Epistemology

A collection of 180 posts

Epistemology

Scientific Consensus and the Argumentum ad Populum

As if to fulfil his identity as poster boy for naive Creationist by making all the logical faux pas you can poke a hairy stick at, See Noevo pulls out all the classics. This is his most recent: “Going against scientific consensus where that consensus is overwhelming is certainly a

Epistemology

Witnesses Explain the Most Momentous Event in History

This was forwarded by a friend. Heh heh: WITNESSES EXPLAIN THE MOST MOMENTOUS EVENT IN HISTORY  (By Unknown Genius On The Internet)  Mary: Well, the other Mary and I (Matthew 28.1) were the first to go down to the cave where somebody said they’d put the body. Salome:

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection Debunked: The Empty Tomb

As mentioned in my two previous posts, it is that time of year again where the Resurrection of Jesus requires a thorough going over. Here it continues. There are three aspects to the debunking of the Resurrection: 1) The Gospels are not reliable sources of information; they are poor quality

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection Debunked

I have recently been running a series debunking the Exodus and have linked to this Easter series. Since Easter is upon us, and since I have a raft of new readers, I am going to re-run my extensive series on the Resurrection and Easter. A few years back, someone in

Epistemology

Trump makes 2,140 False Claims in First Year

According to The Fact Checker's database, Trump has made a staggering number (2,140) of false or misleading claims in his first year, equating to about 5.9 a day. An interesting graphic for these claims can be found at The Washington Post here. As the Post said

Epistemology

My Local Church: The Bible is True Because...The Bible Says So.

I have been meaning to snap this picture of the sign outside my local church. It has been there for a good few years. Great circular reasoning! 16 All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;

Epistemology

Quote of the Day: C Peterson on Fact-Checking

C Peterson has furnished us with some good quotes over the months, but I particularly like what he is saying here: I'm a very skeptical person. I fact check everything that seems even a tiny bit off. I'm the guy at my (progressive) political club who

Biblical Exegesis

The Proportion of Biblical Scholars Believing in the Truth of Biblical Claims Is Meaningless

This is something that I hear so often, in the area of the biblical studies. that I thought I should post a little something about it. Here is a quote that appeared on a thread the other day: NTS isn’t an actual fallacy. You people really like to choose

Epistemology

Conservapedia, Reliability, the Genetic Fallacy, and Induction

Conservapedia. Oh dear. I recently posted on my new book out this last week (Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century) and was met with a number of comments from a certain Mark Jones. A few questions: 1. Does the book talk about how the atheist worldview is shrinking

Biblical Exegesis

Why Should the Bible and Qu'ran Need Commentaries?

I was recently reminded of this conversation that I had a few years back with Jayman, a Christian commenter who sometimes posts here: Over on a thread about the challenges I have met in my claims of Islam, a Christian commentator asked this question: I agree with you that Islam

Epistemology

The Validity of Expert Authority

Some of you might see this as concerning a horse that has bolted after being flogged to death. Zombie horses aside, let me return to the conversation about consensus and, in this case, an appeal to expert authority. I think this piece has a goodly amount of really meaty and

Epistemology

On the Epistemology of Consensus

Some might say that we are flogging a dead horse here, but during the ongoing discussions concerning consensus and whether it is a valid indicator of the "truth" of a scientific theory, it is worth pointing out that Spiritual Anthropologist, has made some interesting points. I will attempt

Epistemology

Scientific Consensus and Probability

A recent thread erupted into a debate about the value of scientific consensus. Here are some of the comments from said piece: Scientists are human. They are swayed by those under whom they trained, politics, funding, etc. Consensus means nothing, even if it is consensus among experts. One expert position

Descartes

Answering Questions about Empiricism as Foundational: Knowing that We Know

I recently wrote a piece on empiricism as being foundational to philosophical approaches to epistemology. See Noevo got involved and gave a rare substantive comment. I’ll try a comment. Perhaps my much younger 61 year old mind, which broke free from atheism about 28 years ago and became ever

Epistemology

Answering Questions about Empiricism as Foundational: Our Rational Nature

I wrote a piece recently entitled "Empiricism as Foundational" to which See Noevo, when prompted, finally actually said something of substance, and asked some questions and made some points. I would like to deal with them in this post. He stated: I’ll try a comment. Perhaps my

empiricism

Empiricism as Foundational

I have talked before about the empiricism vs rationalism debate that has taken place historically and presently in philosophical circles. Today, I am going to explore this a little further. As I said before... Rationalism The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy states that rationalists adopt at least one of three statements:

biblical contradictions

The Importance of "Insignificant" Biblical Contradictions

I recently made a post about a biblical contradiction that wasn't necessarily the most damning of contradictions. The post on the issue of demoniacs and geography laid out these two issues: We have two problems here: Problem 1 – the Gospels contradict each other on where this took place

Deconversion

"Will Atheists Admit That There Is Good Reason to Leave Atheism and Adopt Christianity?"

In another thread, Dave Armstrong, Catholic blogger here at Patheos, asked this: Will atheists admit that there is good reason to leave atheism and adopt Christianity? I find this an interesting question, and it can be split into two areas: the psychological reasons for leaving any belief system and the

Epistemology

Faith and Facts

Memes are dangerous things to think too deeply about because they are, more often than not, clickbaity things designed entirely for particular audiences, either to rile them up or make them feel smug. But they can also promote some thought. Here's one that I have recently seen: This

Epistemology

Quote of the Day: Bob Jase on Divine Miscommunication

This simple statement is spot on, and came on the back of my post about divine miscommunication: Funny thing, the longer people have to work out what god is the more different versions of god are created. It should be the opposite if there was a real god at the

Epistemology

When Did You Last Change Your Mind on Something Big?

And why? That's what I would like you guys to share with me. I know there will be a number of you who have deconverted from the whole God-thing. I would be interested in seeing what the several religious commenters here have changed their minds on. We are

Epistemology

On the Argument from Divine Miscommunication

The Argument from Divine Miscommunication, as set out by people like John Loftus (for example, in Chapter 7 of The Christian Delusion, titled "The Problem of Divine Miscommunication"), is a glaringly obvious one. There is so much confusion between theists on what God is, what God means, and

Epistemology

A Science-Based Solution to Lies in Politics

I am cross-posting this from my Patheos Nonreligious mate Gleb Tsipursky (at Intentional Insights). I will look at signing up to this later this week when I get a spare moment. See what you think. Personally, things like this can only be a positive move in the right direction. Over

Epistemology

Fantastic Explanation of the Backfire Effect

I cannot post it here. Just go to this link. It's brilliant. H/T Neil Webber

Bart Ehrman

Easter Doubt: On the Skepticism of the Resurrection (part 4) – naturalistic explanations

As mentioned in my previous posts, it is that time of year that the historicity of the Easter accounts gets analysed by us skeptics. And found wanting. Very wanting. [caption id="attachment_6627" align="alignright" width="216"] Tintoretto [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons[/caption]