Category Archives: Arguing

Context is key!

Thanks Jason!

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Where’s the gardener?

Anthony 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 … Continue reading

Posted in Arguing, Atheism, Books, Christianity, Design arguments, Faith versus Reason, PHIL 500, Philosophers, Religion Blog, Religious Belief | Leave a comment

New natural law and Robert George

I’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 … Continue reading

Posted in Arguing, Aristotle, Faith versus Reason, PHIL 500, Philosophers, Religion Blog, Theologians, Thomas Aquinas | Tagged | Leave a comment

The continuing battle between faith and reason

Richard 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 … Continue reading

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Philosophical discussion and mutual respect

I’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, … Continue reading

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Arguing for atheism

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 … Continue reading

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Religious influence in America

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 … Continue reading

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Falsifying the unfalsifiable

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 … Continue reading

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The folly of arguing?

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 … Continue reading

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