodeau
  • Michael Tooley
  • Mark Vuletic
  • Andrea Weisberger
  • Tyler Wunder

I take the above list to be a reductio ad absurdum against Boghossian’s ridiculous tweet. As someone else wrote,

@peterboghossian What a remarkably silly thing to say. Should saying something that silly disqualify one from sitting at the adult table?

— Adam Gibbons (@Recursive_Bias) June 15, 2014

I’m sure William Lane Craig is licking his chops at the chance to debate Boghossian. If it happens, I predict an epic takedown of Boghossian by Craig.

ETA: Added Louise Antony, Antony Flew, Stephen Law, Stephen Maitzen, Herman Philipse