Prager University: Four “new” arguments for the existence of God

Here we have Frank Pastore, former professional baseball player (and atheist) who, once becoming religious, jumped the rails when he went to the evangelical Biola University. This all explains his video (below) giving four “new” arguments for the existence of God. Pastore died in 2012, but these arguments weren’t new even then; all of them are long-familar […]

Sean Carroll’s Gifford Lectures

The Gifford Lectures, first given in 1898, were established by a bequest of Lord Adam Gifford, and were intended to “promote and diffuse the study of natural theology in the widest sense of the term — in other words, the knowledge of God.” In other words, they were supposed to use evidence from nature to give […]

John Loftus’s new book: why religious philosophy should be deep-sixed

A philosopher friend who read John Loftus’s new book in draft recommended it to me highly, saying it was “spot on”. The image is below, and you can get to the Amazon store to order it by clicking on the screenshot: I like the cover image, though it’s a bit gruesome, but yes, I think the […]

C. S. Lewis’s puerile theology

As I noted last night, I’m reading C. S. Lewis’s  Mere Christianity, which, I hope, will be the last theology book I ever read. And I’m doing it not because it has knockdown arguments for God—those don’t exist—but because it’s surely the most popular and influential work of Christian apologetics in the 20th century. I’m 40 pages in, […]

Ceiling Cat help me: I’m reading more theology

Under duress, since Grania told me that this was one of the most influential works of Christian apologetics of our time, I am reading C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity. One of the reasons for its popularity, of course, was that Lewis wrote in a simple and straightforward fashion, addressing his arguments to the public rather […]

Theology schools are dying

It’s long been my opinion, as was that of Thomas Jefferson, that theology schools are useless parts of universities. Jefferson refused to have a school of theology at the University of Virginia, which he founded, for he was at best a deist who disliked organized religion. Theology schools are the wisdom teeth of academia: useless and sometimes injurious remnants of earlier […]

Marco Rubio does theodicy

I used to think that, among all the Republican candidates for President, Marco Rubio—the Conservative Kennedy—would ultimately get the nod (Trump is still leading the pack). I don’t like his views, but he doesn’t seem as much of a nutcase as Carson or Trump, and I wouldn’t have to scourge myself with whips if he was […]

Osculating Hank’s rump: an allegory

This short comedic sketch, “Kissing Hank’s Ass,” parodies a famous theological argument. Surely you can guess which one! But maybe it’s not a parody but an allegory, for, after all, theology is often indistinguishable from comedy. The YouTube notes say that this was “originally written by Reverend James Huber,” though I don’t know who he is. […]

The Atlantic ponders a weighty question: Did early hominins have souls?

Among the category of Articles That Should Not Have Been Written, this one is prominent. It’s “Did Neanderthals have souls?” by freelance writer Ruth Graham, and her piece is in The Atlantic. The question of when, and in which species, hominins were “ensouled” is of interest mainly because it’s so dumb, showing not only the conflict […]

Ben Goren: is there free will in Heaven?

The last time Ben Goren wrote a post on this site, it really twisted the knickers of the ID-ers (particularly Vincent Torley) who frequent the creationist Uncommon Descent site. I thought it was time to twist them a little more, so we’re following up “Why doesn’t Jesus call 9-1-1?” with a new post on the topic, […]