Reading Time: 7 minutes The free will argument is what got me into this whole thing years ago—it is the argument that lit the fuse to my love affair with philosophy. And, after all these years, where so many others have, my conclusions about libertarian free will have not changed. Definition o’clock: I define libertarian free will as follows: […]
free will
Posted inMeaning & Purpose
Problem of Evil: the Free Will defense
Reading Time: 5 minutes Why the Problem of Evil, where bad things happen to good people? Maybe the bad is a consequence of free will, but free will is mandatory.
Posted inPhilosophy
Living without free will: How does it affect my life?
Reading Time: 9 minutes It is true that a stopped clock is right twice a day. It is also true to say that some of my more, how do I say, problematic commenters say something worthwhile once…a year? Perhaps that is too generous. In this case, the interesting comment came in the form of a question. For Jonathan and […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Verbose Stoic on my Free Will Chapter (II)
Reading Time: 3 minutes In a previous post, I detailed how theistic commenter here, Verbose Stoic (VS), has critiqued a chapter of mine on free will commissioned by John Loftus for his book Christianity in the Light of Science. In the first piece, we looked at definitional issues and laid the foundations. In my chapter, I used this example to […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Debating Free Will with Verbose Stoic
Reading Time: 10 minutes I sent regular theistic commenter Verbose Stoic (VS) a chapter I was once commissioned to write by John W. Loftus for his anthology Christianity in the Light of Science. VS has written a lengthy critique on his blog here. I have commented a few times there already in answer to some initial grumbles from reading […]
Posted inHistory, Philosophy, Religion
Debunking the Exodus IV: Hardening of Hearts
Reading Time: 12 minutes The Exodus is a story that is hugely important to Christians (and Jews), as can be seen by some comments by Christians on the previous articles in this series. I want to continue my claims that the Exodus never happened because of both historical issues and theological/philosophical ones by getting onto some philosophy before returning […]
Posted inUncategorized
Debating the Unequal Evidence Problem Again (II)
Reading Time: 9 minutes This is a continuation of my debate with Catholic Paul Hoffer concerning the unfairness in God in apportioning various people different evidences and punishing them (or not rewarding them intrinsically or extrinsically) in so doing. What this means is that either people go to heaven/hell on the basis of their belief in God (or belief […]
Posted inUncategorized
It Turns out the Whole Unfairness of Evidence Apportioning Boils down to “Free Will”
Reading Time: 9 minutes Who knew. The background: Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong and I have been arguing about the unfair distribution of evidence for God in the world and over time. This has been a somewhat protracted argument due to too much time spent erecting straw men and not enough time doing the legwork. I obliged, and developed an […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
Hard-Incompatibilism vs Hard-Determinism
Reading Time: 3 minutes As I have mentioned, I am presently reading a book by Gregg Caruso and Daniel Dennett called Just Deserts: Debating Free Will [UK]. Sometimes I wonder what to label myself as in terms of the free will debate because it all depends on what you define by the term “free will”. However, I think this passage from Gregg […]
Posted inUncategorized
Sinnott-Armstrong, Unfair Distribution of Evidence for God, Belief, & Free Will
Reading Time: 4 minutes To continue the theme of evidence with relation to convincing believers and non-believers to either maintain their belief or take on belief in God, after the recent set of articles concerning Doubting Thomas, let me bring philosopher Walter Sinnott-Armstrong into play with a quote from his book with William Lane Craig entitled God? A Debate between a Christian […]