Tag Archives: Philosophy of Religion

God, Evil, and Appearances: A Dialogue

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2013/03/19

[Published in THINK (2013; issue 12, pp 9-23)] ADAM: Consider this: Neil and Kazumi Puttick, and their son Sam were, by all accounts, an idyllic family. One friend said: ‘If you could bottle up a perfect marriage, theirs would be … Continue reading →

Posted in Commentary, Philosophy of Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

What explains the fine tuning of the universe?

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2012/06/05

Second in series “20 Atheist answers to questions they supposedly can’t” 2. What explains the fine tuning of the universe? Short answer: There’s no rigorous way to define fine tuning that’s hospitable to a fine tuning argument. Even if there … Continue reading →

Posted in Note, Philosophy of Religion | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

What caused the Universe?

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2012/06/02

First in series “20 Atheist answers to questions they supposedly can’t” 1. What caused the universe to exist? Short answer: Dunno. But God isn’t any better an explanation. Longer answer: My understanding of early universe cosmology is limited, but we … Continue reading →

Posted in Note, Rationality, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

An easy (and therefore, probably wrong) rebuttal to the Ontological argument

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2012/02/18

Modern (Modal) forms of the ontological argument go something like this (modal moves in brackets). Possibly, God exists (◊G) If God exists, necessarily God exists (G → □G) Possibly Necessarily God exists (◊□G, From [1] and [2]) Necessarily God exists … Continue reading →

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Evil and Appearance: A dialogue

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2011/12/23

[Reposted from here, cos it is some of my best work (although I'd want to rewrite most of it). That may say more about what I generally write than the quality of this example.] Preliminaries Beatrice:            What do you think … Continue reading →

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Stephen Law vs. William Lane Craig Debate: Argument map

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2011/10/25

As usual, there’s lots of debate over who won the Law/Craig debate. Instead of joining that, I though I’d do something niftier: I’ve mapped the whole of the debate in argument form, to give a more intuitive way of seeing … Continue reading →

Posted in Philosophy, Philosophy of Religion, pseudo-scholarly, Rationality, Religion | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Why Apologetics Sucks

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2011/04/25

This essay shows three things. 1) Apologetics is irrational. 2) All apologists are irrational. 3) Reasonable people should not take Apologists seriously. Why Apologetics is irrational Suppose there is some controversial issue. Also suppose you have a particular view on … Continue reading →

Posted in Internet, Philosophy of Religion, Polemic, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Not "God isn't nice", but "God isn't": Misconceptions around the Problem of Evil

by Thrasymachus Posted on 2010/12/22

There is a common misconception in discussions surrounding evil and God: that when presenting the argument from evil, the conclusion sought is that God is failing to live up to his moral responsibilities – that God isn’t very nice. Yet … Continue reading →

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