Introduction Robin Collins and James Fodor recently debated the fine-tuning argument for the existence of God. The discussion largely revolved around what we should make of Collins’s dart analogy, which goes like this. There’s a gigantic dartboard with a spotlight on some portion of it, and you have no idea how far the dartboard extends…
Defending Abortion Philosophically: Dr. Kurt Liebegott’s Response to Trent Horn’s 5 Non-Religious Arguments Against Abortion
This is a guest post by Dr. Kurt Liebegott, who earned his Ph.D. in Philosophy from Purdue University, specializing in Ethics, Logic, and Philosophy of Religion. We asked Dr. Liebegott to apply his training as an analytic philosopher towards evaluating some Pro-Life Arguments from a friend our channel: Catholic Apologist Trent Horn. You can learn…
Hell, No! Part 1
Introduction Despite being a non-Christian for many years now, there are certain theological topics that continue to be of great interest to me. At the top of the list is the doctrine of Hell. Many people fear Hell, and who could blame them? No one really knows what, if anything, happens when we die, and…
Real Atheology Answers Dr. Brown
Dr. Michael Brown recently posted a series of questions for current and former atheists. His stated intent is to learn more about the perspectives of atheists. If true, this is laudable and should be an endeavor more commonly pursued between people holding opposing viewpoints. Real Atheology is a group that seeks to promote elevated discussions…
Why God and Hell Aren’t Compatible – An Initial Sketch
Suppose that God exists. Our main concern, here, is to consider what such a supposition entails. What would we expect to observe if such a being were to exist? Can we make any predictions? An answer to questions like these is going to depend on a proper understanding of the claim itself. This, in turn,…
Can We Be Directly Aware of the Mind’s Immateriality?
Josh Rasmussen has argued on pp. 85-7 of How Reason Can Lead to God that we have immediate awareness of the fact that conscious states, such as feelings and sensations, are distinct from material states: [C]onsider the following aspects of mind and matter, respectively: (1) the sense of an itch and (2) being triangular. These aspects…
Bad Lots, Unconceived Alternatives, and God
There are two ways to object to atheistic inferences to the best explanation. One is to criticize the reasons these arguments offer for thinking some atheistic hypothesis has more theoretical virtue than the theistic hypothesis. The other, which goes much deeper, is to doubt that inference to the best explanation (henceforth, “IBE”) is a reliable…
Harrison Jennings on Act and Potency
Harrison Jennings of the Disputed Questions blog recently wrote a post replying to my first YouTube video and my recent blog post critiquing Feser’s argument from motion and the Aristotelian act-potency metaphysic. This is one of my favorite replies I’ve received to date, so I’m excited to engage with Harrison. Harrison correctly notes that I…
Partial Explanation: Better than None
We’re quite confident that a cake will never show up out of thin air. This is largely based on our past experience. A cake always comes into existence as a result of (a) the mixing of several ingredients, none of which is itself a cake, and (b) the use of kitchen appliances by an intelligent…
Good Omens: Reflecting on Death, Heaven, and Hell
So there’s a new Amazon series called “Good Omens” which seems to be a BBC-like show about an angel and a demon who have been tasked by their respective sides to stay on Earth and win souls for their masters. It’s a bit lighthearted on how it tackles the supernatural battle between heaven and hell,…