Month: February 2016

Atheistic Teleological Arguments, Part 5: Dawkins’s Ultimate Boeing 747 Gambit

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(Redated post originally published on 7 December 2011) A. The Argument Formulated In chapter 4 of his book The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins advances an argument for atheism he calls the “Ultimate Boeing 747 Gambit,” in reference to Fred Hoyle’s famous comment about a Boeing 747 arising by chance in a junkyard.[26] Just as Hoyle’s … Atheistic Teleological Arguments, Part 5: Dawkins’s Ultimate Boeing 747 Gambit

Sean Carroll’s List of 6 Arguments Used by Science Denialists

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Sean B. Carroll is a noted evolutionary biologist, author, and vice-president for science education at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. I haven’t read his book, The Making of theFittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution, but I’m told it contains a summary of 6 arguments used by science denialists that could be applied … Sean Carroll’s List of 6 Arguments Used by Science Denialists

Preliminary Remarks Concerning Euthyphro-style Ojections to the Divine Command Theory

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This post is meant to set the stage for a follow-up post in which I will argue that the Euthyphro Dilemma provides a definitive (or as close to definitive as we can reasonably expect to get) objection to divine command metaethics (even the modern so-called modified divine command theories associated with Robert Adams, Edward Wierenga, … Preliminary Remarks Concerning Euthyphro-style Ojections to the Divine Command Theory

Murderous Anti-theism: A Further Response to John Mark N. Reynolds

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(Redated post originally published on 1 May 2015) John Mark N. Reynolds, Provost of Houston Baptist University has written a lengthy reaction to criticisms of his earlier blog post claiming that anti-theism is the murderous force behind communism. I and Bob Seidensticker criticized his earlier essay. Reynolds’ more recent piece is, as I say, a … Murderous Anti-theism: A Further Response to John Mark N. Reynolds

Necrometrics and 20th Century Atrocities

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(Redated post originally published on 15 April 2015) I just discovered this site. It appears to be a very sincere attempt at providing an objective review of the historical evidence. The author has also compiled his research into a book, which has been very favorably reviewed on Amazon.

Mass Murder and Atheism

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(Redated post originally published on 16 August 2012) I’ve been thinking about the relationship between religion and morality again. I recently read yet another editorial that blames atheism for the mass slaughters committed by Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Pol Pot, Mao Tse Tung, and so forth. They have a point. While it is entirely debatable whether … Mass Murder and Atheism