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The April/May issue of Philosophy Now was devoted to the question Is God Really Dead? Many articles, though not all, expressed an atheistic perspective.
What is Atheism?
Ernest Nagel: “I shall understand by ‘atheism’ a critique and a denial of the major claims of all varieties of theism” (6). But, as Cliteur points out, this is “clearly […]

This blog continues the series of studies looking at references to the Garden(s) of Paradise, as depicted in the Qur’an. Our last blog on this matter was on August 23 .
The next relevant passage is from Surah 32:19-20 (Yusuf Ali):
19: For those who believe and do righteous deeds are Gardens as hospitable homes, for their (good) deeds.
20: […]

In his introduction to Volume 1 of Habermas’ The Theory of Communicative Action Thomas McCarthy explains how Habermas responds to what he calls “the decline of the paradigm of consciousness” by making a shift to “the paradigm of language.” What does he mean by this?
Philosophical thought in the early modern period has been dominated by […]

I  was meeting with the member of a church in conflict. As we talked about how to restore unity and reconcile relationships in the church we read Matthew 5:9 together: “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.” What a wonderful statement! When God sees one of his children striving to […]

This blog continues the series of studies looking at references to the Garden(s) of Paradise, as depicted in the Qur’an. Our last blog on this matter was on July 31.
The next relevant passage is from Surah 31:8-9 (Yusuf Ali):
8: For those who believe and work righteous deeds, there will be Gardens of Bliss,-
9: To dwell […]

Raymond Tallis’ Michelangelo’s Finger is an enjoyable read, as I’ve indicated in previous posts. One of the major points he makes is that the self-consciousness of humans is unique in five respects:

It is uniquely sustained.
It is uniquely complex.
It is unique as to its contents.
It is uniquely stitched together internally both within a moment and between […]

From previous blogs we have noted the conclusion of Plantinga’s analysis: “that the existence of God is compatible, both logically and probabilistically, with the existence of evil; thus it solves the main philosophical problem of evil.”
Plantinga gives some space to considering another atheological approach that is now somewhat outdated, namely verificationism. As Plantinga explains:
This is […]

In the April/May issue of Philosophy Now (”Is God Really Dead?”) Victor Stenger insists science does have something to say about God and the supernatural (12). Stenger’s own reading causes him to conclude that the majority of believing scientists accept Gould’s view that science and religion are non-overlapping spheres (12). I am not in any […]

In Chapter 5 of the Lotus Sutra Shakyamuni has just used the Parable of the Clay Pots to teach that there is ultimately only one vessel (common clay), but different clay pots made out of that same clay, some with a predisposition to seek nirvana via the attainment of Arhatship, others disposed to seek it […]

Absorb the implications of this quote from the Lotus Sutra, a text highly venerated by many Mahayana Buddhists:
There is no (real) Nirvana without all-knowingness; try to reach this (Chapter 5.74).
If you can’t achieve omniscience then you can’t experience nirvana. To say this is a tough ask is an understatement of an understatement. We might fairly […]