Reading Time: 5 minutes Skeptical theism is defeated by phenomenal conservatism. Big words, phrases, terminology, jargon. But also, big ideas. If you’re not familiar, skeptical theism is the philosophical term for “God moves in mysterious ways.” When confronted with the problem of evil (why does so much suffering exist given “OmniGod” is all-knowing, -powerful, and -loving?), the theist often […]
Refuting Religion
Posted inReligion
Concrete thorns for skeptical theism: Why does suffering still exist?
Reading Time: 6 minutes The problem of evil is the thorniest of challenges for the theist: It is the issue of why suffering or evil exists in the world of OmniGod, where God is supposedly all-knowing, all-powerful, and all-loving. God knows what to do about this suffering, is powerful enough to do it, and loving enough to care to […]
Posted inLeaving Religion
The core reason homosexuality and Christian belief are incompatible
Reading Time: 8 minutes In 2021, an Ipsos poll of participants from 27 countries found that 80% of people recorded themselves as heterosexual, with 3% gay, 4% bisexual, 1% asexual, 1% other (non-binary, trans, fluid etc.), and 11% didn’t know or wouldn’t say. In the whole scheme of things, that’s a lot. For example, if you were designing the […]
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
How do Christians explain vanishing twin syndrome and ensoulment?
Reading Time: 4 minutes Many theists believe that ensoulment takes place at conception, as the soul is either attached to, or emerges from, the physical matter of the fertilized egg. This theological minefield begs for critical analysis, which I’ve discussed as it relates to identical twins, and frozen embryos. In the final installment of my “Ensoulment Trilogy,” I was […]
Posted inReligion
How identical twins can cause serious problems for ensoulment
Reading Time: 3 minutes Ensoulment is the proposed process of a soul becoming attached or associated with the physical matter of a human at some point in their development. For religious people, this is commonly understood to happen at conception when the sperm and egg combine. We’ve already seen that IVF, with embryos being frozen by the million, can […]
Posted inIt Kills Me to Admit This
The treasured atheist idea that reason undercuts faith just doesn’t hold up
Reading Time: 9 minutes “Can we actually win a war of ideas with people? Judging from my email, we can. I’m constantly getting email from people who have lost their faith and were, in effect, argued out of it. And the straw that broke the camel’s back was either one of our books, or some other process of reasoning.” […]
Posted inPhilosophy
Ensoulment and frozen embryos: How exactly does that work?
Reading Time: 5 minutes Most Christians who call themselves pro-lifers believe that “ensoulment” happens when an egg is fertilized. But quite a lot can happen when and after an egg is fertilized. I have argued before that God loves (natural) abortion, as evidenced by the fact that somewhere up to 75% of all fertilized eggs fail to reach birth […]
Posted inReligion
Analyzing Ehrman and Licona’s 7-hour Resurrection debate
Reading Time: 7 minutes Recently, there was a seven-hour debate between Mike Licona (Christian) and Bart Ehrman (Agnostic), on the subject of “Did the Resurrection of Jesus Really Happen?” that had been well-anticipated by people in certain corners of the internet. The Resurrection of Jesus has been a topic of much discussion here at A Tippling Philosopher due to […]