The Counsel of Trent

Tomb of Philip?

2011-08-03T18:20:00.000-04:00

http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/news/apostle-philip%E2%80%99s-tomb-found-in-turkey/

This will be cool if it holds up.

The Shifting Burden of Proof, example: Atheism

2011-05-09T19:14:00.002-04:00

I thought I had archived something like this here before, but when I just went to refer to it for an email exchange, I couldn't find it, so here's a fresh expression.

When someone bears the burden of proof and when they get the benefit of doubt is not related in any essential way with whether the claim is affirmative or negative. First, it’s not perfectly clear there is anything substantive in the distinction between affirmative and negative for two reasons. A. Every (litteral) affirmative is logically equivalent to a double negative. Standard logic texts have all kind of exercises converting statements to and from various positive and negative forms. B. Though *statements* can be affirmative or negative, it’s not clear *propositions* can be. Propositions are the cognitive or conceptal or meaning contents expressed by statements in language. Each proposition corresponds to a state of affairs, to a possible way the world could be. You can express atheism in the language of “There is no God” but it might be (at least roughly) logically equivalent (in context) to say “Everything is finite”. At the very least, this shows that a negative can entail a positive, and every theory is responsible for the verification of all the (relevant) positives it entails, if there is anything substantive to the distinction between positive and negative propositions.

Second, assuming there is any relevant distinction between affirmative and negative claims, even then there is no necessary connection with burden of proof. It’s simply a matter of background evidence, and this is often encoded in society. Epistemology has substantive sociological aspects (See the most recent work of Richard Feldman, for example). Here is an illustration. Consider the following claim.

NP Pluto does not exist.

This statement is ambiguous. “Pluto” can name a planet (dammit!) or it can name the god of the underworld (or a goofy Disney dog). So let’s disambiguate.

NP-P The astronomical object once considered the 9th planet by many and still considered so by the sane does not exist.

NP-U The god of the underworld sometimes referred to as Hades, the brother of Zeus and Poseidon does not exist.

If there is any substantive distinction between positive and negative statements, these are both denials. Yet while NP-U is a default position, NP-P is not. NP-P runs against our background information, so if someone asserted it, they would be in need of defending it. NP-U is the other way around. It would be the *denier* of NP-U that would need to bear the burden of proof.

The above is sufficient to show that the burden of proof bears no essential relation to content (unless, perhaps, you happen to be Adam!). And for reasons similar to those that apply to the disambiguations of NP, it is, if anything, the atheist who bears the burden of proof, since it is the minority position among the relevant experts. When we survey the experts, in fact, it’s not even close. Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Descartes, Pascal, Locke, Leibniz, Hume, Kant, (Hegel), and Newton begin the advance. Darwin was also a theist, though he had some doubts at times, Einstein was a kind of theist, maybe a pantheist. They are both interesting cases. But the people who are best trained at the intersections of science and theology or philosophy and theology or all three are almost always theists: Polkinghorne, Stephen Barr, Francis Collins should be in there, though he’s not as heavy a hitter. I am aware of no one on the planet with the combined philosophy-science-theology equipment as Alexander Pruss, Peter van Inwagen, and Richard Swinburne. Adolf Grunbaum has some training in both science and philosophy, but there’s just nothing like that triumvirate. I know and like several contemporary atheists who also know a good bit of science, but, honestly, it’s a pretty lopsided affair. Atheism is, and should be, on the defensive, just as it always has been.

Something Good on "Nothing"

2010-09-10T15:01:00.002-04:00

Reply to Stephen Hawking

My text for a spot on NPR's Wordwise (audio to follow)

2010-09-10T14:06:00.001-04:00

The word “justification” is interesting, in part, just because of it’s wide range of application. Acts can be justified (or not), beliefs can be justified (or not), and even people can be justified (or not) in a religious sense. In fact the same Greek word behind “justification” is translated “righteousness” in the New Testament.

And though there’s something common to the three notions—it’s hard to say just what—they each have their own criteria of applicability. The justification of a belief depends on one’s evidence, the justification of an act depends on one’s motives and/or consequences, the justification of one’s soul depends on one’s embracing grace.

It can get complicated because these kinds of justification can run counter to one another or can support one another. For example, there are scientific hypotheses such that the only way to get enough evidence to justify them would be morally unjustified. And doing something morally unjustified could endanger the justification of one’s soul.

Yet there can be confusions involved here too. Some people, misguidedly, think that what they need to believe in order four their souls to be justified isn’t evidentially justified, but that, somehow, they’re still justified in believing it. That’s just a confusion. People’s beliefs, even their religious beliefs, tend to have more justification than they realize, because a lot of cognition is subconscious. You’re justified in believing I’m a person and not a talking robot, even though it would be hard to defend it in debate.

Consistent with what I just said, though, would be a need to be able to martial evidence for an *assertion* to be justified. But that’s yet another kind of justification, and I see we’re running out of time.

Prove it!

2010-09-06T20:21:00.001-04:00

Very cool site.

http://www.proofwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

The Life Akratic: Crank Has Rusty Drive Belt

2010-07-20T22:55:00.004-04:00

The particular akrasia today is my inability to resist the opportunity to say "No way!" to the injunction to "Grow up!" by a cranky old fart who probably did his growing up when the space program was throwing rocks at the moon.

I have no idea who this joker is--I have a service that searches for references to me on the web and it trolled up this troll--but I was mightily entertained by his asnide to me.

He apparently likes neither arguments nor footnotes, but hey, I'll do philosophy my way and he can do it his way, I'm all for diversity!

He seems to concede that naturalism doesn't have any answers, which is handy. I'm not sure about the rhetorical strategy of admitting your opponent is right, right in the middle of the post, but then, like I said, I'll blog my way and he can blog his way!

But then (you'd better send the kids into the other room, it gets a bit dirty) he plays his ace in the hole. He says that inferences are no good anyway, their just...(are the little ones in the kitchen yet?)..."magic" [boo's and jeer's, tomatoes fly].

Well, gosh, I have no reply to that, I guess he's got me. Who am I to challenge the inference rule Magic Ponens:

1. If Larry has no good arguments, Larry must use weasel words like "magic".

2. Larry has no good arguments.

3. Thus, Larry must use weasel words like "magic".

I suppose if that's been working for him, he might as well stick to it, it's a well-worn path by his naturalist heros.

Well, that's about enough time wasted, maybe someone will send him a can of WD-40 and his rusted-shut mind will creak open.

I want to suffer, you want to suffer, we all want to suffer.

2010-07-04T21:22:00.003-04:00

"But what if we don't want to suffer?"

Everyone, I think, wants, ultimately, to suffer, because, I think, everyone, ultimately, wants the highest degree of pleasure (and this comes only from virtue).

But, as Augustine said, "Not yet..."

I don't, yet, really want what I really really want.

Blame it on Schleiermacher

2010-07-04T21:00:00.004-04:00

It's all his fault. This guy is the worst thing that ever happened to religious thought.

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schleiermacher/

There are some people who seem to think it's always been this way.

Chestertonia: Business as Usual

2010-06-20T20:09:00.004-04:00

G.K. Chesterton lived from 1874 to 1936. Somewhere in there he said:

"A businessman is the only man who is forever apologizing for his occupation"

Well, that may have been true then, but it's certainly not true now. In fact, in three of the four colleges I've taught at, in many circles you have to apologize for NOT being a business major. After all, if you're not, what are you contributing to the world?

As a young Philosophy major, I had plenty of apologizing to do. "Really?' "Oh!" "Hmmmm" were among the most frequent responses to my answer concerning what my major was.

Well, a business degree these days doesn't get a person much more by way of material gain than a degree in Philosophy does. And maybe that's as it should be: "business" is far to general a topic to be of any real use. We need entrepreneurs, but none of the good ones I know every had a business degree (in fact most never had any degree).

Chesterton can help us here. For he is an excellent guide in bringing sanctity and wisdom to everyday life no matter what one's "business." Whether informatics technical architect, nuclear engineer, lawyer, or full-time Mom, Chesterton's writings bring joy and light to life.

(Art by Drew Hewitt)

Evidence-based Medicine Run Amok

2010-06-09T16:19:00.002-04:00

I'm all about the evidence. Thus, I heartily support evidence-based medicine (and frown when people go nuts over losing treatments they "believe in" "just" because there's no evidence to support its effectiveness. However, there's an application of it that I find bothersome.

There's a tendency to do the following: There a treatment T such that there is a simple, not only common sense but "causal-mechanical" analogy which supports its effectiveness in K-type cases. Yet there is no current study which verifies T's effectiveness in K. As a result, the reports will range from "It's a myth that T helps K" to "there is no reason what-so-ever" to think that T helps K. Now of course there are cases where one wants very high degrees of verification before treatment, but I'm just talking about reporting.

Here's a parody that illustrates the relevant point. A study shows that non-steroidal anti-inflammitories reduce knee inflammation. I suggest that they might also help with elbow inflammation and am met with howls and jeers, as it is pointed out to me that there is currently no study verifying their effectiveness with elbow inflammation.

The problem, of course, is a too-narrow notion of evidence. A lot of my professional work is based on clearing up this sort of confusion in philosophy and religion. People who think it's OK to believe without evidence often have a too-narrow notion of what evidence is.

It's good to be back...

2010-05-17T15:41:00.002-04:00

Well, I stopped blogging a few months before I went on the job market last year. You can't be too careful about these things, as words can be taken very differently than they are intended. I figured it best to park that action for awhile, and, after all, it was an extremely busy time.

Speaking of extremely busy, my first year at Baylor was filled with such great times and such an active conference schedule--thanks to Baylor's generous funding--that I continued not-blogging through the academic year.

Well, I'm booked solid till March of 2011, so if I'm ever going to blog again, I'm going to have to say "damn the schedule, get 'er done!"

I'm teaching two sections of a class on C.S. Lewis in the Honors College this Fall, so this summer I'll be reading through the Lewis Signature Classics, a Grief Observed, and a God in the Dock.

I'll be thinking especially about evil, since I have some stuff due on that by the end of the year--and summer is taken on two book projects--so I'll be putting up some sketchy ideas about that here.

Cya round...

C.S. Lewis College? Yep.

2010-01-16T00:30:00.003-05:00

I remember many years ago when Mattson first cast this vision.

A lot of people dreamed, but he actually did it, so props to him.

http://www.cslewiscollege.org/

The "It doesn't matter" Reply to Philosophy of Religion

2009-07-09T12:04:00.002-04:00

"Impartiality is a pompous name for indifference, which is an elegant name for ignorance." - The Speaker, 12/15/00

So maybe it isn't really impartiality, but it's some thing close, and seeing the quote after reading a bunch of positivists, it rung true.

