Just a short post, but I’d like to comment on one particular maxim advanced by philosopher Charles S. Peirce, a maxim which I strongly endorse: Do not block the road of inquiry! What Peirce means by this is that we ought never to draw a line in the sand and say that theorizing cannot, must… Read More: Do Not Block the Road of Inquiry »
Here’s a nice post by Bill Vallicella arguing, correctly in my opinion, that it can sometimes be morally obligatory for a government to wage war even if doing so brings about the deaths of noncombatants. The key point is that we must not confuse the norms of private morality (the Golden Rule, turning the other… Read More: Private vs. Public Morality and “Collateral Damage” in War »
A colleague called my attention to this Foxtrot comic (©Bill Amend). It originally appeared October 11, 2006. (HT: Rick Beckman by way of James Woodbridge)
My wife sent me a link to this hilarious story from a parody news website: “Calvinist Church Dumps Free Will Offerings”
In the comments section of a recent post at one of Victor Reppert’s blogs I’ve been engaged in a very interesting and stimulating conversation with a fellow who calls himself ‘exapologist’ about the status of abstract objects (propositions, numbers, sets, etc.). I’m arguing for theistic conceptualism (abstract objects exist necessarily as ideas in the mind… Read More: Theism, Platonism, and Abstract Objects »
By “suffering” I mean pain, whether physical or emotional.By “evil” I mean moral evil, i.e., sin, wickedness. It is important to keep these distinct. For one thing, not all suffering is evil – it was a good thing that my parents disciplined me, even though it hurt sometimes. In addition, while evil acts may cause… Read More: The Problem of Evil and the Problem of Suffering »
In connection with the topic of my preceding post, I just noticed a comment that David Tye had left on a previous post of mine about half-a-year ago. His comment is very insightful: Flying spaghetti monsters and teapots are things immanent with respect to the universe. God – if He exists – is utterly transcendent.… Read More: Why Teapots and Spaghetti Monsters Miss the Point »
In a short essay entitled “Is There a God?” Betrand Russell famously compared religious belief, including belief in God, to believing in the existence of celestial teapot: Many orthodox people speak as though it were the business of sceptics to disprove received dogmas rather than of dogmatists to prove them. This is, of course, a… Read More: God Is Not a Celestial Teapot »
Here’s a link to a recent critique of William Lane Craig’s defense of Molinism, a theory of divine providence that claims to reconcile unconditional (i.e., libertarian) human freedom with meticulous providence (the notion that God has sovereignly decreed everything that happens) by attributing to God “middle knowledge”. Middle knowledge is said to be infallible, comprehensive… Read More: A Critique of Craig on Middle Knowledge »
Regarding the meaning of life, Bertrand Russell famously had this to say in “A Free Man’s Worship”: Such, in outline, but even more purposeless, more void of meaning, is the world which Science presents for our belief. Amid such a world, if anywhere, our ideals henceforward must find a home. That Man is the product… Read More: Rationality and the Meaning of Life »