Most nonbelievers think there is something absurd about the denial of death. Sam Harris expresses this view well: We live in a world where all things, good and bad, are finally destroyed by change. Parents lose their children and children their parents. Husbands and wives are separated in an instant, never to meet again. Friends … Death

In both the United States and Turkey, the two countries I can observe most closely, the strength of conservative religious movements has a lot to do with how the religious are better at organizing care-giving and social solidarity compared to more secular people. In the US, much care-giving is linked to churches. From pastoral visits … We don’t care

And now, the Christian creationists—intelligent design proponents in this case—come out in defense of freedom of speech. That is, they decry the “Darwinist” persecution of alternative points of view. How many intellectuals and media conveyers will defend free speech and the importance of an unfettered debate of ideas? Fewer and fewer. We are witnessing in … Christian creationists for freedom of speech

We often hear of Muslims demanding restrictions on free speech, to prevent religious sensibilities from insult. In fairness, here is a group of Muslims standing up for free speech. They are, in fact, enraged about Western and secularist restrictions of freedom of speech. They demand that THE DARWINIST DICTATORSHIP SHOULD APOLOGIZE o For banning and … Muslim creationists for freedom of speech

Lately there seems to be many assertions of a right to deny services that violate the religious beliefs of a provider. Some Christian pharmacists want to have no part of filling a birth control prescription, a few Muslim taxi drivers want to refuse to pick up customers with dogs or alcohol, and so forth. Now, … Denying service

Dianelos Georgoudis replied at length to my earlier posting on metaphysical naturalism and consciousness, and I would like to continue the conversation. I characterize metaphysical naturalists as committed to the causal closure of the natural universe, i.e., to the claim that natural phenomena, to the extent that they are caused (and not, say, random or … More on Naturalism and Consciousness

Reading Liberalism for a New Century (Jumonville and Mattson, eds.) recently, I was struck by the backward-looking nature of allegedly cutting-edge liberal thought. I’ll admit a certain bias: I keep a distance to American liberalism, though I invariably end up grudgingly voting Democratic. Liberals are far too conservative for my taste. And in this book … Liberals for religion

Inside Higher Ed reported on a study looking at how different major choices in college affect attendance at religious services. There is little in it that is surprising. Business and education majors show an increase in religiosity. Humanities and social science majors show a decrease. None of these effects are large. Science majors remain more … Religion in College

In disputes between supernaturalists and naturalists, one of the minor themes has to do with uniqueness and identity. Naturalists inclined toward functionalism usually think that the mind, for example, is what the brain does, while religious people tend to believe in souls and spirits. But functionalists then also have to think that copies of minds … Uniqueness