Many of the early positivists were as animated by anti-God tendencies as much as anti-Kant tendencies (then again Kant was God to the establishment so...).

They would say that there was no need to evaluate the evidence for theism because the claim that God existed didn't even have meaning. In fact at one point Ayer (see below for his partial change of heart) was criticized by some friends (I saw the quote recently but can't remember who it was) for asserting that God didn't exist because it implied the question was worth taking seriously.

The fact is, though, that so many of them just didn't have a clue what the case for theism looked like or what the notion of God was behind them. This is made abundantly clear in the debate between Berterand Russell and Father Copleston.

I'm contemplating now a post about how to decide when a question is worth considering. I started thinking more about it when reading _The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes_ and doing some background reading on Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, discovering that he became an ardent Spiritualist and even took the affirmative in the argument concerning the existence of the Cottingly fairies. Odd that. Hopefully more later.

2009-06-28T09:01:00.000-04:00

Now it's working normal. Odd. A lot of people have reported this problem in forums.

Test

2009-06-28T08:58:00.002-04:00

So it looks like to post from an iPhone om Blogger, you have to use direct HTML. There needs to be an app for that.

More on atheist(?) Ayer's end-of-life experience.

2009-06-26T18:07:00.002-04:00

http://www.gonsalves.org/favorite/atheist.htm

I hadn't seen this addition to the story.

A.N. Wilson Reverts

2009-06-24T17:04:00.002-04:00

British biographer of C.S. Lewis and Jesus renounces atheism.

I've read both his books and a book of his poetry and, though I didn't see it coming, recognize the seeds of it in those works.

Full Story

Baby I'm Back!

2009-03-04T18:32:00.004-05:00

I'm thrilled to announce that I've accepted a position at Baylor University for the Fall of 2009. It's a real privilege to be joining such a great faculty --including two Prosblogion contributors: Jon Kvanvig and Alex Pruss--in such a fun town (the bluffs above the Brazos provide ample mountain biking and climbing). The department does an excellent job supporting and placing their students which was important to me. All and all my family and I just feel really blessed.

The finalization of the dissertation and the long process of interviews has left me off the blogosphere for some time now, but I am eager to get back to blogging regularly again soon, I've missed it.

Here are some pics of our new home come Autumn.

Very cool book

2009-02-07T16:36:00.004-05:00

About Darwin and the orgin of The Origin of Species. LINK

I hope to be back to blogging soon, with a big announcement.

It is October

2008-10-02T15:44:00.001-04:00

October is one of my favorite months, along with Januray.
Fiona is turing 10, "double digits"!
My birthday is the 27th.
I turned in my dissertation last month.
I'm organizing a conference right now.
I'm applying for jobs this month and next.
I'm putting together a book MS for OUP.
I'm teaching full time and loving it.
I've only got one more item for a top ten list.
Now my top ten list is complete.

New from Google

2008-09-09T11:30:00.002-04:00

I'm putting the various chapters of my dissertation together now into a first full draft, but in the meantime I thought I'd pass along that I'm now using Google's new browser--Chrome--almost exclusivly. It still has some bugs, but is on average noticeably faster than MS Exploder or Firefux.

And now for something completely different

2008-09-04T15:35:00.002-04:00

i am wraping up the final chapter of my dissertation in this the first week of school. I'm only a bit off my (personal) deadline, so this is good. classes have been great. i met 140 new people in the last two days.

Here's something for you as I now turn my attention to classes, a book MS, and a conference next month: visual poetry ahead of its time, a caucophanous collection of callings-out. A non-random sample:

clenched beyond the helpless head a legacy in vanishing to someone ambiguous the immemorial ulterior demonhaving from non-existent regions led the old man towards this ultimate meeting with probability this his childlike shade

http://www.tonykline.co.uk/PITBR/French/MallarmeUnCoupdeDes.htm

French and English versions of Mallarme's "Un coup de des..."

Mobile posting?

2008-08-21T16:01:00.001-04:00

Could this possibly work?

For your amusement...

2008-07-23T11:13:00.001-04:00

While I continue to teach full-time summer school, work on my dissertation fevently, and train for upcoming races (while tending the burgeoning garden), I present you with this:

http://www.passiveaggressivenotes.com/

Phlogage: June's Natural Beauties

2008-06-17T17:28:00.004-04:00

Working hard on Chapter 5. Other activities have included...

For more: http://picasaweb.google.com/Trent.Dougherty/JuneFlowers

I once fancied these policies...

2008-06-10T17:14:00.002-04:00

i before e
except after c
we live in a weird society.

North Carolina Mountain Fun!

2008-05-18T11:00:00.001-04:00

Our vacationing here in western North Carolina has been a blast!

We've been riding all the local hot spots including this trail in DuPont State Forrest.

VCC: Very Cool Comic

2008-05-08T13:25:00.000-04:00

http://xkcd.com/209/

I'm baaaa--aaaak!

2008-05-08T13:24:00.000-04:00

The semester is O-V-E-R! Looking forward to summer blogging!

Holy Holywood Batman: The Golden Compass

2008-04-29T12:41:00.002-04:00

I just finished watching The Golden Compass. It was a well-crafted movie, the writers having cleaned up the gaseous prose and turned the Jules-Verianly delightful. [Aside: Alvin and the Chipmunks is funniest in German, by far, least funny in Italian (or maybe English). Anyway, here are a few random comments--both particular and general. The use of language is often very clever. I think the "dust" thing doesn't work, dust isn't mysterious enough. Further reflection on this might lead to reversal, but I was left cold by it the first time round. What's clever--devilishly clever--is the reversal of meaning of "church" words. The slyest is the use of "demon" to stand for the spirit-guides individuals have (their inclusion as characters is by far the best literary device). The idea was to turn the word "demon" which is name of a bad thing in contemporary church language into a term that names a good thing: the spirit guide of the central characters. Less creative is the use of "Magisterium" for the evil empire. The smart thing about the use of "demon" is that its historically and etymologically appropriate and attached to a clever dramatic device. The use of "Magisterium" as the source of evil, on the other hand, is just too blatant, it's not creative.

I'm not sure I care for the Aletheometer or its name. Again, it's a bit too direct, and though I think the three-needle-symbol idea is good, they don't really use it. At first she interprets the signs, but then later she just sees visions when she looks into it. What's the point of the symbols if it just shows her visions?

Nevertheless, the reason I would never show the movie to a child is that it has a clear message and the message is bad. The message is that you should do whatever you want, authority is intrinsically bad, and that ruthlessness is a virtue whereas mercy is a vice. I wish to be clear about this: these reasons are totally seperate from the ones based on where this movie is headed (which is a sufficient reason not to let kids see it). It's not the atheological rantings of the author of the original book that I'm concerned with here. I won't let my kids watch The Golden Compass for about the same reason I won't let them see, say, Alvin and the Chipmunks. I chose not to take in the violence of No Country for Old Men or the endless Soliloquis of Lians for Lambs to screen Alvin and the Chipmonks for the kids. Verdict = no. I don't need teen life nonsense pumped into my kids. To be fair, the movie has a message--at least one of the messages--that I fully indorse. It's just that like most other movies these days, the good message is either just slathered on top of the usual filth as an excuse to attract people to the movies to see the filth--this is the defining feature of PG-13 movies aimed at teens--or they just can't bring themselves to filter it out.

The Golden Compass manages to fuse the puerile message of teen movies with the ruthlessness No Country for Old Men (admittedly without the blood. In Compass Land when people are skewered with arrows they just go out in a burst of flame), with the preachiness of Lambs for Lions (or is it Lions for Lambs). It's a shame too, because the kids would love the wacky hijinks of Alvin and the Chipmunks (I'd love to watch this move with thiem if it didn't mean forcing them to watch a bunch of music videos and party scenes. And I'd love to watch The Golden Compass with them, they'd love the polar bear character, and the scenery, and many other aspects of the movie. I am sad that I cannot watch this movie with them. However, I truly cannot do so, for it would hurt them.

Who Knew: Desperate Housewives.

2008-04-29T12:40:00.000-04:00

OK, sue me. I watched an episode of Desperate Housewives. I'm not going to defend it or explain it, but it happened. And I have to say--mirabile dictu--that it was pretty interesting. There was almost no sleaze, what there was was judged pretty harshly, there were corporal and spiritual works of mercy, there were characters whose complexity was true-to-life. I was quite surprised. I'm not *endorsing* it or anything, but perhaps I judged it too harshly. Let me be clear: I can't *imagine* that it would be a worthwhile investment of time to follow the show. It's just that it might not be the mind- and morals-rotting filth I inferred it was from the commercials. Who knew?

Tales of Travel: Unamerican activities among the French-Swiss.

2008-04-29T12:39:00.001-04:00

I had to catch a bus. HAD to. I had to go. GO go. HAD to. I waited and waited for le Toilet Publique. Time was running out. I crossed the street to the cafe thinking "I'd have to pay two CHF (Swiss Franks, about two dollars) to go there anyway, so I don't mind buying a cup of tea after, taking a few sips, and abandoning it. Neither going in nor coming out did I see anyone who looked like they were ready, willing, and able, to take my order, so I just headed back out to the bus depot.

"Messeur! Messeur!" I heard. "Es ne toilet publique.! I had just a moment to think. "Inshuldigenzie, bitte," I responded, "Sprechen-zie Deutch?" She replied with the German for "Es ne toilet publique" and I just rolled my eyes at her and walked away. Hahahaha, take that Germans! Another mission accompliched for the Red White and Blue (these colors don't run, but something else almost did!) [The last few comments courtesy of me watching too much Colbert Report.]

Back from Switzerland!

2008-04-29T12:35:00.003-04:00

The Epistemic Agency conference at the Episteme Group at Geneva was awesome, pics forthcoming! IN the mean time, I'll be posting some bloggage about the tuff I watched on the flights. In about 20 hrs of total flying time, I was able to kick back and do some passive brain-draining...

Random: The Black Cab Sessions

2008-04-15T15:48:00.003-04:00

Been wrapping up the semester. Here's something completely different.

http://www.blackcabsessions.com/sessions.php?sort=mostviewed#

Overheard

2008-04-10T23:40:00.002-04:00

Just now studying I heard a guy say to his girlfriend: "No, it's not annoying, it's really cool." He made it so when he moved his mouse it made the sound of a light saber being waved. He was using a Mac.

Counsel of Trent: Morality and Religion

2008-04-02T15:03:00.003-04:00

Q: Why care about being in the Church if you are a good person?

