Values and Evidence

In the last post I discussed a spectrum of genres of existence. They went from a physical reality to a conceptual reality unbounded by sense data. I finished talking about the need for evidence when one is talking about the physical reality and existence, and so the appropriate follow up, so far as I see,…

Another take on Freewill

A good philosophy has considerable reach. By this, I mean that a certain philosophy may have been expressed in some esoteric and academic area, but it can be applied in other specific disciplines as well as in broader contexts. Notice, this is more than just saying ‘a good philosophy is always true’. Instead, this is…

“Atheism rests on a less than satisfactory evidential basis”

Anyone who can utter or attempt to defend the position―as Alister McGraph did―that theism is a reasonable position because “atheism… rest[s] on a less-than-satisfactory evidential basis” simply doesn’t know what they’re talking about. Reasonable conversations do not work that way: they do not attempt to destroy an opposing view (presented accurately, or not) and then…

Do I really have to answer such absurd depictions of my view? Enlightenment values help discover morality and let it flourish

In a recent conversation with oldschoolcontemporary (OSC) about objective morality, we ran into many stumbling blocks to our ability to properly communicate with each other. So far as I could tell, OSC had immovable metrics in place by which to measure objective morality that were almost necessarily religious (redemption, salvation and infallible imposable authority) which…

A Growing Religiosity Among Atheists?

Shadow to Light has published another of its pieces on the view that the author, Michael, believes that ‘New Atheism’ is hypocritical. To do this, Michael has to imply certain premises. As they’re implied, I can’t be certain, but here is what I think the premises are: New Atheism is necessarily anti-religious, New Atheism presents…

xPrae: how I defeated you so soundly (part 4: What does Compassion Look Like?)

There are many Christians who read their Bible in an incredibly specific and generally good way. I argue this method is not Biblical, but it is good. This good method is to find Jesus’ command to “love thy neighbour” and to assume “neighbour” means “all fellow human beings”. Jesus, thus, commanded ‘universal love and compassion’,…

Responding to Bema Sheep’s Open Letter

Dear Bema Sheep, I read your letter with curiosity and thought it interesting to respond. This is due mainly to the binary opening passages which grabbed my attention for all the wrong reasons. But it may be an opportunity for me to restate some things about atheism and make some interesting comments about science. You…

I like being around beauty

I like beauty; if I have to fill my life with things, I should appreciate the aesthetics of those things. And I don’t like having to defend myself for this. I have been accused of being a misogynist and a chauvinist for this. But that is a misunderstanding (or oversensitivity) about what beauty is. Beauty…

Forgiveness and Permission for it

A reader has taken particular issue with one of the sentences in my earlier post (Whose Responsibility is Forgiveness?). In the post I outline two beliefs: that forgiveness from God is not the forgiveness you should seek for your transgressions against people, and that with God all things are forgivable. To make the former point I…