Swinburne: On Arguments for God's Existence

Richard Swinburne is a Christian and I am not, but that doesn't negate his general arguments for God. I do wish there were more philosophical theists making arguments for belief in God, but living in a Christian culture it is to be expected that most theists will be Christians.

Does Brain Science Disprove the Soul?

Richard Swinburne (Oxford University) and Tim O'Connor (Indiana University) weigh substance dualism on the scales of contemporary neuroscience—how does the existence of the soul comport with empirical neuro-research?-https://youtu.be/jWWO4j5xsRQ

Richard Swinburne on arguments for Atheism

Can Belief in Man Substitute for Belief in God?

You say God does not exist? That may be so. But the present question is not whether or not God exists, but whether belief in Man makes any sense and can substitute for belief in God. I say it doesn't and can’t, that it is a sorry substitute if not outright delusional. We need help that we cannot provide for ourselves, either individually or collectively. The failure to grasp this is of the essence of the delusional Left, which, refusing the tutelage of tradition and experience, goes off half-cocked with schemes that in the recent past have employed murderous means for an end that never materialized. Communist governments murdered an estimated 100 million in the 20th century alone. That says something about the Left and also about government. What is says about the latter is at least this much: governments are not by nature benevolent.-Is Mankind Making Moral Progress?

"A Different Kind of Republican Leader"

I choose to believe, or at least hope

Without God, or some creative intelligence or purposeful plan behind the universe, life is simply too bleak.

I suppose I started there (I plan to write more at my own blog). Death stares us in the face, and without God, there is no hope to overcome it.

I don't see any clear evidence (yet) that we survive death (though I do see evidence that there is something strange about existence that atheism can never explain). I wish it was otherwise, but as others have said, knowing for sure that "Heaven" is real might make us too anxious to get there.

G.K. Chesterton wrote: "The materialism of things is on the face of things; it does not require any science to find it out. A man who has lived and loved falls down dead and the worms eat him. That is Materialism if you like. That is Atheism if you like. If mankind has believed in spite of that, it can believe in spite of anything."

I choose to believe, or at least hope. More later, Ilion, on where I'm at (I'm certainly not a Christian, though I've thought, not too seriously, about returning to the family religion both my parents were brought up in, Roman Catholicism). My girlfriend was Catholic, became a Buddhist years ago, and has sort of returned to the Church.

The truth is my dad died a few weeks ago, and the grief has overwhelmed me. We were very close, and each day is a struggle for me to get through. Dad believed death was just a gateway to what he called "the other side" and he wrote in his will that he'd be waiting there for us.

I can say that I believe with near certainty that atheism is a false view of reality (I will write soon about why I think that, one reason being the failure of neo-darwinism to fully explain life, complexity and consciousness), but not much more so far.

All of this has been in the back of my mind for a long time, but my dad's passing has now brought it to the surface.-from the comments here: http://iliocentrism.blogspot.com/2015/03/finding-oneself-agreeing-with-richard.html

Happy Easter

The Commentator: The Extremism Of The Perpetually Offended And Angry

A couple of posts on how everyone seems to be upset or offended about anything, everything and nothing. It's all 'she's a witch burn her' all the time with this bunch of lynch mobs.

What can you do? It's a time where feelings and emotions counts more for evidence and reason.

First up, Reason magazine.

Second, CTV Montreal's Barry Wilson nails it in his 'Outrage is the new normal' postscript.

Be careful Barry. You're just another privileged white guy.

And Lenny Bruce.

Words only matter when you make them matter.

Nigger, chink, wop, mick, spic, hymie - whatever.

Just bloody effen words.

And when you move to censor words you've lost the plot.

The Extremism Of The Perpetually Offended And Angry

Illegal Easter Eggs!

Illegal in the U.S. (land of the free?) anyway...

Life after Death- Died at party then met god!