Certainly, if morality is natural and adaptive and not God-given then moral norms/judgments don't have the sort of grand cosmic seal-of-approval they ...
What does "'exist' in a formal sense" even mean here? Are you referring to existential quantification in formal logic? Or do you mean "exists" as a te...
That's correct. And that's not why anyone thinks morality is adaptive. People who think morality was adaptive/evolved generally do so because it is po...
Sure, but I'm focusing on a very specific question here: is theism explanatory? Does invoking God actually explain anything? And since explanations by...
Unless morality is adaptive. Which is exactly what many scholars think is the case. So not only can morality survive in a "purely physical, design fre...
Exactly. Aliens with vastly superior technology and inscrutable motives are explanatory in precisely the same way that God/theism is explanatory. Whic...
This is all fine and good... but nowhere in this post is an answer to my question, of how theism is explanatory given that explanations account for th...
Does it, though? In what sense is theism explanatory at all, keeping in mind that the purpose of an explanation is to analyze or account for something...
I did cite the one that I remembered (the ketamine one) without having to poke around on Google- Jansen 2001. I know I've read that researchers have f...
Moreover, studies have reproduced the distinctive effects/components of NDEs in other situations (i.e. situations where the subject is not near death)...
Just for background, the Stanford page on Divine Hiddenness includes a couple of arguments for what the OP has termed "P1", from the person traditiona...
As I've remarked a number of times, I don't like talking about things "existing as concepts in the mind" (or similar expressions). So I'd rather not u...
Yep: I'm not sure if this was intended as a counter-example, but I actually think that it is a good example: for one thing, you could come up with a w...
I was responding to the OP, I didn't read your post. But testimonial evidence on this topic is old hat, and is completely inconclusive since the body ...
No, I don't see any contradiction in saying that there does not exist a plump old man living at the North Pole delivering presents to children on Chri...
Am I back, or am I here, finally? I registered an account when PF went sideways but I'm not sure I ever posted anything. Either way, I'm happy to be h...
Then we'll cross that bridge if/when we come to it. All the currently available evidence suggests that theism is false. But nothing is preventing us f...
Yes, this exactly. If mystical/religious/dualist/etc interpretation of these experiences were correct, this is something we would expect to see. The f...
Santa Claus is fictional, and fictional people differ from real people precisely in that they don't exist. Its really that straightforward. And leavin...
Fictional characters don't exist. That's what makes them fictional characters. As far as Santa Claus is concerned, all that exists are the traditions ...
In what sense does Santa Claus exist? He doesn't. Santa Claus- a plump old man with a long white bear who lives at the North Pole and delivers present...
Maybe all we need is a few more pages of discussion in order to finally land on an acceptable (written/linguistic) account of the ineffable (!!) :roll...
I guess that's the crucial question here, right? The ineffable? Or are you telling me that after 30 pages you guys still don't have it sorted out? :wi...
smh, that was such a ridiculously stacked lineup... Chick and Herbie Hancock on keys/piano? And John McLaughlin on gee-tar? Just unfair. Its honestly ...
That's not quite it, though- this is just a rewording of Hume's fork, whereas the LPs went quite a bit further than this. their contention was not jus...
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