The idea that religion was invented to manage our fear of death has become a cliché, probably since Bertrand Russell wrote this about it almost 100 ye...
Yep. This is a key point. Agnosticism is not necessarily a neutral position - it can be just as combative and critical of religion and god beliefs, no...
Never said you were. It was just an offer since I wanted to move on. Why be defensive? I have not said (or indeed concluded) anything about your motiv...
This is pretty interesting and I have to say I struggle to incorporate these ideas because they seem to be keeping two sets of books - which is hard t...
The mysterious, the numinous, the spiritual (however you may take that contested word) are all available to the atheist. As I often say, of the people...
I don't think it is ironic that atheism is treated like a substitute religion by some freethinkers. Religion's chief strength is community and shared ...
Very True. Mainly because Nietzsche is the only kind of atheist that Peterson wants to popularize. Perversely Nietzsche's framing of atheism is quite ...
Some Atheists operate on the basis that harmful ideas harm human beings. All myths of the Enlightenment aside, the reality is right now laws and socie...
No, you are missing something here too. An agnostic is agnostic about the notion of a deity. That does not mean they accept the claims of any given re...
But is that because you are projecting or you have a need to denigrate what you don't understand? It just sounds like trash talk. You're missing somet...
Not in my experience. I have met many agnostics who debate Christians fiercely, not on the basis of God's existence but on the basis of how a believer...
Indeed. How can faith be anything but the excuse you give for believing when you don't have a good reason? What can you not justify using an appeal to...
It's hard to determine whether this idea of God as ground of being is useful or not. Always struck me that Tillich was embarrassed by Christianity and...
Many older people report that they feel 20 at 50. I am in my 50's and I would say I didn't start getting productive till I was 40. I am certainly more...
I have days that seem more real than others. And some that feel unreal. Our conscious experience is something that wavers and varies according to the ...
I like Eagleton, even if he is a Marxist and a Christian. But Dawkins is attacking the literalists version of God. So that is exactly how they do conc...
This is not my area but I am fairly sure I have heard people like Sean Carroll argue that the laws of physics would not necessarily apply in other wor...
Just getting back to first principles - why is god or gods presumed to be necessary? Is the argument essentially: A being that necessarily exists cann...
That's a nice way of putting it and has generally been my take. Some theists consider atheism/nihilism to be a black hole of dread and an invitation t...
I understand where you are coming from. I guess Dawkins and Hitchens operate as polemicists so philosophical soundness or coherence isn't their thing....
I think that's useful. I was wondering when someone might raise this. My version of atheism generally concerned itself with a theistic position that w...
Really? I have never heard people use these logical conundrums as arguments against God's existence. That seems silly. What they use them for is disru...
They are not arguments against God as such, they are paradoxes. Many Christians, for instance, maintain that God is maximally powerful but he cannot d...
You need to dig deeper. It is not truth that is the problem - hence Rorty's view that justification is achievable in a range of areas. He is saying Th...
Rorty says that we know how to justify ideas, we just don't know anything about capital T truth - this being a remnant of Greek philosophy and monothe...
There's no question that this is true. But this unfortunate fact is misused by people constantly to drown out the idea that there may also be (as ther...
I have heard no reasons to accept the proposition that a God exists. So I don't believe in God. But I cannot say that I know God does not exist. Show ...
There are many readings of Nietzsche; who knows? Compassion is not so unusual - the version I prefer is that experienced quietly by ordinary folk as t...
I think that's true but it has little bearing on whether compassion is valuable or not. Fake anything or hypocrisy is bad. Genuine compassion is not b...
One reason is that he often wrote and riffed like a stand up comedian and has always been popular with a younger demographic. I find his condemnation ...
Pedant corner. This wording does not appear in Dostoevsky; the actual quote: He laughed. 'But what will become of men then?' I asked him, 'without God...
Nice. The important qualifier for me is 'considered belief'. I have had more than a few people insist there is another option - 'don't care'. But we w...
I got nothing... As I said on the atheism thread, I always thought that you could be an agnostic atheist, in as much as atheism refers to your belief ...
Comments