Category Archives: philosophical reflection

The “God is a Moral Monster” Objection Stated

Posted on September 24, 2014 by PaulVK

I find this objection to Christianity to be increasingly common among Christian defectors. I thought it might be worth while exploring it further. As you’ll see later in this series, I don’t really thing it is as much an argument … Continue reading →

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“God is Dead” has no meaning in the Dyadic World

Posted on March 20, 2014 by PaulVK

In this video from his speech to the national endowment of the humanities Walker Percy talks about the dyadic and the triadic modes of being in terms of understanding what science can and cannot address. There are no cats in this 50 … Continue reading →

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Free Will vs. Real Moral Agents

Posted on March 17, 2014 by PaulVK

We are limited by what we CAN do I may wish to choose to do or to have or to be many things. I can’t fly. I can’t live in a different time. I can’t change other people (much). We … Continue reading →

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Do Atheists “Evolve” Their Communal Ideas More Quickly than Religious People? Is that a good thing?

Posted on March 12, 2014 by PaulVK

Do Atheists “Evolve” Faster? Interesting post by Chris Stedman notes that while atheists are seen as more sympathetic to LGBTQ issues they are not uniform in this. A bit ago there was a post on the same site wondering if the … Continue reading →

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The Reverse God of the Gaps

Posted on February 21, 2014 by PaulVK

God of the Gaps Christians who use God to fill in the spaces at the limits of our power or understanding are often criticized of having a “god of the gaps“. We cut and paste “God” into whatever space we … Continue reading →

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Ryan Bell’s Interview on “Unbelievable”

Posted on February 13, 2014 by PaulVK

Nice interview with Ryan Bell (year as an atheist) on “Unbelievable” UK radio program.

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You can’t assert the problem of evil without assuming a non-suffering baseline for the only world you know

Posted on February 12, 2014 by PaulVK

How is Suffering Identifiable? In pondering he problem of evil what is seldom noted is that for suffering itself to be identifiable you need to assume a baseline of non-suffering, joy, good, blessedness, peace, comfort, calm, rest, or sufficiently benign normalcy.  … Continue reading →

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Of Story and Physics

Posted on January 15, 2014 by PaulVK

Can science crack “story”? Science can analyze the paper and the ink, and social science tries to engage the effect of story, but story stands beyond physics. A young man kills himself because a girl says she doesn’t want to … Continue reading →

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Fairness is as Fictitious as God

Posted on January 14, 2014 by PaulVK

American Want Fairness Fairness is a big cultural value of Americans. It is one of the foundational assumptions between our idea of justice. Jonathan Haidt in his book The Righteous Mind shows how for individualist westerners the basis for our … Continue reading →

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The Dark Matter of the Soul

Posted on December 3, 2013 by PaulVK

Wikipedia on Dark Matter Dark matter is a type of matter hypothesized in astronomy and cosmology to account for a large part of the mass that appears to be missing from the universe. Dark matter cannot be seen directly with telescopes; evidently it neither emits nor absorbs light or other electromagnetic radiation at any … Continue reading →

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