Last week I wrote “Laughing at Fundamentalists” in critique of those who would propose to mock certain groups. (Of course to mock a group it is best to label them first and “Fundamentalist” is as good a label as any.) In response I received the following comment from The Atheist Missionary: “I’ve always taken the position […]
reason
The Anti-Apologist: Conversations with Myron Penner
Last week my final night of debate with John Loftus was moderated by Myron Penner, author of The End of Apologetics. My criticisms of Myron’s position in my summary of the event, “God or Godless in Edmonton,” were harsh (though no less harsh than Myron’s criticisms of my position). For the sake of recap, I […]
Extraordinary claims, extraordinary evidence, and what is required to persuade a rational person
In the last few hours I have twice had the old maxim “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” quoted to me. I have dealt with this principle before (see here), but that was a couple years ago, so it would seem like a good time to return to the topic. In the spirit of irenicism, let […]
Why knowledge must begin in faith rather than evidence
In “Testimony as Properly Basic” I outlined a simple way that a person could be justified in believing that “Jesus rose from the dead”. Instead of appealing to doxastic processes that are accepted only by Christians (e.g. the Internal Instigation of the Holy Spirit) I based my account on a mundane source of knowledge and rational […]
Testimony as properly basic
In my last post I provided a simple way that a person could come to believe “Jesus rose from the dead” in a way that is properly basic. I did so by appealing to a very familiar source of knowledge and rational belief: the testimony of others. Those who are familiar with Alvin Plantinga’s work on this […]
Three sentences into Lewis Wolpert’s book, and already bogged down
I’ve had Lewis Wolpert’s book Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast: The Evolutionary Origins of Belief (Faber and Faber, 2006) sitting on my shelf for a while now. So yesterday I pulled it off and decided to give it a read. I didn’t get very far before I had to pause. The third sentence of the […]
Tradition is like dog fur
I bet you’ve never thought of this simile before, but believe me it’s a keeper. Every spring pet owners shave their shaggy dogs in preparation for the hot summer ahead. They do so with the best of intentions under the assumption that this will help their dogs cool down. It is understandable why they would […]
Can a person be 100% Christian if they’re only 50% sure it is true?
Christians are typically understood to be, among other things, people who believe certain propositions about God. For example, Jesus is Lord and God raised him from the dead. (Romans 10:9) However, as is so often the case, what initially seems simple becomes much more complicated upon closer inspection. In the past I’ve explored the complexities […]
What place, then, for a creator? An important place, actually.
“In what way,” John asked, “does your god hypothesis account for a universe without a beginning?” This is a good question, not least because there are many people who think that if the universe is eternal then God doesn’t account for much at all. In an eternal universe what place, then, for a creator? It is […]
To be (or believe) is to risk
Over the last couple days Mr. Loftus has been providing his reliably ignorant commentary on what he calls “faith” over at his blog. I pointed out that it was ignorant and provided the simple definition of faith that I first explained and defended here: viz. assent to a proposition that is conceivably false. Adam Hazzard […]
Doxaphobia and its foolish pretenders
So far as I know, “doxaphobia” is a neologism traceable to me. At least I haven’t seen it used elsewhere. And what is doxaphobia, you ask? Well first off, don’t confuse it with “doxophobia” which is the fear of expressing one’s opinion. However, doxaphobia is a kissing cousin of doxophobia. While the latter is the fear of sharing […]
John Loftus, his Outsider Test for something or other, and Skepticism
A year ago I wrote a series of essays criticizing The End of Christianity, a book edited by John W. Loftus. A couple days ago I suggested that he consider responding to the essays I wrote in the series relevant to his work and he obliged mere hours later. (My initial anticipation quickly dissipated when I […]
Cases where blind faith is the best kind
In a dialogue with Ray Ingles on the concept of faith davidstarlingm observed: “Can we just agree that “having faith” is bad when it discourages investigation of the evidence….” The “right” answer is “yes, of course!” Or so you might think. But sometimes the “right” answer isn’t right. Consider this: “Can we just agree that making […]
When rationality becomes a club (in two ways)
In his latest salvo John Loftus writes: “So let me put it to you again, Randal, when you conclude more than the probabilities allow you are being irrational.” When I read that I get a mental visual of William Hung (of American Idol infamy) saying “So you didn’t like my rendition of ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’? Well let […]
