Tag: Arguments

Irrefutable evidence?

Recently I was following a debate between a christian and a non-believer, and the non-believer said that he (I presume it was “he”) would require “irrefutable evidence” to consider changing his mind about God. It seemed like a rather stringent requirement to me, so I started thinking …. What things could we reasonably say we […]

CS Lewis, atheists and the 21st century

CS Lewis was the most influential writer or teacher in my early christian faith, but it has become fashionable among both atheists and some christians to minimise his contribution and worth. How do his arguments for christian belief stack up today?

Christians, atheists and confirmation bias

“Confirmation bias …. is a tendency of people to favor information that confirms their beliefs or hypotheses. People display this bias when they gather or remember information selectively, or when they interpret it in a biased way …. [or] interpret ambiguous evidence as supporting their existing position.” (Wikipedia) Atheists often accuse christians of confirmation bias, […]

The ‘fine-tuning’ of the universe – Stenger vs Barnes

In recent decades, cosmologists have investigated the ‘fine-tuning’ of a number of physical laws and values that determine the structure and nature of our universe. It appears that these parameters have to be very carefully selected for our universe to survive and for intelligent life to evolve. This scientific conclusions has been used to argue […]

Where was God in the bushfires?

Bushfires have recently raged through parts of NSW, with some of the more severe burning on the fringes of Sydney, destroying more than 200 homes and taking 2 lives. Without good planning and preparedness, and some desperately hard work by firefighters, it could have been much worse. I live in the middle of suburbia, far […]

Collaborators in the exciting search for truth

I came across this comment the other day on Victor Reppert’s blog, Dangerous Idea. It was made by ‘exapologist‘, an ex-christian philosopher. I thought it deserved to be repeated. I don’t see — I can’t see — how some theists and non-theists can be so “zero-concession” about evidence. Why can’t we be honest? Life is […]

Is anybody listening?

I have commented before that discussions between atheists and christians, on the internet at least, seem to be mostly unproductive at best and downright nasty at worst (Atheists vs christians: does it have to be war?.) It seems no-one is listening and a lot of the ‘discussion’ is more name-calling than information exchange. So it […]

The logical conclusion from atheism …. or science?

Alex Rosenberg is a philosopher and an atheist. He was one of those participating in the Moving Naturalism Forwards workshop, so he is apparently well-respected by his fellow atheists. I previously blogged about his thinking in Atheism: reality or illusion …. or both? In 2011 Rosenberg published a book, The Atheist’s Guide to Reality: Enjoying […]

Krauss-Craig “conversation” disappoints

It was billed as a “three-part conversation” between two well-known, respected and accomplished speakers, across three Australian cities, on the theme Life, the Universe and Nothing. I attended the second “conversation” in Sydney last night, but found it disappointing.

Evidence, christians and sceptics

One of the most common things I find myself discussing with non-believers on the internet is evidence. Unfortunately, the discussions tend to be frustrating for both sides, and rarely reach any consensus, for several reasons.