thoughtful ideas on life's big questions
I sometimes get asked for the reasons why I believe. Sometimes it is curiosity, sometimes people are desperate to know why they should believe. Occasionally people ask what sort of reasons are good, with the implication that some reasons are somehow inappropriate. So here’s the results of many years of thought and reading …..
Have you ever wondered: if the cells in our bodies change every 10 years or so, am I still the same person I was 40 years ago?
Do human beings have free will? Can we choose among different possible actions and beliefs? Or are we controlled by our genetics, or by blind physical processes in our brains? And if we couldn’t make genuine choices, would that diminish us? Would we be any different from animals, except a little smarter … perhaps? And […]
I’ve often heard it said, especially by non-believers in discussion with believers. Science is the best, perhaps the only reliable way to know things. Everything else is subjective. Is this true? The question raises some interesting issues. These musings are a response to a post, A big weekend in Boston by Connor Wood, and a […]
The internet sure has opened up space for people to argue. We’ve got plenty of quantity but not always so much quality! Often an argument is met with the claim that the proponent has committed a fallacy. Sometimes the accusation is true, but not always. Here are three alleged fallacies I have come across recently. […]
I suppose it is quite natural to look at the night sky, especially away from city lights, and be in awe. When we learn that the universe apparently contains something like 100 billion galaxies, each with about 100 billion stars, our amazement and awe increase. It is also natural to ask where it all came […]
This scene from the Egyptian Book of the Dead (c 1275 BCE), shows the dead scribe Hunefer’s heart being weighed by the canine-headed Anubis on the scale of Maat. The ibis-headed Thoth, scribe of the gods, records the result. If his heart is lighter than the feather of truth, Hunefer is allowed to pass into […]
Humans are a curious species, and we like to answer the question “Why?” Some of the really big questions concern why does the universe exist and what is the purpose of life? Some say God is the answer to those questions. Others say there is no answer to the questions. Still others say that science […]
Over the years I’ve talked to a number of people who find themselves unable to commit to belief in God, but equally unable to reject belief. They say they would like to believe, for they cannot think atheism is true, but they find themselves unable to give assent to a particular religion or set of […]
A friend and I have been discussing the Kalam Cosmological argument recently, so I thought it might be worth posting about it. The Kalam argument has been used many times by philosopher William Lane Craig in public debates, with some success. His use of the argument is itself much debated on the internet. I have […]