The movie “The Mist” tells the story of a mysterious mist that descends on a small town. Since it is based on a story written by Stephen King you know two things: (1) the town must be in Maine and (2) the mist must contain some real nasty thing-a-ma-jigs. As far as horror/suspense films go, […]
The Tentative Apologist
I think, therefore I am (I think)
Hey everybody. I’m a bit busy at the moment for the following reasons: (1) We bought a new house and we take possession today. Although we have a couple weeks to move we need to get the keys, get new keys, get the carpets cleaned, and start moving; (2) My daughter has a figure skating […]
Doing your belief inventory (or how not to be a fundamentalist)
John has recently commened the following advice in the blog when it comes to belief: “You can (and should) give weights to your beliefs. If you only have 20% justification, then evidence that approaches 20% should be sufficient to force you to at least reexamine your belief. In fact, if you’re using a belief with […]
Two Dead People: A Reflection on “At the Death House Door”
Yesterday I watched the 2008 documentary “At the Death House Door.” The film tells the story of Carroll Pickett, a chaplain at the notorious “Walls” prison in Huntsville Texas who, in the early 1980s, was recruited for being the chaplain for those condemned to death. His job was to stay with the prisoners from 6 […]
Possible, Plausible, or Probable Points or Special-Pleading?
I argued that John Loftus is inconsistent when he dismisses the Christian defense response to the problem of evil and instead demands a good ole’ fashioned theodicy. Robert Gressis, it appears, disagrees with me. At least he says he does: “”I agree with John that defense is too low of a standard….” Initially this was […]
John Loftus on natural evil, theodicy and defense
Our discussion of evil and greater goods theodicy has provided a solid segue for a return (finally) to a discussion of John Loftus’ edited volume The Christian Delusion (Prometheus, 2010), this time with my eagle eye focused on his essay “The Darwinian Problem of Evil.” My last blog post setting up this topic was, you […]
The intrinsic value in learning to be good
JD is sympathetic to my view of evil as being redeemed in God’s good universe, but he has a reservation: “The Book of Revelation foretells a future existence in which there will be all these marvelously rich things like life and sentience and mind but with no death, sorrow or crying. If God is able […]
Would you rather be a bacterium? A rejoinder to the problem of evil
Silver Bullet has ably expressed the common atheistic retort that this creation simply cannot be the product of a loving and powerful God because there is just too much evil afoot. It is a serious argument. Indeed, it strikes me as the most significant argument against theism, bar none. And yet I also believe it is […]
Could God command evil for a greater good?
Silverbullet presents two scenarios: Scenario 1: God allows Fred to kill Suzie because of some greater good but the killing of Suzie is nonetheless evil. Scenario 2: God commands Fred to kill Suzie as a devotional act of commitment to God which leads to some greater good, but the killing of Suzie is nonetheless evil. […]
Meditation on yellow toilet water
This past summer my daughter and I visited what must surely be the lamest tourist trap in Alberta. I won’t say what it was, but I will say that snapping this picture was the high-point. After I had gotten over the irony it actually made a disturbing amount of sense. Why not supply toilets with […]
Randal’s Saturday evening movie recommendation: Requiem
Anneliese Michel was a young German Catholic who reported being tormented by demons. Initially she reported hearing demonic voices telling her that she would be damned. But it didn’t stop there as her behavior became increasingly bizarre: she reportedly ate pieces of coal and spiders and sunk into a world of depression and paranoid delusion. Then, after […]
An argument for Christian meatatarians to consider
Every couple months a church I know puts on a social event called “Men and Meat” where all the chaps in the church get together, consume copious amounts of meat and, er, beat their chests? The event reflects a troubling notion that masculinity is tantamount to a machismo that, among other things, is expressed in […]
Is eating turkey morally justified?
Since my American friends are enjoying their Thanksgiving turkey this evening, I thought it a good time to raise Gary Francione’s argument for vegetarianism (veganism actually). Francione is a well known animal rights activist, though something of a pariah in some circles because he disagrees sharply with other leading theorists in the movement like Tom […]
Did God raise up Bin Laden?
The question is repugnant not only on the surface but all the way down to its very core. It presumes a moral framework that is utterly alien to my way of understanding the universe. And yet it is a question that kept bubbling to the surface as I read Clay Jones’ essay “We Don’t Hate Sin […]
