Deep Dive

A collection of 1068 posts

cognitive dissonance

The Sad Reality of (Right-Wing) Disinformation

The reaction of this woman in this fascinating video is so depressing... It is uncontrolled confirmation bias, backfire effect and cognitive dissonance all rolled into one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hQO9upB7kx8& I'm not sure you can actually do anything about this because every action you

abstracts

The Foundation to My Whole Worldview

In a sense, this is about the most important piece I can write because out of it comes my whole philosophy. What you are about to read pertains to any abstract object: morality, meaning (of life or words), maths, purpose, and so on. I am just about to release a

Crime & Punishment

Replacing the Senior Liberal Judge on the Supreme Court

This is an interesting little watch concerning the 83-year-old Stephen Breyer's future on the Supreme Court. It is particularly pertinent given the absolute shocker that is taking place in Texas at the moment...   Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook: A Tippling Philosopher You can also

Biblical Exegesis

The Author of the Gospel of John

I recently wrote a piece on whether or not the Gospel writers were eyewitnesses of Jesus and his ministry. The short answer is that they were not. Out of that came the ubiquitous question, in these contexts, of who the author was for the Gospel of John, and to whom

atheism

Quote of the Day: DC Kurtz on Moral Nihilism

On the recent thread on CS Lewis, DC Kurtz stated this: As an outspoken moral nihlist (I firmly believe that objective morality does not exist) I get recommended Lewis's work a lot. And I was astonished at how poorly constructed his core arguments for moral reasoning are. They&

humanism

Humanists Denounce the Charges Brought Against Mubarak Bala

This is from the AHA: The American Humanist Association rejects the validity of the charges announced against the President of the Humanist Association of Nigeria, Mubarak Bala. On August 3, 2021, Bala was charged with 10 counts of causing a public disturbance in connection to “blasphemous” Facebook posts he is

Biblical Exegesis

The Dependence of Biblical Law Codes on Ancient Near Eastern Law Codes (II)

I am writing a book on the Exodus to build on both my previous two books (The Nativity: A Critical Examination [UK] and is The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK]).  The working title is The Exodus: A Critical Examination of the Moses Story. I previously posted

Biblical Exegesis

The Dependence of Biblical Law Codes on Ancient Near Eastern Law Codes

I am writing a book on the Exodus to build on both my previous two books (The Nativity: A Critical Examination [UK] and is The Resurrection: A Critical Examination of the Easter Story [UK]).  The working title is The Exodus: A Critical Examination of the Moses Story, and here is

Biblical Exegesis

Jim Dailey's Compassionate Lessons on Child and Animal Suffering

Jim Dailey, the Catholic apologist's unquestioning best friend, says some real odd things. And by odd, I really mean morally abhorrent. I was recently talking about the moral obscenity that is the Exodus story, and particularly the plagues, when Dailey attacked my questioning of the morality of the

Exodus

Word Salad in the Name of Theology

As you will know, I have been running a series debunking the Exodus account and, in fact, this has now become a huge book project, co-authored with archaeologist Rebecca Bradley and with the foreword to be written by Assyriologist Dr Joshua Bowen. I am presently writing a chapter on the

Biblical Exegesis

Exodus Sidebar: The Exodus Story Is Morally Obscene

As you will know, I have been running a series debunking the Exodus account and, in fact, this has now become a huge book project, co-authored with archaeologist Rebecca Bradley and with the foreword to be written by Assyriologist Dr Joshua Bowen. I am presently writing a chapter on the

conceptual nominalism

Responding to Breuer on Conceptual Nominalism

Luke Breuer kindly responded to my request and provided a critique of my position of conceptual nominalism recently. I hope to look at his claims and analyse them in my reply here today. I have a forthcoming book that sets out my position with a lot more depth and clarity

reason

Taking Feser to Task on Human Intellect

Here is a guest post from author Gunther Laird, who takes aim at Edward Feser and his Thomistic philosophy. Please grab Laird's excellent book that takes Feser head on. In the meantime: The fact that so many intellectuals don’t share their peculiar ideas has been a thorn

conceptual nominalism

Luke Breuer Takes on Conceptual Nominalism

I have a long history in my writing and philosophy here and elsewhere of adhering to a position called "conceptual nominalism". If you want more details, check out: * Philosophy 101 (philpapers induced) #2 - Abstract objects: Platonism or nominalism * The Pertinence of Nominalism to Religious and Philosophical Debates

brain

Study: Tippling Is NOT Good for Philosophising

We all knew it. I knew it. I just didn't want to know it. Now it's even more robustly established than ever before. Here it is in black and white and grey: There is no safe amount of alcohol consumption for the brain, with even “moderate”

consequentialism

Well That Escalated Quickly: Knowledge and Consequentialism Discussed

So yesterday I posted a piece being very critical of Islam as a religious theology (in the context of teaching RE), just as I have spent 10 years doing with Christianity. The comments thread exploded and, I have to say, the conversation was really pretty good. There were lots of

demographics

Armstrong's Bad Sociological Claims: Religion Makes You a Better Person

Dave Armstrong has recently been involved with me in a protracted debate about the unequal distribution of evidence for God’s existence, and God being unfair. Within the debates was a side point about whether this unequal evidence is of benefits in our earthly existences or whether it is just

fairness

On Ridiculous Christian Apologetics, and Whether Mercy Is Undeserved

I have been discussing God's unfairness in the uneven distribution of evidence a lot recently. First, grace was offered as something that God gives out unfairly - it is baked into the idea, apparently. And then Luke Breuer said the same of mercy, in reply to my question,

Epistemology

"God's Mercy REQUIRES God's Unfairness"

I made some recent debate pieces about whether God is unfair because of the unequal distribution of evidence for his existence over time and place, in which I show that God is morally suboptimal because there is an unfair, unequal opportunity of access to belief in God, to God, and

Problem of Evil

Animal Suffering, William Lane Craig, and Christian Apologetics

Animal suffering is a thorn in the side of Christian apologists because no theodicy adequately justifies its existence. This is due to the fact that most theodicies revolve around the pain and suffering of humans and attach the blame for such suffering solely to humans themselves. In some way, they

evangelicalism

Josh Duggar Arrested by Feds

Reality TV star and all-round awesome conservative evangelical has been arrested. And it looks like it could be serious, considering it's the feds. People.com report (See the link for the whole piece): [caption id="attachment_34132" align="alignright" width="253"] Washington

cancel culture

Cancel Culture: Some Stimulation for Debate

Cancel culture is coming up in debate in the threads here an awful lot, and I really do think that some people have been sucked in by the perpetual narrative from the right that this is a leftist problem. If we look at the history of the phenomenon, we can

Dave Armstrong

Do We All Have "Sufficient" Evidence to Believe?

This piece will in some sense be a linguistic piece, and in other senses will have quite a big theological impact. I have been having an ongoing argument over whether or  not God is unfair in unequally distributing evidence over time and place in the world, thus giving people unequal

Epistemology

Debating the Unequal Evidence Problem Again (III): Grace

A very quick synopsis so far in this debate initially with Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong and then carried on by Catholic Paul Hoffer. Please read the previous pieces for context. There are quite a few: * The Double Standards Involved with Doubting Thomas * Doubting Thomas: A Response to Catholic Dave Armstrong

equality

Freedom of Speech Advocates as Hypocritical Right-Wingers Wanting Permission to Offend

This is such a common problem; those who claim that they are advocates of freedom of speech merely do so because they want to be able to offend people freely and with no consequences. Rights should come with responsibilities, but in this context, it is more often about demanding rights