Reading Time: 3 minutes The following piece was sent to me by my friend, who often goes by the moniker of Fellow Feather. Let me know what you think – it’s right up my OmniGod alley… This will be published in the issue after next of Free Inquiry and maybe the next American Atheist Magazine. SHAVING THE CHRISTIAN GOD WITH OCCAM’S RAZOR […]
Philosophical Argument Against God
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Arguing the Toss over OmniGod. Why I Do It. And How.
Reading Time: 3 minutes I have been having a discussion with a commenter on a previous post concerning prayer in the light of an OmniGod (my preferred term for an omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent god). As many of you who have followed my blog, my writings and books will know, I spend a lot of time looking at how incoherent these […]
Posted inBiology, Education, Environment, Evolution, Meaning & Purpose, Philosophy, Psychology, Science
Balls! 2 (Balls on the Brain)
Reading Time: 7 minutes Some folks got quite exercised about the “cliffhanger” ending of my post, last week. This week I will discuss what the original target of the thought experiment actually was, how the experiment morphed into what was ultimately posted, and how I think the utility of the thought experiment has been improved both for the purpose […]
Posted inEvolution, Philosophy, Psychology, Science
Balls!
Reading Time: 6 minutes What follows is my first crack at developing a thought experiment (cos that’s so “in” right now) that I’ve been thinking about for a while. Feel free to critique, reject, mock… whatever works for you. Thought Experiment Imagine a simple thing, a sphere of some kind. Now imagine lots of them, lying gathered on a […]
Posted inPhilosophy, Pseudoscience, Religion, Science, The Secular
The problem of induction, and possibly deduction, too
Reading Time: 4 minutes There are a lot of premises, conclusions, and full syllogisms dotted in amongst the text of this piece, so I have italicised all of them, so they stand out a bit from my text. Deduction We know that if a deductive argument is valid, that true premises lead to a true conclusion: P → […]
Posted inEducation, Fiction, Religion, The Secular
If religion were true…
Reading Time: < 1 minute I am spending much of today and tomorrow with my daughter, celebrating her 11th birthday. And on Sunday I’m supporting my partner in her first ‘strong woman’ competition (lifting 55kg sandbags, and even heavier stone blocks, flipping 100-200kg tractor tyres, etc.). As such, I have no time to research and write a post, today (or this weekend), […]
Posted inEducation, Environment, Meaning & Purpose, Philosophy, Pseudoscience, Psychology, Science, The Secular
Better the God You Know?
Reading Time: 8 minutes For a long time I had the intention to write a book about the evolution of the god-concept, from about the time of the founding of Gobekli Tepe to the modern day. Sort of a mash-up of Robert Wright’s ‘The Evolution of God’ (though strongly disagreeing with many points raised in that book) and Jared […]
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A Perfect Creator Cannot Exist
Reading Time: 3 minutes There are many logical arguments against the existence of a [insert type here] god. “God” comes in many forms, the classical version of which I take to task in my reasonably priced ebook The Problem with “God”: Skeptical Theism under the Spotlight. In that book and previous posts here, I have taken the notion of a […]
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God’s Omissive Will and the Problem of Evil
Reading Time: 3 minutes The Problem of Evil is a real thorn in the side for Christians and most theists alike. How can there be so much suffering in light of an OmniGod? Christians offer defences and theodicies as propositions for solving this problem. For example, the Free Will Theodicy proposes that suffering caused by humans is as a […]
Posted inReligion
This Is the Soft Underbelly of Christianity
Reading Time: < 1 minute A friend of mine, who goes by the name of Fellow Feather, often writes adverts for different publications that are designed to be provocative. Here is his latest one, and it’s poignant and pointed! GREATER EVIL IS BEYOND THE IMAGINATION OF MAN than that God, perfect in every way, all-powerful, needing nothing, knowing everything past, future […]