Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Wednesday, June 6, 2012,
In :
Philosophy
Recently, William Lane Craig has produced a video, based on an essay in a book he and Paul Copan have edited this year “Come Let Us Reason: New Essays in Christian Apologetics” entitled “Terrible objections to the Kalam Cosmological Argument”. I am yet to read the essay, but I must assume it to broadly follow the line of his video of the lecture “Worst objections to the Kalam Cosmological Argument”.
I have a mild obsession with the Kalam Cosmological Argument (KCA) and am poten...
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 ...
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, ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, July 31, 2011,
In :
Religion
The Jews definitely thought Yahweh was one god amongst many,
and an inferior one at that. I~ have already touched on this in the forum, but
it has now been lost.
In Deut 32:7-9 we have evidence that Yahweh was one of many
gods.
"Remember the days of old,
Consider the years of all
generations. (O)Ask your father, and he will inform
you,
Your elders, and they
will tell you. 8"(P)When the Most High gave the nations
their inheritance,
When He separ...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, July 8, 2011,
In :
Religion
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...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Sunday, June 19, 2011,
In :
Religion
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...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Monday, June 13, 2011,
In :
Religion
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...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Tuesday, May 3, 2011,
In :
Religion
I have been ruminating on what, as far
as I know, might be a new theory (which I have named the Argument from Format)
showing that either God is not omnipotent or does not exist. Bear with me, as
it might need refining, might be easily debunkable, or need changing in some
radical way. It has developed out of my section on souls in the book that I am
just getting published calledFree
Will? An investigation into whether we have free will or whether I was always
going to write this book.In
thi...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Saturday, April 16, 2011,
In :
Religion
I was wondering recently about
the issue of God’s foreknowledge. It has long been understood that with God’s
omniscience, he could not be contrary to his own predictions. This means that
if God predicted beforehand that he would make himself a spaghetti bolognaise
for supper on Friday, then when it came to making Friday’s supper, he would
have no choice but to make the spaghetti bolognaise. This is because if he
decided to be contrary to his own prediction and cook, say, pizza, then his...
Posted by Jonathan Pearce on Friday, March 25, 2011,
In :
Religion
There are some very powerful and
simple arguments to indicate that this universe is far more likely NOT to be
the result of [the Christian] God.
This should be done in terms of explanatory scope:the
hypothesis explains many facts, not just one or two, and why this universe
exists and not some other, why these properties and not others.
And explanatory power:the
hypothesis explains the facts with high probability. Ie, given that explanation
as a fact we would very likely, or even expect...