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Below is a good video in which Colin McGinn first talks in personal terms about he became an atheist and then the philosophical case for atheism: Your Thoughts?
Archive for the ‘Arguments for the Existence of God’ Category
The Atheism Tapes: Philosopher Colin McGinn
January 31st, 2011 
Daniel Fincke 
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Secularism, Videos, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian 
Tags: Colin McGinn 
2 Comments »I Have To Completely Rethink My Atheism
January 30th, 2011 Daniel Fincke after hearing the devastating argument in this video: I just don’t know what to think now, guys. Your Thoughts?
The Separability Of Metaethics From Questions Of Theism
January 11th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Earlier today, I argued that atheists cannot duck metaethics challenges from theists (or anyone else) and that we should not respond to such challenges with the knee jerk response that we are being bigotedly assumed to be incapable of moral behavior. I wrote: it is not mere prejudice for theists to demand atheists give an [...]
Posted in Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Atheistic Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Cultural Secularism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Metaethics, Metaethics, Morality, Morality, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion, Religion 3 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Faith Which Exploits Infinitesimal Probabilities As Openings For Strong Affirmations
January 8th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Pete C. argues that because our comprehension is limited, it is hubris for us to rule out faith in things that alleged to go beyond it: I’m not sure where I fall in the spectrum of agnosticism (if i belong there at all) so I can’t really self identify. But I will offer an explanation [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Spinoza, Spinoza 2 Comments »The Billionaire Metaphysician
January 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There’s hope for us all: For 20 years, Don Brownstein taught philosophy at the University of Kansas. He specialized in metaphysics, which examines the character of reality itself. In a photo from his teaching days, he looks like a young Karl Marx, with a bushy black beard and unruly hair. That photo is now a relic [...]
Catch Up Before You Speak Up
January 6th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Luke Muehlhauser admonishes his fellow atheists to do a better job of catching up with the current states of various aspects of the scholarly debate between theism and atheism before presuming to publicly debate theists. He gives a couple instructive examples of failure to do so: In a debate with theist Bill Craig, agnostic Bart Ehrman [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Philosophy Of Religion Tags: Bart Ehrman, Bayes' Theorem, Christopher Hitchens, David Hume, JH Sobel, Logic and Theism, Luke Muehlhauser, Miracles, William Lane Craig 6 Comments »Atheist Philosopher Of Religion Keith Parsons Abandons Theism Debate And Calls Theist Positions Frauds
January 5th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This happened during last semester when I was less capable of blogging in a timely manner. Now that there’s a fresh article on it, I thought I would highlight this piece by Julia Galef summarizing what went down (particularly because it adds even a little more kindling to the excellent debate among the Camels With [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Brian Leiter, Debunking Christianity, Keith Parsons, Leiter Reports, Peter van Inwagen, Prosblogian, Secular Outpost No Comments »1st TOP Q: “How, If At All, Can People’s Claims To Simply Intuit That There Is A God Be Rationally Refuted Or Supported?”
January 1st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Today’s inaugural open philosophical question is inspired by a good question raised this summer by long time friend of Camels With Hammers George W. of the blog Misplaced Grace. I am going to slightly modify his question since it involves addressing a particularly weak and willfully illogical form of an argument for the ability to [...]
Disambiguating Faith: The Evidence-Impervious Agnostic Theists
December 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke A vast majority of believers, though probably not all, believed in God before they ever encountered any arguments for its existence. For obvious cultural and psychological reasons, the concept of God is intuitively understandable and believable for most children and by far most believers start believing in childhood. Even those who spend a short time as [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian 21 Comments »Refutation Of Irreducible Complexity Arguments
November 28th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The great Qualia Soup is back, with a video explaining the problems with the anti-evolution arguments which rely on the idea of irreducible complexity. Your Thoughts?
