Reading Time: 12 minutes If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was 1986 again. We’re at war with Russia by proxy, Kate Bush is top of the charts, and Top Gun is in the movie theaters. Tom Cruise has soared back into our cinemas and into our collective consciousnesses. But is he the squeaky-clean maverick that the […]
Jonathan MS Pearce
A TIPPLING PHILOSOPHER
Jonathan MS Pearce is a philosopher, author, columnist, and public speaker with an interest in writing about almost anything, from skepticism to science, politics, and morality, to the environment, because everything is philosophy. A former teacher, God - or the universe - has afflicted him with primary progressive multiple sclerosis. He can no longer play football with his twin boys, but he can still write a good column and book. His books cover a wide topic area: atheism, the creation of the universe, the Resurrection, the Nativity, free will, poetry, and skepticism to name a few, as well as zombie pandemics, kids' adventures and how to be a father of twins.
Posted inReligion
Excusing the inexcusable
Reading Time: 11 minutes Some moral questions are difficult. Some are shrouded in uncertainty. Some come into focus only with the passage of time. There are some on which reasonable people can disagree. Then there is slavery. Sadly, the horror of slavery still exists in 2022, both in practice and in its legacy. There are still thought to be […]
Posted inDeep Dive
Jordan Peterson speaks—and we’re gonna need a bigger shovel
Reading Time: 12 minutes As the old adage goes, if at first you make a fool of yourself… double down. You might remember that recently, Jordan Peterson got himself into embarrassingly hot water when he made a very public proclamation to his 2.7 million followers on Twitter that Yumi Nu—a singer, plus-size model, and person of color who was […]
Posted inPhilosophy
What the heck do rabbit hutches have to do with size and danger of the universe?
Reading Time: 4 minutes So what the devil do rabbit hutches have to do with philosophical arguments against the existence of God, I hear you ask… Well, let me explain how these little houses built for pet rabbits may shed some unexpected light on whether an all-knowing, all-powerful, all-loving god exists. But, before we deal with the excitement of […]
Posted inReligion
Does the Prodigal Son parable contradict Christian teaching?
Reading Time: 4 minutes I recently watched a YouTube video by Rabbi Tovia Singer that discussed how the “Prodigal Son” parable fundamentally conflicts with the Christian teaching of “Atonement,” which sparked my interest in this well-known parable. It appears that the famous parable is actually at odds with other core tenets of Christian teaching. In case you are not […]
Posted inReligion
Theodicies: Intellectual arguments don’t eliminate toothaches
Reading Time: 5 minutes The problem of evil is the biggest thorn in the side of theism and religious belief, being an often emotive argument as to why there is so much suffering in the world if God was all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. With those OmniGod characteristics, God would know enough to know what to do about suffering, powerful […]
Posted inReligion
Religion as a predator
Reading Time: 4 minutes Analogies are often tenuous, stretched to the point of breaking. But they can also be useful in understanding phenomena and the world around us. Indeed, a stretched analogy is like silly putty. If you stretch it slowly, it will hold together and make sense. If you stretch it quickly, it will snap apart. That, there, […]
Posted inPolitics
Pro-gun lobby: If guns aren’t 100% the issue, then they’re 0% the issue
Reading Time: 3 minutes The gun debate is raging. Again. And all I need to really say about this scenario is encapsulated by this meme: This torturous loop continues because of the inaction of U.S. lawmakers, paid to do nothing by their lobbyists. But in these arguments, certain methods of argumentation stick out like sore thumbs. One of them, […]
Posted inThe Flare
Mass shootings in America: Why does the U.S. continue to do nothing?
Reading Time: 9 minutes Hungerford, England, 1987. 16 people were killed by a lone gunman. The Conservative government introduced the Firearms (Amendment) Act 1988, making registration mandatory for owning shotguns and banning semi-automatic and pump-action weapons. There was a huge firearm amnesty. Dunblane, Scotland, 1996. 16 children died in another rare UK shooting. The Conservative government passed a ban […]
Posted inSecularism
The poisoned church: When pastors use their pulpits to spread disinformation
Reading Time: 4 minutes As we see the world becoming victim to the effects of misinformation and disinformation of authoritarian political agents, it is worth remembering that this is also happening closer to home in our local churches. I was reading an article in Atlantic magazine last night about an Evangelical church in Brighton, Michigan (a state in which […]