The other day I was watching an episode of the PBS program Nova titled “Alien Planets Revealed”. The episode began in grand fashion as the narrator set up the search for earth-like planets and the life that may exist on them. Eventually the program introduction built up to the following dramatic conclusion: Whoa, this […]
naturalism
64. Michael Rea on Naturalism
Some days it seems like just about everybody wants to be a naturalist. And I’m not talking about folks who drive a Prius and shop at Whole Foods and listen to John Denver. In this context, “naturalist” seems to flag some sort of commitment to atheism, secularism, and/or science. But just what is naturalism exactly, and […]
I Believe in Science!
Today somebody on Twitter informed me that we no longer need Platonic metaphysics because of “science”. That’d be humorous if the broad sentiment that “science” has replaced metaphysics (and ethics and theology and the kitchen sink) weren’t so distressingly common. Anyway, it reminded me of this scene in Nacho Libre where Esqueleto tells Nacho he was never baptized […]
What happens after we die?
This past Sunday (Dec. 7th) I was invited to give a talk (aka a “sermon”) at St. Albert Alliance Church on the topic “What happens after we die?” (Thanks to Matt Garvin for inviting me and to the church for being a great host.) The talk was part of an extended series the church did […]
Do spirits have a ghost of a chance to persuade a skeptic?
Over the years I have blogged on the topic of ghosts on several occasions, including the articles “Should Christians believe in ghosts?”, “Jesus believed in ghosts (so maybe you should too),” and “J.B. Phillips and the Ghost of C.S. Lewis.” Three years ago I even did some research and writing for a planned book on […]
Evolution plus Secular Dogma? A Response to Victor Stenger
One of my readers, Frokid, forwarded to me an article by Victor Stenger titled “How to Debate a Christian Apologist.” The article presents the most cynical view of debating possible, reducing it to little more than a base exercise in sophistry. This is the reason I’m not very keen on the conventional debate format, because by […]
Apologetics and the Crisis Apparition
When it comes to the veridical value of ghost appearances, among the most intriguing are so-called “crisis apparitions”. Lisa J. Schwebel writes: “A crisis apparition is the recognized apparition figure of a friend or relative appearing around the same time that he or she is undergoing some great crisis: at the time of an accident, […]
J.B. Phillips and the Ghost of C.S. Lewis
J..B Phillips was a well known Bible translator of the highly regarded Phillips Translation as well as the author of the popular 1962 book Your God is too Small. In his 1967 book Ring of Truth: A Translator’s Testimony (London: Hodder and Stoughton) Phillips recounts a stunning experience he had with a ghost … and not just any […]
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 […]
Is atheism a default position?
Recently I’ve been reading Julian Baggini’s little book Atheism: A Very Short Introduction (OUP, 2003). While the book aims to provide a general introduction to the topic, Baggini includes some interesting philosophical analysis which is worth commenting on. In this article I’ll focus on one section in which Baggini enters the debate about whether it is […]
Russell Blackford, the Vacuous Atheist Critic
Today John Loftus published a Facebook comment on God or Godless by Russell Blackford. (I promptly looked Russell Blackford up on Amazon. He co-wrote 50 Great Myths About Atheism and co-edited 50 Voices of Disbelief.) Here’s what he wrote as quoted by Loftus: “I’m currently reading God or Godless?by John W. Loftus and Randal Rauser. From my perspective, […]
Materialist epiphanies, reductive delusions
I was only a few pages into John Allen Paulos’ book Irreligion: A mathematician explains why the arguments for God just don’t add up (New York: Hill and Wang, 2008) when I came across Paulos’ extraordinary description of his childhood conversion to “materialism”. He writes: “if there is an inborn disposition to materialism (in the sense […]
Theism, naturalism, and strawmen
Since Antony Flew wrote his little parable of the invisible gardener sixty years ago, countless atheists have claimed that theism is discredited by the advance of science, to wit, as science keeps advancing so God keeps retreating. The story begins by assuming the most facile possible conception of theistic supernaturalism, viz. one in which God is the […]
Is naturalism in crisis? A review of “Naturalism: A Critical Analysis”
William Lane Craig and J.P. Moreland, eds. Naturalism: A Critical Analysis. London: Routledge, 2000. Most of the greatest theologians have not only been conversant with the philosophical movements current in their time (e.g. Neoplatonism, Aristotelianism), but have been highly articulate expositors and critics of them. However, most theologians today appear singularly uninterested in, if not wholly […]
