The Logical Atheist

Former Muslim and atheist and now Christian convert Ayaan Hirsi Ali seems to think that even if you cannot bring yourself to believe in the story and precepts of Christianity, you should for the sake of civilization pretend you do.  She also seems to think that if reason is a hard sell, we should stop trying to sell it.

Re Daniel Dennett: free will buries its undertakers. (Without apologies to Etienne Gilson.)

Anything outside reality is unreal. Anything inside reality is accessible in principle to reasoning beings. Where does that leave any god?

I’ve been an atheist for over 50 years. It took one lecture to convince me. I don’t just disbelieve in the existence of the supernatural. I believe in the  non existence of the supernatural. The natural universe is it. How do I know? (That’s always the appropriate question but with the caveat below). The wrong answer to that question is that we have no or too little evidence. (The “new atheists” seem to like that answer.) But that gives theism credit it does not deserve. Before you ask for evidence, you need to know what an assertion means. Otherwise, you cannot know if something qualifies as evidence or not. If I say, “Crooly blurps,” the right question is not “How do you know?” but “What are you talking about?” I submit that the same applies to the assertion “God exists.” God is always defined incoherently (it can’t be all-knowing and all-powerful, etc.), and since God is said to be literally out of this world, I don’t know what the word  exists  means in the supposed s...

In an earlier incarnation many, many years ago, I would be getting ready to celebrate Passover . This is the holiday that commemorates Yahweh's liberation of the children of Israel from enslavement in Egypt (long before the Arabs got there). Yahweh did this, according to the Good Book, by inflicting collective punishments on the Egyptian people -- ranging from turning the Nile River and other water sources into blood, to sending swarms of frogs, gnats, flies, and locusts throughout the land, to killing all first-born persons and cattle, even those of slaves (non-Israelites, presumably) -- 10 "plagues" in all. As unjust as that collective punishment seems, it was Yahweh's response to the recalcitrance of Egypt's absolute ruler, the Pharaoh. According to the story, he repeatedly changed his mind about "letting [the Israelite] people go" after promising Moses he would do so. That's why Egypt, that is, all Egyptians, kept getting hit with plagues.  Howe...

To put things into perspective, be aware that people with advanced degrees from our best universities say things like this:  "Since no one, including criminals, has free will and hence no one can be morally responsible for his or her actions, we ought to come up with a more appropriate criminal justice system. Therefore, we should hold a conference, perhaps next spring, to discuss this important matter and to recommend reforms. Papers are invited. Details to follow. Please let me know your thoughts, and be sure to pencil in the event." These are the best minds that America has to offer?