There are all kinds of goods in the world. There’s the good of enjoying a good movie, the good of enjoying some good food, a good performance at a sport or hobby, a good glass of wine, being a good parent, receiving good parenting. These are all things that make an individuals life good and society good as well. There’s also moral goodness. Moral goodness helps society experience some of the goods listed above and it also produces a kind of goodness in the soul of the one who does good. But there’s yet another kind of goodness: the goodness of a right relationship with one’s creator; of knowing who the Creator is and giving due worship in the right way. There is great good in the creature’s mind reflecting the mind of the creator and contemplating the Creator’s nature.

So consider two people Alf and Beth. They both live in a beautiful part of the country, enjoy the finest foods and entertainment. Each is passing on the good training for life they had from their parents. The both do their duties and some charity besides. However, Beth, but not Alf, goes to see a Monk once a week, on the weekend, and the Monk is able to communicate to her certain truths about the nature of reality including the nature of the Creator. The Monk has Beth go through certain sacred rituals that actually put Beth in a certain temporary communion with the Creator. As a result, Beth both is and knows that she is in a position of learning truths about herself, the Creator, and her relation to the Creator.

Beth’s life is better than Alf’s. Beth’s life has all the goods Alf’s does plus the great goods the Monk imparts to her. Note that the person who doesn’t count these goods as great goods—the person who thinks that these goods aren’t as good as the good of drinking fine wines—doesn’t really deserve those goods or isn’t ready for them. The same is true of the person who thinks it’s not worth the extra effort to get these goods if one has all the other goods.

Note that it doesn’t matter what you think about how to weigh certain goods against others. Would it be better to rightly worship God but be a morally bad person or to be a morally good person with out God or to be a morally good person with God but who is persecuted or otherwise deprived of all the other goods. These are complex questions but it doesn’t matter to the thesis here advanced: Knowing the truth about God, worshiping God rightly, and communing with God are great goods which one ought to desire to add to all of one’s other goods whatever those goods might be.

Heading to another S____land epistemology conference: Epistemic Agency

2008-04-01T16:07:00.001-04:00

Well I'll be heading out in a few weeks to the Epistemic Agency Conference in Geneva, Switzerland put on by the Episteme group there. I look forward to seeing Julien Detant again whom I met briefly at the Aberdeen Linguistics and Epistemology conference, Olivier Massin and Anne Meyen whom I met at the Edinburgh epistemology conference, and hanging out with El Greco, the main speaker and all around good guy.

This will be my third time abroad: twice to Scotland and now Switzerland. It struck me that I should next go to Swaziland to keep with the theme of taveling to S___land. I can't think of any more countries that meet that pattern, so maybe it'll just be a trifecta.

England doesn't count since I was just on my way to Scotland, but even if you counted it it would make a consistent _____land theme. Now that would have more opportunities I think. Any conferences in Iceland?

Mailbag: Taoism

2008-03-28T13:32:00.000-04:00

From a letter I just wrote to a student who was "raised Catholic" but now is more interested in Eastern Religions, espeically Taoism.

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Our society doesn't really encourage people to think much about their religion, unfortunately not even in the Church. That's a real passion of mine, to try to change the culture at large and especially the culture in the Church to appreciate the riches of the Catholic heritage of thought in philosophers and theologians like Ambrose, Augustine, Anselm, and Aqinas (what I call the A-list). I mean these guys say amazing things. One of Saint Augustine's famous quotes is "O Lord our hearts are restless until they rest in thee." Why isn't our society, in and out of the Church, addressing the sense of restlessness of youth. What's more, this sense of restlessness is limitless, there's nothing on earth that can always satisfy, nothing that offers infinite bliss. So are we doomed either to finite existence/enjoyment or infinite restlessness? Augustine thinks not since exploring the infinite Mind of God offers infinitely many new facets every moment. God's mind has infinitely many limbs with infinitely many branches with infinitely many leaves... In the words of Saint Anselm, who as influenced by Augustine, God is "That than which no greater can be conceived." In one of his prayers he realizes that this being must exist because perfection includes existence. So if that than which no greater can be conceived failed to exist then it wouldn't *be* the greatest conceivable, but that's a contradiction so there must be such a being. Saint Thomas Aquinas then provides the resources for seeing why this must be true because, as he puts it, God's essence includes his existence. For all finite, contingent creatures our essence includes some properties, but not existence: we could be or not be, the would could have gone on even we hadn't existed. But God's essence and existence are one: God cannot not exist. In my survey of Eastern religions I suppose I found certain kinds of Hinduism most plausible from a metaphysical point of view but abhorred its stratified ethics. I found Buddhism most plausible from an ethical standpoint (except inaction), but find its metaphysics implausible (guess what, I *do* exist, there's no denying that as Descartes taught us "Cogito ergo sum"). I do believe in a Tao, but I hold a view called Personalism which puts persons and personhood at the top of the metaphysical ladder (human persons are just one kind of person, I'm talking about any being with will, intellect, choice, rationality, creativity) and so I think the Tao is not an impersonal force but rather an abstraction of the mind of God. God thinks only perfectly harmonious thoughts containing the perfection of all things. When we think in harmony with God we grasp God's thoughts, the Tao. I think a Tao divorced from personhood is unintelligible. On the moral side I find the same flaws in Taoism as in Buddhism: the principle of inaction. Both are essentially Stoic, telling us we should accept things as they are rather than fight to bring the world into conformity with our ideals. I think that's the wrong way to think about the Tao. I think the Tao impels us to action to bring about that ideal to which the Tao stretches. Some Taoist's versions of active inaction come close to this, though I still find it unintelligible as an impersonal force and think it must be grounded in the Mind of a Person. I suppose I'm a Catholic Taoist although it's basic teachings were found in Judaism long before the writing of the Tao Te Ching. The Hebrew Scriptures taught that all humanity should be humble since we are somewhere in the middle of the Great Chain of Being, far from the most advanced creatures in existence. The Hebrew Scriptures taught compassion through all kinds of rules about gleaning and usury and hospitality. The Hebrew Scriptures taught moderation through its dietary constraints. So the "Three Jewels" of Taoist ethics and the Tao itself, the metaphysical centerpiece are already included in an informed understanding of the Judeo-Christian worldview.

Trent's Tips: Triathlon

2008-03-19T17:03:00.003-04:00

SWIMMING

This is the hardest event fore the vast majority of people. So much
so that lots of people just opt for dualthlon events or do "dry" triathlons
where they skip the swim. Hopefully with this advice you won't need to
do that.

Consistency: just get in the pool and do not stop swimming for half an
hour. Experiment with different things—I can be more specific later—but the
key is to *not* get in the pool and do quick laps and rest. The key is to once
a week swim for half an hour with no stopping for anything.

Fluidity: Swimming is a graceful activity. It should look like a
form of dance, not a form of wrestling. Here are five things you can do.

(i) I have tried about everything and nothing has made quite a difference as
the following technique I discovered by accident from hours and hours of
paying attention in the pool. Literally watch your fingertips go into
the water. I have a special pair of goggles that I train in that I don't
race in for this. My training goggles are more like small SCUBA ones.
You can get them in any good store that serves your local triathletes.
They are great for training due to the wider vision they provide allowing you
to actually see what you are doing in the water. So I watch my fingers
go into the water, making sure that my fingers are closed, my thumbs are
downward (maybe 45 degrees or more), a little less than shoulder width apart
(this will vary by swimmer but not a ton). I find that if I get my
stroke started right, the rest of my body follows suit.

(ii) Streeeeeaaaach your body out. Really reach forward, don't
short-shuck it.

(iii) Rotate. You almost can't over-do this. If you don't feel to
yourself that you are over rotating, you're not rotating enough. You
should really feel a noticable rotation almost like you are going into a
momentary side stroke. This accentuates the reaching motion and ties
into

(iv) Slow it down and glide. You might want to quicken your pace later,
but at first you want to work on your form (this is related to the main point
above). This also helps you

(v) You will get out of breath. It is terribly inefficient to stop and
tread and subprime to do breast stroke. The best thing to do is to take
your very rotated freestyle stroke and just sail along on it and take an
extra-large breath on one exaggerated stroke.

Oddity: When you drink and breath, you belch. When you swim, you
drink and breath. Thus, when you swim, you belch. It can
really mess up your progress if you have to stop to belch and not doing
so can cause you to choke, cough, and sputter. I have benefited greatly
from the ability to belch under water in a controlled way. So here's
what you do to practice. Chuck a diet Slice and jump in the pool and go.
Practice belching in little spurts (usually when you are facing the bottom of
the pool) until you get it all out.

Incomprehensibility: The start of the swim is chaos. Sometimes it's
run-starts sometimes it's in-the-water starts but the starts are always
chaotic. If you can possibly find some people to train with in this
regard get your group together, go down to the beach of a lake stand huddled
together then have someone yell "go" and race each other into the water.
You might practice how you are going to enter the water. It is not
always easy to dive and not break the seal of your goggles. It might be
hard to get half a dozen people or more to join you in this but perhaps you
will be able to get four people together to do circle laps in one lane of a
pool. You might have to explain what you are doing to the lifeguard but
if they have a clue it's legit. Swimming next to other people in tight
formation can be freaky. It's a world of difference from having a big
long open lane to yourself.

Virtuosity: In my first triathlon--The Ontario Down and Dirty--I could not
swim the full 400 yards without stopping to tread water (indeed, on my first
training day I couldn't make it to the other end of the 50 meter pool without
doing so). This past summer I was second in my heat at the Finger Lakes
Triathlon. I commonly do competitive swims of around a mile and recently
swam 2.5 miles nonstop. If I can do it, you can do it.

GEAR

Goggles: For whatever reason the smaller ones stay on better and leak less
than the bigger ones. There is a nice advantage with the bigger ones in
being able to see more, which is really nice when you're in the midst of 400
to 800 other people. However, if they leak this advantage won't kick in.

Bike:

Tri bikes are not a good choice for the vast majority of recreational
triathletes. They are made for long, straight rides in windy places
(Kona). You need something more agile, like a typical road race bike.
See this previous Trent's Tips on how to select a bike.

Shoes:

Very difficult, but I like Nike Free slip-ons. Buy shoes from a
knowledgeable person at a good high-end running shop, not from a huge,
impersonal place. Schedule two hours to buy the shoes. Try on lots
of pairs (WITH YOUR ACTUAL RUNNING SOCKS) and leave each pair on for AT LEAST
five (TIMED) minutes while you walk around and get a feel for them.

Laces: Kevlar speedlaces. That's key if you're not using slip-ons.

If you are doing sprint distance I highly recommend not buying special bike
shoes. Save that for Olympic distance (my main course).

