Category: Theory
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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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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…
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Why I Have Not Been a Christian, and Why That Might Change
A Personal History of My Nonbelief I think I lost the faith I was raised in (Lutheran) when I was 16, a few years after the family stopped going regularly to church. That was when I first started studying philosophy more seriously. To be specific, I stopped being Christian because I stopped believing in God.…
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How I’m Reading the Bible in 90 Days
The Bible is easily the most influential book of Western literature. If you haven’t read any part of it at all, you aren’t educated, period. But, for that matter, if you haven’t read it all the way through, then again you still have a massive hole in your education. That’s what I told myself last…
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A Response to Jack Dorsey on Decentralizing Social Media
Jack, Let me begin by telling you (and my blog readers) a personal history of decentralizing social media and content generally. Decentralizing social media It began in January when I decided to lock down my cyber-life. Among the items on my “to do” list was: “Quit social media, or at least nail down a sensible…
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A Theory of Evil
First posted Aug. 16, 2019. Revised and reposted Nov. 4. Good to read alongside “Why Be Moral.” For a long time, the nature of evil eluded me. But dark contemplation of the Jeffrey Epstein case and of the very existence of pedophile rings has clarified the nature of evil for me. Here, then, is a…