Religious

Archive for Religious

Clarifying the Fine-Tuning Argument for a Designed Universe

Two weeks ago we had quite a healthy discussion of the “fine-tuning” argument for a designed universe. In today’s follow-up post, I want to try to clarify some of the issues of framing. Some of you were bringing up standard arguments or analogies whenever these types of debates occur, but I think a lot of […]

Guest Post: Turning the Atheistic Flavor of Evolutionary Biology on Its Head

[I saw an intriguing post by Gene Callahan at his blog on this topic, and he wrote a longer version here.–RPM] Turning the Atheistic Flavor of Evolutionary Biology on Its Head by Gene Callahan ======================= “Like most summer activities, the frogs’ vocal signaling requires an impressive expenditure of energy, and therefore presumably has an advantage.” […]

The Fine-Tuning Argument for an Intelligent Designer of the Universe

Daniel Kuehn is nonplussed by the so-called fine-tuning argument: I never quite understood why people get so excited about alleged “fine tuning”. The multiverse idea seems quite plausible to me, but I think even that overcomplicates it. If certain conditions are required for us to exist and observe reality, and if we do exist and […]

Quick Thoughts on Christians and Marriage

Over the past few weeks I have seen a lot of secular libertarian commentary on the issue of gay marriage. I don’t think there is an adequate understanding of the traditional Christian view on this issue, so in this quick post I just want to try to frame the issue a little more correctly. This […]

The Ten Commandments

My idiosyncratic Bible study program–“Read at least one chapter a night, and keep going till I fall asleep”–has led me to Exodus. A few nights ago I hit the Ten Commandments. Now growing up, I remember thinking that God had some weird priorities. I mean, everybody knows that the worst thing you can possibly do […]

Jesus Is Consistent With the Old Testament God

In church today the pastor read a statement from a theologian that astounded me. (BTW I know at least one guy who goes to my church also reads this blog, so it should go without saying that I am criticizing this particular point without malice. I like the sermons, I just sometimes think they say […]

Thoughts on Hell: Regrets, I’ve Had a Few…

The two biggest objections I have been getting on my Sunday blog posts are along these lines: (1) “Why would a good God let bad things happen?” and (2) “Only a sadistic being would punish us for eternity just for not worshipping/believing in him.” Today I want to concentrate on (2), although I imagine the […]

Steve Landsburg, Religious Atheist

I have previously said that U of R economist Steve Landsburg is a very religious atheist, and I mean that sincerely. Steve derives his sense of the universe from mathematics, as opposed to his belief in a personal God. If it turned out that arithmetic contained a contradiction, I really think we would find Steve […]