Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, October 29, 2011,
In :
Philosophy
I am going to use an unlikely tool to show the philosophical
veracity of determinism – the belief that we have no free will. The evidence I
am going to bring to the stand is / are Jedward. For those who don’t know them,
they were X-Factor sensations from Ireland – identical twins who are
so similar you just can’t tell them apart. And they do EVERYTHING together.
So, let’s look at free will. I do not want to get into the
intricacies of free will here (you can read my book...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, October 28, 2011,
In :
Religion
I have just listened to Ray Bradley debate William Lane Craig. I heard this several years ago but didn't really pay it close attention. This time round I was quite shocked at how many points Craig evaded, or logical demands from Bradley that he met with the terms "God may" and so on.
Craig squirmed big time when Bradley pressed him on subsets of compossibles. This is a REALLY important point. I will try to set it out here:
Imagine a set of people, call that set A. These are all the people in ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, October 24, 2011,
In :
Religion
Does Morality Depend on God? - P. Wesley Edwards
(updated 20-Aug-2004)
Introduction
I have rarely engaged in a debate with a theist where the issue of morality justification has not come up. The theist’s complaint typically takes the following form.
If there is no God, then why is it wrong to murder and steal? Even if you don't want to murder and steal, on what grounds can you criticize someone who does, since morals must be completely relative and arbitrary to an atheist? Without God there ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, October 20, 2011,
In :
Religion
So, on to the rebuttals. Craig pointed out in several of his
rebuttals that Law has not, and did not seem to want to, critique the
cosmological argument. Craig does have some beef here as Law seemed to want to
debate Craig’s version of God rather than the more fundamental argument over A
God’s existence. Thus in true debate point-scoring, Law would take a hit here.
However, as Law plainly stated, and I think this was a wise move, this would
have broadened the scope too far and wasn’t im...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Thursday, October 20, 2011,
In :
Science
In a YouTube conversation that I am having, I have been discussing Stephen Law's chat with Alvin Plantinga on Premier Christian Radio's Unbelievable. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JyQ5cFIoKts
The poster stated this: "To return to the frog example. Why should natural selection care about the frog's beliefs? If you design a robot to catch flies, it can do so beautifully without having true beliefs - or false beliefs - or any beliefs. So why should natural selection bring beliefs into the equ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, October 19, 2011,
In :
Religion
So, on to Law’s opening statements. It’s probably better to
get this from the horse’s mouth - http://stephenlaw.blogspot.com/2011/10/opening-speech-craig-debate.html.
However, I will duly sum up. Law, much to his credit, claimed he was only
interested in defending his position using only one argument, based on the
Evidential Problem of Evil. That being, if God is omnipotent, omniscient and
omnibenevolent, then he is able, knows how and is loving enough to want to do
something about all ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, October 18, 2011,
In :
Religion
Last night, two friends and I went to the Stephen Law vs
William Lane Craig debate at Westminster
where the two philosophers were debating ‘Does God Exist?’ Craig’s Reasonable
Faith tour has been hotly anticipated by Christians and non-Christians alike,
and with the relative unknown of Stephen Law (in debating terms), there was a
feeling of unpredictability thrown in to the usual wager that Craig would win.
The debate was good, though not necessarily for the
straightforward reason o...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, October 18, 2011,
In :
Religion
I was lucky enough to be in Westminster at the Law vs Craig debate on Craig's Reasonable Faith tour. It was a cracking night. I do not have time to review it yet. Suffice to say that it was probably a draw. The format was good and the contributions good. I thought it was well-narrowed down, and Craig did not produce a scatter-gun approach.
A much larger review to follow.
Also, I got to meet both of them, gave Law my book, and asked Craig a question to which he couldn't answer. Great.
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, October 16, 2011,
In :
Religion
I am going to see William Lane Craig debate Stephen Law tomorrow in Westminster. I am pretty excited, even though the best one can hope for is some kind of philosophical impasse. Anyway, I have penned a couple of questions which I would love the opportunity to ask. I will try and get my tuppence worth in the Q & A:
Given that God is perfect, this must either be the perfect
creation, or the most perfect created parameters that could achieve the best possible outcome. Since plate tectonic which...
God comes to you and tells you
there are transcendent, unconditional moral oughts. Just imagine that in this
world all the things you ‘ought’ to do, from a moral point of view (a moral
ought), happen to cause unfathomable pain, suffering and injustice and will
land you up in hell where you will experi...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, October 9, 2011,
In :
Religion
I have just listened to Ray Bradley debate William Lane Craig. I heard this several years ago but didn't really pay it close attention. This time round I was quite shocked at how many points Craig evaded, or logical demands from Bradley that he met with the terms "God may" and so on.
Craig squirmed big time when Bradley pressed him on subsets of compossibles. This is a REALLY important point. I will try to set it out here:
Imagine a set of people, call that set A. These are all the people in t...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, October 5, 2011,
In :
Philosophy
A really important point made here in the context of debating William Lane Craig:
"Additionally he has to posit that the most complex state of being possible, God, was uncaused whilst the simplest possible state, empty space, had to have been caused by god." This, as a wider point, is a really concise and acute way of putting across the idea that an eternally existing universe is no more, and even somewhat less, improbable than an eternally existing God. I like it.
"So whom does God wrong in commanding the destruction of the Canaanites? Not the Canaanite adults, for they were corrupt and deserving of judgement. Not the children, for they inherit eternal life. So who is wronged? Ironically, I think the most difficult part of this whole debate is the apparent wrong done to the Israeli soldiers t... Continue reading ...
Let us assume the triple properties of the classical approach to God: that he is omniscient, omnipotent and omnibenevolent. In terms of the classic Problem of Evil argument, if there is too much evil in the world, ...