Arbitrary Marks

My friend Dru sent me this link which contains a summary of Alvin Plantinga’s argument against evolutionary naturalism. It’s an interesting proposal, one which I think has some connections to the earlier discussion here about radical translation.
The post at per Caritatem looks to be taken from a recent lecture (the author, Cynthia Nielson is a graduate student [...]

Last night I turned on ABC for a little mental break–I’ll write next about the article I was reading on eliminativism and intuitions. The show that was on provided a break of sorts, but was stressful in another way. Has anyone else watched Wife Swap? It’s a reality TV show, somewhat along the lines of [...]

I have an instinct that (theistic) theological studies are far less useful than philosophy. As an atheist and non-Christian, to me it is like spending years studying the properties of phlogiston.

However, there are fellow philosophers spending years working on problems I think are wrong-headed. So is there any larger distinction to make between theology and philosophy, or, as human exercises in reflection, are they equally valuable?

And then I happen across an excerpt of a book chapter (on the “emasculation” of the Presbyterian Church) and some fantastic comments by Reformed Christians. Then I remember just how seriously these guys take the “literal interpretation” of the Bible, and the results:
“The cry of church masculinization is the on ramp to exploring all things [...]

I don’t usually do this–blatantly link to my own comments on a post–but I don’t have time right now to delve more into this, so I thought I’d send some of you over to Common Grounds to read. Esther Meek was my philosophy prof at Covenant Seminary. Although we don’t see eye to eye on [...]

Something I’ve noticed while again working through William James, Andrew Newberg and some Christian mystics, now concurrently, is how frequently pain comes up in the narrative of the mystics in contrast to the analysts like James and Newberg. This isn’t including the self-inflicted pain, like self-flagellation, or talk about evil and suffering. Rather, the desire [...]

I don’t have time to read these thoroughly and respond in detail, but there are few new responses to Frank Schaeffer’s book (which I reviewed here) in the evangelical online media. One is at First Things, the other at Christianity Today (and written by Os Guinness, who knew Frank and Francis very well).

They don’t go the typical “oh, Frank is just a disobedient, petulant child” route, but seem–on my skimming–to dig a little deeper.

This is a promised review, a year in coming. Soft Skull Press sent me a copy of this book about this time in 2006 and I thought I’d get around to reading it when the semester was over. Wrong.
Honestly, after my disappointment with the other text they sent me, I was a little hesitant [...]

A few weeks ago I discussed Frank Schaeffer’s new book, Crazy For God, anticipating I’d read it during my summer break. Well, I wound up tearing through it in a couple of days just recently, then emailing Schaeffer for a few follow-up questions:

What kind of evidence would we expect to a perfectly loving god to give of its existence?
This question has been posed to me by my philosophy of religion professor. I balk at questions where I think that the outcome has been partially required by the structure: in this instance, it seems that god must [...]