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Biology, Biology, Creationism, Creationism, Evolution, Evolution, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Science, Videos Tags: Charles Darwin, Duane Gish, Evolution of the Eye, Irreducible Complexity, Michael Behe, Qualia Soup 1 Comment »“The Shifting Sands of Evidence & Argument” (Why Religious Arguments Fail to Persuade)
July 10th, 2010 Daniel Fincke How can we go about persuading better in debates about religious beliefs? ProfMTH develops and, in some cases, rightfully disagrees with ideas from Jennifer Faust: Your Thoughts?
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Psychology, Psychology, Religion Tags: Alvin Plantinga, Coherentism, Fundamental Beliefs, Jennifer Faust, John Baillie, Peripheral Beliefs, Persuasion, ProfMTH, Property Basic Beliefs, Quine, Quine's Web of Beliefs, St. Anselm, William Lane Craig No Comments »On God As The Source Of Being But Not Of Evil
July 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Introduction This post is a long one but an important one for understanding what sophisticated Roman Catholic philosophers have traditionally meant when they have said that “God is good” and that the existence of evil is not to be taken as counter-evidence to their belief in God’s goodness. Very often we atheists are dismissed as [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Ethics, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaethics, Metaethics, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Benedict XVI, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Teleology, Teleology, Virtues, Virtues Tags: Thomas Aquinas 19 Comments »The Cosmological Argument, The Composition Fallacy, And More Reasons Not To Believe In God
July 3rd, 2010 Daniel Fincke Shane Wilkins, a graduate student in philosophy at Fordham (where we were fellow students and colleagues until just recently), has been an invaluable regular commentator at Camels With Hammers. He has served as my primary theistic foil since the beginning, when our 7-part debate (which started with my post Objections to Religious Moderates and Intellecuals 1) propelled this [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Featured, Historical Philosophy, Jesus, Jesus, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Religion, Spinoza, Spinoza, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Composition Fallacy, Compositional Wholes No Comments »6 Basic Kinds Of Answer To The Question “Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?”
July 1st, 2010 Daniel Fincke by Eric Steinhart Why is there something rather than nothing? This question includes God in its scope: if there is a God, then God is something, so we can always ask: why is there God rather than no God? This implies that the question cannot be answered by appealing to God. It can’t be answered [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Featured, God, God, Historical Philosophy, Historical Philosophy, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Plato, Plato Tags: "More Precisely: The Math You Need To Do Philosophy", "The Logic of Metaphor - Analogous Parts of Possible Worlds", "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?", Being, Charles Sanders Peirce, Eric Steinhart, Heidegger, Jakob Boehme, John Leslie, Leibniz, Logic, Nishitani, Nothing, Paul Tillich, Plotinus, Pseudo-Dionysius, Thomas Aquinas, Victor Stenger 7 Comments »Beyond Agnosticism: More Details About How I Know Various Kinds Of Gods Do Not Exist, Based On Scientific And Philosophical Reasons
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke While I agree with, and vigorously defend, the notion that there is an important difference between lacking a belief in gods (as an agnostic atheist) and believing there are no gods (as a gnostic atheist), I also think that atheists should not, based on the best available scientific evidence and philosophical arguments, merely lack belief [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Evidence, Evidence, Evolution, Evolution, Featured, God, God, Intelligent Design, Intelligent Design, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Philosophy of Mind, Philosophy of Mind, Problem of Evil, Problem of Evil, Religion, Religion, Roman Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church, Skepticism, Skepticism, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Agnosticism, Personal God 9 Comments »Daily Hilarity: 40 Proofs Of God’s Existence
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Your Thoughts?
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Christianity, Christianity, Comedy, Comedy, God, God, Hilarious, Parody, Parody, Religious Satire, Religious Satire, Satire, Satire, Videos No Comments »No, I’m Not An Atheist By Faith, Here Are My Arguments.