Socks: Non-cotton obviously. Buy new socks when you buy new shoes and
make sure they work together.

RACE DAY

Don't eat much the night before. Have a nice late pasta lunch, then
a salad for dinner.

Get up butt-ass early in the morning and arrive at the race site two-hours
ahead of time. Parking, transition-set up, and bathroom lines can all be
TOTALLY INSANE.

Don't eat a solid breakfast. Toast at the most. Have an energy
shake or something. It is key not to irritate your bowl, you will thank
me for this when you see the bathroom lines and when you feel what your
stomach will feel like in the hour before the race (and I am so not nervous
it's not even funny, I love each race and always perform well, this is not
about "nerves" in any pejorative sense).

Be in a reasonable spot in the starting group. Look for the fittest
looking guy over 65, that's about where you belong on your first time.
Don't get me wrong, he will smoke you. But he'll be lined up in about
the right spot for you. Don't line up at the back because it's your
first one. There are people who have no business being there and won't
even finish the swim.

Do not sprint into the water or run through shallow water. Just walk
on down at a brisk but measured pace and get in the water and start swimming
as soon as you can (just below crotch deep).

Your spouse must be in a 100% or they need to stay at home. Message
to your spouse (have them read this): this is a time to serve, so get ready
for it: no bitching! You park, you walk, you carry, you run back to get
what's forgotten, you cheer, and you massage. Next time, your turn.

PANICishness

Swim: My standard swim is 2 miles and I *routinely* feel like I am going
to drown in the first 200 meters of a race. Just can't seem to beat it.
I've been a certified lifeguard for, well, longer than I want to say on this
blog. Doesn't matter. It can be intense. Try *really* hard
not to stop and tread, that is a real pace-stopper. Just do the breast
stroke for three good breaths and then get back to the crawl. Do this as
often as you need to but don't breast stroke for more than three strokes (if
you don't have the rule you'll do it more than you really need).

There will be people in kayaks watching for those truly in need, if you try to
save someone you'll most likely just endanger them an you more. The most
you should ever do is tread near them and wave for the kayak people. If
there is a kayak coming, just move on to get out of the way.

Bike: Flat tire? No problem, think of it as a routine pitstop.
Practice changing or patching your tire a time or two the weekend before the
race. It's not going to make a significant difference in your time so
just change the damn thing and get back on the course.

I once had a friend who forgot to take her big bike lock off! So don't
forget that!

Run: If you gotta walk for a bit then walk, but you probably don't.
If you really really do, set a definite limit. Look about 50 meters
ahead and pick a spot where you'll start running again. 30 seconds
should always be a long enough walk.

Ah, but walk thru the water station. It's very easy to work up a
coughing storm if you try to drink a glass of water while running.
Remember to get one in each hand, one to drink one to dash on your head.

The race is not worth a really bad blister. I lost a toenail in a hilly
half-marathon once. It was worth it. I missed an important race
the next wekend as a result. It just wasn't worth it. Look, don't
get a blister OK. I have some athletic tape stuck to the back of my shoe
so I can put it over a hotspot if I find one. However, the key is to put
it on *before* the blister actually forms. So pay attention to hotspots.
If you train properly this should never be an issue. (I switched shoe
choice on raceday! (No, no, no!)

Never ever ever try anything new on race day. Ever.

You will get passed by an old man.

You will get passed by a fat man.

You will get passed by a fat old man.

If you are a man, get ready because, yes, you will get passed by an old
lady. Bank on it.

Ben Stein on Questioning Darwin

2008-03-14T22:44:00.001-04:00

http://www.expelledthemovie.com/playgroundvideo3.swf

Interesting.

Things should get interesting when the movie comes out.

Happy Pi Day!

2008-03-14T22:17:00.005-04:00

Almost didn't get this up in time. Regular readers will remember this:

http://pi.ytmnd.com/

According to http://www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi the sequence 314 doesn't occur in the decimal expansion 2,120 places in.

My birthday in standard numerical sequence begins after the first 416,957 places in the decimal expansion of pi.

The string 2008 occurs at position 11,651 counting from the first digit after the decimal point.

Here's how far I have pi memorized. 3.1415926535897932384626.

Some dude supposedly memorized to over 67,000 digits. I have a hard time believing it, but these people seem to take the competition very seriously. http://pi-world-ranking-list.com/lists/memo/index.html

We no about 1.7 trillion digits of pi, when last I checked.

The definition of pi is the ration of the circumfrence of a circle to it's diameter.

Happy Saint Valentine's Day!

2008-02-14T17:53:00.000-05:00

I put up a post on the historicity of Saint Valentine and his feast day over at X-Catholics. Enjoy.

Watch where you point that thing!

2008-02-14T17:49:00.002-05:00

This post was inspired by a brilliant comparison Sarah made. I've embellished it a bit, but the central insight is hers. As usual, I can't tell where her part leaves off and mine begins.

I'm a hunter. My granddad was a famous hunting guide and my dad runs a hunting club. So I've grown up around guns. One practice I learned early on was that you never point a gun in the direction of a human being (who is not attacking an innocent person): you "treat every gun as if it were loaded". I am now unable not to abide by this. I'm actually unfree to point a known loaded gun at someone, it's so contrary to my nature that I can't make myself do it. This is so because of the good training I had on the topic (Aristotle would be proud, the chief aim of early child-rearing is to *train* children to have the right *habits* so that later in life they don't have to struggle to form them).

But another reason I can't point a gun at someone even if I know it's unloaded is that even though I know it's unloaded because I just checked it, there is always that tiny chance that somehow a bullet got stuck in there which I didn't see. That chance is very tiny indeed. However, the consequences of shooting an innocent person are bigger than I can calculate. So multiply that tiny chance by those huge consequences and you still get a huge reason not to point the gun in their direction.

HOW MUCH MORE then should we so act with a gun we know is loaded but we know has the safety on. Safety's work by physically blocking the trigger from pulling back far enough to release the firing pin into the primer of the cartridge. It's very unlikely that one would fail, but it is not unheard of and I have thought one was on when it wasn't and I have accidentally pressed the safety off. It is rare, but it is a reality.

Now about sex. A condom is a safety on a loaded gun. However, the chance of failure is greater and so are the consequences. Killing someone isn't *nearly* as momentous as *creating* someone. No life is ever truly ended and earthly life is of strictly finite value anyway. But when you create a life, that is an act of infinity. That soul never ends, ever. And the human life of that person might be really messed up as a result of thinking of themselves as an "accident" which caused the misery of their parents who now had to get married. This is a common tale.

The act of sexual intercourse is intimately connected--if you will--with procreation. That's Bio 101. No act seeks such union with another. It carries with it an implicit commitment commensurate with that. And since the fruit of successful procreation is nothing less than a human life, sexual intercourse carries with it, inherently--whether the parties are thinking about it or not--the promise of a lifetime commitment. Thus sexual intercourse not backed up by such a willingness is a sort of lie. It says something untrue.

So, to make the analogy explicit: to have sexual intercourse with someone to whom you have not made a lifetime commitment is like pointing a gun at someone and pulling the trigger in the *hope* that it is unloaded or that the safety will work. It is not nice and it is not safe.

Six words is all you have

2008-02-12T15:41:00.000-05:00

On NPR this weekend they were talking about a contest for six-word novels. I liked the idea of applying this to other genre.

Story of my life:
*I was born. I will die.

My six-word obituary:
*He had kids. He loved them.
*He rode bikes with his family.

Six-word theology:
*He died, he rose, he comes.

Any number can play.

The Religious Agnostic

2008-01-21T19:51:00.001-05:00

Nice quote I had occasion to look back at today:
----------------------------

Since, however, I regard God's existence as a real possibility, I whole-heartedly agree with Price that it is reasonable--indeed, I would say rationally required--for me to behave differently than I would if I were an atheist. For example, I ought to pray--unlike the atheist, I believe there just might be a God listening. More generally, I ought to do what I can to cultivate or at least prepare for a relationship with God.

Paul Draper, "Seeking But Not Believing," in Divine Hiddenness: New Essays

Of Laughter and Logic

2008-01-20T17:47:00.000-05:00

Just ran across an old article in Philosophy Now about the connection between humor and reasoning.

Saint Thomas Aquinas already knew this of course, indeed it was a staple of medieval anthropology that the ability to get jokes was right of the essence of mankind under Aristotle's definition as "rational animal".

The "Common" Cold

2008-01-13T10:17:00.000-05:00

Just a day and a half ago I wished I could take my boy's sickness upon myself so that his little bodymind could be spared the uncomprehending suffering. Well, I got half my wish. Now we bear this burden together. I can't tell whether knowing this is temporary makes up for not being able to get my mind off my suffering. I had thought that my knowledge that this will pass in a few days, a week or so at most would provide comfort he lacks, but then again maybe higher-level though is more of a burden. I am very conscious of my pain, maybe his living in the moment is a kind of grace. I don't know about that, but I know I'll be glad when the household is whole again.

Remember "Remember the Titans"

2008-01-12T11:27:00.001-05:00

Had a sick baby yesterday so I was pinned under a big baby boy for about three hours yesterday having finally rocked him to sleep in our bedroom. We don't have cable, but I managed to watch a rather fuzzy version of Remember the Titans. I had forgotten what a good movie that is. It has its flaws, but it was both inspiring and a good way to help my girls understand the plight of black people in the south.

Too many depictions of racism are too brutal for kids. The racism in Remember the Titans was appalling without being inappropriate for six and nine-year-olds.

The Eternal Now

2008-01-10T21:57:00.001-05:00

Aslan: "I'll do it soon."
Lucy: "But when do you call soon."
Aslan: "I call all times soon."

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Linkage: eBooks galore

2008-01-10T09:37:00.000-05:00

Just across this site which has lots of nice ebooks nicely arranged.

Snowshoe Race

2008-01-08T16:14:00.001-05:00

More here: http://picasaweb.google.com/Trent.Dougherty

He did!

2008-01-04T18:00:00.000-05:00

So for once I did not look like I had just come back from a hike in the woods! The dream-job interview was actually a lot of fun, so that's a load off. Now it's wait and hope!

Did he or didn't he?

2007-12-26T22:59:00.000-05:00

Musiblog

2007-12-26T19:32:00.000-05:00

BRIGHT EYES LYRICS

"We Are Nowhere, And It's Now"

(feat. Emmylou Harris)

If you hate the taste of wine

Why do you drink it until you’re blind?

And if you swear that there’s no truth and who cares

How come you say it like you’re right?

Why are you scared to dream of god

When it’s salvation that you want?

