The Atheist named Richard Swinburne
I was reading the Martyrdom of Polycarp recently, which is “the oldest written account of a Christian martyrdom outside the New Testament.” (The Apostolic Fathers, updated edition, edited and revised by Michael Holmes, p.222; hereafter: TAF). Polycarp was killed between 155 and 160 C.E: The Martyrdom of Polycarp sets out quite clearly both the issue … The Atheist named Richard Swinburne
The Holy Spirit and the Affect Heuristic
I’ve been re-reading Daniel Kahnman’s wonderful book, Thinking, Fast and Slow and came upon the section in which he discusses the ‘affect heuristic’. The affect heuristic is the notion that people often make decisions based on their feelings or emotions about the topic at hand. It is an example of “substitution”, in which “the answer … The Holy Spirit and the Affect Heuristic
The Perfect Goodness of God – Again (Part 2)
In my previous post on this topic, I used conditional derivation to try to prove that one statement entailed another statement, to show that ‘There is a person who is omniscient and perfectly free’ entails ‘There is a person who is perfectly good’. But because I’m a bit unclear on how the logic of conditional … The Perfect Goodness of God – Again (Part 2)
Video of Licona-Cavin Debate on the Resurrection of Jesus
Here is the video of Licona-Cavin debate on the resurrection of Jesus. (HT: Wes)***video deleted***I hope to blog about this debate in detail in the future.
Ex-Apologist on Craig’s “Holy Spirit Epistemology”
This isn’t brand new; I just saw it mentioned on EA’s post listing his favorite posts of 2012 and I don’t remember seeing this before. EA criticizes Michael Martin’s objections to Craig’s Holy Spirit epistemology and then offers his own objection. LINK
Adversarial Communications between Theists and Nontheists
I think it’s really unfortunate that some people are adversarial in their exchanges with people who do not share their views. In exchanges between theists and nontheists, I have seen people from both sides do this. Furthermore, the problem seems to be getting worse. I am not sure what to do about this other than … Adversarial Communications between Theists and Nontheists
Theism, Atheism, and Metaethics
In response to my comments on “Atheist Ethicist: Theism, Atheism, and Blame,” Keith Parsons rightfully pointed out an error and an inconsistency in my comments where I had denied that theism has metaethical implications. As is often (if not always) the case in philosophy, a lot of this depends on terminology. And although I responded … Theism, Atheism, and Metaethics
Flowchart on the Futility of Prayer
HT: Atheist At Large
The Evidential Argument from Moral Agency (AMA) Revisited
I want to revisit Paul Draper’s very interesting argument from moral agency against metaphysical naturalism.[1] Informal Statement of the Argument We know that moral agents exist. If we ignore for a moment the evidence for moral agents–i.e., independent of the evidence for moral agents–we have much more reason on theism than on naturalism to expect … The Evidential Argument from Moral Agency (AMA) Revisited
The Poverty of Theistic Morality
In an effort to increase visibility of an article that has been largely ignored by theists, I thought it would be interesting to discuss what Adolf Grünbaum has to say about the theistic implications of morality in his excellent essay, “The Poverty of Theistic Morality.” He writes: One vital lesson of that analysis will be … The Poverty of Theistic Morality