Is atheism irrational? Alvina Plantinga says there is insufficient evidence for atheism.
P2: What can I know?
The dangers of certainty
A lesson from Auschwitz. “We always have to acknowledge that we might be mistaken. When we forget that, then we forget ourselves and the worst can happen.”
Teaching children about God
Is it wrong to teach children about God? “[Parents who believe in God] teach their children to believe in God, atheists teach them not to. Who is doing the right thing?” Michael Ruse, the director of history and philosophy of science at Florida State University, searches for an answer.
What scientific idea is ready for retirement?
Edge.org’s big question for 2014. 175 short essays by some of today’s best known thinkers. “Science advances by discovering new things and developing new ideas. Few truly new ideas are developed without abandoning old ones first. As theoretical physicist Max Planck (1858-1947) noted, ‘A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.’ In other words, science advances by a series of funerals. Why wait that long?”
Hyperobjects … you’re only human
Are there objects too immense to comprehend? Review of Timothy Morton’s Hyperobjects. “When he declares that the world is over, Morton is not summoning visions of a Hollywood We’re-all-gonna-die! cataclysm but, rather, the end of the cozy anthropocentric worldview that has governed Western thought since the advent of Greek philosophy. It doesn’t matter what you think of Kantian epistemology or Hegelian teleology because, Morton claims, the ‘privileged transcendental sphere’ of philosophy can’t protect us from ultraviolet rays or rising ocean levels.”
Does the existence of morality prove the existence of God?
Paul Bloom says no. “It is a mistake to see the powerful and unique morality that modern humans possess as a divine gift. Doing so distracts us from its origin as a cultural accomplishment, best understood in terms of processes such as the exercise of reason and imagination … .”
What are the chances we are in a computer simulation?
Is this life real? “Philosophers and physicists say we might be living in a computer simulation, but how can we tell? And does it matter?”
Does god exist? And which god are we talking about anyway?
In “The One Theology Book All Atheists Really Should Read, Oliver Burkeman asks, “What if most modern arguments against religious belief have been attacking the wrong God all along?” And in “The ‘Best Arguments for God’s Existence’ Are Actually Terrible,” Jerry Coyne replies that the god the vast majority of believers believe in is not that different from the god philosophers talk about and that it doesn’t really matter anyway because the philosophers’ “arguments are simply made-up stuff.”
Some experiments in thinking
Six famous thought experiments, animated in 60 seconds each. “From Ancient Greece to quantum mechanics, or what a Chinese room and a cat have to do with infinity.”
Is our universe simulated?
Do we live in the Matrix? “Tests could reveal whether we are part of a giant computer simulation — but the real question is if we want to know…” Red pill or blue … the ultimate appearance v. reality question?
Socratically Speaking 