You see stars that clear have been dead for years

But the idea just lives on In our wheels that roll around

As we move over the ground

I have acquired slacks. Pictures coming soon.

2007-12-26T15:35:00.000-05:00

That is all, return to your seats and fasten your seatbelt.

Photobloggage: It rained here today.

2007-12-23T18:27:00.000-05:00

It *rained*. In Rochester. On Xmas Eve Eve.

Since all the snow melted--a *lot* of snow--I thouht I'd post a happy pic from this summer. It makes me happpy. I did not get my slacks today, but thanks for your support (you know who you are).

Almost done...

2007-12-22T12:49:00.000-05:00

So I nailed my Metaphysics comprehensive exam yesterday, and I finished grading my finals at 3am, so I'm freeeeeee!

Well, almost. I have to find slacks for the American Philosophical Association meeting next week, which is where all the job interviews happen.

I am *not* relishing the idea of shopping this week. At all.

Big Test Tomorrow!

2007-12-19T18:27:00.000-05:00

My final comprehensive exam is tomorrow at 1pm!

Blogging should resume shortly thereafter...

Photobloggage: Winter Wonder Land

2007-12-08T12:34:00.000-05:00

Sooooooo, I have my final comprehensive exam on December 20th. This is the last test I'll ever have to take, the hardest, and the most important. Thus not much bloggage.

Here is a photo, though, of some of what I do to keep balanced.

For more of the same see my Picasa site.

Hiya!

2007-11-25T12:40:00.000-05:00

Well I didn't blog as much about Scotland as I thought I would because I constantly updated my status on Facebook with new profile pics for each day.

For those of you who don't have Facebook, I'll post the photo albums as soon as I get them uploaded.

Here's one of my favorites for now.

Note to self: no knives through security

2007-11-09T08:18:00.000-05:00

Well my trip is off to an interesting start, totally forgot to take the knife out of my pocket when going through security. They didn't think I should take it on the plane for some reason. Luckily Sarah had not left yet and the dude gave her the knife. Note that she *pretended* to leave, but stayed just out of sight *knowing* that I would do something stupid. Proved her right again.

Next thing I did was drop my laptop. No big deal, I mean it's only got everything I need for three conferences on it. I lucked out again though and it seems to be working just fine.

I'm looking at my plane now. It's nice and shiny. How in the world do those gigantic engines stay on the wings with those tiny connections? Never mind.

Why I Like Bikes!

2007-11-08T11:35:00.000-05:00

So, biking is kind of an obsession with me and some might wonder about the etiology of this pathology. I think there's something to this, so I want to meditate on it a bit.

1. Function wedded to form

I am all about the fusion of function and form. Bikes are incredibly convenient. Surely one of the most useful inventions ever was the wheel. Well bikes don't add much to that basic invention, just a way to sit on the wheels. Add a super simple drivetrain and now not only can we save energy by coasting down hill we can take advantage of the mechanical advantage of gears to make going up hill easy as well!

Yet bikes are also works of art as well. I'll upload a photo album if my beloved "Triumph" and Sarah's "Golden Boy". These are worthy of being in a museum! Sarah's gold anodized frame always turns heads (well, she turns heads anyway, but I'm just sayin'...). When the sun glistens on my carbon-fiber chain stays, it is a thing of beauty.

I use my bike to haul the kids around, to get groceries, to get to school, to Mass, to work (and all without donating to Osama Bin Ladin).

2. Health, Wealth, and Well-being
I am dedicated to taking care of my body. Commuting lets me exercise on a regular basis without having to schedule it. Bikes, even very expensive bikes, are much cheaper than the average car and much cheaper to maintain. And being on my bike is *peaceful*, much more peaceful than stop-and-go traffic or bumper-to-bumper hi-way road rage.

3. Fun!
I am nine years old. I love to play! Bikes go FAST! You can do wheelies, jumps, go over logs, across creeks and splash and spray. Bikes are fun!

4. Human ingenuity
The simplest bikes are ingenious in their simplicity: two janus-like triangles with wheels at each end, a crank at the bottom and a seat at the top. And the most complex bikes are ingenious in their complexity. The amount of high-tech engineering that goes into the pivot system on a full-suspension frame is amazing. The math his out of this world and it would be impossible to build without computer aided design.

All of the above: when you combine form, function, health, fun, and ingenuity into one package, you got me hooked for life...

I should add, by the way, that bikes can change the world. Don't believe me? Check out http://www.bikesfortheworld.org/

Back to blogging, back to Scotland

2007-11-07T13:29:00.001-05:00

Soooooo maaaaaybe I shouldn't have scheduled my Primary Area Comprehensive PhD Exam, my Secondary Area Comprehensive PhD Exam, my teaching practicum, and my thesis defense in the same semester (the same semester as one another and the same semester in which I'll be going to five conferences, including three in the next two weeks while in Scotland).

"Irregardless," I'm leaving for Scotland Friday morning and I have my handouts done, my inbox cleaned out, and all I have to do is clean off my camera disk, so I'm just about in the clear at last!

I will be doing some photobloging while over there, so keep an eye out. Last time I toured the East Coast of Scotland, this time I'm taking in more of the Highlands and the West Coast, including a trip up to Inverness to catch a glimpse of Nessie!

Great new book

2007-09-11T17:48:00.000-04:00

Erik Wielenberg's excellent new book God and the Reach of Reason: C.S. Lewis, David Hume, and Bertrand Russell is now out. This is a rare gem. I read most of this in MS form and I can't say enough good things about it. Erik is that rare bird who--though he may have an axe to grind, we all do--does not just go about chopping people to bits. This is not a polemic, it's an exploration and a surprising one at that.

You come out of the study with a greater appreciation for all three thinkers and learn something about just about every area of philosophy. I know blurb often say that a book is "must reading" but for readers of Prosblogion this is surely more than a cliche.

This book is both insightful and *honorable* in the way he gives Lewis his due and really tries to put these guys into conversation together. (Russell was in America for most of Lewis's active apologetics career I think.)

I haven't read the published version yet and obviously Erik and I didn't see eye-to-eye on everything, but this is a fantastic book which will reward a careful read for any level of reader. We've probably wasted too much bloggage on the likes of Dennett and Dawkins. All three of Lewis, Hume, and Russell could be full of bluster at times, but their arguments need to be engaged. This book does that.

Available at Amazon.com here.

Isn't it ironic...

2007-09-04T23:34:00.000-04:00

First day of school...last day of my gramma's life.

She served everyone...no one served her.

She took her mom into her home and cared for her until she died...the she died in a nursing home.

Put that in your song Alanis.

She got a raw deal.

Band name #3,274

2007-08-31T23:26:00.001-04:00

And now, a big round of applause for...

Heather Needs Ovid...

Cardinal Dougherty

2007-08-31T13:30:00.001-04:00

Cool, check it out.

Dennis Joseph Cardinal Dougherty (August 16, 1865 - May 31, 1951) was the 5th Bishop of Buffalo, New York and the Archbishop of Philadelphia and ranking prelate of the Roman Catholic hierarchy in the U.S.

His years in office in Philadelphia were marked by the greatest increase in diocesan schools in the history of the diocese. After his death in 1951, the largest Catholic high school in the world was built and named in Cardinal Dougherty's honor. Finished in 1956, Cardinal Dougherty High School was the first school of its kind.

Crime against humanity

2007-08-30T13:32:00.001-04:00

Pasted from the website where I'm supposed to pick my health plan.

OPTION 4: Enroll in Family Insurance through UHS Insurance Cost: $9,728.88
Students with at least one dependent child can enroll in the University Quality Care Plan, an Aetna family insurance plan offered through the University. The fee is expected to increase on January 1. A sponsored option (i.e., the student and one child) is available for $8,445/year.
------------------------------------

There is something very wrong going on with private insurance. Something very, very wrong.

Link of the day: Musicovery

2007-08-15T11:05:00.000-04:00

Omigoshthisiscool!

Trent's Tips: How to read a book

2007-08-14T15:11:00.001-04:00

Actually, these come from my main man Mortimer J. Adler.They have served me well over the years and I've taught them in various courses in various contexts.Check out these maxims of intellectual etitiquite.The full text of the book is available here!

Homeschooling update: the love of reading

2007-08-13T20:17:00.000-04:00

Here are some great tips which I endorse.

http://homeschooling.about.com/cs/currlanguagearts/ht/htlovereading.htm

One I'm so glad to see on there is to avoid book reports. They suck the life out of reading.

Writing a precis of a piece of expository literature later in High School or maybe even Jr. High is something that sometimes needs to be done, but certainly not in grammar school. There it is just a chore which is a very effective instrument of making reading a chore.

And here's a great list of resolutions. We don't get it done every week--some of them more like once a month--but they are great goals to shoot for.

http://childrensbooks.about.com/od/forparents/a/resolutions.htm

Site of the day: Nasa Observatory

2007-08-09T11:35:00.001-04:00

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

This is cool. Keep forgetting to mention it.

Homeschooling follow-up

2007-08-08T10:42:00.000-04:00

Examples ought to accompany exhortations. For the finest example of homeschooling I can think of, read the Little House books.

Update #2: Ma and Pa no doubt sacrificed mightily to purchase the few books they had, and often depended on the generosity of others--whether directly or through public and church libraries--to manifest their great love for learning (which is what I take to be the only secret to home-schooling and to have been greatly exemplified in Ma and Pa).

Thus I take it to be the duty (and joy) of every middle-class homeschooler to donate books in some capacity. I follow in the footsteps of a good friend of mine in tithing books. I recommend it.

Trent's Tips: How to homeschool

2007-08-06T19:58:00.000-04:00

From an email to some friends about to begin their homeschooling adventure.

---------------------------------------------------

As a lover of Great Books and member of several curriculum comities I’ve designed—literally—hundreds of classes, even several K-12 curricula. It’s fun, but the content is nothing compared to the method. The method is instilling good intellectual *skills* and instilling the love of learning. This latter can’t be taught but only caught by observing the lives of intellectually adventurous parents (or other role-models).

Fiona’s “curricululm and instruction” has thus far amounted to excitedly telling her I think she might now be ready to read _______. First was Little House, then Anne of Green Gables, then Narnia, then Robinson Crusoe, then Hobbit, then Gilgamesh, then LOTR, now A Wrinkle in Time, with the Great Divorce and Out of the Silent Planet up next. Interspersed throughout here are lots and lots of horse books, probably all the one’s you’ve ever heard of. That’s fine to fill the gaps between the real stuff. Here and there she also read some kind of Classics for Children which gave her a run-through of Homer and Virgil.

