By: Jason|23 October, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: atheism . debate . new atheism . public discourse . richard dawkins
Daniel Came: James Barham: HT: Uncommon Descent
Read more »By: Jason|22 October, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: Edward Feser . evil-god challenge . goodness of God . Stephen Law . theism
In his debate with William Lane Craig, Stephen Law raised the challenge of an evil-god: if we dismiss the existence of an evil-god because of the amount of good in the world, why shouldn’t we dismiss the existence of an all-good god based on the amount of evil in the world? Edward Feser has written a good discussion of the…
Read more »By: Jason|09 September, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: atheism . christopher hitchens . douglas wilson . evil . objective morality
Douglas Wilson, writing at The Gospel Coalition, discusses Christopher Hitchen’s recent Slate article on 9/11: And his conclusion: Read the whole thing here.
Read more »By: Jason|06 August, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: God . metaethics . morality
Uncommon Descent has posted a great response to Jerry Coyne’s recent opinion piece at USA Today, defending the supernatural foundations of morality. [HT: MandM]
Read more »By: Jason|15 July, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: blind faith . Faith . Paul Helm . problem of evil . Reasonable Faith
Paul Helm: Faith cannot be totally blind, a gamble in the face of infinite odds. Whatever doubts and risks may be associated with trust, faith, in order for it to be intelligible and defensible, must have some evidence going for it. And the point of Christianity (at least) is to hold that enough of the purposes of God can be…
Read more »By: Bnonn|29 June, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: Epistemology . Faith . John Loftus . new atheism . OTF . Outsider Test for Faith . Paul Manata
Paul Manata puts John Loftus’s Outsider Test for Faith in the ground once and for all.
Read more »By: Stuart|25 February, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: Argument . atheism . Augustine . evolution . Frank J Tipler . Howard Van TIll . John D Barrow . theism
Stuart argues that, if true, evolution offers us good reasons to believe in the existence of God, rather than His non-existence.
Read more »By: Stuart|15 January, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: atemporality . Beliefs . causal agency . circular reasoning . Desires . divine freedom . Divine temporality . omniscience . psychological state . Stephen Law . super-mountain
In Part two I look at the insufficiency of Law’s reasons that purport to show the incompatibility between divine atemporality and personhood.
Read more »By: Stuart|14 January, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: atemporality . Divine Personhood . Divine temporality . gibberish . Heythrop College . Stephen Law . super-mountain
Stephen Law, philosopher and senior lecturer at Heythrop College in the University of London, editor for the philosophical journal Think (published by the Royal Institute of Philosophy), in a March 6, 2010 post on his blog issued the following argument against the existence of God. I will take the liberty of reproducing what he wrote, and then responding to it.
Read more »By: Stuart|12 January, 2011|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Theology|Tags: Bruch . Charles Hodge . God's attributes . love . Parable . Schleiermacher . The Lost Son
The great Princeton theologian Charles Hodge writes against the philosophers conception of God’s attribute of Love, concluding that the love of God is not thoroughly dissimilar to a human’s experience of loving another – that is, with feeling and emotion.
Read more »By: Stuart|19 December, 2010|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Theology|Tags: Christopher Southgate . defence . Dostoevesky . problem of evil . Theodicy
In the conclusion to his series on the Problem of Evil, Stuart considers the emotional force of pain, suffering, predation and extinction experienced by the animal kingdom on the presumption of evolution in Christopher Southgate’s theodicy, and possible strategies for an appropriate defense.
Read more »By: Stuart|18 December, 2010|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Theology|Tags: Christopher Southgate . Michael Lloyd . omnibenevolence . omnipotence . problem of evil . Theodicy
Christopher Southgate, author of The Groaning of Creation, denies a cosmic fall on the grounds that pain and predation are instrumental in the Darwinian process for producing values, such as consciousness, rationality and the “range, beauty, complexity, and diversity of creatures the Earth has produced.” He asserts that this was the “only way” that God could have achieved this. Stuart argues that this is incoherent if God is omnipotent, and offer a preferable argument that preserves God’s omnipotence.
Read more »By: Stuart|16 December, 2010|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Theology|Tags: Alexander Pruss . Christopher Southgate . evolution . kairological . Kenneth Miller . Michael Murray . predation . problem of evil . Theodicy . william Dembski
In Part Two of this series on the Problem of Evil, Stuart looks at the theodicies of Christopher Southgate and William Dembski that take into account animal suffering in an evolutionary history as a part of the problem of evil, and in doing so develop a framework for his own theodicy.
Read more »By: Stuart|13 December, 2010|Categories: Philosophy of Religion|Tags: David Hume . evolution . External Problem of Evil . Internal Problem of Evil . Logical Problem of Evil . Paul Draper . Probabilistic Problem of Evil . problem of evil . Theodicy . william lane craig
The task of reconciling the evil in this world with the goodness of God and his creation belongs to a branch of Christian theology called Theodicy. This task has been exacerbated in the past century and half by evolutionary theory that makes us acutely aware of the long-ages past filled with animal suffering. Developing a theodicy is of particular interest to the Christian theologian who seeks to make Christianity credible in the mental environment and requires the analytical tools of the Philosophy of Religion.
Read more »By: Stuart|08 November, 2010|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Theology|Tags: Charles Hodge . Clark Pinnock . Counterfactuals . Foreknowledge . Generic Open Theism . omniscience . Open Theism . Openness Theology . Prescience . Steven C. Roy . Theological Determinism . william lane craig
In this short essay I advance my own brief analysis as to why Generic Open Theism is philosophically flawed.
Read more »By: Stuart|08 November, 2010|Categories: Philosophy of Religion . Theology|Tags: Alan R. Rhoda . Bivalentist Open Theism . Clark Pinnock . Generic Open Theism . Gregory Boyd . limited foreknowledge . Non-bivalentist Open Theism . omniscience . Open Theism . Openness Theology . Prescience . William Hasker . Willliam Lane Craig
Before any refutation of Openness Theology can take place, it is important to properly understand what it is and its distinctive features. Part one of this essay will distinguish what Alan R. Rhoda calls Generic Open Theism.
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