What’s Wrong with my Atheism?

January 12, 2012 By 90 Comments
metaphysical backsliding

I mentioned in a recent post on moral philosophy that, although I understand why Christians think I should switch teams, I'm confused and frustrated by the comments of "Convert already!" I get from my atheist friends.  One of my college friends posted a cogent sum-up of the inconsistency he sees (reformatted slightly from facebook): I don't think anything you're espousing is incompatible with atheism. I do think you may be using metaphysical backsliding as an excuse for not engaging with … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Atheism, Conversion, Epistemology/Philosophy 90 Comments

It’s a Fair Cop, Douthat

November 29, 2011 By 54 Comments
From Nietzsche Family Circus

In a response to a lot of the debate that followed Jennifer Fulwiler's conversion story at Why I'm Catholic, NYT columnist Ross Douthat posed a question to atheists that I find hard to answer.  Jennifer wrote that she abandoned atheism because she thought she was required to be a nihilist in a world without God, and, of the three propositions: God is not real Atheism logically requires nihilism Nihilism sucks so bad it can't be true She thought she was most likely to be wrong about … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Apologetics, Atheism, Conversion, Epistemology/Philosophy Tagged With: , , , 54 Comments

Turing Test Easter Egg

August 4, 2011 By 16 Comments

Contestants in the Ideological Turing Test adopted a lot of different strategies, but I don’t know if anyone else was using mine. My college friends rib me a lot about my Mass attendance and apologetic readings; when I explain a bit of my theology readings, I often get sarcastic “When are you converting already?” So, when I sat down to write my Christian answers, I decided to give them a preview. Instead of imitating others and inventing a persona, I tried to answer quasi-honestly, giving … [Read more...]

Filed Under: Conversion, Ideological Turing Test, Parsing Catholicism 16 Comments