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One Luke Muelhauser’s readers challenged him that all his pursuit of evidence just would not matter if only he would experience “believing in Jesus and God” for himself. In reply, Luke opens up about his emotionally intense experience of Christianity: Things went so well over the next year that I started to feel like quite [...]
Archive for the ‘Faith’ Category
Worshipful Experience Of God? Been There, Done That.
February 21st, 2011 
Daniel Fincke Muslim Cleric Who Led Friday Prayers In Egypt Friday Supports Death For Apostates
February 21st, 2011 Daniel Fincke Yusuf al-Qaradawi’s show ash-Shariah wal-Hayat has an audience of 40 million. He is the head of the International Union of Muslim Scholars, is a trustee of Oxford University, and is considered a leading Muslim Brotherhood intellectual. He returned to Egypt from exile after the fall of Hosni Mubarak and led Friday prayers on February 18. [...]
"If You Believe In God, You Have To Believe In The Devil"
February 20th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Last summer there was a cheesy ad for the latest Exorcist film, and the tagline epitomized and exploited a key twist of twisted religious logic. The film’s tagline was “If you believe in God, you have to believe in the devil.” What’s the idea behind this?
Posted in Christianity, Christianity, Epistemology, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, Fundamentalism, Fundamentalism, Islam, Islam, Psychology, Psychology, Religion, Religion, Religion and Science, Religious Extremism, Religious Extremism, Religious Moderates, Religious Moderates 
Tags: Fundamentalism and Modernity 
2 Comments »Faith Is Not A Virtue; Faith Is Gullibility
February 16th, 2011 Daniel Fincke There are many virtues the religious have, even in distinctively religious forms which an atheist like I can appreciate specifically as religious virtues, but faith is not one of these virtues. It is a vice. And Matt Dillahunty’s video below features, especially in the last few minutes, an eloquent, passionate, personal explanation of what makes [...]
My Atheistic Reply To Rabbi Adam Jacobs's Open Letter To The Atheist Community
February 14th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Oh boy, I just love getting letters! So, you can only imagine my enthusiasm at getting An Open Letter To The Atheist Community from a Rabbi Adam Jacobs of The Huffington Post Synagogue: My dear atheist friend, Gosh, he holds me dear! The first point I’d like to explore is that there really are no [...]
Defending Apostates' Intellects Against A Dismissive Christian Apologist
February 9th, 2011 Daniel Fincke This morning, I posted a few of Evangelical Christian Drew Dyck’s condescending and disingenuous attempts to understand the growing trend of sustained apostasy among young Christians. In the last post I criticized his ideas and value prejudices which guided his discussion of the role that sexual development in young adulthood plays in leading people away [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Christianity, Christianity, Faith, Faith, Featured, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, New Atheism, Philosophy, Secularism, Why I Am Not A Christian, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Apologists, Apostasy, C.S. Lewis, Drew Dycks, Intellectual Conscience, Postmodernism, Presuppositionalism, Relativists 4 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 »TOP Q (7): When, If Ever, Are Intellectual Mistakes Morally Culpable?
January 7th, 2011 Daniel Fincke Can we morally blame people for failing to pursue the truth well enough or for employing irrational methods of belief formation? Is belief something not in our volitional control at all? Is it an entirely passive thing to “just believe” something? Or even if we have some volitional control over what we believe, does it [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Applied Ethics, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Ethics, Ethics, Faith, Faith, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Morality, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy Tags: Blameworthy Beliefs, Epistemic Duties, Ethics of Belief, Free Will, Praiseworthy Beliefs, Virtue Epistemology 3 Comments »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 »Agnostics Or Apistics?
October 27th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In the past, I have defended the idea that rather than classifying people simply as atheists, agnostics, and theists that we should separate the questions of the contents of beliefs (whether they are atheistic or theistic) from whether one’s atheism or theism is held as a matter of knowledge or not. If one’s theism is [...]
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, God, God, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion Tags: Agnostic Atheism, Agnostic Theism, Agnosticism, Apistic Agnostic Atheism, Gnostic Atheism, Gnostic Theism, Pistic Agnostic Atheism 33 Comments »Disambiguating Belief
August 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Ophelia Benson counters a common and deeply misleading equivocation (one I counter often, but most specifically addressed here and here): Belief is about truth; it equates to”it is true that X”. It is thus cognitive rather than emotive. It seems odd to me to ask if it would be better to believe the things I [...]
Sundaily Hilarity: God Answers Prayer Of Paralyzed Little Boy
August 1st, 2010 Daniel Fincke An Onion classic from 1998: SAN FRANCISCO–For as long as he can remember, 7-year-old Timmy Yu has had one precious dream: From the bottom of his heart, he has hoped against hope that God would someday hear his prayer to walk again. Though many thought Timmy’s heavenly plea would never be answered, his dream finally [...]
The Implausible And Disturbing Message The Christian Tells Her Child
July 19th, 2010 Daniel Fincke The Thinking Atheist presents “Welcome To This World” Your Thoughts?
