Reading Time: 3 minutes It is a word that can often get confused or conflated with trust and faith and other such terms. But in this context, I would like to her think about what worldview (and I know atheism isn’t technically a worldview, but just the sake of argument let me use this term!) provides more hope. Or, […]
theism
Posted inMeaning & Purpose, The Secular
Atheists and Meaning
Reading Time: 2 minutes As I’ve mentioned before, The Nonreligious by Phil Zuckerman, Luke Galen, and Frank Pasquale is a fabulous book. It documents the social, demographic and psychological aspects of life as a nonreligious person. As I have recently posted a couple of times on the subject of meaning, forwards this quote for the book would be pertinent to those threads. […]
Posted inThe Secular
Can You Choose NOT to Believe?
Reading Time: 10 minutes I try not to get sucked into too many arguments about religion in my friends’ social media spaces because I never know how personally their friends and relatives will take the discussion. Arguing in the comment section of a blog is one thing, but when you’re on people’s Facebook walls you may be crossing their anxious mother, […]
Posted inHistory, Politics, The Secular
Nazism, Christianity and Atheism
Reading Time: 3 minutes You´ve all heard the standard lies about the third reich being an “Atheist regime” and Darwinian evolution being a foundation for the Nazi race ideology. The funny (“funny” in a tragic way) thing about this is, that these claims are not only wrong, but that the exact opposite happens to be true.
Posted inUncategorized
On Hugh Jackman, and Surprise Christians / Believers
Reading Time: 2 minutes I always have this weird feeling or reaction to news that someone I have respected and liked, for whatever reason, is actually a committed Christian. I suppose this is borne out of psychological projection of myself onto others by default. This has just happened again on the back of an interview with Aussie actor Hugh […]
Posted inThe Secular
Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #8: Belief in God: theism or atheism?
Reading Time: 6 minutes Having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest ever survey of philosophers conducted in 2009, several readers were not aware of it (the reason for re-communicating it) and were unsure as to what some of the questions meant. I offered to do a series on them, so here it is – Philosophy 101 (Philpapers induced). I will go down the questions in order. I will explain the terms and the question, whilst also giving some context within the discipline of Philosophy of Religion.
Posted inFilm/TV
God does exist
Reading Time: 5 minutes A couple of summers ago I spent entirely too much time in online discussion groups arguing with people about whether or not gods exist. I say “gods” because there were several being debated. Of course, where I live, everyone safely assumes that only one particular deity is even on the table for discussion. But the […]
Posted inReligion
Shane Hayes, Part 5: A Short Definition of Apologetics and, Apparently, Theism.
Reading Time: 11 minutes Hi again! We’ve been discussing a new apologetics book by Shane Hayes and today we’ll be starting to get into the meat of his argument–the one he thinks is “a new approach to the question of God.” Here is the link to the Amazon preview of his book, The End of Unbelief, so you can […]
Posted inEthics and Morality
Does Morality Depend on God?
Reading Time: 15 minutes This is one of my favourite essays on the subject of morality and God. It is by P. Wesley Edwards and can be found variously online, such as here. JohnM was espousing the idea in his comments here that under an atheistic worldview, there is no moral foundation. Moreover, as the argument goes, only God can provide a sound underpinning for morality. In this essay, Edwards shows how this tack is circular and thus incoherent. As ever, let me know what you think.
Posted inGeneral, Science
Autism Study Contributes to Finding the Origin of Faith in God
Reading Time: 2 minutes Researchers at the University of British Columbia have found a much lower degree of theism amongst the autistic, linking their lack of belief to their diminished mentalizing capacity. Mentalizing can roughly be defined as the ability to imagine what other people are thinking and to perceive or interpret behavior in accordance to intentional mental states […]