Author Archives: Dwight

When Biology Trumps Physics

[The following is a draft that I wrote a good decade ago, never completed. The title reveals that I had ambitious intentions for where my line of thought would go. But, being human, the 20th century morass of “information theory” and … Continue reading

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Is Evolution a Fact?

It drives me crazy (not really, of course) when atheists (and lately even some scientists) assert that evolution is a “fact”. Now, the word “fact” can have various (conflicting) meanings. For example there is a sense in which calling something … Continue reading

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Scepticism about Scientific Realism

What follows is in reference to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on scientific realism – http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/scientific-realism/ The article explains what scientific realism is (no easy task, given that the position has been formulated in numerous and diverse ways), and discusses … Continue reading

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Framing Free Will

When interactions occur between theists and atheists, our disparate frames of mind often cause confusion and misunderstanding. Behind these conflicting mindsets lie two incompatible worldviews: supernaturalism and naturalism. Understand these frameworks, and you will have a key to understanding our … Continue reading

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The Basics

For thousands of years philosophers have gotten the science of our existence wrong. They have mistakenly assumed that we know or perceive the world around us; we do not, we cannot. They have believed that our sense perceptions are direct … Continue reading

Posted in Atheology, Evolution & ID, Meaning & Value, Naturalism, Nature of Knowledge, Simulacrum | 3 Comments

Naturalism and Knowledge

We are living at the crossroads between supernaturalism and naturalism: the world is gradually abandoning the first for the second. Conservative Christians like to say there is a culture war going on, and there is. But it has more than … Continue reading

Posted in Christianity, Naturalism, State & Church, Supernaturalism | 2 Comments

Secular Solemnizing Statement

Atheists don’t do invocations or prayers. We recite no magic words, beseech no deities, invoke no figments of imagination for public worship. But this doesn’t mean that atheists are incapable of language of the sort appropriate (according to SCOTUS) to … Continue reading

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An Aura of Ownership

The purpose of solemnizing prayer before a legislative session is to create an aura of ownership over the proceedings which follow. Five Catholics on the Supreme Court find that permissible. Although bringing church to work feels wholly comfortable to the … Continue reading

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Moral Realism

I strongly recommend this post on moral realism by Geoff Sayre-McCord (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy).

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Naturalism & Supernaturalism

One way of distinguishing supernaturalism and varying shades of naturalism is to consider them as providing different solutions to the “problem” of our lack of complete knowledge of the world. It is evident that we lack complete knowledge of the … Continue reading

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