While digging through old notes for a new semester I came across this graphic that I had found somewhere at some time in the dim past. I don’t actually think “postmodernism” is the issue here. But the graphic does effectively capture the “Wikipediazation” of discussion and debate, particularly in the internet sphere. And it alludes to [...]
Read moreJerry Rivard asks: “Do you have a reason why objective morals can’t exist without an omnipotent omniscient deity? (And please don’t just say “well where else would they come from”.)” I’ve dealt with this topic in a previous blog post, ”If there is no God then is everything permissible?” Let me give the nuts and bolts [...]
Read moreStephen C. Meyer. Signature in the Cell: DNA and the Evidence for Intelligent Design. Harper One, 2009. 611 pp. ISBN:978-0-06-147278-7 I have been saying for some time (six months actually) that I was going to review Stephen C. Meyer’s Signature in the Cell. This is the first, faltering step toward that end. But please note [...]
Read morePlease note I have amended my original review by adding the following email from a reader: “Dude, you put WAY too many spoilers in that review, without indicating ‘WARNING CONTAINS SPOILERS!’ Many people will resent that. Just sayin’ . . .” Now this film isn’t exactly “The Sixth Sense” but nonetheless you have been warned. [...]
Read moreA few days ago in the thread dangling from “Ad Maitzen: On ‘What must I believe to be saved?‘” Brad Haggard made an interesting claim in response to Stephen Maitzen: Finally, one thing you didn’t address in your paper are facts which I would consider recalcitrant upon a naturalistic explanation of religious diversity. The revival in [...]
Read moreCertain issues keep arising (or being raised, or bubbling to the surface) in the blog, and no matter how many times I deal with them the answers somehow don’t seem to take root. But hope springs eternal, so here goes again… S1lverbullet raises a criticism against my critique of Maitzen’s argument: “you sound an awful [...]
Read moreProjection theories of religion have been around since at least the time of Ludwig Feuerbach (c. 1840s). Unfortunately, they differ from fine wines in that they do not improve with age. Here is how Feuerbach himself stated his thesis: “This doctrine of mine is briefly as follows. Theology is anthropology: in other words, the object [...]
Read moreRay asks: “ “So… what is it one must believe or trust [to be saved]? And how does it lead to works?” I don’t think a person has to have any beliefs to be saved. Severely mentally handicapped people, fetuses and infants have no beliefs and yet they can be (I’d say are) saved. Okay fine, but [...]
Read moreAlexander appears to think that my attempt to provide one plausible way to construe Christian salvation in response to Maitzen’s argument is vulnerable to a reductio ad absurdum. And so he writes: “What if there was an atheist Gandhi? Would he be able to reach heaven in the same manner as does this Gandhi? Finally, if everyone [...]
Read moreSteve Maitzen’s response to my critique is brief and to the point: “Your proposal invites the same generic reply I gave on p. 182 of my article: You make belief in God (or belief in Jesus) out to be of no particular importance for salvation, a view that’s hard to square with much of the [...]
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