Posted in Atheism, Atheism, Atheist Videos, Atheist Videos, Christianity, Christianity, Faith, Faith, Religion, Religion Tags: Delianne Forget, The Thinking Atheist 1 Comment »Why Progressive Interpretations Of The Old Testament Still Do Not Justify Its God Morally
July 11th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In reply to this video on various immoral things outright commanded in what is supposed to be God’s law in the Old Testament, Loyal writes: Militaristic non-Christians often seize upon the many difficult passages where God is condoning morally repugnant acts. I am glad you admit that they are morally repugnant acts and neither morally [...]
“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 »Daily Hilarity: Kept Alive By Prayer
July 8th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Via Your Thoughts?
Posted in Comic Strips, Comic Strips, Faith, Faith, Hilarious, Prayer, Prayer, Religion, Religion and Science No Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Implicit Faith
July 5th, 2010 Daniel Fincke In last night’s installment of the “Disambiguating Faith” series, I talked about the difference between, on the one hand, volitionally choosing to believe something that is either not rationally warranted or which is positively refuted by the available evidence, and, on the other hand, simply thinking one has rational warrant for one’s belief and yet [...]
Posted in Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Philosophy, Religion, Religion Tags: Cognitive Dissonance, Implicit Faith No Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Defending My Definition Of Faith As “Belief Or Trust Beyond Rational Warrant”
July 5th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Last week I responded to David Crowther’s argument that we should equally consider all beliefs that are not 100% certain to be “faith beliefs”. I argued that the word “belief” already covers the fact that we are fallible human beings and as such even our most nearly 100% certain propositions about the world are always [...]
Posted in Authority, Authority, Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Intellectual Virtues, Philosophy, Philosophy Of Religion, Religion, Religion Tags: Faith As Loyalty, Faith as Trust, Loyalty, Trust, Trustworthiness, Volition, Volitional Disposition, Volitional Faith 9 Comments »Disambiguating Faith: Not All Beliefs Held Without Certainty Are Faith Beliefs
June 30th, 2010 Daniel Fincke David Crowther raises a crucial point of contention: What I really want to do, is get back to the question of whether atheism is necessarily a “faith position”. If we generalize the term “faith” to mean believing or relying on something without absolute proof, than I think it is true to say that every possible [...]
Posted in Disambiguating Faith, Disambiguating Faith, Epistemic Justification, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Epistemology, Faith, Faith, Featured, Philosophy of Language, Philosophy of Language, Religion and Science, Science, Science, Skepticism, Skepticism Tags: Beliefs, Certainty, Skepticism 18 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 »Disambiguating Faith: Why Faith Is Unethical (Or “In Defense Of The Ethical Obligation To Always Proportion Belief To Evidence”)
June 21st, 2010 Daniel Fincke A couple of weeks ago, I argued that there was a real distinction between “lacking a belief in any God or gods” on the one hand and “believing there is no God (or gods)” on the other hand. Primarily I saw the heart of the distinction as resting with the difference between on the one [...]
Posted in Applied Ethics, Atheism, Atheistic Ethics, Authority, Autonomy, Contemporary Ethics, Cultural Secularism, Disambiguating Faith, Duty, Epistemic Justification, Epistemology, Ethical Pluralism, Ethics, Evidence, Faith, Featured, Intellectual Vices, Intellectual Virtues, Law, Metaethics, Morality, Philosophical Ethics, Philosophy, Political Secularism, Politics, Rationalism, Religion, Religious Extremism, Secularism, Separation of Church and State, Skepticism, Teleology, Virtues, Why I Am Not A Christian Tags: Agnostic Atheism, Agnostic Theism, Belief, Belief Apportioned To Evidence, Evolutionary Epistemology, Evolutionary Ethics, Gnostic Atheism, Gnostic Theism, Indirect Consequentialism, Moral Formalism, Moral Rationalism, Principle of Sufficient Reason, Rational Belief 10 Comments »Penn Jillette On Tolerant Christians, Faith, And Media Bias
June 18th, 2010 Daniel Fincke From Vanity Fair: I think that said more about the Islamic group that made death threats against Trey and Matt than it does about Comedy Central. I believe very much that the most damning thing you can say about Muslims is that you’re afraid to say anything because they’ll hurt you. As opposed to other [...]
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 »Of Two Minds About The Existence Of God
June 6th, 2010 Daniel Fincke Below is a discussion of the phenomenon of split-brain patients who have one half a brain that believes in God and another half that does not, by famed neurologist VS Ramachandran (author of Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind, A Brief Tour of Human Consciousness: From Impostor Poodles to Purple Numbers, [...]
Posted in Atheism, Faith, Psychology, Videos Tags: Neurology, Split Brain, VS Ramachandran 2 Comments »Researchers May Have Explanation For Near Death Experiences
May 31st, 2010 Daniel Fincke That the phenomenon of seeing a bright light before one dies has a brain-based cause is hardly a surprise, but rather the clearly most likely inference. But it is still wonderful to live in a time at which it may be possible neuroscientifically to ascertain that precise cause and hopefully undermine those who would reinforce [...]
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