The following article is adapted from a section of my book Is the Atheist My Neighbor? If you appreciate this article, please spread the word! The existence of God is a topic that tends to elicit strong passions. People have their beliefs about whether God exists or not, but they also have their hopes. Many people […]
Thomas Nagel
Thomas Nagel vs. the Atheistic Fundamentalists
In my article “Can you be indoctrinated into atheism?” I distinguished between atheism simpliciter — that is, mere disbelief in God’s existence — and a robust, full-orbed atheism that seeks to articulate a comprehensive atheistic worldview. I observed: The leaders of intellectual atheism from W.V.O. Quine down to Thomas Nagel have always been committed to […]
Do naturalists have more to lose? If not, why are they crucifying Thomas Nagel?
Matt DeStefano wrote a response to my article “Do atheists simply want to know the truth? Does anybody?” titled “Do Christians have more to lose?” Matt starts out agreeing with my observation that academics can become emotionally and personally invested in positions they defend and as a result, the pursuit of a particular thesis and […]
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 […]
Thomas Nagel, Iconoclast and Antitheist, on Intelligent Design
Thomas Nagel is one of the most respected philosophers in the world. Like many great philosophers, he has demonstrated throughout his career a penchant for independent thought. While lesser minds have been swayed by various intellectual fashions and orthodoxies, Nagel has cut his own path. This is evident in Nagel’s 1974 paper “What is it […]
On Affirmative Atheism
Protest atheism is the belief that there is no God combined with the refusal to recognize or submit to or honor or worship God should it turn out that God does, in fact, exist. A close bedfellow to protest atheism is another type of atheism that I call affirmative atheism. This is the view that […]
