There are few things more disgusting than a morally weak man who will pay any price to avoid making enemies. He is so worried about how he is perceived that he cannot be trusted to make sound judgments in any moral conflict. Almost always, he takes a knee when he should be standing firm; almost Read More…
Author: StephenB
The “is-ought” problem. Is it a true dichotomy or a deceptive bluff?
It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you do know that just ain’t so. — Mark Twain According to the overrated philosopher, David Hume, we should not try to draw logical conclusions about objective morality based on our knowledge of the real world. This was his smug way of Read More…
JDK argues against objective morality—by assuming the truth of objective morality.
Moral subjectivists never fail to entertain me when they try to make their philosophy seem reasonable and workable. UD commentator jdk, for example, doesn’t seem to realize how often his unstated assumptions undermine – or even nullify – the very points he is trying to make. In one exchange, he denies the existence of objective Read More…
The BioLogos Project: A program of unwarranted assumptions and irrational claims.
As everyone knows, the BioLogos Community is on a passionate mission to Darwinize the Christian world. Oddly, though, the zeal that drives that mission is not the product of a disinterested search for the truth. Unlike ID proponents, who begin with rational principles and follow the evidence where it leads, BioLogos members begin with a Read More…
Clown Fish, Subjectivism, and the Great Moral Gap
As we know, subjectivists labor endlessly to convince us that their morality is on a par with the natural law. Clown Fish, for example, insists that, like objectivists, he follows rules and is governed by “oughtness.” My moral values are very strongly held. They govern many of the things I do. I believe that others Read More…
God and Darwin: Why they simply cannot co-exist
As UD readers know, Charles Darwin changed history when he argued that naturalistic processes, acting alone, can drive the macro-evolutionary process from beginning to end. His earth-shattering message was that nature’s pseudo-creative mechanism can mimic the work of a designing Creator. That he could not support his claim with empirical evidence did not seem to Read More…
RDFish is wrong; Barry Arrington is right: Materialism cannot be reconciled with objective morality.
In several previous posts, RDFish stumbled into a serious philosophical error that needs to be addressed. Barry Arrington had made the unassailable point that materialism (understood as physicalism) is incompatible with such concepts as good, evil, and objective morality. The reason is clear: Materialism reduces all choices to electro-chemical processes in the brain. With that Read More…
Materialist Ideology: Is It Patent Nonsense?
As we know, atheists and agnostics have been smuggling metaphysical truth claims into the study of nature for a long time. Materialism is their God and Darwin is their prophet. Accordingly, they distort the evidence so they can lead it in the direction of the desired outcome—and when it resists—they drag it in kicking and Read More…
What are the First Rules of Right Reason? Are They Negotiable? Do They Matter?
About two weeks ago, I read a scientific report that challenged my perceptions about the relationship between philosophy and science. So much so, that it forced me to doubt some of my erstwhile convictions about the value of logic and prompted me to revise major elements of my global world view. As it turns out, Read More…
Medical Practice, Biological Science, and the Power of a “Differential Diagnosis”
Because science is a search for causes, its practitioners are ethically bound to keep an open mind about the nature of those causes. The whole point of investigating any given phenomenon is to find a reasonable answer to the question, “why is this happening?” or “why did it happen?” In that spirit, the researcher develops Read More…
St. Thomas Aquinas Returns To Ask About The Thomists
I have read about these kinds of events in Scripture, but I never thought it could happen to me. St. Thomas Aquinas appeared to me in a dream last night. It was a brief visit, but he stayed with me long enough to discuss the neo-Thomists. SB: Glory be to God. St. Thomas, you are Read More…
Christian Darwinism and the Evolutionary Pathway to Spirit.
Deductive logic teaches us that the acts of reasoning and knowing are inseparable from the act of negating. To understand the law of non-contradiction (a thing cannot be and not be at the same time) is to also understand its reciprocal principle, the law of identity (a thing is what it is and not something Read More…
Revealed Theology, Natural Theology, and the Darwinist Concoction of “ID/Creationism.”
As anyone who cares knows, members of the Darwinist establishment aggressively and shamelessly promote the lie that Intelligent Design is nothing more than Scientific Creationism hiding behind another name. Since they cannot make a credible case for their own position, they seek to discredit ID by misrepresenting its arguments. Hence, they resort to the cheap Read More…
Christian Darwinism and the Problem of Apriori Intent.
According to the Bible, God created the universe so that He and His creatures could enter into an eternal, loving relationship. Christians, insofar as they accept that teaching, can readily understand their role in the cosmos and the broader context in which they find life’s meaning. In this context, God acted as both creator and Read More…
Dr. Moran, Misplaced Confidence, and Capricious Arguments
On a recent thread, ID critic Larry Moran seemed to take great joy in mischaracterizing the science of design detection as ID/Creationism. That’s no surprise, of course, but I was amused by his rather strange proclivity to swagger in with a sneer and stumble out with a gaffe. If you are going to write this: Read More…