Perspectives

Fri - March 24, 2006

Once a believer, always a believer?

A fascinating report on the current "apostasy" blow-up in Afghanistan
from the Asia Times:

Posted at 07:08 PM Read More

Thu - December 8, 2005

Is atheism a religion or isn't it?

A religious studies professor is attacked (both physically and verbally) for being an atheist.

Posted at 04:21 PM Read More

Tue - September 20, 2005

bed-of-nails religion

Many proponents of "design" these days emphasize that the purposes which the designer of the universe had in mind are not necessarily very understandable to us humans. In fact, such an enormously intelligent designer might be expected to have purposes that we couldn't possibly fathom, with our weak minds. They despise simple-minded concepts of the god (let us be bold enough to use the word*) who created the world; they are proponents of what I would call "bed-of-nails religion." They prefer a religion that really hurts to lie down on. But I would have thought that one of the main reasons most religious people have for being religious is that it comforts them in the rough patches of life: death, illness, loneliness, discouragement, and depression. But how could such an incomprehensible designer comfort anyone?

Posted at 12:03 AM Read More

Sat - August 20, 2005

Atheism a faith?

Posted at 01:03 AM Read More

Sun - August 14, 2005

How do science and christianity conflict?

Part of the answer to this quite complex question may be derived from the current brouhaha over evolution.

Posted at 12:44 PM Read More

Wed - August 10, 2005

The Answer!

Posted at 09:57 PM Read More

Mon - August 1, 2005

Fundamentalism - Freudian and Buddhist views

Walter A. Davis wrote an interesting analysis of fundamentalist psychology from a Freudian point of view which was published in Counterpunch last January. There are some thought-provoking similarities with the kind of Buddhist analysis that I would suggest, as well as some differences.

Posted at 07:18 PM Read More

Sun - July 24, 2005

the terror of the war on terror

London police shoot a man dead, then admit he had nothing to do with the bombings. My question: how can we tell how many civil rights and elements of civilization we need to give up to make us feel secure?

Posted at 01:30 PM Read More

Thu - July 14, 2005

If you don't like "atheism"...

If you don't like the word "atheism," as many people seem not to, I would propose "non-theism." A "non-theist" is someone who is not a theist, and a theist is someone who assumes that a divine being (or perhaps more than one) exists (or exist).

Many folks argue that an atheist is one who definitely holds that no gods exist, and thus needs to prove this proposition just as much as a theist needs to prove that at least one god does exist. If that is what you hold, I would suggest that a "non-theist" just doesn't assume the existence of any gods, and so doesn't need to prove anything.

Posted at 04:04 PM Read More

Sun - May 8, 2005

A further note on the evolution debate

There are creationists who also accept the truth of evolution:

The problem with the origins controversy is the way the terms of the debate are set up. Traditionally, this topic has been viewed as ‘evolution’ vs ‘creation.’ And now, it’s being seen as ‘evolution’ vs ‘design’ as promoted by this conference. In other words, ‘evolution’ is being set up in a ‘no-win situation.’ This popular ‘either/or’ approach to origins blinds us from recognizing that evolutionists can believe in a Creator and in intelligent design.

Posted at 07:16 PM Read More

anti-evolutionists as fearful traditionalists and wannabe scientists

Certainly, a large percentage of the anti-evolutionists now running amok are merely folks committed to the moral and theological certainties of that old-time religion, and don't have a thought in their minds for the integrity of science. But some, it seems to me, are close cousins of the authors of new theories of fundamental physics who frequently pester their local physics professors with "proofs" that Einstein was definitely wrong, which they have miraculously arrived at despite a complete lack of understanding of high-school algebra, much less tensor calculus.

Posted at 05:54 PM Read More

Mon - April 25, 2005

sparking popular interest in philosophy - or not?

The pronouncements of the new Pope about "relativism" seem to have sparked some interest in at least one area of philosophy among at least some of the public: namely, the area philosophers call "metaethics" (after following this link, scroll down to the item "metaethics" -- or look here, for example), in which questions such as these are taken up: "How do judgments about 'right' and 'wrong,' 'good' and 'bad,' etc., compare with judgments about factual matters?" "How do we find answers to moral or ethical questions and problems?" "Are ethical values 'real' or not, 'objective' or subjective'?"

Posted at 06:36 PM Read More

Sat - April 16, 2005

God speaks to dreamers?

Thomas Hobbes, in Chapter 32 of his famous Leviathan, wrote a passage which, while not as well known as the phrase "nasty, brutish, and short," or "bellum omnium contra omnes" (war of all against all), is somewhat familiar to many students of philosophy:

When God speaketh to man, it must be either immediately or by mediation of another man, to whom He had formerly spoken by Himself immediately. How God speaketh to a man immediately may be understood by those well enough to whom He hath so spoken; but how the same should be understood by another is hard, if not impossible, to know. For if a man pretend to me that God hath spoken to him supernaturally, and immediately, and I make doubt of it, I cannot easily perceive what argument he can produce to oblige me to believe it.

Posted at 06:28 PM Read More

Sun - March 6, 2005

Workers' "class consciousness" after Marx

There is no doubt that the Marxist concept of "workers' class consciousness" and the related one of "false consciousness" have their attractions. As dubious as a great deal of the traditional, "orthodox" Marxist system has turned out to be, the Bearded One apparently hit on something when he saw that workers ought, in some sense, to come to see the world and their position in it in a certain way because of their experiences as workers, and that, on the contrary, all too often they failed to arrive at that class-conscious view.

Posted at 12:35 PM Read More

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