SF & Fantasy Writer, Healthcare IT Consultant, Recovering Academic
This is part of a series of posts about the value of speculative fiction in understanding religion.
Generally, speculative fiction is a poor place to learn about the real world. In other words, there are reasons to doubt the cognitive … Read the rest
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
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
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
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:
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
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
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. The most difficult to master is generosity. The Bodhisattva began by giving his wealth. Then … Read the rest
In the The Man in the High Castle, Inspector Kido orders his subordinate to hunt down an enemy operative. His last instruction is: “I can’t interrogate a corpse.” Of course, this is an instruction. A necromancer newly bereft of … Read the rest