My friend and teacher Dr. David Goicoechea with his book on Jesus and Nietzsche that I talk about in these 3 blog posts. I’ve been thinking about Jesus and philosophy with Nietzsche’s Jesus with this 3 part miniseries of posts: The Jesus of the Philosophers (Nietzsche’s Jesus Part 1/3) The Jesus of the Philosophers (Nietzsche’s … The Jesus of the Philosophers (Nietzsche’s Jesus Part 3/3)

In my blog post series on Philosophy and Religion, my most recent post was on Nietzsche’s Jesus and the central concept of transfiguring agape/love as a middle term between the finite man and infinite God: The Jesus of the Philosophers (Nietzsche’s Jesus Part 1/3) Today, I am going to try to place this radical philosophy … The Jesus of the Philosophers (Nietzsche’s Jesus Part 2/3)

In my new series of posts on Philosophy and Religion I talked in the last 2 posts about the God of the Philosophers and the Via Negativa: The God Of The Philosophers And The Via Negativa (2/2) The God Of The Philosophers And The Via Negativa Today I am going to start looking at the … The Jesus of the Philosophers (Nietzsche’s Jesus Part 1/3)

In this short series of 2 posts I’ve been thinking about the God of the philosophers in the continental tradition, and one thing the continental tradition is interested in, regarding truth, is not just correctness and certainty of judgments, but also how ideas are un-covered.  I’d like to think about how theology in the western … (2/2) The God Of The Philosophers And The Via Negativa

Continued from part two… 11. Guilt by Association Ad Hominem In his BICS essay Nahm repeatedly characterizes criticisms of reincarnation research found among both skeptics and proponents of psychical research as the objections of (no doubt inherently untrustworthy) skeptics (which, therefore, evidently discredit themselves). For example, there’s no question that Paul Edwards‘ 1996 Reincarnation: A … Survival Researcher or Christian Apologist? Could You Tell the Difference? (Part 3 of 3)

Generally speaking, we distinguish the God of the philosophers from the particular Gods, say Hindu vs Christian, in that philosophers are interested in God or Gods insofar as they are knowable or can be demonstrated.  In this way God is usually understood in terms of abstract concept like omniscience and omnipresence rather that as having … The God Of The Philosophers And The Via Negativa

Continued from last time… 6. It’s Depressing, Therefore It’s False In my opening critique I quoted Dean Radin and co. stating: “Materialism tells us that there is no purpose to anything. When we die, we are forever extinguished, and our atoms are recycled into other purposeless creatures. Eventually, all the suns will burn out, the … Survival Researcher or Christian Apologist? Could You Tell the Difference? (Part 2 of 3)

One general rule of thumb of inquiry is that we don’t want arguments that depend on imputing emotional states on people,  because we have no real access to those.  As I said, this is a general rule, although the ancients viewed things differently.  One important background piece of philosophical information is that the ancients didn’t … Psychologizing Jesus

The origins of Christianity are inseparably linked to the Jewishness of Jesus and his relationship to the Jews of his time. Unless the picture is framed in this way, Christian origins are opaque. Dr. Amy-Jill Levine rightly points out Jesus was a lifelong observant Jew who didn’t want to abolish the law, but make it … Christian Origins: Afterword

Man is a credulous animal, and must believe something; in the absence of good grounds for belief, he will be satisfied with bad ones.     — Bertrand Russell, “An Outline of Intellectual Rubbish” (1943) In my critique of the Bigelow Institute for Consciousness Studies (BICS) essay competition on the “best” evidence for life after death and my … Survival Researcher or Christian Apologist? Could You Tell the Difference? (Part 1 of 3)