Lisa Genova’s 2007 novel Still Alice tells the story of Harvard professor and scholar Alice Howland and her journey living with early onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Howland is a few months into her fiftieth birthday when she receives the terrible diagnosis. From there the book follows her on her slow and painful decline into dementia. At first […]
God
God, Serial Killers, and Natural Evil
Most of my readers will know of Stephen Law, the respected atheist philosopher who has made some perspicuous contributions to philosophy of religion, perhaps most notably in his evil God argument. (In the past I reviewed Law’s book Believing Bullshit and I’ve offered several critiques of his evil God argument, including here and here.) Today Law offered […]
Do average Christians believe in the God of classical theism?
In his review of An Atheist and a Christian Walk into a Bar John Loftus claimed that Justin Schieber and I are debating “a belief system no one holds”. Loftus is referring there to the alleged irrelevance of God as defined in classical theism to God as understood in Christian devotion. We can summarize Loftus’ claim with the […]
Belief in God as Properly Basic? The Debate Continues
I just finished listening to this week’s episode of “Unbelievable”, titled “Is belief in God ‘properly basic’? Tyler McNabb vs Stephen Law.” Incredibly, Justin mentioned that this is the first time they’ve devoted a show to the epistemological question of whether belief in God can be properly basic. Given that it is a topic which […]
Andy Bannister on God, Human Beings, and Intrinsic Value
This evening Andy Bannister posted another strikingly bold assertion about the connection between theism and value: On a first pass, this tweet appears to me to be obviously false. For two statements to be contradictory, one must make an assertion that is directly inconsistent with the other such that they could not simultaneously be true. For […]
Cursing the Killer: On Praying the Imprecatory Psalms
Over the years I’ve preached my sermon on the imprecatory psalms on several occasions. Not surprisingly, when you return to an issue on multiple occasions, your position is liable to develop in particular ways. And so it is here. Initially my assessment followed that of C.S. Lewis: the imprecatory psalms represent a wicked desire for […]
Does God demand love under threat of damnation?
A reader emailed the following question to me. With permission, I’m reproducing and responding to the question here: One recurring thought I keep having that I’d be interested in reading your thoughts on relates to the nature of salvation vs punishment and the way in which Scripture seems to call us to respond to God. Now, […]
91. Andy Bannister on Atheism, Morality, and the Meaning of Life
In his famous essay “A Free Man’s Worship,” Bertrand Russell describes the plight of our species in a godless universe with a haunting eloquence that ranks among the most memorable passages of twentieth century philosophy. As Russell puts it, man’s “origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome […]
The omniscient God as the jilted lover
In “God in the terrifying image of a jilted lover” I provided some reasons why readers of the Bible should not interpret descriptions of God’s tumultuous emotional life literally. The focus of my analysis in that article was to point out how this yields a picture of God as unpredictable, emotionally needy, and threatening. In […]
God in the terrifying image of a jilted lover
Aristotle famously referred to deity as the unmoved mover. And countless Christian theologians have agreed with him as they have described God as impassible such that he is not acted upon by creation. As the Westminster Confession succinctly put it, God is “without body, parts, or passions.” What this means is that God does not […]
Atheist Arguments and Uncritical Anthropomorphism
A couple days ago Justin Schieber tweeted the following sentiment: “A lack of privacy in principle surely has some weight in the question of whether we should want God to exist.” The great thing about a pithy tweet like this is that it succinctly summarizes a very common objection to God’s existence. Apparently there is […]
Should you hope God doesn’t exist so you can have some privacy? (Part 1)
If I’m ever at a loss for what to talk about, my twitter feed always delivers. Today Justin Schieber tweeted the following: “A lack of privacy in principle surely has some weight in the question of whether we should want God to exist.” I have two responses to this tweet. The first response will be […]
How to damn God with faint praise
Emcee: “And now, finally, I’d like to welcome our 2015 winner. Please give a very warm welcome to Dave Smith!” [Applause] Dave Smith: “Thanks very much. I’m honored to be here tonight. It wasn’t easy. And there’s a long list of people to thank.” [unfolds a piece of paper, takes a breath, and starts reading] “First, thanks […]
Calvinism is perfectly coherent. In which I continue defending a view I reject
In “Calvinism as a logical contradiction,” I reproduced Zeno’s very detailed attempt to demonstrate that Calvinism entails a logical contradiction. I’m grateful for Zeno’s efforts and his clearly evident acumen. Despite this fact, I’m wholly unpersuaded by his efforts. In this response I’m going to direct my criticism at premise (10) of Zeno’s argument. To […]
