Yesterday my friend Andy Bannister tweeted the following: If tweets are meant to be stimuli for further reflection, this one certainly qualifies. At first I thought Andy was saying Christianity is the only worldview that can provide an adequate account of value and dignity. But that can’t be right since Judaism shares with Christianity an appeal […]
metaphysics
Is God the same thing as “magic”?
The last decade has seen a noticeable deterioration in the level of public discourse about God. (Thanks a lot, new atheists.) For a great example of this, consider the fact that appealing to God as an explanation is commonly derided as appealing to “magic”. Consider this instance of the charge which comes from the podcast […]
Scientism and Metaphysics-of-the-Gaps
In this article I am going to address the concept of “God-of-the-gaps”. Any person who spends any time reading in the theology/science literature will find that the term God-of-the-gaps is often wielded as a sort of accusation. In other words, people don’t typically accept God-of-the-gaps. Instead, they accuse others of falling into the God-of-the-gap-trap (aka […]
Does the Copernican Principle favor atheism?
The other day I linked folks back to an article I wrote three years ago titled “You’re not special because the universe is really, really big.” This resulted in Jeff Lowder taking note of this humble, old article and offering a comment. (As an aside, the article is tickled pink to be receiving all this attention […]
A Review of William Alston, “A Sensible Metaphysical Realism”
William Alston, A Sensible Metaphysical Realism. Milwaukee: Marquette University Press, 2001. 65 pages. $15.00. Unfortunately, when it comes to philosophy, common sense almost always takes a backseat to self-confessed Copernican revolutions. As such, William Alston’s 2001 Aquinas Lecture at Marquette University, titled A Sensible Metaphysical Realism, might seem to have the deck stacked against it. But […]
Have atheologians made a single contribution to knowledge?
Several of the comments in response to my article “Have theologians made a single contribution to knowledge?” have focused on a comparison between theology and science. It’s an extraordinarily presumptuous comparison: that is, it seems to presume that those who are atheistic or agnostic somehow have a claim to the success of science. Having just […]
A Journey in Mindandcosmosia: God as explanatory posit
As I continue my journey reading Thomas Nagel’s book Mind & Cosmos I will pause here and there to make various observations. If it makes things more interesting, think of the book as a mystical land called Mindandcosmosia which we have come to by passing through a magical wardrobe. After squeezing between musty fur coats […]
On people who retain unreasonably bad definitions
This morning I was taken aback to read the following comment from the Atheist Missionary: “Secularists make no claims of metaphysical certainty – if they did, they would be “religious” and the tenets of their claims would be a theology.” I assume that TAM’s phrase “metaphysical certainty” means “epistemically certain of a metaphysical claim” (as I […]
On the pap people say when other people die
Jim Clench was a fixture on the Canadian classic rock scene as a bass player and song writer for both April Wine and Bachman Turner Overdrive. Perhaps his best known song is April Wine’s perennial concert favorite “Oowatanite”. Not exactly Gershwin, but the song, and Clench himself, have earned a mention in the liner notes of modern arena […]