June 29th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Yesterday Ron Rosenbaum aggressively attacked atheism and defended agnosticism in Slate. He starts out with the familiar charge that atheists have “faith”. But faith in what? Atheists display a credulous and childlike faith, worship a certainty as yet unsupported by evidence—the certainty that they can or will be able to explain how and why the [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Cosmology, Cosmology, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Evidence, Evidence, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, Philosophy, Physics, Physics, Religion, Religion 45 Comments »Rejecting The Question, “Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?”
June 28th, 2010 Daniel Fincke PZ Myers calls attention today to a post from Sean Carroll from a couple of years ago, which reminds me in part of some of my own thinking about the confusion in the question of “why there is something rather than nothing?”. I had a Thomist philosophy professor who impressed upon me that for Aquinas [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheism, Metaphysics, Metaphysics, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Physics, Physics Tags: "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?", Nothing, Sean Carroll No Comments »Christopher Hitchens Vs. Laura Ingraham & Doug Wilson
June 20th, 2010 Daniel Fincke They start talking after an opening minute of some Gospel Bob Dylan: Your Thoughts?
The Thing That Made The Things For Which There Is No Known Maker
June 20th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Strictly deriving belief in the Christian God logically from the problem of where everything comes from: It’s amazing how the problem of how something comes from nothing leads to so many obvious and unavoidable truths, isn’t it? Your Thoughts?
Are Divine Command Theory And Objective Morality Mutually Exclusive Concepts?
June 9th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Luke Muelhauser confronts William Lane Craig with the inconsistency between his divine command interpretation of morality, according to which things are moral or immoral as solely determined by God’s calling them as such, on the one hand, and his insistence that in this way God is the source of “objective morality”: But let us say [...]
Posted in Arguments for the Existence of God, Christianity, Ethics, Metaethics, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Religion Tags: Christian Apologetics, Common Sense Atheism, Divine Command Theory, Luke Muelhauser, Objective Morality, Religious Apologetics, Subjective Morality, William Lane Craig 7 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: How A Lack Of Belief In God May Differ From Various Kinds Of Beliefs That Gods Do Not Exist
June 7th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Yesterday on Friendly Atheist there was a vigorous debate in the comments section about whether there is a real and important difference between claiming one lacks belief in God (or gods) and outright claiming that there is no God (or gods). Here is a nice formulation of the argument that the distinction is an irrelevant [...]
Posted in Arguments Against The Existence of God, Arguments for the Existence of God, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Christianity, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethics, Evidence, Faith, Featured, God, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Metaphysics, New Atheism, Philosophy, Problem of Evil, Skepticism, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Agnostic Atheism, Agnostic Theism, Agnosticism, Friendly Atheist, Gnostic Atheism, Gnostic Theism, theism 24 Comments »The Evil God Hypothesis
May 17th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Stephen Law has recently published an article in Religious Studies showing how many of the arguments used in theodicy (meaning, in attempts to prove that there is a good God, despite the existence of evil) could equally well be employed to prove that there is an evil God. Listen to Law explain and defend the [...]
The Yearning Animal
September 21st, 2009 Daniel Fincke Greta Christina takes down the argument that the desire for God proves there is a God to fulfill it out there to be discovered: Someone (I can’t remember who now) recently pointed out that the “no atheists in foxholes” argument, even if it were true (which it’s not), isn’t an argument for God’s existence. It’s actually [...]
Posted in Arguments for the Existence of God, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Featured, Music, Music Videos, Nietzsche, Psychology, Videos Tags: Atheists In Foxholes, Augustine, Bernard Reginster, David Byrne, God-Shaped Hole, Greta Christina, Happiness, Heaven, Longing, Self-Overcoming, Talking Heads, Will to Power, Yearning No Comments »On Comparing God To The Tooth Fairy
September 18th, 2009 Daniel Fincke As I argued to Clergy Guy recently, there is a qualitative difference between talking about the possible scientific/metaphysical principle of a ground of all being defensibly called “God” and talking about one of the personal deities of historical religions who are claimed to engage with each other and with humanity in highly specified ways by [...]
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