Yes, it’s still true. The basic principles of mathematics and probability have not changed. Thus, it is surprising to read an article saying that requiring extraordinary evidence for extraordinary claims doesn’t make sense. At least, it’s surprising until you realize the person making the claim is probably an evangelical Christian with an extraordinary claim to …
Category Archive: Philosophy
Nov 10
The Lazy Person’s Guide to Dismantling the Moral Argument
I once was part of a comment thread where theists were asked what their favorite arguments in favor of God’s existence were[i]. The argument that seemed to stand above the rest by my informal count was the so-called Moral Argument. If you’re not familiar with this argument, it goes as follows: 1. If God does …
Oct 27
Many Worlds and Ultimate Justice
Here is a strange progression I just went through in my car. Suppose something like Everett’s many worlds hypothesis is correct. Under this, every possible outcome is equally real. There is a you reading this right now, a you who decided to eat a sandwich instead, and perhaps infinitely many other yous. It struck me …
Oct 17
The hiddenness argument revisited (I) by J.L. Schellenberg
Graduate students in St. Louis have recently formed a reading group for philosophy of religion. Unfortunately for me, it conflicts with my work schedule, so I can’t join them in person. I’m going to read along, though, and I’ll provide a summary of each reading. This week’s reading is “The hiddenness argument revisited (I)” by …
Sep 28
Intention in Eden
I recently claimed that Adam and Eve were not morally culpable for disobeying God in the Garden of Eden. I’d like to explain why I think this a bit more. Imagine you are getting a soda from a dispensing machine. You put your money in, press the button for Pepsi, and retrieve your soda. Unknown to …
Sep 23
Free Will and Evil
Christian apologist Stephen Bedard recently made the following claim as part of a broader discussion of evil and the existence of God: If God took away free will for doing evil, he would have to take away the free will to do good. If we are not free to hate, we are not free to …
Sep 21
Contra Genesis
The creation account in Genesis is quite obviously a confused myth. However, there are a very large number of people who still believe in its literal truth. Here are three short, simple arguments for those people. 1. Adam and Eve did not deserve their punishment. Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded …
Sep 19
Atheism and Evil: Part 2
In Part 1, you hopefully saw that atheism does not need to entail objective morality in order to coherently present the problem of evil. But we were still left with the major question of whether secular morality even makes sense. This is not simply a theistic claim; you will find plenty of atheists that agree. …
Sep 12
Atheism and Evil: Part 1
Over the past weekend, an alliance of apologetics bloggers decided to tackle the problem of evil and suffering. These were specifically timed to coincide with the anniversary of 9/11; you can find a list of these articles here. I had hoped this group would provide something other than the normal amateurish turnabout, which says, “You …
Sep 07
Lawless Events and Evidence for God
There is a very interesting post by Kenny Pearce on The Prosblogion called Lawless Events and the Existence of God. He gives two versions of an argument—one inductive and one deductive—for thinking that a God with the traditional attributes would create a world with few lawless events (or none). I’ll only quote Pearce’s inductive version …
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