I am first going to furnish you with an excerpt from Robert Sapolsky’s Behave [UK here] before discussing the content within a theological context. Of course, what Sapolsky has to say is nothing new or groundbreaking, but it serves s a good introduction to the topic. AGAIN WITH BABIES AND ANIMALS Much as infants demonstrate the rudiments of hierarchical and Us/Them thinking, they possess building blocks of moral reasoning as well. For starters, infants have the bias concerning commission versus omission. In… Read more
April 21, 2019
Joseph of Arimathea – fact or fiction? Er, fiction.
April 21, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
Joseph of Arimathea used to be used by William Lane Craig as a pillar of his truth claims for the Resurrection, itself one of the four cornerstones of his apology. Richard Carrier, amongst others, has provided some very interesting viewpoints on the historicity of this figure (or lack thereof). Craig no longer seems to reference J of A, quite possibly the result of the weakness of any positive evidence and the strength of negative evidence for his historicity. Here are… Read more
April 21, 2019
Before the Big Bang: A Multiverse from “Nothing”
April 21, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
Skydivephil and his team have just released a new cosmology film in their Before the Big Bang Series. In previous episodes of the series they have interviewed such names as Stephen Hawking, Sir Roger Penrose, Alan Guth and many others. In this episode, we interview Alex Vilenkin. Vilenkin was the first to propose the universe may have come from “nothing” where nothing does not mean a quantum vacuum but a state where there is not even space or time. He… Read more
April 20, 2019
Easter Round-Up: Everything You Need To Know About The Resurrection (Skeptically Speaking)
April 20, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
Well that came around quickly. It’s like I’ve been a little bit distracted or something! Anyway here is your annual Easter skeptical roundup of previous writings I have done on the Resurrection and other things pertaining to the Easter story. Indeed, I was thinking of turning my writings on this topic into a short book to act as a sort of a rebuttal to Lee Strobel’s Easter book. It’s just a little project I have in mind that shouldn’t take too… Read more
April 19, 2019
Article V – Consitutional Convention – A Massive Risk?
April 19, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
American Legislative Exchange Council – Alec – is an organisation that has a worrying amount of power and influence (See John Oliver’s episode on them). One of the insidious things they are up to is campaigning for a constitutional convention. There is a clause in Article V of the Constitution that can be used to call a constitutional convention for new amendments to dramatically restrict the power of the federal government. Let me lay out what this means, followed by a list… Read more
April 19, 2019
Whittenberger’s Heaven & Hell – What Would Yours Be?
April 19, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
Here is what Gary Whittenberger offered as his coherent version of heaven and hell in response to my article on the notion that heaven and hell are binary and yet all of human moral activities sit along various different continua. Thanks for this interesting article. You said “The only sensible way around this is some form of means-tested hell-punishment or heaven-reward. If you are a 34% bastard on earth then you get a 34% punishment in hell. God becomes the… Read more
April 18, 2019
Science and Medicine: Not Seeing God in Your Prayers, Thank You Very Much
April 18, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
Here is an excerpt from a chapter in my recent-ish anthology of chapters from writers here at Patheos Nonreligious (Not Seeing God: Atheism in the 21st Century) [UK here]. This chapter is by Kevin Davis, with his blog “SecularVoices”. It is not the whole chapter, but gives you a taste. Please grab a copy of the book – it’s great! The following letter was posted to SecularVoices on May 27, 2015—exactly one month after my youngest son, Grayson, was unexpectedly born 3… Read more
April 17, 2019
Taxpayers Effectively Completely Fund Faith Schools
April 17, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
I am going to let you into a little secret now that’s is not a secret because it is public knowledge but is a secret because apparently, no one seems to know it. And when I say no one seems to know it, I mean no one seems to know this at all, whether they will have anything to do with working in faith schools or are members of the general public. I know this because literally everyone I speak to… Read more
April 17, 2019
School admissions appeal system worsens inequalities and increases social segregation, new report finds
April 17, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
This unsurprising news is from Humanists UK. I will be writing something connected to this later today that people are oddly completely unaware of: The chances of parents getting a child into their first choice of school via the appeals process ‘varies considerably by family background, ethnicity, and pupil attainment at primary school,’ according to a new report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI). Humanists UK, which has long campaigned for more inclusive school admissions policies that do not select pupils by… Read more
April 16, 2019
ATP Interviews Luciano Gonzalez on Atheism, Activism, Latin and South America
April 16, 2019 By Jonathan MS Pearce
0 Comments
This is the last interview I did whilst I was in isolation in the clinic in Moscow. I hope you enjoy it as much as I enjoyed chatting with fellow Patheos Nonreligious blogger, at “Sin God”, Luciano Joshua Gonzalez-Vega. We touch many bases and I think it is yet another interesting interview. See what you think. And, as ever, please please subscribe to my YouTube channel. One day, I would like 1000 subscribers… Read more
get the latest from
A Tippling Philosopher
Sign up for our newsletter
POPULAR AT PATHEOS Nonreligious
Browse Our Archives
TRENDING AT PATHEOS Nonreligious