Author: Larry Sanger
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15 Principles for New Homeschoolers
A Twitter thread. 1/ Be kind; be gentle; listen to your kids. You now have the opportunity to let them learn in a way that really gets them into learning. This is wonderful, and it is why homeschooled kids do so well. Don’t be harsh. 2/ Start foreign languages early. You aren’t well-educated (sorry) if…
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Idea: A Bible Question-and-Answer App
“I had an idea.” Will I ever stop saying that? Probably not. I think we—whoever is excited by this idea—need to get together to make the world’s first nonprofit, open source/open content Bible question-and-answer app/website. Think of it as “The Bible meets Wikipedia and Quora, but with responsible editors.” Interested? Read on. Background. In five…
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“Being understood by the things that are made”
… Even more remarkable is the claim that the unbelievers and pagans “are without excuse” because they “knew God” who is “understood by the things that are made.” …
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An Explanation of Divine Sacrifice
At the heart of Christianity is a set of doctrines that appear to be deep and compelling for over a billion souls on earth. But divorced from their context, the same doctrines can sound primitive, ridiculous, unfair, and even insane to the modern mind. In this essay, I want to see if I can do…
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How to Choose a (Bible) Translation
Choosing a Bible translation is not easy or straightforward. While readability or comprehensibility are important, accuracy reigns supreme, for the simple reason that inaccuracies may be defined as failures of translation. A failed translation is an invention of the translator rather than a representation of the intent of the original author. The author’s thoughts must…
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On the Soul
Discourse about the soul is ancient, continues to this very day online and in academia, and spans many languages and traditions, with research spanning multiple disciplines and, all told, literally thousands of relevant books. I cannot hope to do all of that justice in this essay, so I will not try. My aim is much…
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A Rationalist Approaches Christianity
I am privately linking from here (below) a new essay about Christian religious epistemology, 20,700 words (if you can believe that). Here is the first paragraph: The purpose of this discussion is to determine whether I should—whether it is rationally justified to—conduct a systematic study of natural and revealed religion, in order to decide whether…
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Not all ways of changing the world are good
Not all ways of changing the world are good. Some edges you don’t go over, ever. Some edgelords are the enemy. Some rebellion is shockingly evil. Sometimes, wearing the clothes of the devil means you’re the goddamn Devil. Some actions and people are objectively evil—the enemy.Not everything in life is a game. Some appalling outrages…
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Why God Might Exist: A Dialogue Concerning Unnatural Religion
Modern religious skeptics often declare that the reason they are atheists is that there is no good evidence for the existence of God. It is as if they were mere dispassionate judges, and no one has yet submitted adequate reasons to adopt a belief in God to them—the immaculate Tribunal of Reason, of course. Such…
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On Attitudes Toward Evil
As I have been thinking in recent months both about different religions—but especially Christianity—and about evil in general, it strikes me suddenly that how different worldviews regard evil is deeply important. This is especially important to me now because of the stunning and sickening amounts of evidence that has emerged that many, not just a…