Tag: epistemology

Cheap shot skepticism, courage and cowardly ‘free thought’

By Anthony in Blog, Creationism, evolution, General, philosophy, scientism, Secular Humanism
May 23, 2011

It’s easy to be a skeptic because it is much easier to not believe something as to believe it. Skepticism has no non-arbitrary stopping point. That is, full blooded skepticism will naturally morph into cynicism. There is no objective point where any kind of argument, piece of evidence, or logical deduction must coerce belief. This is a point I raise in this post. Many skeptics construe their skepticism as an act of courage, as though being willing to question everything shows a brave streak that others do not have. To a point, there is courage… and in a way, yes, there is something to that.

However, if it is brave to question everything it is braver still to believe anything. Let me illustrate.

Recording of this Tuesday’s Debate on Faith, Evidence, Atheism, Rob Bell, and Hell

By Anthony in Blog, intelligent design, Knights of Contention, literary apologetics, philosophy
March 25, 2011

At the last ‘Knights of Contention’ discussion this last Tuesday we began by talking about faith, evidence, atheism, and Christianity, of course and ended up talking about Rob Bell and hell. Naturally. 🙂 Here is a link for viewing that discussion. It was about 2 1/2 hours long. There will not be a discussion the …

atheism, epistemology, evidence, Faith, hell, Rob Bell, Sagan's Balance
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Reader’s Guide to “Antony Flew Goes to Heaven.’

By Anthony in Antony Flew, atheism, Blog, Christianity and Culture, literary apologetics
February 23, 2011

For background on why I believe that this reader’s guide might be helpful, please see the posts immediately prior to this one. This guide pertains specifically to the story “Antony Flew Goes to Heaven” but the principles it discusses will likely be useful for the other stories, and interpreting literature in general. Reader’s Guide to …

PZ Myers Reviews “Antony Flew Goes to Heaven.”

By Anthony in Antony Flew, atheism, Blog, General, intelligent design, literary apologetics, scientism, Secular Humanism, theism
February 23, 2011

The brilliant PZ Myers has ‘reviewed’ the second story in my short story collection, “Richard Dawkins, Antony Flew, and Mother Teresa go to Heaven.”

As before, I have no interest in responding in any detail, although I might say some things when he is done. I will say: “PZ, what makes you think Antony awakes in a garden?”

After reading the last review and the comments it spawned it became apparent that a little extra help on my part is needed. There seems to be difficulty understanding the texts in question. Therefore, a reader’s guide for each story has been composed.

Uncertainty the Only Absolute Moral Value?

By Anthony in apologetics, atheism, Blog, evolution, General, human rights, morality, Secular Humanism
September 8, 2009

From my experience dealing with secularists, ‘true believing fanatics’ is really a redundancy to them. A fanatic is, virtually by definition, someone who truly believes what they say they believe. ‘Humility’ in practice means, someone who doesn’t act on what they believe.

My response to the gent was brief:

Is your belief system a fact?

Clearly, if your belief is that all beliefs that claim to be fact must be debunked, then it is also true that this very belief that all beliefs must be debunked must be debunked.

absolutism, atheism, epistemology, fanaticism, fundamentalism, God, humanism, islamic terrorism, morality, relativism, secularism
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Religion (ie, Christianity) requires higher scrutiny because it demands massive commitments

By Anthony in Blog, General
December 5, 2008

In the last week or so I had two exchanges where the debate turned on why the atheist/agnostic was demanding a higher level of scrutiny for ‘religious’ claims than other kinds of claims. In one of the cases, the really odd thing is that the person(s) had admitted that science, being limited as it is to the natural order, is unable to touch the supernatural and yet continued to say that science nonetheless remains the best way to learn about the world. This is not coherent. When pressed, in this case they again admitted that science couldn’t prove or disprove the supernatural but continued to insist that we use science to investigate the question. Truly, this world leaves me scratching my head.

No Scientific Proof? Well, that proves it!

By Anthony in Blog, General
August 22, 2008

We do not know that the measles vaccine causes autism. On the other side of the coin, nobody knows what causes autism. Unlike a piddly hundred and some cases of measles, cases of autism is on the rise. Check out some stats. In 1992 there were 15,000 reported cases of autism. In 2006, less than fifteen years later, there were 250,000 cases of autism, with each year in between showing more cases than the previous years.

autism, doctors, epistemology, Faith, home schoolers, homeschooling, measles, medicine, mumps, religion, rubella, scientism, vaccination, vaccines
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A 1,000 Word Argument for Christianity

By Anthony in Blog, General
July 14, 2008

I was once asked to provide a concise, no more than 1,000 word essay, on why I believe Christianity to be true. I think the hint was that I can be a little too verbose. 🙂 As I recall, this essay was well received, if only because it met the terms of the request. I …

Equivocation on the word natural by atheists and philosophical naturalists

By Anthony in Blog, General
June 20, 2008

Has anyone else noticed this? As a case in point- in part because atheists have accused me of ‘inventing’ atheistic positions- consider this entry on my blog and the comments that follow. But to be clear, I run across this phenomena all the time as I read and debate theism or ‘intelligent design.’ Let me …

A Review of Antony Flew’s “God and Philosophy.”

By Anthony in Antony Flew, Blog, book reviews, General
October 30, 2007

This is not your normal review. I set aside my copy of Flew’s “God and Philosophy” to re-read for the purposes of writing this review and it has disappeared. 10 to 1, a certain other adult in the house ‘put it where it belong’ which is why I can no longer find it. So, I …

A thought on ‘evidence’ and Christianity…

By Anthony in Blog, General
November 20, 2006

There is a thread on my forum right now where I discuss whether or not two of the members are in fact the same person.Â (Click here to read it).Â The conversation has gone just about how I expected it to.Â It was dismissed by the interested parties, then as it became evident I was …

atheist, Blog, Christianity, common denominator, correct perspective, different kinds, epistemology, everything, evidence, evidences, forum, forumulation, idea, interested parties, issue, kinds of logic, knowledge, mockery, Natural, objection, person, purpose, rules of logic, secularist, theism, treatment, types of arguments
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Anthony’s Three Priorities

These are the three guiding principles that underlie most of the posts on this blog, and Anthony's purpose in life:

1. Secure eternal life for himself and his loved ones through Jesus Christ.

2. Get as many other people as he can to accept Jesus as their Lord and savior so that they, too, may have eternal life.

3. Prevent the next holocaust-level event from occurring and stop the ones that are presently on-going. He does not share the optimism of some that humanity has 'progressed' enough to avoid it...

In light of these stakes, most other things fall into the category of "don't sweat the small stuff."

Commentary Delay

Because I believe that people are being manipulated into regularly scheduled outrages, and because I am not a tool so easily manipulated, I will generally abstain from opining on ‘national conversations’ until I am good and ready to do so. Obviously, I reserve the right comment immediately as I see fit. If you are a Christian–don’t be a tool.