This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart. Almost all atheists are surely aware of Darwinian evolution, which is evolution by natural selection, and which explains the history of life on earth. Universal Darwinism is the thesis that evolutionary principles operate beyond earthly biology. Of course, not all things have genes or compete for survival [Read More…]
On Evolution by Rational Selection
January 1, 2012 by Leave a Comment
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Question about Atheists and Self-Consistency
December 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment
[Please head over to the newer post On Defining Atheism and Atheists.] Consider the following description of a human being X: X believes that a personal God exists and X believes that a personal God does not exist. I’m interested in which of these options you’d say is correct: (A) There is no person who [Read More…]
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On Preachers Who Don't Believe in God
December 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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 [Read More…]
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The Logic of Creation
December 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment
This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart. 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 [Read More…]
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Creation Stories
December 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment
This is a guest post by Eric Steinhart. 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 [Read More…]
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More on Religious Diversity among Atheists
December 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
[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 [Read More…]
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Revelation versus Manifestation
December 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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 [Read More…]
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Wiccan Theology and Sexual Equality
December 30, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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 [Read More…]
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The Increasing Prevalence of Woo
December 29, 2011 by Leave a Comment
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% [Read More…]
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