Part of a series I originally published when leaving grad school, this may also be the longest discussion of a point I like to hammer a lot: no, there is not a consensus that Plantinga basically took care of the problem of evil. See here for part 1 of the series.
From the archives: Gary Gutting on Mackie, Plantinga, and the problem of evil
March 18, 2013 By 37 Comments
What arguments are popular among liberal Christians?
July 4, 2012 By 22 Comments
Commenter mnb0 makes a point that I think is worth devoting a post to: Countering fundie- and creacrap is easy. It has been done many times before. If you want to distinguish yourself you should find yourself some liberal christians to bash. Don’t tell me there aren’t in the States and I’m pretty sure it will [...]
Catholics: why aren’t you Protestant?
July 3, 2012 By 50 Comments
This week Andrew Sullivan posted two things from Catholics who oppose the hierarchy but aren’t leaving the church, explaining why not. One was a video from Sister Jeannine Gramick, the nun who founded an organization that advocates for gay Catholics. The other is a column in TIME by one Tim Padgett, who admits the Catholic hierarchy has [...]
Why is anybody still Catholic? (not a rhetorical question)
June 27, 2012 By 29 Comments
Greta Christina once wrote a great blog post called “Why Are You Still Catholic?” But it mostly asked the question rhetorically. Leah Libresco’s conversion got me thinking about what the actual reasons are. I went and took the time to re-read the relevant parts of William Lobdell’s book Losing My Religion, which suggests a number of answers.
Religious conversions happen because of people’s personal relationships
June 21, 2012 By 25 Comments
I was briefly puzzled when I heard about atheist blogger Leah Libresco’s conversion to Catholicism. But I was immediately un-puzzled when I read Dan Fincke’s post on it, which reminded me that “the very premise of Libresco’s blog was that she was romantically involved with a Catholic.” Oh yeah. Duh.
Most Americans don’t know the Bible very well
June 18, 2012 By 9 Comments
Reading the comments on this post, one thing occurred to me: the people with Libby Anne’s background can’t possibly be a very large portion of the US population, because surveys have consistently shown that most Americans just don’t know the Bible that well. For example, more than one survey has found that less than half [...]
How many fundamentalists actually read the Bible, and what do they make of it?
June 18, 2012 By 20 Comments
Really interesting thread at Love, Joy, Feminism that starts with Libby Anne questioning whether the Bible really makes people into atheists:
Looking for examples of people blaming creationism on Richard Dawkins
June 15, 2012 By 11 Comments
PZ Myers recently did a post ridiculing the notion–promoted by Robert Wright–that it’s his fault and Richard Dawkins’ fault that the evolution-creation debate has become more politically charged “more politically charged, more acrimonious.” PZ’s smackdown is great, comparing Gallup’s timeline of belief in evolution in the US, along with dates of major court cases over [...]
What percentage of US marriages are religious ceremonies?
June 15, 2012 By 20 Comments
A commenter on this post pointed me towards a USA today article claiming that rates of civil marriage in the US have increased significantly over the years. According to the article, there are no nation-wide statistics on this, but in the 18 states that keep track of these things, 40% of marriages are civil marriages.
If you want to be honest, try explaining your culture to foreigners
June 12, 2012 By 19 Comments
One of the first things you learn as an English teacher is that you know tons of things about your language that you don’t know you know. When we speak, we’re constantly using grammatical rules that we never consciously learned. This creates odd situations when teaching English: you can tell someone what the right way [...]
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