Tom Storm

This seems a pretty tired argument - are you a Jordan Peterson follower? What reasoning do you have to support this?

Indeed. In fact Hart places the problem of evil and suffering as one of the only matters which has him, on occasion, doubting his faith (I'm paraphras...

Well, I don’t believe in God, but for the purposes of this exercise, I’d tweak the argument about suffering. It’s not just that suffering happens—thro...

Sure, but I would choose "fairness" and "Justice" as they are understood intersubjectively. Isn't it the case that an anti-realist denies that there a...

Haven't seen as much as a sound bite from this election campaign so far, thankfully. But I have noticed that the big issue facing us, the housing affo...

The world has been full of culture wars for decades, on issues like race, LGBTIQ rights, education, abortion, guns, religion, refugees, and privacy. M...

Hopefully it won't come to that. I think this site can deal with different views. I tend to hold Leftist positions on many things but I am always happ...

You may be right about this. Yes, that is a problem. I guess on a philosophy forum, there's bound to be people who, generally theists of a stripe, bel...

But isn’t this more or less how ethics already works in practice? Morality, as we experience and debate it, seems less like the discovery of timeless ...

Yes. I'm in agreement with much of what you've said on this thread. Don't have anything much to add. Utopian thinkers, whether Left or Right forget th...

ls it not sometimes be the case that the simplistic or primitive positions are easier to articulate and pull off? When it comes to liberals, I tend to...

What do you make of the argument that because life is the basis of all value it is therefore good? I understand the impulse but I’m unconvinced.

Nice. We need a thread on this. Notions of blame have always intrigued me. We are so quick to judge and despise those we think have transgressed from ...

Isn't this a distortion of what moral anti-realists actually claim? Doesn't this have a touch of William Lane Craig? "Atheists can't say child murder ...

Are there many radical skeptics on this forum or anywhere? Relativist are not all radical skeptics. A relativist is likely to believe that truth or ju...

I'm not sure you and I are going to get anywhere with this one. I understand the argument that life is the grounding of all value. But to this I say, ...

I have not made the argument that believers are irrational. I'm merely discussing the uses of the word faith and my belief that theists often use it i...

No worries. Thank you for your patience. I guess we can leave it there. I understand your reasoning but I'm not convinced.

I think I get this. Life is foundational. But I can't make the jump to life is good. Ok - this is possibly true. Do you have any reaction to postmoder...

I know this isn't to me, but I would say "probably not" to both questions. I'm assuming the second question refers to life continuing after death (how...

This is hard work. :wink: The way these are set out don't really make sense to me. Take 2a for instance. I would not agree that this is set out in a u...

Sorry I missed this. I like your arguments. You're talking, I guess, about epistemic parity; that trusting a plane to fly without understanding how it...

I can see your point here (and Han's) but isn't it the case that liberalism in this context is not as significant the marketisation of everything and ...

:up:

That's for sure.

:pray:

I don't see how any of this is the necessary outcome of the position that life is good. The hows and whys will still be fought over. Given that "all l...

To me, this seems like a personal belief system built on assumptions that support the idea that life is good. But why shouldn’t someone be free to see...

How does it hold up? Read it in the 1990's.

I have the requisite emotional reactions to most things others have, but I don't recall experiencing the sublime, rapture, awe or wonder, which I thin...

I originally wrote something fatuous here, which I retract. I don’t actually have a significant interest in liberalism, so I should probably stay quie...

Good to know. I don't think I have a sense of the numinous, so I can only go with what I hear from others. My experince of this word is mainly confine...

Thanks. I’m on First Things too.

You're absolutely right from the standpoint of Christian doctrine. But what about outside of doctrine; could cultural Christianity (the default settin...

That's not what I'm saying. My point is that liberalism is fundamentally driven by dissatisfaction, with an underlying tendency toward dismantling exi...

:up: I suspect that this would appeal to some people, but many would struggle to make this work. If the numinous is not tied to the transcendent, but ...

Is it not more like a one hour lecture repeated 52 times? I probably should have said nebulous. And perhaps I should have watched more than the 15 hou...

Not trying to understand others. Trying to understand where they are coming from. It's less ambitious. We are all ridiculous to someone. Yes, this kin...

I'm not saying that, there's more to it and one might go on for many thousands of words, but I am not a theorist and my thoughts, like most of us, are...

I think we not only have every right but perhaps even a responsibility to try to understand where others are coming from. This isn't the same as psych...

I don't think we know enough to come to definitive conclusions about an alleged "crisis of meaning." We also didn't really see working class literatur...

Now this interests me and it is central to what I have been saying. Different conceptions of God carry with them fundamentally different meanings, imp...

If someone tells me they believe in the God of Moses, the burning bush, and the ark with all the animals, that's a very different conception compared ...

I think the point is that life can alwasy be imbued with more meaning based on change subject to one's experience - changes in thinking, in belief, in...

But no doubt some will argue that the word of disenchanted rationalism and modernity has allowed us to retreat into crude things like money in place o...

For me it seems more aesthetic or about meaning making - the wish for life to be significant - as a bulwark against the tragedy of living. But no doub...

Could be. Very crudely Spinoza seems to argue (and I have no deep reading of his work) that God is infinite substance: In Ethics, Spinoza seems to arg...

Sure. I understand that some people might hold a view like this. I am asking for the more philosophical and the more sophisticated versions to see wha...

:up: Indeed, Blair's neoliberal all stars, New Labour, were active contributors to the problem.

The argument works the other way too. Given what's at stake and how bad some leaders are, this should radicalise the voters. Arguably people's votes h...