Other than Dante and Milton (and real-Homer and real-Virgil) the rest is icing on the cake. We’ll just turn her loose on our bookshelves. All the classics both great and small are there for serendipitous discovery.

They see us reading constantly and excitedly discussing them. We get boxes of books often, we have shelves of books all over, we have piles of books all over, we go to book stores, book signings, etc. I honestly think our *décor* is as much a part of our curriculum as anything! It communicates what we value.

History is handled by my own obsession with it. I started with a very coarse timeline (and appropriate narrative) and started filling in the gaps. In a couple of years she’ll read Churchill’s HESP and then she can just follow up on what she’s interested in.

Science might be harder, but we just use Hirsch’s outline to make sure we’ve got the basics covered and the rest is serendipity. They are *constantly* asking about this or that and our active outdoor lifestyle is like biology on parade.

It’s all just so easy when it’s your lifestyle. Getting them to keep their room clean. That’s hard. Homeschooling is easy.

If polymathic learning is *not* one’s lifestyle then I wonder how one is motivated to homeschool in the first place and there’s no amount of planning that can make up for that gap. To them I say to read James Sire’s _Virtues of the Mind_ and the autobiographies of Mortimer J. Adler. If that doesn’t get you excited about reading then your kids are screwed anyway.

SCP at the ACPA: Virtue and Value

2007-08-03T19:36:00.000-04:00

John Greco (now at SLU don't forget) is currently putting together a session for the Society of Christian Philosophers at the American Catholic Philosophical Association meeting. Jason Baehr will give a paper on open mindedness as an intellectual virtue and Stephen Grimm will give a paper on epistemic value. Daniel Breyer (Fordham) will comment on Jason's paper and I'll be commenting on Stephen's paper.

Call for Papers

Photobloggage: On the fly

2007-07-19T22:01:00.000-04:00

Trent's Tips: How to buy a road bike

2007-07-18T20:01:00.000-04:00

From a letter to a friend. Some formatting is messed up in the paste.

----------------------------------------------------

The Trek 1500 would make a nice cousin to your 4500 mountain bike. I’d say it’s about the exact equivalent in quality. The algorithm I used to recommend that bike is isomorphic to the road case.

Here is the Felt bike I was telling you about on the phone: surely the best road bike under a grand. Here is the model I almost bought.

I came *very* close to replacing my current Lemond with this one.

Concerning Style
I do not recommend triathlon-specific bikes for triathletes who are not looking to podium or go to Kona. Since the Kona Iron Man is the mac-daddy goal of all podium-seeking triathletes most tri-specific bikes are designed with that course in mind (whether consciously or not). That means they are more aerodynamic but also heavier than their more nimble road-cousins. Most tri-specific bikes are made to keep your momentum going in long, straight, flat lines. Most racers just aren’t going to see courses like that. Most racers are going to be racing on more ad-hoc urban or suburban courses with plenty of turns and perhaps lots of hills (*all* the triathlons I’ve done in the last several years have been quite hilly, but that’s a geographic contingency as well). I firmly believe that a tri-specific bike would hurt my time, not help it in triathlons and they are less versatile.

Concerning Fit
You’re surely going to be a 56 (that’s roughly centimeters from center of crank to top of seat tube). I can’t exactly remember if you have legs that are especially long or short for your height (which is some evidence that they are not), but I would be very surprised if you weren’t a 56. Beware if a bikeshop doesn’t have a 56 in stock and tries to sell you a 54 or 58. You should ride a bike for a half-hour or more at least twice before buying.

The bike shop should not balk at you wanting to ride for half an hour on the bike. Before this, though you should ride the bike for five (clocked, not phenomenalogical) minutes while they adjust stem length and height (the step is the part that holds the handlebars onto the top of the steertube/head tube) and handlebar angle. A good shop (and I don’t mean a great shop) should be more than willing to change stems (and possibly even handlebars) several times to achieve best fit. (By the way as far as I can tell, this is the most complete guide to the parts of a bike on the web, though it leaves off the head tube and sub-parts of the fork, perhaps because the pictured bike doesn’t have much of a head tube. This image is better in some respects, worse in others.)

Concerning Quality
Good companies build bikes in a pretty rational way. They build excellent frames and then create different price-points based on the componentry with which the bike comes equipped. All bike manufacturers use the same stock of parts to put on the frame (with very few exceptions), so what makes a companies bike unique is the frame, that’s all. But they know that most people—unlike me—don’t want to just buy a frame and then buy all the parts to suit them and build them themselves.

It’s also cheaper for the company to buy the parts in bulk—or in the case of Trek to *buy* the parts company and bring it in house (Bontrager). So once you select the frame for your style of riding you just need to decide what componentry you need. In general, the most important item is the rear derailleur. This and the breaks get used the most (there’s less variability among breaks generally). So the rear derailleur is usually the best part on the bike with other parts just below it in a certain pattern. The pattern is sometimes complex and sometimes not—usually the front derailleur will be one grade lower than the rear, the hubs one grade lower than that, the shifters the same as the front derailleur, etc.—but the bottom line is that they are generally clustered quite rationally. So most price-points are dictated by the rear derailleur which makes it nice because you can darn near just pick from among the bikes with the derailleur that describes your budget.

Deraileurs from best on down (only including top quality, no junk on list) (I’m only going to do Shimano, because most of the non-Shimano options—like Compagnolo (“Campy” in biker slang)—are only for very high-end bikes or very low-end bikes.)

DuraAce
Ultegra
105
Tiagra
Sora

I think 105’s are the sweet-spot balance between quality and price.

I’ve run the Shimano 105 group for years (hard years) and had *no* (none, zip, zilch, nada) troubles.

I don’t think Ultegra would be overkill (though DuraAce or Campy would be). Tiagra wouldn’t be slumming though Sora would not, I think, be as good an investment.

Other good brands are Raleigh and Giant (though I think Raleigh are too fancy and Giant not enough (though there are some exceptions). Specialized makes a nice road bike which is what we got Fiona, though I think they’re a little too proud of it.

Hope this helps!

~~trent

Three things that make me happy.

2007-07-16T17:33:00.000-04:00

1. Goldfinches are amazing to watch (two have lit on our flowering sage).

2. Stewart Cohen is an amazing philosopher (been reading him all morning).

3. Bleu cheese is an unexpected treat in almost any dish (on a blackened burger for dinner, in scrambled eggs for breakfast).

Dougherty vs. Dembski

2007-07-09T16:46:00.000-04:00

For those of you keeping track, I've lost a bit more ground against Bill Dembski's Design-Inference argument for Intelligent Design. He's won a few small battles recently. I'm still fighting though! We'll see.

Locating the Problem of Evil

2007-07-05T12:36:00.000-04:00

So a friend and former co-worker severed his spine in a bike accident and is now paralyzed from the waist down.

For an avid biker, this could signal the end of usable life. Not so for Sam.

I've known too many people to come through tragedy--true tragedy--stronger and thankful for it--in some cases saying it was the best thing that ever happened to them--to think that the Problem of Evil is about what happens to you.

The problem of evil is much harder to locate for those who think, as Swinburne says, far more important than what happens to you is how you react to it.

Sam is thriving in the kind of way I've seen enough before that it is now familiar. So where's the evil? I mean the unredeemed evil?

Clearly, some people do not react the same way to the evils which have befallen them. Why not?

Is that where true evil is, in the circumstances that cause people to react in bitterness and anger or suicide in tragic circumstances? But isn't it de-humanizing to think there are circumstances that can *cause* this? And don't all the many and varied cases of positive responses to evil show that *anyone* can react to evil in strength?

I just don't know.

My only sketch of a theory is that true evil occurs when someone suffers seemingly alone. We commit true evil when we don't reach out to those suffering.

But isn't God always present? He might always *be* present, but he doesn't always *feel* present. Eloi, eloi, lama sabachthani. Saint Matthew records Jesus as saying this on the Cross, but he was quoting a Psalm that also includes the following:

"My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?" ( Psalms 22:1-2, NIV)

That gets it about right. So why would God hide? Sin is one answer: we draw away from God, put up barriers between us and ipso facto we do not feel God's presence. But that can't explain the dark night of the soul of Saint John of the Cross or the spiritual struggles of Mother Theresea (yes, they were many and serious).

And so many are between those too extremes--the person so wicked as to be cut off utterly from God and the Saint to be trusted with darkness. Why does God hide from the mass of mankind?

Evil remains a mystery to me.

The only thing I can think of is that there is some great good which cannot be had without counting the costs. If God is real, then no suffering in this life is worth taking account of. That, I think, is clear. It is certainly the explicit perspectives of the great Martyr-Saints Peter and Paul and the Marty-Saints that came right after them, especially Polycarp, and explicitly stated by Saint Augustine. But, on the other hand, if all we see is all there is, then...to lose the loss of one's body, or worse a loved one, is an *infinite* tragedy, unredeemed and unredeemable.

So is the point of God's hiddenness and the suffering that results a necessary evil for us to understand just how stark a contrast we face?

I can only say that in my life it is this reflection that has made me most see the *goodness* of God's existence. I was convinced of the *truth* of his existence before I cared. Now I care.

Back from the Daks

2007-06-25T11:02:00.000-04:00

So I ran my first X-Terra race this weekend. (See the pictures.)

An X-Terra race is an off-road triathlon. This makes it much harder because the bike and run legs are very rough and hilly.

I do triathlons for a number of reasons. One is that I'm inspired by these guys (I'll try to embed the video below). The main reason is that I like all the activities involved and signing up for races is a good way to make sure I stick to my training schedule, the purpose of which is general fun and fitness.

It's fun to do all three sports in a day and without signing up for the races I'd probably not often take the opportunity to do three consecutive workouts with no rests, which is basically what a race is for me. I'm not gunning for the podium (though I'd have been third in the mens 25-29 division (that might sound good, but it's not, it's the slowest division by far: 20-25 division they still have naturally invincible lungs and there are a lot of college athletes, 30-34's have realized that they have begun dieing and that their body isn't on auto-fit anymore and so they've begun to work out a life-time fitness plan, 35-39 have really begun to hit their stride, and 40-45 (by far the strongest triathletes) have the training and experience to excel), I'm just giving myself motivation to do the brick workout which is very fun.

I never go anaerobic or get near zone 4, I just do each leg as if it were a strenuous workout. As a result, I typically finish comfortably in the middle of the pack, suffer no stress or injuries, and can resume my "normal" lifestyle the next day.

So I guess the races are a crutch to compensate for my lack of will-power. However, they are also nice social events, we always meet really cool people, and it sends a message to the kids about the kinds of activities we value--we don't go sit on our butts watching cars burn gas in circles stuffing our faces with junk food, we don't go wander around giant artificially controlled environments seeking to unnecessarily spend money on the narrow selection Big Clothing decides we're supposed to be wearing this season, etc.

