a tippling philosopher

New essay on Hume and Induction

July 19, 2011
I have written a new essay on Hume's approach to inductive reasoning. Have a read here and let me know what you think by commenting on this blog post.
 

Tickled me a little

July 17, 2011

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God is a consequentialist

July 8, 2011

When debating morality and ethics with Christian theists, scorn is often poured on secular ethicists who adhere to moral disciplines that are not grounded in God. Usually, these moral approaches are consequentialist in nature. In other words, moral actions are defined by the consequences they deliver as opposed to the intrinsic morality of the action itself. The ends justify the means. As an example, such an approach might well be utilitarianism. Though this appears in many guises (for exampl...


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God cannot be contrary to his own predictions

June 19, 2011

Here is a criticism about God’s omniscience and omnipotence based upon a point made by John D. barrow in Impossibility, drawing on the work of cognitive scientists Donald Mackay. To put it into simple terms, it might be easier to state it as follows:

 

It has long been understood that with God’s omniscience, he cannot be contrary to his own predictions. For example, if you were claimed as being omniscient and omnipotent and you predicted beforehand that you would make yourself spaghetti...


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God cannot know he is omniscient

June 13, 2011
Theists, the world over, claim that God is omniscient. However, this is not an easy claim to make for a whole host of reasons, one of which is worth looking into here. I want to look at the idea that in many instances, you cannot know that you don’t know something. If there is a situation where you cannot know something, then if it is claimed that you are omniscient, this would invalidate that claim.

For example, there could conceivably be something that God does not know. Conceivably, p...

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Religion is...

June 4, 2011
In the same discussion as the previous post was involved in, this comment by papalinton deserves a mention. It is a great summation of religion:

brdeadite99,
You say, "... Atheism is not a belief system."

It is just as you say; with atheism there is no doctrine, no 'good' book, no dogma, no catechism, no organised tradition, no institutional body or theological administrative organisation underpinning the ritual and  ceremony; there is no  procedural observance; no service, no sacrament, no litu...

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Atheism is a belief...

June 4, 2011
In response to a discussion on Debunking Christianity, I posted this response:

I would concur that atheism is not a belief system - I think we have fairly well evinced that notion. However, is atheism not a faith statement? It would seem to me that atheism is as much of a faith statement as theism.

This is why I, although I act and intuitively see myself as an atheist, am logically an agnostic. To move from agnosticism to atheist takes faith. Faith that there is no God. Personally, the belief t...

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Questions from my new book - The Problem of Evil

May 24, 2011
With the release of my new book - The Little Book of Unholy Questions - I thought it would be nice to share some of the questions from the Problem of Evil section. Here goes...



1.              During the 2004 tsunami where, say, 250,000 people died, would it not have been more caring of an all-loving God to have made one less person die?

 

 

2.              (One question I have seen online) What am I supposed to be learning from my disabled son?

 

 

3.              What is he supposed to...


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Do animals have souls?

May 14, 2011
I was in the garden today and found a dead blackbird chick on the lawn. It was a sad sight, most probably falling out of the nest and not surviving. This made me think about the notion of life, what it is, how easy it is to lose, and whether, if souls exist, you could argue that animals don't have them. 

Let me be clear, I do not believe in the notion of a soul, unless (as many do without realising it) define a soul as consciousness. I look at this bird, and got a real sense of the loss of lif...
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My new book to be released soon

May 9, 2011
I am pretty excited that my new book, now called 'The Little Book of Unholy Questions', will be released in the coming weeks.

I sent a review copy to Derek Murphy, author of Jesus Potter Harry Christ and he returned this review:


If you were given an exclusive, face-to-face interview with God, what would you ask him? Are you curious about what the animals ate on the ark? Why Jesus could eat fish but also walk through walls? What, exactly, are angels? In "The Little Book of Unholy Questions" J...

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