Category Archives: Religion

Ruse gets a beta minus.

Philosophers don’t get asked often enough to write for the newspapers and weeklies: so it is really annoying when an opportunity is wasted on second-rate maunderings. Michael Ruse writes in today’s Guardian on whether there is an “atheist schism”. And … Continue reading

Posted in Rants, Religion | 7 Comments

Blackburn vs Polkinghorne

In my post about the LHC, I mentioned John Polkinghorne (that’s the Reverend Professor Sir John Polkingorne to you). He taught me quantum mechanics a long time ago, and he was a terrific lecturer and expositor. Since then, he’s become … Continue reading

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Postcard from Siena – 2

In the little piazza beneath our window, children have been celebrating their first communion. Being Italy, the occasion is marked before and after by a lot of noise, clanging bells and a brass band, and the inevitable gathering for food … Continue reading

Posted in Italian matters, Religion | 2 Comments

Religion and evil, again

So he killed his daughter … ‘Death was the least she deserved,’ said Abdel-Qader. ‘I don’t regret it. I had the support of all my friends who are fathers, like me, and know what she did was unacceptable to any … Continue reading

Posted in Logic, Religion | 2 Comments

Philosophy of Religion 15: Enough already!

Suppose a first year student wrote this (about mind-body substance dualism): There are no very persuasive arguments against dualism … Dualism is commonly mocked rather than argued against. Then we’d berate this exhibition of sheer ignorance. We’d send the student … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Religion | 15 Comments

Philosophy of Religion 14: Miracles?

Those who are getting fed up with me banging on and on about the Murray/Rea Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion and are waiting for some serious stuff can rest easy. This will be the penultimate post on that book. … Continue reading

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Philosophy of Religion 13: Big Bang vs Steady State

In the 1950s and earlier 1960s, there was quite wide support for the Hoyle/Gold/Bondi “steady state” cosmology as a rival to what we now think of as a Big Bang model. The basic idea is that the universe, on the … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Religion | 6 Comments

Philosophy of Religion 12: Evil and the ad hoc

Chapter 6 of the Murray/Rea book concentrates on the familiar argument that the existence of a “Perfect Being” God can’t be squared with the amount of apparently utterly superfluous evil to be found in this sublunary world. Half way through … Continue reading

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Religion and evil

“Women should live under religious laws“. Comments are superfluous.

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Philosophy of Religion 11: Which problem of evil?

So where have we got up to, reading through Michael Murray and Michael Rea’s Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion? Ah, the problem of evil. But which problem of evil? To start with, there’s the particular problem for those whose … Continue reading

Posted in Books, Religion | 3 Comments