Deep Dive

A collection of 1068 posts

conceptual nominalism

Arguing about Naturalism with a Commenter

I am going to challenge the comment of Person223 that he placed on another thread about naturalism. I thank him for at least giving something approaching a substantial claim, something that many detractors over the last few days have singularly failed to do: A chair is a chair. Not everything

Epistemology

Concerning Metaphysical and Methodological Naturalism

I was having a Tippling Philosophers' debate concerning naturalism elsewhere and my friend stated this, which is worthy of debate and unpicking: Naturalism is a picture of the whole of reality that cannot, according to its own intrinsic premises, address the being of the whole; it is a metaphysics

conceptual nominalism

Sean Carroll on His Poetic Naturalism

I previously introduced you to Sean Carroll's Poetic Naturalism, which I see as a naturalistic worldview entailing conceptual nominalism. Here are a few videos to explain his position: Poetic naturalism: The meaning of life: Purpose: Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You

conceptual nominalism

Poetic Naturalism

I am a big fan of Sean Carroll for a whole host of reasons, but recently because of his book The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself (UK), which, if you know my philosophical positions on big ideas and my endless deference to conceptual

sexual abuse

Sexual Allegations: Biden vs Trump

The TL;DR version of this is: This is why you should probably have voted for a female nominee, and one of the many reasons I favoured Elizabeth Warren. In this context, she is probably as clean as a whistle. If you have to vote for either Biden or Trump,

atheism

Brand and Gervais on God & Atheism

Worth a little watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEtekn6NoV8   Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You can also buy me a cuppa. Please... It justifies me continuing to do this!

consequentialism

Pearced Off! #3 - God Is a Consequentialist

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

belief

Pearced Off! #2 - Doxastic Voluntarism

I am running a series of the old podcast segments from my Pearced Off! section of the Skepticule Podcast (a British skepticism-based podcast now on hiatus) that I used to contribute to. Some of the earlier ones have some quieter audio. Apologies. They run at around ten minutes. Something to

consequentialism

Consequentialism and Coronavirus, Visually Speaking

For those who are a bit TL;DR for my recent piece, I have now set it to face time. If you fancy my dulcet tones, check this out. And while you're at it, please subscribe to my channel. I plan on doing a number of these over

consequentialism

Morality: Consequentialism and Coronavirus

We are living in times of moral dilemma. As I have so often stated before, politics is a subset of morality. When we talk about morality, we talk about oughts - normatively what we should, as individuals, do. Politics is this write large over societies and from a governmental perspective.

abstracts

Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #11 - Laws of nature: Humean or non-Humean?

Having posted the Philpapers survey results, the biggest ever survey of philosophers conducted in 2009, several readers were not aware of it (the reason for re-communicating it) and were unsure as to what some of the questions meant. I offered to do a series on them, so here it is

COVID crisis

Abortion: The Human/Human Being Distinction

Every abortion kills an innocent human being.... Biology shows that a "ZEF" (Zygote, Embryo, Fetus - the three distinct prenatal developmental stages) is, in fact, a distinct, unique and individual human being.... The issue at hand is when we are considered human beings. That question can be answered

God's characteristics

Should Atheists Bring Children into the World? Should Christians Murder Their Babies?

These are the sorts of questions you should be discussing around the dinner table with your children of a Sunday afternoon… Jayman, a Christian commenter here on occasion, pushed back on a recent article I posted concerning William Lane Craig's position on apostates. * Craig on Terminating Would-Be Apostates

fear

On God-Fearing Theists

This video is well worth a watch. I'll leave it here for now and then write a post on it soon. The idea of having a loving relationship within a power-dynamic that involves such imbalance and fear is really problematic. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ttevamkS6gw H/

morality

Quote of the Day: 3lemenope on Rabbis and Morality

This was a comment in reply to my piece on William Lane Craig and an issue with apostates. I like the parable aspect to it: The thing that really borks the instrumentality argument is the resulting consequence of apostasy (i.e. eternal suffering). Without that bit, it's perfectly

apostasy

Craig on Terminating Would-Be Apostates

Here is a recent question to William Lane Craig on his Reasonable Faith website: Hi Dr Craig, I've been studying the Perseverance of the Saints and I found your paper on the subject very thought-provoking. I have been wrestling with this subject as of late and there appear

morality

Religious Symbolism, Semper Fi and Virtue Signalling

I wrote some time ago, when you couldn't have a conversation with someone even slightly right of centre without being accused of virtue signalling, that everyone virtue signals. Almost all the time. In the clothes you wear, the music you listen to over-loudly, in the politics you spend

faith

The Value of Theology (and Monks): Is It Morally Optimal?

Sometimes, I think too much. And here might be an example. Okay, so this might depend on your moral value system in the first place. Let's take the faith vs works/deeds argument. Does faith in JesusGod get you into heaven (or simply please God), or is it

moral psychology

Religion, Psychology & Morality: Most People Aren't Very Nice

I've come to the conclusion that, after many long years of thinking and experiencing, rather more often than originally suspected, people aren't very nice. Let me see if I can qualify this. Most people are quite nice. They are nice enough to those around them: their

Holy Spirit

Trinity in the Spotlight: The Son of God, Begotten, Not Made.

At the heart of the Nicene Creed are these words: “And [we believe] in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of His Father before all worlds, God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the

blogging

Religious vs Nonreligious blogs: Freedom of Speech and Allowing Challenge

I have a very lax approach to banning and censorship here, as well you know. And you may or may not like this as threads do, indeed, get filled up with comments from those we disagree with. Sometimes, I get asked to ban so-and-so, and there can be merit in

Free Will and Determinism

God Is a Consequentialist. The Theist's Defence: God Is Not Moral (II)

I spent the previous piece on this topic, laying the groundwork for establishing that God is a moral consequentialist before pointing out that some theists create a defence of this accusation by claiming that God is not moral because God is under no moral obligation. What does this mean and

consequentialism

God Is a Consequentialist. The Theist's Defence: God Is Not Moral (I)

I have written an essay that can be found variously on this site called "God Is a Consequentialist" in which I set out that God is a moral consequentialist. Some of which I will now set out or paraphrase before looking at the defence William Lane Craig and

meaning

Some Questions to Dr J Berger

As some of you will know, I recently edited a book by Joseph J Berger called Science & Spirituality (Barnes & Noble), which is available now (please grab a copy, even though Amazon are being bastardly difficult with their distribution). The book, as you will find out, is aimed predominantly

consequentialism

The US Political Landscape Crumbles; Consequentialism Reigns Supreme

Holy cow. Where to start. I know this is "supposed" to be a blog concerned with atheism and religiosity, but how can I not comment on the ongoing sh!tstorm that is US politics? There are so many little areas to talk about that this piece could be