LINK: Nate Shannon on Anderson and Welty’s Ambiguous Necessity
“In their argument for the existence of God from the laws of logic,* James Anderson and Greg Welty (AW) claim that the laws of logic exist necessarily. Their claim is that the laws of logic possess de re necessity, the type of necessity—metaphysical necessity—predicated of objects. How do they get there? They don’t, in my … LINK: Nate Shannon on Anderson and Welty’s Ambiguous Necessity
20+ Questions for Theists
(This post was last edited on 21-Jun-12, by reorganizing the list into a more logical sequence. I apologize in advance for the inconvenience this may cause to people who have posted comments or their own articles discussing these.) As a follow-up to my last post, I compiled a list of my own questions for theists. … 20+ Questions for Theists
LINK: Mikael Stenmark on Evolution, Purpose, and God
A number of biologists maintain that the recent developments in evolutionary biology have profound implications for religion, morality and our self-understanding. The author focuses on the issue whether evolutionary biology has any relevance for a religious understanding of the meaning of life. First, the question about the meaning of life is clarified. Second, the argument … LINK: Mikael Stenmark on Evolution, Purpose, and God
The Meaning of ‘miracle’ – Part 3
Swinburne’s description of Aquinas’ concept of a ‘miracle’: Aquinas wrote that a ‘miracle’ in a wide sense is any event brought about by a rational agent in virtue of powers greater than normal human powers; and so many events brought about by demons or angels would count as miracles. But in a strict sense, he … The Meaning of ‘miracle’ – Part 3
The Meaning of ‘miracle’ – Part 2
Let’s start with Swinburne’s description of Aquinas’ concept of a ‘miracle’: Aquinas wrote that a ‘miracle’ in a wide sense is any event brought about by a rational agent in virtue of powers greater than normal human powers; and so many events brought about by demons or angels would count as miracles. But in a … The Meaning of ‘miracle’ – Part 2
How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’ – Part 6
In the last post on this subject (Part 5), I claimed that one can generate over 5,000,000 definitions of ‘divine person’ from a set of five divine attributes.In reflecting over my previous analysis of how many definitions one can generate from a set of just four divine attributes (power, knowledge, freedom, goodness), I noticed that … How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’ – Part 6
How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 5
I have previously shown that using just four divine attributes (power, knowledge, freedom, goodness) that can occur in four different degrees (human, superhuman, perfect, eternally perfect), one can create more than 200,000 definitions of ‘divine person’. That is not quite as impressive as the estimate of three million definitions that I made initially, based on … How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 5
How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 4
I’m going to cut to the chase now, for those who have no interest in following the details of my reasoning (“Dear God, please make him stop! I will barf on my keyboard if he mentions ‘criterial conditions’ or ‘range of degrees’ one more time.”): 205, 240 definitions of ‘divine person’ can be generated from … How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 4
How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 3
II. Only Three Attributes are Relevant In this second case there will be far fewer possible definitions of ‘divine person’ because the assumption that one of the four attributes is irrelevant means that we only have three attributes to use in constructing sets of conditions that will in turn be used to generate definitions. Fewer … How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 3
How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 2
I will now try to determine how many different definitions of ‘divine person’ can be generated from the four previously specified attributes, in the case that all four attributes are relevant to a definition of the phrase ‘divine person’. I. All Four Attributes are Relevant A. Four Conditions are Criterial and None are Necessary ConditionsIf … How Many Ways to Analyze the Word ‘God’? – Part 2