So they're fun, they promote my life-time fitness plan, they send a message to the kids about our values (outdoor fun and fitness). Oh, and they also take us to some really cool places as the pictures attest. They're also humbling because in the races I do there are always a few pro athletes and, wow, are those guys and gals amazing. It's just a privilege to be on the same course.

Oh yes, and it is also a privilage to share the planet with these guys: the video as promised above (do NOT start this video without a box of tissues nearby, seriously dude).

Revised Bio

2007-06-20T17:21:00.000-04:00

For various reasons, I have to write this kind of thing. I try to make it as fun and informative as possible though.
----------------------------------

Trent Dougherty (MA, Missouri, 2004, Jon Kvanvig Director) took up the Dean's Fellowship at University of Rochester in the Fall of 2005 to work on his PhD with Rich Feldman and Earl Conee in Epistemology, Henry Kyburg in Probability Theory, and Ed Wierenga in Philosophy Of Religion.. He was previously Kline Chair Research Assistant at the University of Missouri (2001-2004) where he managed the Kline Workshops.

His main research interest is the normativity of rationality, especially the relationship between conceptions of epistemic rationality and pragmatic rationality. This encompasses topics ranging from virtue epistemology to bayesian epistemology, especially the conceptual foundations. The project is pursued along with parallel investigations into the semantics of probability and with an eye toward considering the rationality of religious and scientific beliefs.

Trent has published articles and book reviews in such journals as Religious Studies, Religious Studies Review, Philosophia Christi, The Review of Metaphysics, Faith and Philosophy and Philosophy and Phenomenological Research. Academically, he most enjoys the interaction of presenting and commenting upon papers at conferences and by blogging.

Trent’s favorite activities—simpliciter—are doing anything outside—hiking, camping, climbing, biking, skiing, kayaking—with his wife, Sarah, and three kids: Fiona, Chesney, and John Paul. He regularly competes in triathlons, but likes mountain biking the best right now. He has recently developed a passion for gardening and cooking what he gardens up.

Weekly slice of pi: my birthday.

2007-06-18T17:51:00.000-04:00

My birthday in standard numerical sequence begins after the first 416,957 places in the decimal expansion of pi.

http://www.angio.net/pi/bigpi.cgi

Scotland Pics are Up!!

2007-06-14T13:22:00.001-04:00

Here they are! I'd love to have some comments on them!

http://picasaweb.google.com/Trent.Dougherty/ScotlandTrip

Preview:

Comming soon!

2007-05-30T19:14:00.000-04:00

Stick with me! I left for Scotland the last day of finals and I'm only back a few days before heading to another conference.

I'll have the Scotland pics up soon, promise!

Off to Scotland...

2007-05-10T13:29:00.001-04:00

Well, I leave for Scotland in a couple of hours. I'll be presenting a paper at the University of Aberdeen which is a sub-section of a seminar paper for Rich Feldman which is now a proposed chapter in my dissertation. It defends the idea of probabilistic knowledge, that knowing is consistent with the possibility of being wrong. Seems obvious to me, but I'm up against some very big names. We'll see how it goes.

I don't like to fly. In particular, I don't like the idea of flying over the ocean. I know the probabilities, but psychologically the tiny chances get made salient and it's going to be uncomfortable for me.

It can't be bad, though, to have a sense of my mortality brought home to me. It makes me aware of my sin, my nurtured selfish desires and actions. It makes me realize I don't care for my soul as I should, don't tend to it as I should. One hopes that such reflection will improve however marginally one's subsequent performance. We'll see.

Truth, Rationality, Faith

2007-04-30T11:13:00.000-04:00

A good friend struggling with some doubts emailed me recently and I expressed some thoughts I'd been wanting to express for awhile. Forthwith:

"I've begun to feel that either I go back to what I know or I go forward and lose my faith....I'm wondering if it's wise to seek knowledge particularly in matters of faith."

Seeking knowledge in matters of faith *is* the way of integrity in light of the false dilemma of going back or losing faith. There are no “scholars” who deny that Jesus walked on water in virtue what might constitute their status as scholars. Whether it’s rational to believe that Jesus walked on water is simply a matter of whether it’s rational to believe that there is a God and that the Apostles are to be trusted in their reports (granting that the Gospels are Apostolic reports). If there is a God then walking on water is nothing special, so if you think there’s a God it’s just a matter of whether the Gospels record the Apostles reports and whether they are to be trusted. If the reports we have are fairly accurate, then I think it’s clear that they are to be trusted. Since here is no good reason to doubt the accuracy of the reports, there’s no very good reason to doubt that Jesus walked on water. Like Lewis said, if there’s a God, then miracles are possible; if the Apostles are not liars, then miracles are actual.

My guess is that a lot of what’s going on here is that you are moving to a reasonable form of Christianity which is quite different from the Fundamentalist version you were trained in, and, sadly, the Fundamentalist arguments against the reasonable positions lacked intellectual integrity and so it was just stated that such positions were “heretical” or “implicitly atheistic” so that the untrained mind would simply be *scared* away from those positions (lacking any good rational argument against them). I take this to be the great tragedy of Fundamentalism. It has created more un-necessary self-professed unbelievers than I care to recall. Again and again I’ve seen it. The argument against evolution is:

1. Evolution is Godless.
2. We should not be Godless.
3. Thus, we should not accept evolution.

Premise 1 is not typically given any support. It is an axiom of fundamentalism. But then you come to see that the empirical evidence supports some kind of evolution including common ancestry and the argument gets stood on its head:

1. Evolution is Godless.
2. I believe in evolution.
3. Thus, I am Godless.

The same pattern is tragically instanced with Dancing, Rock Music, and a host of other things simply disapproved of by Fundamentalists.

And it certainly doesn’t help that many people take the even *worse* option of giving lip service to doctrinal propositions while draining them of any real meaning. The kind of fall from faith described above, while tragically unnecessary, at least has a patina of integrity.

The goal, as ever, is to hold center, to avoid the extremes of excess and defect, to follow the evidence where it leads and not accept the axioms of any system but that of Reason. This, I firmly believe, leads to a reasonable faith. A belief that God is behind the universe and in it in the work of Jesus of Nazareth and the Holy Spirit. These are the axioms of Christianity and I think they are reasonable. Beyond that there is a lot of room for details to adjust.

As far as the nature of Truth, it’s no good questioning that or putting it in scare quotes. It always comes back, it’s unavoidable. That which is, is, and that which is not, is not. No getting away from that. However, what many people who emphasize the objectivity of Truth have failed to emphasize is our *access* to truth in evidence and the *degree* to which we can apprehend it. This is why my work has focused on probability and evidence. You can affirm that Truth Itself is absolute and objective, but still hold that our access to it is subjective and tenuous. Rationality, though, consists in following the evidence as we encounter it and proportioning our degree of certainty to the strength of the evidence. This will leave us uncertain about nearly everything since incontrovertible evidence is very rare. However, as information comes in, we can adjust our rational confidence up and down accordingly. This is the path of rationality.

However, because of the all-important doctrine of the Transcendental Unity of Truth, Goodness, and Beauty we can often come to see the truth in virtue of its Beauty and Goodness which is why Lewis and Tolkein are so valuable.

This is cool.

2007-04-29T11:30:00.000-04:00

http://pi.ytmnd.com/

Dennett makes local stop

2007-04-09T15:59:00.000-04:00

The class clown of neo-Darwinism (or is that Richard Dawkins) will be here in Rochester tomorrow.

I issued quite a bit of bloggage on Dennett (he's just so darned intertaining) in the past year. For several reviews of his books and audio files of interviews and transcripts of debates see the links here (not sure why the first item comes up in the search).

If I were a South Park Character

2007-04-09T15:14:00.000-04:00

Custom South Park Character Made Here

The Ontological Argument

2007-04-06T12:23:00.000-04:00

Got a request today the reply to which readers might find interesting and helpful since the argument in question does tend to receive ratther abstruse presentation.

-----
Hello! I've read Laurence Bonjour's In Defense of Pure Reason and I began to rethink my rejection of the Ontological Argument. I came across your paper on the Internet (A Defense of the Ontological Argument) and found it a little hard to follow. I'm just not able to follow all those letters and symbols. Can you please point me to something akin to The Ontological Argument for Dummies or something in plain old country boy English? I think I understand the argument, but I'm having a hard time with its defense. Thanks much, in advance!
----

Dear, XXXX, I’m glad to do what I can to help. Unfortunately, the onto arg is one which really lends itself to technical exposition (which is one reason why philosophers love it!). You might look at Alvin Plantinga’s little volume _The Ontological Argument” for some historical perspective and various traditional formulations. And actually, his presentation of the argument in his books _God, Freedom, and Evil_ and the longer version in _The Nature of Necessity_ is in fairly plain English. He’s a talented writer and so you might be surprised.

I think, though, that I can boil the state of the art down fairly simply.According to the standard form of modal logic—the logic of necessity and possibility—if a thing is such that if it exists it must necessarily exist, then if it doesn’t exist, it’s only because its impossible.A decent analogy can be had in mathematical truths. They have the property of being such that IF they are true THEN they are necessarily true. There are no contingently true mathematical truths, truths that would have been different if the world had gone differently (unlike, say, empirical facts about evolution). So if some mathematical statement is false, then it is *impossible*. There’s no way things could have gone that would have resulted in 2 + 2 = 5 (holding the definitions fixed, of course). Obviously a necessary being exists necessarily if at all, so if it doesn’t exist it’s impossible for it to do so. But it sure doesn’t look impossible, there’s no manifest contradiction in it.

The problem is that that also seems true for the following entity: a world in which there’s no necessary being. That doesn’t have any manifest contradiction in it either. But one or the other must be impossible, so we are left to decide which one we think has the best chance of truly being possible. I argue that the idea of a world with no necessary being is a world without a ground of being and I’m less confident that that is possible than that a necessary being is possible, so to that extent the onto arg adds some credence to theism for me. Of course academic philosophers want to find some general principle from which we can DEDUCE that one is possible and the other not and that is quite difficult (though I’d say of little importance). So we will each have to consult our intuitions about possibility and continue to reflect, but I think I’ve accurately presented the logic of the situation and my own attitude toward it.

Blessings

~~trent

I don't even know what to say...

2007-04-04T11:02:00.000-04:00

From today's headlines:

""How can you justify seeing a mother away from her home, her children? Why don't they respect family values in the West?" he asked of the British government."

