Love, HIddenness, and Why I'm Nearly Done

I'll be honest, lately I've been wondering about why I stay in the game.  I've gotten a bit sick of hashing through arguments that can never really be answered, which is what the overwhelming majority of arguments really hit on when it comes to philosophy of religion.

This is a critique you'll hear often against metaphysics or philosophy in general, but I wanted to give a concrete example.

Enter this Capturing Christianity article aimed at responding to Schellenberg's Divine Hiddenness Argument. The author Brett Lunn is describing Christian philosopher Michael Rea's response.

I don't really mean to address the entire article so much as I want to point out the parts that exemplify the point I want to make here.

Anti-Theism doesn't lead to atrocities

Pieces by Christian apologists trying to link atheism to mass murder and oppression are as common as they are wrong. What surprised me was seeing an atheist hero of mine, Jeff Lowder, agreeing with a more nuanced take by John Reynolds.

.@JMNR forcefully argues for a conclusion I've held for many years: while antitheism does not entail mass murder, antitheistic governments are highly likely to engage in mass murder. https://t.co/f8Hko8sG4V

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— Secular Outpost (@SecularOutpost) June 8, 2019

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, though it has serious moments trying to break through.

I've not finished what is released so far so please don't be posting spoilers, but having watched the first 3 episodes last night I did get struck by one key moment that has relevance for the atheist/philosophy of religion game.

Randal on Miracles and Historical Explanation

Below is a response to Randal Rauser's blog post about our exchange on the resurrection argument.  Please do check out Randal's blog for some background info.

Your first reply is that we can discuss the resurrection question without invoking the concept of a 'miracle'; but I think the example you give is seems flawed in a number of ways relevant to the argument for the resurrection of Jesus (RoJ) and I think you may be smuggling in a 'miracle' through the back door when we get to RoJ.

Responding to Critiques on Grief

The response to my video/post about grieving as an atheist has been overwhelmingly positive. I've had a lot of messages come back to me privately and on the various platforms I've posted it on and I've appreciated all of the wonderful feedback.

What surprised me was to see that the infamous Calvinist blog mentioned briefly in the original post decided to do a response/takedown of my post.  It's a bit rambly and it gets an incredible amount wrong, though it does so in a way that allows me to expand on some key points I made in the original post, so I'm going to do a rebuttal.

What christians get right about deconversion

I've been following Christian theologian and apologist Randal Rauser's interview series with apologist John Marriott on his book about deconversion and how to prevent it. 

There is quite a lot I'd like to say on the topic, at least in critique of why John's (and purportedly Randal's) solutions are ultimately not good reasons for someone to remain a Christian; but that's not my aim today. 

Here I want to offer some agreement with their assessment of deconversions and one key area of why they happen that they touched on in their final post in the series.

The idea is that of plausibility structures and how Christians need to maintain a plausibility structure through the use of their churches.

Grieving as an Atheist

This post is about grieving as an atheist and the complications caused by doing that while also having to interact with Christians and Christian beliefs.  My father was undergoing cancer treatments for about 3 months before dying a few weeks ago from a massive stroke.  The process of dealing with his diagnosis, treatment, complications, and eventual death has been an emotional journey, to say the least.  My father was a fundamentalist Christian, as is much of my extended family.  This made things harder for me in a variety of ways as I went through the grieving process, though on reflection I’ve been able to learn a lot from those experiences that I hope to share with others.