Epistemology

A collection of 180 posts

Epistemology

Fox News Internal Report: Their Own Guests Spread "Disinformation"

This report is delicious for people like myself, who have long maintained that FOX News spread disinformation and lies, that their ideological bias distorts truth beyond the limits of credibility. Well, now FOX have admitted this themselves in an internal report. I wonder what regular commenters here who defend FOX

Biblical Exegesis

Christianity Is Elitist

This is one of those arguments that I have long maintained but have never got round to putting into writing. I can't tell you the number of hours I have spent either talking directly to Christians, including very close friends in the Tippling Philosophers, or talking online or

Epistemology

More on Miracles or Improbable Events: God's Intentions

I recently wrote a piece concerning specified complexity that theists interpret as God acting and showing his presence. The TL;DR was that massively improbable things happen on a regular basis around our communities such that they become statistically probable, or even certain. It all depends on how you view

Epistemology

Fact-Checking the Triggered Trumps

I am pretty big on fact-checking, accuracy and making sure that my claims are reasonable. I don't always get it right, but I like to think that I will change my articles to reflect a more accurate position wherever possible. Before I go on, it is both useful

Epistemology

Doesn't It Take Just as Much Faith to Be an Atheist?

[The following is an excerpt from Franz Kiekeben's small book, Atheism: Q&A (UK), the Kindle version of which is, for promotional purposes, free December 4 through December 8. The book consists of short entries (like this one) that answer common criticisms of atheism. Thanks to Franz

consequentialism

The Problem of Evil, Skeptical Theism and "Good Reasons"

I have been discussing the Problem of Evil (POE) a bit recently, particularly the Logical Problem of Evil (LPOE), and without wanting to defend theism and belief in God, I have been defending the logical possibility of OmniGod in light of the existence of suffering. The basis of the POE,

Epistemology

Discussing the Logical Problem of Evil & Skeptical Theism

An interesting thread has developed on the thread to the post concerning the Logical Problem of Evil (LPOE) - thanks to those involved. I thought I would post some specific ones here for further discussion: [Slograman] @Jonathan Improbable as it may be, does LPOE also cover the morality of creating

Epistemology

Not Seeing OmniGod through Philosophy and Logic: Omniscience & Free Will

Introductory spiel: One of my more recent books, Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century (UK), has a plethora of gems in it for the reader and a smorgasbord of variety. It was a labour of love and was particularly rewarding due to the fact that so many great

creation

God's Divine Foreknowledge, His Culpability and the Problem of Evil

God’s divine foreknowledge has recently raised its interesting head over the last few comment threads and I thought it would be interesting to return to the subject again. I’ll start with a quote from a commenter here, found on their Miscellanea Agnostica blog: The [reconciliation of "the

conceptual nominalism

KNOWING Your Rights, Locke and Other Rights Problems

The rights debates raging on a number of recent comment threads have been pretty embarrassing for many of the people (gun advocates) taking part because they have simply not engaged with the conversation at the level it should have been. This is a philosophical blog, at heart, and the articles

crime

The Disconnect Between News and Reality

These sorts of surveys are always fascinating reading and viewing. So often, there is a disconnect between what we think is the case in any number of scenarios in the world around us, and the reality. We are really bad at estimating and we are swayed by the news quite

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

Biblical Exegesis

The Credibility and Number of Resurrection Witnesses

As I have previously said in my Resurrection series, starting off with looking at the contradictions within the Gospel accounts: The question then becomes, are these contradictions better explained, and are the claims themselves, better explained by an ultimate truth in them, or by an alternative theory? We know from

determinism

Divine Foreknowledge and Free Will

So by knowing our actions, does God cause them to be? Depending on what you believe, yes and no, and here is the whole crux of the argument about whether we have free will or not in a religious context. There are a few ways in which it is claimed

Epistemology

What Is Rationality? How This Impacts Personhood and Other Debates.

We often see rationality popping up as a property that humans apparently exclusively have. This appears in several arguments, most notably those concerning personhood (and thus abortion) as well as famous arguments like CS Lewis' Argument From Reason. I am going to look at what rationality is and hopefully

AGW

Candace Owens, Climate Change and Motivated Reasoning

This Joe Rogan excerpt is well worth a watch: Motivated reasoning is a powerful thing: the impetus to believe something irrespective of evidence and often in spite of it, due to other influencing factors. Climate change is a prime example of this. People tend to "believe" in climate

Epistemology

The Reliability of News Sources

Epistemology is the study of truth and knowledge in the context of philosophy. And when writing about philosophy and politics and religion and all the things I do, I need to ensure that my sources are as reliable as possible. Of course, this should be paramount for everyone the world

divine foreknowledge

Divine Foreknowledge, Time, Free Will and Thomism

This is effectively a guest post by Ficino, commenter and sometimes contributor here at ATP. Massive thanks to him as I need as much help as I can get these days! I and Ficino have written about this topic previously, linked below. These were long comments that originally appeared at

Biblical Exegesis

Paul and the Historical Jesus: Continuing the Conversation

Here is the first response in an ongoing conversation between an atheist (ex-evangelical, I believe) and a Christian theologian in training. The first and second guest posts (find them here and here) from Ed Atkinson of Wycombe Skeptics in the Pub, and occasional atheist appearer on Unbelievable on Premier Christian

afterlife

Naturalistic Afterlife: If Theists Can Do It, Why Can't We?

The other day, Rizdek made some fascinating comments that aligned typical theistic epistemology with what can then be applied to nontheistic claims. His comments were as follows: It seems either that something came literally from nothing/nothingness or that something exists eternally. I understand the theist believes that something which

art

Atheism, Soullessness and a Lack of Narrative

Back at Easter time, I had quite a debate on Facebook with, amongst others, a friend I used to play rugby with. He is something of a conservative, in the classical sense - a sort of old-school CofE defender of the faith and conservative values. The sort of one who

Epistemology

Trump: Ruining the Social Fabric, Identity Politics and a Cure Worse than the Disease

This is a good interview from Australian TV of Sam Harris, giving opinions on Trump, identity politics, Islam and free will. Well worth a listen. His incredulity about Trump's presidency and the impact on truth dissemination is on point. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kcx6WNWcnNw&feature=

Biblical Exegesis

The Flat Tire and the Gospels

Guest post by Richard Russell We begin with a joke. It was the night before the Chemistry 217 final exam, but the brothers of Beta Beta Sigma were not in the mood to study. They hit the bars, then the party circuit, then their private stash back at the frat

Epistemology

Presuppositionalism and the Christian Triune God

Presuppositionalism is a funny old thing. It is defined by Wikipedia as follows: Presuppositionalism is a school of Christian apologetics that believes the Christian faith is the only basis for rational thought. It presupposes that the Bible is divine revelation and attempts to expose flaws in other worldviews. It claims

Epistemology

We are the Pen...

I stated this in a debate on Facebook last night. I quite like it. We are the pen the universe uses to describe itself. Discuss. Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher