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
Examples of Backwards Causation
We tend to believe that all causation is forwards; a cause must temporally precede its effect. But there are some delightful examples of at least possible backwards causation. Even if all they do is demonstrate the ridiculousness of backwards causation, … Read the rest
I Must Admit That Some People Believe in God
I am beginning to believe that some people actually believe in God. It’s astonishing, isn’t it? Somehow I gather I should have figured it out sooner.
I have some excuse. I was raised United Methodist, the Northern variety, not the … Read the rest
On Giving God More Than His Due
A friend of mine helped one of his friends recover a chapter of her graduate thesis from a corrupted flash drive. Needless to say, she was appreciative and made this clear on Facebook. Amongst the many compliments and comments to … Read the rest
God, Author of the Bible
In “Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote,” Jorge Luis Borges playfully suggests through an unreliable narrator that Don Quixote could have been written twice, once by Miguel de Cervantes in the seventieth-century and again by a fictional French … Read the rest
Waiting on My Rights
I’m reading 100 Supreme Court Cases Everyone Should Know, and was surprised by Barron v Baltimore (1833), which determined that the Bill of Rights doesn’t actually restrict the states. Textually, the ruling seems to be sound as the First … Read the rest
The Difficulty of Giving
In Theravada Buddhism, the Bodhisattva (the Buddha pre-enlightenment) spent 540 lives cultivating the ten perfections so that he could at last be enlightened as Siddhartha. Generosity is the first of the perfections, but the last to be mastered. The Bodhisattva … Read the rest