This morning, I noticed an exchange between Angry Grasshopper and Ron H. on my blog regarding the nature of evidence for theism. I have excerpted the relevant bits below, but you can read the fuller exchange starting here. After that, I’ll offer my own comments. Angry Grasshopper: “I don’t reject ‘mere’ theism because it doesn’t […]
warrant
66. Reformed Epistemology: A Conversation with Myron Penner
There are several topics in philosophy of religion, and on its borderlands, which are famous for fomenting in their critics that devastating triumvirate of incredulity, derision and, alas, misunderstanding. Divine command theories of ethics and intelligent design theory come readily to mind … as does Reformed epistemology, that approach to the warrant of religious belief which […]
Faith, reason, rationality, justification, and knowledge: A Primer
This post is prompted by the following comment and question from Emilie: You’ve asked John to explain his criteria for justification. Were he to do that, I would imagine that you would have some criticisms. Could you tell us what your criteria for justification are? I’d like to understand from what perspective your criticisms might […]
Belief in tooth fairies is dumb and belief in god is dumber
My village atheist alarm started going off this morning so I checked the blog and discovered that somebody was comparing God to the tooth fairy. This is part of what “Contararian” wrote: “If I wish to claim that either being [a tooth fairy or God] exists, it is for me to demonstrate that to an “outsider” […]
Why “defeating naturalism” is harder said than done
The intrepid S1lverBullet posed a direct question to me: “what qualifies as a defeater to belief in Yawheh/Jesus/Holy Ghost? A logical impossibility? What, exactly?” Later he explained further what he was looking for: “I was asking what might qualify as a defeater? A defeater would be identified by what criteria? It seems that his [Randal’s] beliefs must […]
Committing moral horrors in God’s name revisited (yet again)
In “The mutilation of Isaac” I argued that it would have been wrong for Abraham to kill and mutilate his son as a burnt offering. This was in response to Matthew Flannagan’s argument that there is nothing inherently wrong with God commanding a father to kill his child if the father does so knowing that God […]
