Life in Texas is many things, but it is never boring. You can always count on zealous Bible-beaters, uh, our duly elected state officials, that is, to liven things up. Our governor Greg Abbott wants crosses on police cars: Note that his justification only mentions the religious significance of the cross in passing. Chiefly, the … “You are Under Arrest in the Name of Jesus!”

I have been trying to provide some clear and plausible versions of the ontological argument for one of my classes. This is a lot harder than it sounds. Below is what I have so far. The first argument is an attempt to capture what Anselm was arguing in his first version in Proslogion. The second … Three Ontological Arguments

My post “Evil: Still no Good Answers” has provoked a lively discussion with over 200 comments. Theistic commentators naturally want to argue that there are indeed plausible reasons for God to permit evil, even evils of the magnitude, extent, and variety that we find in the actual world. A common theme of these replies is … What Could God do about Evil?

Here is an essay written by my friend Eddie Tabash. He is a Constitutional lawyer, legal scholar, and one hell of a defense attorney. Here he tells of his experiences growing up as the son of an Auschwitz survivor. http://secularhumanism.org/index.php/articles/7861 Eddie also provides enlightening and incisive comments on evil and theism. When confronted with instances … Evil: Still no Good Answers

The position of the moderate Muslim is unenviable. Conservative Muslims castigate you as apostates and heretics. Right-wing Americans lump you with the terrorists and fanatics. So extreme has the anti-Muslim fervor become in the United States that Donald Trump can call for temporarily banning all Muslims from entering the country—and his poll numbers go up! … Message to Moderate Muslims

Note: This may be a tad technical for some readers. In my postings here at SO I recognize that many readers are not academic philosophers, so I try to walk a line that balances philosophical accuracy with accessibility. Here I go into somewhat greater detail and depth on an issue that non-philosophers may regard as … Norms as Hypothetical Imperatives

Victor Reppert posted this on his Dangerous Idea blog under the title “Why Not?”: “OK, suppose you think that religion really does harm, and we really have to do what we can to stamp it out. Most of us don’t have the opportunity to help establish or eliminate religion by the use of violence. But … Violence Against Religion?

There is often discussion of the resurrection apologetic here at SO. Some newcomers to the conversation may be put off by the complexity of it all. In hopes of providing a user-friendly introduction to the context of the debates, I offer the following: Innumerable scenarios could be and have been advanced about the fate of … Jesus End: The Formal Possibilities

I got a correspondence this morning from a reader who identified himself as having been raised in a strictly orthodox Jewish environment. One argument that he had often heard concerned the historicity of the stories about Moses, the Exodus, and the delivery of the Law at Mt. Sinai. I cannot reproduce these arguments here since … Moses and Myth