My story “Trial in Majority” was originally podcasted by Simultaneous Times (starting at 12:01) last month. First time anyone has been so kind as to compose music based on my work!
Posting it here for anyone that wants to read … Read the rest
The Nonsense End of the Heart Sutra?
Some commentators and translators of the Heart Sutra, leave the mantra at the end untranslated. So sometimes we find:
“The mantra of the perfection of wisdom is stated thus: gate gate pāragate pārasamgate bodhi svāhā.”
and sometimes we … Read the rest
Freedom is Slavery to One’s Good Sense
The formula “Freedom is Slavery” seems Orwellian but a version of it is true. Freedom is not slavery to a regime, government bureaucrats, a master race, one’s work, or another person, but to good sense, to rationality. Why is this? … Read the rest
Passive Voice in Fiction
The only advice I’ve heard about passive voice in fiction is: Don’t Use It. This is me offering more nuanced advice.
What is the Passive Voice?
Readers with a passion for grammar, second languages, or scientific writing will likely know … Read the rest
“Very” Is Not So Very Wrong
Mark Twain famously quipped that a writer who cannot think of a word to substitute for the word “very” should substitute “damn,” so as to form phrases like “damn beautiful” and “damn important.” The writer’s editor will delete “damn” and … Read the rest
I Am Beginning to Believe That Morality is Bunk
Before I discuss why the Argument from Moral Knowledge has pushed me in the direction of moral non-realism—the view that there are no objective more facts but only preferences, folkways, and the like—I want to discuss one of a family … Read the rest
Gettier Cases and Moral Knowledge
I’ve said that probabilistic arguments for God don’t do much to convince a committed atheist. But the Argument from Moral Knowledge can be reformulated so that it is not merely probabilistic. In other words, the standard atheist picture (humans … Read the rest
The Fine-Tuning Argument for God
Before I discuss the Argument from Moral Knowledge further it’s helpful to explain why I think the Fine-Tuning Argument for God isn’t so great an argument. Why the detour? I read other arguments for God that turn on our relationship … Read the rest
A Compelling Argument for God
I’ve already discussed how unconvincing I find William Lane Craig’s Moral Argument for God, so it is interesting that there is a cousin to this argument that I find compelling, the Argument from Moral Knowledge:
- We have knowledge
A Very Bad Argument for God
Some arguments for theism seem to either rest on a metaphysical confusion, like the Ontological Argument. Others might furnish evidence for God, such as the Cosmological Argument and the Argument From Design. But these arguments rarely convince non-theists, … Read the rest