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

"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.

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

Test

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.

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

I hadn't seen this addition to the story.

A.N. Wilson Reverts

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!

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

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

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