Category: Philosophy

Philosophy: Contact with death improves people’s behaviour?

“‘Once we started developing this study we were surprised how much research showed positive outcomes from awareness of mortality,’ said Arndt. ” more

Trying to understand the psychology of fraud

” … a bigger puzzle remains: How did Toby’s fraud spread? How did a lie on a mortgage application balloon into a $7 million fraud?” more

They said it: Dr Nick Matzke (late of NCSE) vs UD commenter Joe on science as it studies “the usual course of the world” applied to signs of design

In the course of the exchanges on Dr Matzke’s clip on what “science” says can and cannot be so regarding miracles, he has made an interesting comment, here at 15: . . . I still haven’t seen anyone present a good argument as to why we can’t just say that science is the study of… more

Assessing Thomas Kuhn’s legacy: “It’s not so clear that there will be any more revolutions in physics”

If Hacking or others want to put down Kuhn, they’ll have to do better than this. more

He said it: Newton in Principia, on rules of reasoning for experimental philosophy

The ongoing debates over methodological naturalism have pointed us back to Newton’s Rules for scientific reasoning. So, thanks to Paul Halshall of Fordham University’s Modern History Sourcebook, let us cite for reference: ___________________ >> Modern History Sourcebook: Isaac Newton: The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy [Excerpts] [The Rules of Reasoning in Philosophy] RULE I We… more

They said it: Dr Nick Matzke vs Dr John Lennox on the Laws of Nature and Miracles

In the ongoing Methodological Naturalism thread, at no. 66, Dr Matzke is on record: massive observational evidence and the logic of our understanding of natural laws rules say that that miracle thing can’t happen. In short he holds that the laws of nature forbid miracles. (And recall, here, we are speaking about the late publicist… more

Does analytical thinking cause religious faith to diminish?

” … the latest new atheist trend in studying religion: The claim that analytical thinking dissipates it” more

How to promote radical skepticism

Philosopher Tim McGrew offers this method. more

Is the dismissal by asserting “fallacy of personal incredulity” itself a fallacy?

Yesterday, UD’s News announced a free chart of fallacies. I thought, oh, yay, let’s download. But, once I began to look at the chart, I noticed that it presented Plato, Socrates and Aristotle in a way that seemed to mock the orthodox Christian triune concept of God. (Did it ever strike the creator of the… more

Can a paradigm in science be true?

The question might be easier to examine if we turn it around and ask, can a paradigm be false? more

A free chart of logical fallacies

You knew the argument didn’t make sense, and now you will know the name for the specific way it doesn’t. more

Philosopher asks, if a social security card doesn’t prove you exist, what would prove God exists?

“However tempting it may be to set a high bar for a proof, the higher we set the bar the less reasonable it becomes to demand such a proof.” more

A materialist account of the human mind that allows for free will?

Bok offers a good, stirring answer but, surely, he is whistling in the dark? more

James Barham at Best Schools ‘fesses up #V: Another perspective on ID that is too often overlooked – functional stability

“In other words, Darwinism is not only wholly inadequate as a general framework for understanding life and evolution – it is actively pernicious.” more

Elliott Sober lecture on evolutionary theory as “probabilistic”

“… its truth does not entail that it is causally complete.” more

Was Anders Breivik “not-insane”?

Other psychiatrists now find Norway massacre gunman Anders Behring Breivik ‘not insane’ – prison now possible “The experts’ main conclusion is that the accused, Anders Behring Breivik, is not considered to have been psychotic at the time of the actions on July 22, 2011,” the Oslo district court said in a statement which reopens the… more

The Reason for Imperfect, Self-Destructing Designs — Passover and Easter Thoughts

[HT: idnet.com.au] Would an intelligent designer deliberately build a biological system that self destructs. Can something be intelligently designed that is reproductively unfit? Absolutely! But first consider the essay ID’s Broken Watchmaker Analogy, where a Darwinist unwittingly concedes an important point (in an otherwise confused, ignorant and illogical rant): Products of intelligent design typically have… more

A Wild and Outrageous Creativity

“When we look at the world of living things we don’t see the drabness we might expect of an evolved world. ” more

James Barham at Best Schools ‘fesses up #IV: The theory of natural selection is wholly inadequate to deal with the idea of purpose

“Ockham’s Razor cannot be explained by direct application of Maupertuis’s Least-Action Principle. And yet the puzzling similarity of the two principles remains.” more

Free will “touches everything we value” – yet it is an illusion?

Own your own wreckage, okay? Don’t try to pretend it is everyone’s wreckage. more

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