That from Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of the Islamic Republick of Iran.

There are interwoven ironies here and which will strike people in diametrically opposing ways.

There's also this from the same story:

"On the occasion of the birthday of the great prophet (Muhammad) ... and for the occasion of the passing of Christ, I say the Islamic Republic government and the Iranian people — with all powers and legal right to put the soldiers on trial — forgave those 15," he said, referring to the Muslim prophet's birthday last Saturday and Easter, next Sunday."

Keep in mind he denies the Holocaust took place. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch aren't too happy with him either.

He's clearly up to something though. Check out his blog here. http://www.ahmadinejad.ir/

Finally, his birthday is a day after mine. That is all.

Nice new wiki gadget for Google home pages

2007-04-02T16:14:00.000-04:00

http://blewett.googlepages.com/home22

Funny URLs

2007-04-01T15:02:00.000-04:00

The funniest URL I've seen in a long time:

http://thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/

And it's even a pretty interesting site.

Actually there's a longer sub-URL:

http://www.thelongestlistofthelongeststuffatthelongestdomainnameatlonglast.com/
wearejustdoingthistobestupidnowsincethiscangoonforeverandeverandeverbutitstilllooks
kindaneatinthebrowsereventhoughitsabigwasteoftimeandenergyandhasnorealpoint
butwehadtodoitanyways.html

And there are longer one's generated by searches.

A long time ago I tried to register this domain

http://www.wwwdotcom.com/

but it was already taken. It's actually got a funny page on it.

Catholics and Protestants: The Fundamental Difference

2007-03-26T14:47:00.000-04:00

This was a reply to a comment on the post below, but it's kind of lengthy, so I'm posting it here. I'm also going to cross-post it over at X-Catholics.

------------------

Amanda,

As it so happens, I'm currently composing a post on why I became Catholic in response to many requests. You ask "Could you elucidate why you left protestantism and turned to catholicism?"

As a philosopher I first have to give the obvious answer: because I think the Claims of the Catholic Church regarding her authority are true and incompatible with Protestantism. Note that I designate a sub-class of claims of the Catholic Church, namely those regarding the Church's authority. Most claims of the Church are perfectly compatible with Protestantism (well, with magisterial Protestantism anyway, part of the problem is that there are like 30,000 (literally) different protestant denominations (if you count all the independent ones separately) so making claims about what "Protestants" believe can be tricky: most Catholic doctrine is compatible with Lutheran, Presbyterian, Anglican, and Evangelical beliefs).

What Mother Kirk claims is that she is the fullest expression of the visible Church on Earth and that the Bishop of Rome is the final authority in matters of the Faith and governance of the Church. The basis for this claim is the doctrine of Apostolic Succession. I've got a brief summary of some evidence for this doctrine here, and am working on a draft of a fuller argument. So the basic claims of the Church are as follows:

1. Jesus was the Jewish Messiah, promised in the Old Testament, and expanding his plan to we Gentiles.

2. Jesus founded a visible Church to carry on his teachings and selected the Apostles to govern this body.

3. Peter was the Chief of the Apostles as witnessed by Peter's divine anointing and unique reception of the Keys of the Kingdom (Matt 16) which represent the vice-regent of the King, his special relationship with Jesus ("feed my sheep," Gospel of John, Chatper 21), and his authoritative pronouncement at the Council of Jerusalem (Acts 15).

4. The Apostles anointed new leaders--called Bishops (episkopos in the Greek New Testament)--and when an Apostle died, someone took their place (just like occurred with the loss of Judas at the beginning of The Acts of the Apostles in the New Testament).

5. The line of Apostolic Succession has never been broken.

The doctrine of Salvation among Catholics and Mainline and (many or most) Evangelical Protestants are essentially the same (no more differences than among some Protestants): we are given the Gift of Faith to trust in the finished work of Christ in atonement for our sins. The rest is details.

As a Protestant I already accepted #1 of course, but gradually came to believe the rest of them as well. There's much, much more to the story, but a sufficient condition for my becoming Catholic was being rationally persuaded of #'s 2-5 (in addition to #1).

This is just the bare bones and only states the minimum sufficient condition, so stay tuned for a more robust answer. Hope that helps.

In the news...

2007-03-26T11:45:00.000-04:00

The paper I've been referring to in which I (and my co-author) consider the status of the design argument for God's existence has just been accepted for publication in the journal Religious Studies, Cambridge University Press. So I'm happy about that.

The published version of the study only contains a fraction of the total material, but I hope it sparks some interesting thougths.

Also, I've posted replies to comments to the post below.

Divine Hiddenness

2007-03-25T12:27:00.000-04:00

As I've said here recently, I now think the evidence for God's existence is very good. However, this very statement implies that God is somewhat absent. I don't even bother to speak of evidence of my wife's existence because she's present to me. This is one aspect of what's come to be called "The Problem of Divine Hiddenness".

Though provoked in reading today: Are you willing to be judged by God?

If not, then what would be the use of God revealing himself? He reveals Himself in order to transform us. However, He does not wish to do this contrary to our own wills. If we are not aware of our need for transformation, or unwilling to be transformed, then there's no role for God to play in our lives, so he allows us to proceed as if He does not exist.

"You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:13).

“I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the
wise and the learned, and you have revealed them to infants. Yes, Father, this seemed good in
your sight” (Luke 10:21; cf. Matt. 11:25-26; Isa. 45:15).

Out of the mouths of babes

2007-03-24T17:03:00.000-04:00

So my newly-turned-six year old just asked me: "Daddy, are there any better philosophers than you?"

"Yes," I avowed, "there certainly are."

"Like that man?" she said pointing to my bronze and marble bust of Socrates on my book case.

"Yeah," I said, "like him." I added, "And there are others, too."

Still, the confidence boost helped me trudge through a "revise and resubmit".

Faith and Rationality

2007-03-19T15:45:00.000-04:00

More theological stuff. This time a snippet from a correspondence from the last couple days.
Background: I'd been asked by someone from Europe to answer some questions concerning the application of probability and statistics to philosophy of religion. After doing so, I received the following follow up:
-------------------------

I am very thankful for you giving me these points. They are very interesting and I like it.Also, I would love to get your paper when Swinburne has sent it back to you. I am quite interested in the fine-tuning argument (awaiting Collins' book on the subject). Now a little off-topic question:I am actually a doubting christian which has huge problems at the moment gripping on my christian faith. Books such as Non-existence of God by N. Everitt (have you read it or seen any good reviews of it?) drives me the way more toward atheism. Do you have any advice on how I can tackle the doubt? What arguments do you think is the best for theism? Every argument is so much discussed that it is impossible to conclude anything. Books are critically reviewed so that one stands there not knowing much what to think about that particular issue. Maybe you got some points to make? I would be thankful.
---------------------------------

I’m on my way to class, but I want to make some brief remarks. First, I’m privileged to be your interlocutor on this subject. Next, let me say that I don’t think that philosophy of religion has that much to do with the rationality of Christian commitment. I’m not quite the philosophical skeptic that Peter van Inwagen is, but it is true that philosophical arguments are in general unsatisfying on most topics. I do happen to think the Kalam cosmological argument is quite strong, but that is again a technical argument.

It would be difficult to go through my whole epistemological theory, but in the end I think that inference to the best explanation is a legitimate form of inference, and, as I said, think that probabilistic reasoning just makes it more precise. In general, though I do think that the philosophical case for theism is inconclusive, I find atheistic/materialistic naturalism to be utterly bankrupt. The only thing which really causes me grave doubts are cases of apparent gratuitous suffering. This subtracts considerable credence from my confidence in theism. It probably locks up a good 10-20% of my confidence. If I didn’t find CORNEA principles plausible it would probably take up more, occasionally, in dark moments it seems conclusive, but those times have the aspect of emotion/depression/pessimism about them rather than rational insight.

Still, there are innumerable other phenomena which I can’t even come close to reconciling to naturalism: the origin of matter and energy, the kinds of fundamental laws there are, human consciousness, our moral sense, true altruism, the kind of love I have for my children, the life of Jesus and of the Saints, the works of Shakespeare, Michelangelo, milkshakes, umbrellas, and, among other things, this conversation.
True, there are alternative explanations for all these phenomena, but they strike me as pale and strained. *On balance* theism strikes me as the better explanation and so I think it true.

More to come, must go now…
Truly,Trent
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I’ve got two papers I’ve been asked to revise and resubmit and I’ve just been asked to review a MS for a publisher, so I’m just going to have to trickle out thoughts as they come to me, I hope you don’t mind.

Another issue concerns the nature of faith. I do not think faith is a doxastic attitude. I think faith is a commitment one makes to following a certain path. I can do no better than Swinburne has done in the epilogue to the first edition of his _Faith and Reason_. My confidence in Christianity goes up and down all the time, not only from day to day, but from hour to hour (even from second to second when I’m wrestling with evil). But even when it dips dangerously low, perhaps even below half for some brief period of time, I retain my faith because I retain my commitment to the Christian Way. This commitment is quite rational for broadly Pascalian reasons.

Pascal’s Wager has been sorely misrepresented. It is not some kind of crass, mercenary maneuver aimed at “just in case”. Rather, it is a reflection of the fact that rationality in action is as much a function of our desires as of our credence. If I thought there was 1/100 chance that a given guru in Tibet could bring me true enlightenment and lasting happiness I’d be a fool not to go because I so greatly value those things. So even though I’d be pretty certain there was no such Guru it would still be positively irrational not to try and find out for sure, not to make the trek.

In my view, Christianity is a trek. As I go to Mass, pray the Rosary, partake of the Sacraments, I do so with hope. Hope that there is in fact a loving God which has given me the gift of the Church to put me in tangible touch with Christ. My intellectual confidence that this is the case goes up and down, sometimes very high and sometimes much lower. But because I so desire peace with God and because I think Christian Theism to be the best explanation of my life’s experience, it never ceases to be rational for me to walk the Christian Way.

Truly,
Trent

Design Argument Update

2007-03-13T16:32:00.000-04:00

For those of you who are keeping track, my credence in divine intervention has gone up to a record high.

I'm just bringing to a close a three-year research project concerning design arguments for the existence of God, so I thought I'd throw an update out there.

There's a link on the sidebar under "religious posts" I think which discusses this project. In between then and now it went way down for awhile. I'm not saying I've reached full reflective equilibrium on this, but I expect it will not sink much.

One reason I'm confident in this is that the project considers broadly two kinds of arguments who's strength vary in proportion to one another and considers their strengths for every possible value of their variables.

The result is that I now think that no matter what future empirical research uncovers, there will be at least one kind of strong design argument.