Deep Dive

A collection of 1068 posts

Robert Ingersoll

Ingersoll on Salvation

My friend Julian Haydon has created a website dedicated to the great agnostic, Robert G. Ingersoll. The site is set out like a newspaper and is a labour of love. Please check it out – the link is below. Here is the great man talking about salvation. (Please visit theingersolltimes.com

secularism

Alabama Megachurch Can Now Have Its Own Police Force

Oh dear. A change in law has allowed for a plan for an Alabama megachurch to have its own morality police. CNN report: An Alabama megachurch plans to start its own police force thanks to a new law permitting the church to do just that. The law, signed by Gov.

conceptual nominalism

Natural Law, Essentialism and Nominalism

I have said this many times before in different ways and as part of different posts, but I thought I would explicitly make this point on its own. Natural Law Theory and the essentialism upon which it depends, as part of a Thomistic/Catholic philosophy, depends on the negation of

evolution

Natural Law Theory, Morality and Rational Beings

Natural Law Theory (NLT) is an ethical theory derived from the thinking of people such as Thomas Aquinas that attempts to establish that humans, for example, have an ideal form or essence that dictates how they should act. The form of a particular species of bird is that it has

secularism

Supreme Court Approves Publicly-Funded Christian Favoritism

This is from the American Humanist Association: The U.S. Supreme Court today reversed the earlier U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit decision in the ongoing Bladensburg cross litigation. The court will allow the Bladensburg cross to stand, but will not upset the overarching national precedent forbidding

Crime & Punishment

Evangelical Group Wants Gays Removed from Anti-Lynching Bill

Wow. The only reason you would want to remove a category of people from an anti-lynching bill is so that you have legal permission to lynch them. This group of people want to lynch gays. Let that sink in. This is modern America. A federal anti-lynching bill has aroused the

atheism

Young Turks Losing Their Religion

Recently, I posted about how Turkey is facing a move away from religion ("Is Turkey, under Erdogan, Becoming More Atheistic?") even given the increasing politically enforced religionism in the country. From it, DW reported: According to a recent survey by the pollster Konda, a growing number of Turks

Biblical Exegesis

God Hates His Own Designed Creations: Animals

God appears to really hate non-human animals. Which is an odd thing considering he designed and created them. We know that he hated animals because he pretty much told us so and acted with utmost contempt for their existence. Let me remind you of the famous case of Noah'

heaven

What "Christians" Should Think about Others & Heaven

True and Proper Christians™ appear to have a mixed view when it comes to heaven and what they think should happen to non-Christians, or even other denominations of Christian, in the event of death. As nonbelievers, we often get frustrated with Christians standing on the roadside and witnessing. But, in

Trump

The Destructive Power of Trump's Lies and Chernobyl

This is essentially a Quote of the Day piece, but with a little more. On another thread, 3lemenope made a passing comment about Harry Frankfurt's claims on bullshitting in the context of Donald Trump and his egregious number of lies. At present, the Washington Post has clocked him

Deep Dive

The Philosophy 101 Factfile - Confucius

It has been a long time since I posted one of my Philosophy 101 pieces. I have previously written on Plato, Socrates and Aristotle (as well as existentialism, qualia and the PhilPapers series). Today I am going to talk about Confucius because, well, you might not know all that much

Deep Dive

The Prisoner's Trolley Dilemma

Discuss.

evolution

A Dialogue on Morality: Response to Guy Walker (Pt 3)

As regular readers will know, I am engaged in a debate concerning morality and whether, as humans, we are exceptional in comparison to the animal world or whether morality can be fully explained in the context of biological and natural evolution, without invoking some other mysterious unknown such as God

Adam and Eve

A Dialogue on Morality: Response to Guy Walker (Pt 2)

As regular readers will know, I am engaged in a debate concerning morality and whether, as humans, we are exceptional in comparison to the animal world or whether morality can be fully explained in the context of biological and natural evolution, without invoking some other mysterious unknown such as God

consequentialism

A Dialogue on Morality: Response to Guy Walker (Pt 1)

As regular readers will know, I am engaged in a debate concerning morality and whether, as humans, we are exceptional in comparison to the animal world or whether morality can be fully explained in the context of biological and natural evolution, without invoking some other mysterious unknown such as God

compatibilism

Why Free Will is Real: Response to Harris, Coyne, and Other Determinists - Dr. Christian List

This is a pretty good conversation between Michael Shermer and Dr Christian List of the LSE. https://youtu.be/9yxHA_gv7vc List sets out three conditions for his version of free will, which he argues humans ( and others to differing degrees have): 1. Intentional agency 2. Alternative possibilities between which

evolution

A Dialogue: Response to “Making Moral Claims Without Doing the Groundwork” by J. Pearce

As you will know if you have been reading this blog over the last week, I am presently involved in a dialogue/debate with Guy Walker over human morality and from where it has come. I've so far written two pieces in response to a comment he made

evolution

Making Moral Claims: Evolution and Other Animals

“Morality is simply the attitude we adopt towards people whom we personally dislike.” - attributed to Oscar Wilde Discuss... Five centuries later, we remain embroiled in debates about the role of religion in society. As in Bosch's days, the central theme is morality. Can we envision a world

abstracts

Making Moral Claims Without Doing the Groundwork

This post was recently posted on Facebook by someone I know and I was added to the link. I want to deal with this here because it is not only something this other person does all the time, but it is a really common occurrence when arguing about morality and

Religion and Society

Does Religion Cause Violence?

Of course, the problem here is in the question. What we mean by religion and what do we mean by cause and violence? The claim is certainly commonplace that religion causes violence to the point that even my own mother now often says it's in light of news

freedom of speech

Freedom of Speech and Offence: The ACA and Rationality Rules

I know nothing about these two entities, really, but here is my view on recent goings-on. In case you are essentially as ignorant as me: So, who are they? ACA -  The Atheist Community of Austin, producers of The Atheist Experience that has long been a platform for Matt Dillahunty

evangelicalism

Is Evangelical Christianity Sociopathic?

There is a decent article in the Huffington Post that grapples with this question. At first, I thought it would be a reactionary piece, but it is a thought-evoking piece that had me agreeing. It opens with giving a quick summary of sociopathy before giving a few examples of such

Consciousness

Cheating & Heroism: Automaticity vs Free Will

In this article, I am going to talk about praiseworthiness and blameworthiness with regard to terrorism and is something a little bit opposite to that idea, cheating. It is part of our human nature, or as PF Strawson says, our reactive attitudes, that we praise heroes to the hilt and

abstracts

Aquinas' Essence and Existence Argument: A Critique

Aquinas is famous for a number of arguments for God's existence, one such one being the argument from essence and existence from De Ente et Essentia [On Being and Essence]. I will briefly summarise it here. Everything supposedly has both essence and existence and they are two separate

guilt

Shame vs Guilt: The Rise of Shaming in Western Cultures

Guilt is often something associated with the Catholic Church. However, according to many, it goes deeper and larger than that. Guilt can be seen as very much a western, cultural characteristic that is used to great effect in more individualistic cultures. Shame, on the other hand, can be seen as