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The Book of Job: a short play
DRAMATIS PERSONAE ( Read more... ) -
Free will
When people talk about free will, in the context of philosophy, without knowing the terminology of the field, they often seem to mean something like libertarian free will-a position not related (except etymologically) to political libertarianism: the belief that you “could have done otherwise”: your will is properly free if, and only if, having to ( Read more... ) -
The Bible
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Occam’s Razor is more than a guideline
Numquam ponenda est pluralitas sine necessitate
Occam’s Razor is a famous philosophical device, a pragmatic solution when faced with multiple competing hypotheses: always choose the one that necessitates the fewest additional assumptions.
Wikipedia contains this description:
Occam's razor (also written as Ockham's razor and in Latin lex ( Read more... ) -
William Lane Craig and his bankrupt ontology
I recently watched a video of a debate between famous apologist and Liar for Christ, Dr. William Lane Craig, and well-known cosmologist and theoretical physicist, Dr. Lawrence Krauss. Obviously all my sympathies lay with Dr. Krauss, so it was with some mortification that I watched him apparently just fail to understand Craig’s distinction between ( Read more... ) -
“Why would a woman want to sell her body for money?”
Of course, sex workers don’t actually sell their bodies: like everyone else, they sell services. The “selling bodies” line is used simply for shock value and adds an assumption that it’s wrong into the question itself. But still, you might ask, why those, why sell sexual services? I think it's for the same reason that men become fishermen, which ( Read more... ) -
#NotAllMuslims
It is curious how the debate after every Islamist deed of terror, such as the Charlie Hebdo shootings, always results in a flood of Most Muslims aren’t like that!-in a knee-jerk response that reminds me of nothing so much as #NotAllMen. This may strike you as (needlessly) offensive, but before I bring up my caveats, please consider the parallels ( Read more... ) -
“Ignorance is strength”
Or, Satirical depictions of religious leaders should be illegal, says Ottawa imam.
This is a fascinating study in the art of getting things completely backwards. It should be mentioned up front that this guy (wrong-headed though he otherwise is) does denounce the terrorist attacks and refer to the terrorists as disturbed individuals-he’s ( Read more... ) -
Grander than the Grand Canyon
Just got back from a helicopter flight to, over, and landing in the Grand Canyon. I have a bad track record with outings, but this was sublime (though I'm not sure if anyone could tell, as it was sublime in a manner that had me wrapped in my own headspace).
The Grand Canyon itself is, well, famously grand, but focusing so much on it does a great ( Read more... ) -
The No True Theist fallacy
Whenever a religious fringe group rises up in arms, be it Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Christian murderers of abortion providers, or whatever, pundits amass to fight at the steps of the podium to be first to proclaim that what those people do is not motivated by religion, that "real religion" is not like that. This is bizarre, and either dishonest or foolish.
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