Religious Violence: The Question that Will not go Away
Every time there is yet another terrorist attack by jihadists, you can count on some immediate responses: The media will devote obsessive attention, national leaders will condemn and decry, bigots will blame the innocent, and presidential candidates (some of whom are bigots) will issue calls to “get tough.” And scores of liberal pundits and academics … Religious Violence: The Question that Will not go Away
Texas AG Hires Anti-Gay and anti-Church/State Separation Activist
Texas Attorney General (and indicted securities fraud suspect) Ken Paxton has hired fundamentalist activist Jeff Mateer as his top assistant: http://www.houstonchronicle.com/150years/article/Paxton-hire-draws-ire-for-fighting-gay-marriage-6925133.php In Texas it is just business as usual to hire zealots and ideologues and put them in positions where they are supposed to be working for the people, all the people (an not just the ones, … Texas AG Hires Anti-Gay and anti-Church/State Separation Activist
The Professor, the Abductee, and the Aliens
What do you get when you partner a chaired professor of religious studies at a prestigious university with a popular writer in order to study the paranormal? According to The Houston Chronicle (3/6/16), Jeffrey Kripal, who holds the J. Newton Rayzor Chair of Religious Studies at Rice University, has teamed with Whitley Strieber, author of … The Professor, the Abductee, and the Aliens
Bird Sighting: The Greater Right-Winged Texas Loon
This story has already been noted on at least one other atheist site, but I have to run it here also. It looks like Mary Lou Bruner, a wacko who says that Barack Obama was a gay prostitute, is headed for the Texas State Board of Education: http://www.slate.com/blogs/schooled/2016/03/02/mary_lou_bruner_extremist_who_thinks_obama_was_a_prostitute_heads_to_runoff.html As I have noted here (many times) … Bird Sighting: The Greater Right-Winged Texas Loon
Popper on Falsifiability
Karl Popper famously said that the criterion demarcating science from nonscience was falsifiability. Scientific theories and hypotheses are falsifiable; it is always possible to cite specific observations that would prove them wrong. Dinosaur fossils found in Tertiary strata would falsify the claim that the K/T extinction event gave dinosaurs the coup de grace. Nonscience, on … Popper on Falsifiability
Theism and the Genetic Fallacy, Part II
(Redated post originally published on 5 March 2009) A few weeks ago I engaged in an exchange with Victor Reppert on theism and the genetic fallacy. I had meant to get back to him right away, but administrative b.s. of the sort always imposed on university faculties slowed me down. Anyway, our conversation made me … Theism and the Genetic Fallacy, Part II
Murderous Anti-theism: A Further Response to John Mark N. Reynolds
(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
The Problem of Epistemic Evil
The problem of epistemic evil is raised by Rene Descartes in the fourth of his Meditations on First Philosophy. In the previous meditation he believed that he had exorcised the Evil Genius who might be systematically and comprehensively deceiving us. Descartes believes that he has proven the existence of a good God who will not … The Problem of Epistemic Evil
Where have all the Miracles Gone?
As a kid, I often left Sunday school wondering why God was so much less communicative today than he had been in Biblical times. Back then, according to the stories I heard, he was constantly speaking, out loud apparently, to some patriarch or prophet. Further, the Holy Book was chock full of flashy, often public … Where have all the Miracles Gone?
John Loftus Interviews Me!
Five years ago I posted an essay here at SO titled “Goodbye to All That” in which I announced an intention of never publishing or teaching a class on philosophy of religion again (the link is below). I had just slogged through a particularly bad book of theistic apologetics and was overwhelmed with a sense … John Loftus Interviews Me!