On Preachers Who Don't Believe in God

December 31, 2011 By 40 Comments

As a counterpoint to the infamous posts on atheists who believe in God, I offer Dennett and LaScola’s work on preachers who don’t believe in God. Here is a Dennett and LaScola paper and here is their forthcoming website called The Clergy Project. But wait!  Surely no atheist would believe in God!  And surely no [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Daniel Dennett, Featured 40 Comments

The Logic of Creation

December 31, 2011 By 15 Comments

At a very high level of abstraction, Sabin characterizes the god and goddess as symbols for two aspects of natural creative power (natura naturans, being-itself as the power to be).  She says that “The God represents, among other things, power unmanifest; the spark of life.  The Goddess gives this power form” (2011: 117).  We experience [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Cosmology, Featured, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Religion and Science, Wicca 15 Comments

Creation Stories

December 31, 2011 By 1 Comment

Many religions have creation stories.  The Judeo-Christian creation stories are found in the first chapters of Genesis, which is the first book of the Bible.  There is no need to repeat the Genesis stories here.  It can be agreed that there are some metaphorical or analogical correspondences between the Genesis stories and our best science.  [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Cosmology, Creationism, Evolution, Featured, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Wicca 1 Comment

More on Religious Diversity among Atheists

December 30, 2011 By 38 Comments

[I did a short post on this two days ago; I’ve since dug further into the full Pew report and found more and stranger religious diversity among atheists.] The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducts the US Religious Landscape Survey.  The survey is statistically sound, and thus its percentages can be reasonably extrapolated [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Culture, Featured, Law & Politics, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion, Religion and Science 38 Comments

Revelation versus Manifestation

December 30, 2011 By 5 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. The Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) are religions of revelation.  As is well-known, these religions are derived from the experiences of religiously privileged individuals (prophets, messiahs, inspired writers) to whom it is alleged that God spoke.  These religions say [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemic Justification, Evidence, Featured, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Rationalism, Religion and Science, Wicca 5 Comments

Wiccan Theology and Sexual Equality

December 30, 2011 By 5 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. An intriguing feature of Wicca is that sexual equality is built directly into its theology.  The Farrars stress the balance of male and female polarities in the divine (1981: ch. XV).  Buckland urges gender equality: “both the God and the [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Ethics, Featured, Feminism, LGBTQAA, Paganism, Sex, Wicca, Women's Issues 5 Comments

The Increasing Prevalence of Woo

December 29, 2011 By 22 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducted a survey which reports on the percentages of belief among respondents.  The survey is statistically sound and thus indicates that similar percentages hold in the American public.  The percentages are: 24% [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Epistemology, Featured, Philosophy 22 Comments

Criticizing Wicca: God and Goddess

December 29, 2011 By 4 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. According to several Wiccan texts, the Wiccan ultimate deity manifests itself in two forms, the male god and the female goddess. The first way to think about the god and goddess is realistic.  This is theological realism: the god and [...]

Filed Under: Arguments Against The Existence of God, Atheism, Featured, Metaphysics, Naturalism, Paganism, Philosophy, Rationalism, Wicca 4 Comments

On Participation in Being-Itself

December 29, 2011 By 9 Comments

This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart, Professor of Philosophy at William Paterson University. On Tillich’s view, since the divine is being-itself, all humans participate in the divine simply by existing.  But that participation is not experiential.  Any experiential participation in the divine can only be through the distinctive ways in which humans exist.  [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Featured, Metaphysics, Paganism, Philosophy, Rationalism, Wicca 9 Comments

Religious Diversity among Atheists

December 28, 2011 By 31 Comments

The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life conducts the US Religious Landscape Survey.  The second report in this survey tells us that: Among atheists, 21% believe in God; 12% believe that God is an impersonal force; and 6% believe that God is personal. Among atheists, 12% believe in heaven while 10% believe in hell. [...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Featured 31 Comments