Rice Broock's recent opinion piece on FoxNews speaks about the strong popularity of the History Channel’s “Bible” miniseries and describes how it has once again unearthed the debate over whether the events chronicled in Scripture are history or fiction. Atheists and skeptics have consistently answered that question with the assertion that the Bible is nothing more than a … [Read more...]
Is Religion a Negative Force in the World?
It's common for the nonreligious to claim that religion is to blame for all of the negativity in the world: wars, overpopulation, ignorance of science, bad parenting, and so on. Religion is a terrible, horrible thing they contend and is fit only for elimination. After that, the world can go on. But is religion as horrible as these folks claim? A user at ThinkAtheist named … [Read more...]
Case For Atheism: Incompatibility of Bodiless Person?
In Philo, the Society of Humanist Philosophers published journal of Philosophy, Theodore M. Drange presented 10 incompatible properties arguments against the existence of God. In this article I explored Drange’s 7th argument, namely the incompatibility of a nonphysical person. Drange outlined “The Nonphysical-vs.-Personal Argument” as follows: If God exists, then he is … [Read more...]
The Comfort of Atheism
Understandably, atheist and writer, Susan Jacoby, is exasperated: "At the endless talk about faith in God as the only consolation for those devastated by the unfathomable murders in Newtown, Conn." (NYT Sunday, 1/6/2013, 6) Newtown seems to expose atheism’s irrelevance and inadequacy in the face of life’s tragedies – death and suffering. However, Jacoby feels that atheism … [Read more...]
Science Killed The Christian God? – Part 2
Part 1 Christians Founded Modern Science What can we learn as we look at the lives and scientific contributions of men such as Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, Leonardo Da Vinci, Francis Bacon, or Louis Pasteur? One of many things that we see is that the majority of the "Founding Fathers" of modern science were dedicated Christian Theists. These men saw scientific … [Read more...]
Confronting Atheism on the Advance
Is it really true that there are no atheists in foxholes? The saying entered American parlance during World War II when war correspondents saw soldiers turn to God after facing enemy fire. On a hot July 4th about sixty years later, a few dozen veterans gathered in rural Alabama to dedicate a monument declaring it wrong. The Monument to Atheists in Foxholes, a stately six-foot … [Read more...]
Faith: ‘wishful thinking’?
I often hear people talk about faith as if it is ‘wishful thinking’. This is especially true in the ‘science vs. religion’ debates. “I have my reason…. you have your faith…” is the general sentiment. I have even heard Christians use a similar way of speaking. In some circles, there seems to be an attitude that you should ‘just believe’ and not question anything. These views of … [Read more...]
Approaching the Existence of God
How do we know God exists? In the past when I was asked this question I used to automatically jump to an argument for God. I would sit down and try to explain it in detail to the individual. I have now decided to take a different approach and back up: I ask the person “How should we approach the existence of God?” or “ What method should we use?” Now, I know … [Read more...]
The Promissory Metaphysics of Thomas Nagel: A Review of Mind and Cosmos
A review of Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature Is Almost Certainly False by Thomas Nagel I didn’t expect to write this review. In fact, I didn’t know when I would get around to reading this book. When a book is reviewed by the likes of William Dembski and Alvin Plantinga, what could a poor schlub like myself have to offer? Possibly not … [Read more...]
Science Killed The Christian God? – Part 1
(pt.1) Is Richard Dawkins right in saying that science is the only real discipline that can give us reliable knowledge about reality? Has modern science buried the concept of the Judeo-Christian God? Many atheists and naturalists would respond with a resounding "YES!" This is an all important question to answer in today's rising culture of "Scientism," which states that if a … [Read more...]