Context is key!
4 Mar, 2010 in Arguing, Hermeneutics, PHIL 500, Religion Blog, Religious Belief, ScriptureThanks Jason! Share/Bookmark
Browsing the archives for the Arguing category
Where’s the gardener?
5 Jan, 2010 in Arguing, Atheism, Books, Christianity, Design arguments, Faith versus Reason, PHIL 500, Philosophers, Religion Blog, Religious BeliefAnthony Gottlieb,writing in the online journal More Intelligent Life takes a look back at philosopher John Wisdom’s parable and an examination of the meaningfulness of statements about God. The parable went like this. “Two people return to their long neglected garden and find, among the weeds, that a few of the old plants are surprisingly [...]
New natural law and Robert George
20 Dec, 2009 in Arguing, Aristotle, Faith versus Reason, PHIL 500, Philosophers, Religion Blog, Theologians, Thomas AquinasI’ve just finished reading David Kirkpatrick’s profile of Robert George in the NY Times Sunday. It’s probably no shock that I’m not screeching, screaming conservative. But neither am I a liberal frothing at the mouth. This goes back to my describing myself as a “thinking theist”. I want to avoid getting political here. Rather, I’m [...]
The continuing battle between faith and reason
16 Jun, 2009 in Arguing, Faith versus Reason, PHIL 500, Religion Blog, Religious Belief, ScienceRichard Wolin has weighed in on the debate in this article from the Chronicle of Higher Education. He gives a balanced overview of the history of the debate and its past and current interlocutors. In this short article Wolin takes us through Hegel, Adorno, Habermas, Berger, Dennett, Dawkins, Taylor, and more. I agree with Wolin [...]
Philosophical discussion and mutual respect
28 Apr, 2009 in Arguing, Atheism, PHIL 500, Religion Blog, Religious BeliefI’ve watched the discussion forum devolve a bit into some sniping. (Not happy about that, but not unexpected.) In the syllabus for any “religion” course I teach I always include the “play nice” notice. Second, besides reading and writing well, I trust that you will come to class with the ability to have an open, [...]
We began reading Rowe’s “The Problem of Evil and Some Varieties of Atheism”. I change the poor, burned fawn to “Bambie being burned”. Love it — but only in the most philosophically uplifting way. Rowe’s essay is provacative even if he’s advocating for a “friendly atheism”. Michael Martin examines Rowe’s thesis here and it’s worth [...]
Ken Blackwell and Christopher Hitchens recently engaged in a debate (of sorts) on the influence of religion in American history. I feel sorry for Blackwell and it was refreshing to find Hitchens‘ not so belligerent or disrespectful. I say that I feel sorry for Ken Blackwell because he doesn’t seem able to hear Hitchens’ main [...]
Mark Thompson writes: …science demeans itself when it used as a proof of the non-existence of god. Science is not meant to provide unfalsifiable answers, nor is it intended to answer questions that can only admit of unfalsifiable answers. To do so is to turn the scientific method on its head. And in so doing, [...]
Freddie DeBoer calls into question the approaches of “aggressive atheists”: I think the temptation among aggressive atheists is to think that they are just a few converts away from the great crumble, that if they could just move a few more people closer to their position, they’d win the day. This is folly. There are [...]