Tag: religion
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Michael Shermer on Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Introduction I appreciate Shermer’s interest in critical thinking, his gentlemanly manner (though there are moments of minor snark in the video below), his professed intellectual humility, and his support for Enlightenment values. I share Shermer’s respect for the Enlightenment and for Western moral and intellectual developments. Alas, I’m unimpressed by the quality of his thinking…
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A Reflection on the Economy of Salvation
According to Molinism, logically prior to actualizing a world, God chooses just one –- namely, ours –- of many possible worlds to actualize based in part on what human beings would freely decide to do in the freedom-permitting situations in those worlds in which they have libertarian free will. On this account, God has middle knowledge,…
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Science and Church Tradition
Consider this interesting passage from Bertrand Russell (in bold), with my brief comments (bracketed in italics). The passage highlights important differences between Russell’s time and ours: “The authority of science, which is recognized by most philosophers of the modern epoch, is a very different thing from the authority of the Church, since it is intellectual,…
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Blaise Pascal
Pascal’s 400th birthday was a few weeks ago. I like Pascal for many reasons. Here are two: First, he recognized that there is very little in life for which one can justifiably claim objective certainty. One can’t be sure about the existence or the nonexistence of God, or about whether or not life is meaningful,…
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Rational Permissibility, Rational Compellability, and Theism
As the story goes, eminent philosopher Bertrand Russell was asked what he would say to God if God were to ask him why he was not a theist (i.e., not a believer in the existence of God).* Russell answered that he would say there is not enough evidence, which is an interesting reply. For one…
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On Compelling the Affirmation of a Proposition
These days, there are plenty of cases of a person or organization compelling another person(s) to affirm a statement, say, for the sake of acquiring or keeping a job or membership. Such statements typically have moral, religious, or political content (or some content that is quasi-moral, etc.). I assume the reader can recall examples. Now, these affirmations…
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Rethinking the Euthyphro Dilemma
The Euthyphro Dilemma (ED) is a supposed logical dilemma taken from Plato’s eponymous dialogue. The dilemma poses a challenge to theories of morality and axiology which hold that goodness is grounded in God. Let’s call such theories ‘Theistic Grounding Theories’ (TGTs). One interesting response to the ED is to deny that it is a dilemma.…
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No Progress in Philosophy?
This is an interesting article by Chris Daly. The article concerns the progress of philosophy as a discipline. Daly makes important points about the difficulty of philosophical questions, the problem of disagreement between competent philosophers, and the differences between scientific and philosophical methods. I suggest a counterexample to one of Daly’s claims. He writes: “Philosophy displays…