This is a post I’ve been struggling to write for awhile. It’s a response to a couple questions I got in the March open thread, one by someone who wanted to have a “link handy when I want to show people just how crappy (analytic) philosophy is,” while the other asked, “Since you spend a [...]
A summary of the problems I see with philosophy–and why I’m thinking of going back anyway
April 21, 2013 By 35 Comments
Philosophy of religion without apologetics?
April 2, 2013 By 12 Comments
Recently, in an exercise in thinking about things that are way too far off in the future to be really thinking about, I wondered: “If I do eventually get a Ph.D. in philosophy, and end up on the philosophy job market, will I list philosophy of religion as an AoC?” (AoC stands for Area of [...]
How much trouble is Plantinga’s Free Will Defense in?
March 25, 2013 By 6 Comments
I’ve spent a fair amount of time arguing that the claim that Plantinga conclusively showed popular versions of the argument from evil do not work is problematic because (1) Plantinga assumes libertarian free will and (2) even if Plantinga showed that the existence of God is compatible with some bad choices, that doesn’t at all [...]
Arguing when you know the conversation isn’t going to be constructive
February 16, 2013 By 12 Comments
Okay, after my quick declaration that I’m not signing Dan Fincke’s “civility pledge,” let me get a little deeper into the problems I see with it. Here’s the first point of the pledge, quoted in full:
From the archives: Seduced by sophistication (follow up to “Philosophy is dysfunctional”)
January 30, 2013 By 6 Comments
While writing another post, I just realized that while I had reposted my post “Philosophy is dysfunctional,” I’d never reposted this, the follow-up. Like the first post, it was originally published in July 2011.
Yes, creationism is religiously motivated
January 23, 2013 By 12 Comments
Previously: The evidence for evolution
The ontological argument in brief
January 9, 2013 By 25 Comments
In this post, I’m going to try to do something I’ve never done before: attempt write a statement on the ontological argument for inclusion in the book, and make it concise. Here it goes:
Stephen Law on Plantinga’s “evolutionary argument against naturalism”
December 28, 2012 By 16 Comments
In the past, I’ve been a bit reluctant to comment on Plantinga’s “evolutionary argument against naturalism” (EAAN). Plantinga has a long history of refusing to get his science right when writing about science, and when philosophers do that part of me feels our only response should be to point out what they’re doing and say, [...]
Beta testing a book: Chapter 5: An open letter to religious believers on God and evil
December 13, 2012 By 16 Comments
And now… the revised version of chapter 5 of the book. It contains my “open letter on God and evil,” which has been floating around the net for more than two years, longer than any other part of this book. But that’s not all it has. The full chapter consists of:
Follow Patheos
Atheist: