PBS "The Question of God", Featuring Freud & Lewis
Labels: Alex, Atheism, Christianity
"What embitters the world is not excess of criticism, but an absence of self-criticism." - G.K. Chesterton
Colin McGinn:
In this discussion with D.J. Grothe, Colin McGinn explores various kinds of skepticism, giving his concerns about radical fallibilism and certain post-modern critiques of knowledge. He explains how he is certain that ghosts and Gods don't exist. He details how atheistic the profession of philosophy is, and how the tolerance shown while philosophers criticize each other serves as a model for good citizenship. He tells the reasons that led to his religious skepticism and atheism. He examines William Shakespeare as a philosopher, the problem of evil in Shakespeare's plays, and other philosophical subjects found in Shakespeare such as epistemology, ethics, life after death, happiness and the meaning of life. He also explains how getting into Shakespeare as a professional philosopher impacted his philosophy.
Can non-believers make sense of the world? How can there be morality without God? In this episode of Philosophy Bites philosopher Richard Norman, author of On Humanism, contributor to What is Humanism? and member of the Humanist Philosophers Group, explains how it is possible to lead a good life without religion.
Labels: Atheism, Matt, Social Ethics
I don't know if you get Terry Pratchett's 'Discworld' over in the US. It's a series of satirical fantasy novels (set on a flat disc of a world, travelling through space on the back of giant turtle) for those of you who don't know.
Labels: Atheism, Christianity, Matt
Just found out yesterday that my good friend Brad's brother passed away unexpectedly over the weekend. I guess it was a massive heart attack. He was only 38. Brad is understandably in a real state of shock.
Labels: Alex, Meaning of Life
As happens from time to time Matt sent me a friendly email the other day and my attempt at light hearted conversation quickly got out of hand and morphed into a post I have been meaning to write. So I figured, rather than triggering a private email debate, I'd spare Matt and just put it up as a new thread. Once finished I will make another attempt at personable conversation. Wish me luck.
"This one God is known to us not speculatively but existentially. He [Irenaeus] expresses this in saying: 'Without God, you cannot know God.' God is never an object. In all knowledge it is he who knows in us and through us. Only he can know himself; we may participate in his knowledge of himself. But he is not an object whom we can know from the outside. God is unknown according to his greatness, his absoluteness, his unconditional character. He is known in according to his love in which he comes to us. Therefore, in order to know God you must be within God; you must participate in him. You can never know him as an object outside yourself."
– Paul Tillich on Irenaeus of Lyons addressing necessary conditions for knowing God.
"...contrary to a typical human attitude, knowledge of God is not a spectator sport. It is rather part of a process of God’s thorough make-over of a person." p.17
"God refuses, for our own good, to become a mere idol of our thought or entertainment." p. 17
"Filial knowledge of God is available to every sincere seeker at God’s appointed time. Still, its realization comes via—and not in advance of—an attitude of sincere willingness to love God with the kind of love characteristic of God." p.30
"The evidence of God’s presence offered by loving character-transformation in God’s children is crucial. It goes much deeper than the comparatively superficial evidence found in entertaining signs, wonders, visions, ecstatic experiences, and fancy philosophical arguments. We could consistently dismiss any such sign, wonder, vision, ecstatic experience, or argument as illusory or indecisive, given certain alterations in our beliefs. In contrast, genuine character transformation toward God’s all-inclusive love does not admit of easy dismissal. It bears directly on who one really is, the kind of person one actually is." p.35
– Paul Moser, Why Isn't God More Obvious?
Labels: Alex, Meaning of Life
It seems that, in response to the atheist OUT campaign, a Christian version has been launched (though on a far smaller scale). Alonzo Fyfe (otherwise known as 'Atheist Ethicist') puts things much more eloquently than I could hope to manage, so I'll simply quote him:
So, now we have two sides, each wearing their own flags and wearing their own uniforms, each defining themselves by their opposition to the other.
If people are not careful - if they do not make a conscious effort to see how this develops, it is a type of situation that could get out of hand. Humans have a psychological disposition towards tribalism, with a tendency to be hostile towards opposing tribes. Saying that atheists are immune from this disposition is saying that atheists are not human.
This type of tribalism has come to be extremely destructive in different times in human history. It is something we need to be careful about.
Labels: Atheism, Christianity, Matt