Naturalism

A collection of 80 posts

Abiogenesis

The beginnings of life: First evidence of molecular evolution of RNA

Research from the University of Tokyo has "provided the first empirical evidence that simple biological molecules can lead to the emergence of complex lifelike systems" as they created an RNA molecule that "replicates, diversifies, and develops complexity, following Darwinian evolution." This is the holy grail of

Epistemology

Disputing Miracles vs Disputing History (II)

This comment was left on a thread a few weeks ago: John, why dispute these facts and not go right for the miracles? Because, if miracles are possible, if it's possible to extract water from a stone and part the sea, then it's possible that Moses&

miracles

Disputing Miracles vs Disputing History (I)

I'm sorry, but I can't remember who posted this comment but it is worth dwelling on; if I remember correctly, it was in response to me picking apart biblical narratives for their historical inaccuracies and problems, as well as their naturalistic impossibilities: John, why dispute these

conceptual nominalism

Responding to Breuer on Conceptual Nominalism

Luke Breuer kindly responded to my request and provided a critique of my position of conceptual nominalism recently. I hope to look at his claims and analyse them in my reply here today. I have a forthcoming book that sets out my position with a lot more depth and clarity

Jesus

My Interview on the Resurrection with Harmonic Atheist

I've done a few interviews with Tim Mills/Harmonic Atheist and I love them. Here is a great chat about my latest book - The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK] - and one that, though long, only skimmed the surface, looking really at my

Biblical Exegesis

Critically Analysing the Resurrection: A Walk-Through

Here is my latest video, walking through my book on the Resurrection of Jesus - The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KiNsU2EMSPE Please like and subscribe and do all the things those UToobers tell you to.     Stay in touch! Like

Consciousness

2nd Covid Jab, My Multiple Sclerosis, and Qualia

This is what I just wrote on Facebook with regard to having my second covid jab yesterday and how it interacted with my multiple sclerosis: Wow. Oof. I had my second Astra Zeneca vaccine yesterday at about midday. That was a wild night. I thought I'd share my

Biblical Exegesis

Supernaturalism

I posted the other day about motivated reasoning and eric commented as follows: It's possible to 'dispassionately argue' but still be engaging in motivated reasoning. I just don't think that's really the case here. What that would look like is: let'

Biblical Exegesis

The Resurrection, Fideism and Circularity

The few times that New Testament claims intersect with history – namely, the Nativity accounts, and to a lesser degree, the Resurrection accounts – the claims fail, historically speaking. What epistemic right does the Christian then have for believing in Jesus, for being a Christian? If you ask the Christian “Why do

death

Being Skeptical of Near-Death Experiences (Pt 2)

The other day, I introduced the topic of Near-Death Experiences (NDEs), and today I will talk about naturalistic, scientific explanations for such phenomena. The problem with scientific explanations and hypotheses for such phenomena is that they aren't as fun and exciting as some funky spiritual world operating in

atheism

Science & Spirituality with Joe Berger

Just a reminder that I gave author and science educator Joe Berger an interview at the beginning of the pandemic. Check it out here: Also, please grab his book, it's a great introduction to scientific naturalism, atheism and humanism. If you've got a friend or relative

determinism

Pragmatic Determinism - How to Thrive in a Cause and Effect World

Tom Clark is head of naturalism.org and is generally a bit of a legend. Anywho, here, he talks determinism and thriving: &fbclid=IwAR2i9TDUvNHO_5mkMLAaEQeh82GDySvIq4R8eWWDCC2ajExOeClX22CxW8o   Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You can also buy me a cuppa. Or buy some of my

Alvin Plantinga

On the Argument from Reason: Evolution, Emergence & the Fallacy of Division

As I stated in order to introduce the Argument from Reason in my first post in this series (concerning doxastic voluntarism): CS Lewis fashioned the Argument from Reason and it has since been taken on by Christian philosophers and apologists such as Alvin Plantinga (in the form of the Evolutionary

Naturalism

Carrier's Definition of Naturalism. I like It.

Being that we are happily debating the definition of naturalism on various threads here, after various posts, I thought I would defer to a post on Richard Carrier's old old blog (H/T Jim Baerg). I like his definition that I will admittedly decontextualise and paste here because

Naturalism

What Is Naturalism?, and Other Criticisms

The Cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be. - Carl Sagan, Cosmos Jayman, a Thomist who takes his time to argue his case here (and for which I am grateful, because he is a lot more thoughtful and constructive than others) has recently written a

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

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

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

Naturalism

Science and Spirituality

[Guest Post by Joseph J Berger] In approximately 30 years as a college professor, I have taught biology (including evolution), the scientific method, and critical thinking to thousands of students. As students begin to understand the scientific worldview, they often have questions about how this relates to religion and spirituality

evolution

Morality as Evolved; What about God?

I am first going to furnish you with an excerpt from Robert Sapolsky's Behave [UK here] before discussing the content within a theological context. Of course, what Sapolsky has to say is nothing new or groundbreaking, but it serves s a good introduction to the topic. AGAIN WITH

determinism

Determinism, Naturalism, God and Meaning

I recently posted a piece about knowledge and meaning and is regular Christian commenter posted this, with my original words in italics: I would far rather take the time and effort to analyse and evaluate life and existence to create my own meaning rather than have to receive someone else’

meaning

Naturalism, Knowledge and Ultimate Meaning

The classic riposte to atheist success and happiness is that we have no ultimate meaning in our lives. The atheist rejoinder is that we're fine with this, we have subjective meaning and this is just as meaningful. Indeed, I would add, subjective meaning is far nobler than having

God's characteristics

Best Argument for Theism...?

I am at a stage in my atheistic philosophy where I really don't think there is any particularly decent argument for theism. The only arguments that have any kind of relevance or traction are arguments from ignorance, where atheism or naturalism has no definite answer, and this allows

Bart Ehrman

The Resurrection Debunked: 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]