Philosophy, Ethics, Atheism, Nietzsche
I am grateful the pope has acknowledged atheists do good and seeks common ground with us based in our common goodness. I share his desire for a “culture of encounter”. Here is hoping it is a sign of theological improvements to come. In this post, I accept his offer of dialogue and do some philosophical analysis of the ways Catholics mix up God and goodness to make it so atheists who pursue the good can be seen as pursuing God (covertly).
I think that people of faith are often very slippery about what they mean by the word faith. In this post I argue for why this definition I have worked out (or something very similar) should be seen as standard:
Faith is willfully committing (whether explicitly or implicitly) to a relationship (or relationships) of trust, loyalty, hope, and/or belief (a) beyond perceived rational warrant, (b) against perceived predominance of counter evidence of untrustworthiness, and/or (c) against all possible future counter-evidence that may undermine currently perceived evidence of trustworthiness.
Click the headline of this post to read my case.
Yesterday I was rather surprised that one of my very most politically progressive, most liberally theist, and most pro-atheist friends asked me why atheists sometimes get upset (even apoplectic) about being told we’re going to hell. This friend asked why this should bother us if we thought the idea that we were going to hell [...]
Above is a beautifully made video that Prpl Fox made about his deconversion from Christianity. As I did, Prpl Fox deconverted as a 21 year old college senior. I recommend this video summing up his story to Christians who want to learn how to love and understand apostates and to the many atheists who identify [...]
If the Ten Commandments were really the basis of our laws, they’d be a lot less tolerable.
For this week’s Camels With Hammers Show I interviewed the playwright and actress Fariso Jordan about her subtle, nuanced, conversation starting one woman play Georgia which examines the theme of rape within committed relationships.
William Bauer interviews a Saudi atheist: “Please bear in mind, that people are witch hunting for us…so be careful which details you use,” Jabir begins. He is right to be concerned, for he is an atheist in a country where advocating beliefs other than those of a Sunni Muslim engender imprisonment, possible torture, and a [...]
“I aim to make clear to Christians that I was one of them, that all my life was willingly committed to their God and that all my emotions were on the side of their God when my intellect was dissuaded against my will. I was not, as much as they want to assume, looking to leave Christianity, biased against Christianity, unable or unwilling to dutifully follow the rules of Christianity, disposed against the God of Christianity, unfamiliar with the most sophisticated philosophical or theological versions of Christianity, or unfamiliar with how wonderful Christians or Christian community could be. I had been there, done that, and despite wanting nothing more than to believe, I had found that I could no longer believe–either rationally or ethically. The best arguments for the faith had failed. The best arguments against it were overwhelming. And as a matter of intellectual and moral conscience, I could no longer believe fantastic claims that had the preponderance of rational evidence stacked overwhelmingly against them. I deconverted against my will.”
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