Some time ago, I got into a dispute about covenant marriage with my friend Stephen, who blogs at The Last Delta-T. I’m defending my position in a series of posts, both because I have problems with a subset of anti-marriage rhetoric that is sometimes used by people on the left (particularly my friends!) and because I think my views on marriage are a decent intro to some of my virtue ethics beliefs generally. What We Talk About When We... Read more
Just as a quick follow-up to my post on The Moral Landscape, I wanted to share an excerpt from Ned Reskinoff’s blog (but go ahead and click through for the whole post): …it seems tangentially related to the ongoing debate I’ve been having in the comments of a couple posts over whether or not moral principles can be derived through pure empirical observation. Both the political “non-ideological pragmatist” and Sam Harris the moral naturalist make the same category error: they take... Read more
Many of the people who replied to my New Year’s Challenge to change my opinions about religion proposed books I should read. Right up my alley, I thought, until I realized how very many books you all have read and enjoyed. I’m going to pick out six or seven to start with and commit to reading one to two a month, so I don’t get overwhelmed, but that means I won’t get to a lot of these. I’ve posted the full... Read more
I really, really wanted to like Sam Harris’s The Moral Landscape: How Science Can Determine Human Values. A large proportion of my philosophical disagreements with my boyfriend and with Christians generally center on the question of whether a belief in absolute morality is compatible with atheism, so I had my fingers crossed that this book would be useful to me as a rebuttal. Alas. The problems start with Harris’s definition of science: Some people [define] “science” in exceedingly narrow... Read more
The pitch that prayer can change anyone’s life, if you give it a try, is hard to rebut. The obvious objection, as is often the case with religious experiments, is that the definition of success and the length of time required for a valid trial are never time. But even ignoring that problem, the odds are already stacked in favor of religion. There’s plenty of reason to think that prayer could be beneficial even if God did not exist.... Read more
I had a really fun time this week when I attended a lecture/discussion on the new translation of the Roman Missal that’s going into effect next Advent. (The Vatican approved changes to the Latin form of the Mass about ten years ago, and the English translation has been working its way through the pipeline). The campus church gave an explanation of the thinking behind the new translation and talked a couple of the most notable changes through in detail.... Read more
School has begun so, for this week’s Quick Takes, I’m listing the classes I’ll be taking this semester. I’m also in the Yale Daily News with a column on the value of shop classes (woodworking, glassblowing, etc). –1– The first class (and the only normal undergraduate class I’m taking) is Oratory in Statecraft. The class is a mix of the history of oratory (starting with the Illiad) and a practical workshop in writing and delivering speeches. I’m so excited; I’ve wanted... Read more
There have been a bunch of interesting comments already on my post on Mind/Brain division, so I’m pulling some out here to reply to in depth. dcb wrote I have to agree that this is a hard sell to me. I am not an atheist, so perhaps there is something big that I am missing, but if the physical basis for the you-program is lost, in what sense is the “ported” version still you? Sure, it might think it is... Read more
Over at The Warfare is Mental, blogger cl was perplexed by a recent comment of Luke’s at Common Sense Atheism. Luke wrote: What tools do you use when you think philosophically about God or morality or other subjects? Among other tools, you use your mind. Knowing how the mind works can help you do philosophy better, just as knowing how a camera works can make you a better photographer. Prompting cl to ask: If you are an atheist, do you... Read more
The new school term has started, so I’ve been going through the list of suggestion posted here and at Mark Shea’s blog in response to my offer to let you pick my religion-related New Year’s Resolutions. [UPDATE: The full list of suggested books is now up] I’ve looked through all the suggestions, and, except for a few exceptions, they fall into two categories: try prayer and read [book]. I’m going to post the list of books I’m looking at (though... Read more
Unequally Yoked
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