thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
People believe in God, or disbelieve, for many different reasons. What convinces one person makes no impression on another. So I am always interested in what convinces people, or not. And I am very interested in attempts people make to give an integrated and holistic explanation for belief. Fellow blogger (Minimalist Christian) Phil Hemsley was […]
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 […]
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms “faith” in the dignity and worth of the human person and declares all humans are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. Is this true, or is it just a legal fiction?
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?
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 […]
David Sloane Wilson has long been a critic of Richard Dawkins for having unscientific views about religion (and other things). He criticised him again in When Richard Dawkins Is Not An Evolutionist, but it is another of his comments I am more interested in. One of the things Wilson says he and Dawkins agree on […]
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 […]
We all like to think we are thoughtful, rational people. In our modern scientific world, it has become an ideal. To label someone as ‘irrational’ is a severe insult. But have we taken this ideal a little too far?
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 […]
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.