John MacDonald


Blogging Through Augustine/Martin’s Anthology “The Myth Of An Afterlife” Part 3

No Mental Life after Brain Death: The Argument from the Neural Localization of Mental Functions Gualtiero Piccinini and Sonya Bahar  (Martin, Michael; Augustine, Keith. The Myth of an Afterlife . Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. Kindle Edition.) For today’s post on The Myth of an Afterlife, I wanted to unpack some thoughts from Piccinini and Bahar’s chapter Blogging Through Augustine/Martin’s Anthology “The Myth Of An Afterlife” Part 3

Blogging Through Augustine/Martin’s Anthology “The Myth Of An Afterlife” Part 2

Today I wanted to think a little about the difference between the kinds of lenses theological hypotheses provide in comparison with secular lenses in science and even literature.  In his introduction to the book, Augustine points out that regarding the secular framework for viewing death: “Because we are built from the same flesh and blood Blogging Through Augustine/Martin’s Anthology “The Myth Of An Afterlife” Part 2

The Law Written On Our Hearts

It is sometimes said that the only difference between Paul and the Jerusalem bunch on Jesus is that Paul didn’t think gentile converts needed to be circumcised (become fully Jewish).  This hardly makes Paul historically interesting, and seems to miss a key distinction. In previous posts I talked about Jeremiah’s prophecy that the law would The Law Written On Our Hearts

I Get Interviewed On Freethinker Podcast About Mythicism, Atonement, and Gnosticism

Inquiry Question: “If Jesus was an apocalyptic prophet predicting the soon end of the age, why the major emphasis on personal and societal growth and transformation?” “meretrix pudicam:” “The harlot rebuketh the chaste.” (proverb referenced by Athenagoras of Athens) Here is an abridged transcript of the interview: Q1 – Why do you think that Luke I Get Interviewed On Freethinker Podcast About Mythicism, Atonement, and Gnosticism

(Part 4) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)”

I have the book now, and so will start formally blogging through it. I hope you’ll join me. It should be fun. In today’s short post, I would just like to share a brief passage from the book where the authors address what they will be arguing: “We show that there are, in fact, situations (Part 4) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)”

(Part 3) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)”

“Out Of Time” is scheduled to be released May 14th, so while we wait I wanted to do one more background post that may be helpful as we try to think of fundamental cause and effect relationships without time. Kant is perhaps helpful here because he makes a distinction between a kind of temporal causality (Part 3) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)”

(Part 2) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)”

So, I’ve been putting together some introductory thoughts in preparation for blogging through the new book on the philosophy of physics and time “Out of Time (2022).” Helpfully, one of the authors did a short article teasing the book here: https://theconversation.com/time-might-not-exist-according-to-physicists-and-philosophers-but-thats-okay-181268 Here are some highlights from the article to whet your appetite: In the 1980s (Part 2) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)”

(Part 1) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)” by

Samuel Baron (Author), Kristie Miller (Author), Jonathan Tallant (Author) Format: Kindle Edition I’m going to be blogging through this new book “Out Of Time” about whether time exists from the point of view of philosophy and physics, and what that can teach us about the cosmological argument. BACKGROUND One current popular argument by theists is (Part 1) The Cosmological Argument; or, Blogging Through “Out of Time: A Philosophical Study of Timelessness (2022)” by