Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. Hear this part ad-free. On the new book God and the World’s Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion, which presents two takes on the argument that God must exist because the world is a "product." The first is excerpted from the Brahma-sūtra (a.k.a. the Vedānta-sutra, compiled ca. the 2nd Continue Reading …
Ep. 270: Classical Indian (Vedanta and Nyaya) Design Arguments for God (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on God and the World’s Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion after the departure of our guest, Stephen Phillips. Wes grills Seth and Mark on what's really new here philosophically: We're all familiar with the design argument, so why wade through all these unfamiliar schools and archaic formulations? So we talk more about Continue Reading …
Ep. 270: Classical Indian (Vedanta and Nyaya) Design Arguments for God (Part One for Supporters)
On the new book God and the World’s Arrangement: Readings from Vedanta and Nyaya Philosophy of Religion, which presents two takes on the argument that God must exist because the world is a "product." The first is excerpted from the Brahma-sūtra (a.k.a. the Vedānta-sutra, compiled ca. the 2nd century C.E.) verses 2.2.1-2.2.10 with commentary from Śaṅkara (710 C.E.) and Vācaspati Continue Reading …
Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part One)
Subscribe to get Part 2 of this episode. Listen to a preview. On selections and commentary about Avicenna's argument from around 1020 C.E. for the existence of God (including arguments to prove that God has the person-like properties that Islam imputes to him) and his "flying man" argument for the soul's essential independence from matter. Featuring Mark, Dylan, and our guest Continue Reading …
Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part Two for Supporters)
Continuing from part one on Avicenna's argument for the existence of God and on the "flying man" argument for the soul's immateriality. We start by drilling more into Avicenna's metaphysical picture via his concept of necessity, and how we know that the mind is necessarily (essentially, according to its nature a.k.a. quiddity) different than the body. When you know Continue Reading …
Ep. 267: Avicenna on God and Soul w/ Peter Adamson (Part One for Supporters)
On selections and commentary about Avicenna's argument from around 1020 C.E. for the existence of God (including arguments to prove that God has the person-like properties that Islam imputes to him) and his "flying man" argument for the soul's essential independence from matter. Featuring Mark, Dylan, and our guest Peter Adamson from the History of Philosophy Continue Reading …
The Tree of Life’s Contingent Universe
http://youtu.be/1WvuJwMFPz4 Watch on YouTube I can write nothing on Heideggerian scholar*/(anti)Hollywood director Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life that hasn't been better written elsewhere. Even so, the film has just come available on DVD and digital download, so I thought I'd recommend it to anyone who has been interested in PEL's recent religion episodes. Continue Reading …
L’Shanah Tovah – Jewish Proofs for the Existence of God (or Lack Thereof)
I think during the Mackie episode I mentioned that proving the existence of God through Reason seemed to me to be a decidely Western and Christian undertaking. I speculated that it wasn't an issue for Eastern religions (those that have a concept of God or gods) and declared that it wasn't one for Judaism. It occurs to me that I should stop speaking on behalf of the Continue Reading …
Episode 43: Arguments for the Existence of God (Citizens Only)
Discussing the arguments by Descartes, St. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, William Paley, Kant, and others, as analyzed in J.L. Mackie's The Miracle of Theism: Arguments For and Against the Existence of God (1983), chapters 1-3, 5-6, 8, and 11. Are the ontological, cosmological, and teleological (argument from design) arguments for God's existence any good? Mackie, a very sharp Continue Reading …
PREVIEW-Episode 43: Arguments for the Existence of God
This is a 33-minute preview of a 1 hr, 43-minute episode. Buy Now Purchase this episode for $2.99. Or become a PEL Citizen for $5 a month, and get access to this and all other paywalled episodes, including 68 back catalogue episodes; exclusive Part 2's for episodes published after September, 2020; and our after-show Nightcap, where the guys respond to listener email and chat Continue Reading …
Hawking Keeps Hacking: “Philosophy is Dead”
Apparently Stephen Hawking not only thinks that spontaneous creation from nothingness is somehow a scientific concept: he also claims that "philosophy is dead" (and as I point out, this is hardly surprising given the core anti-intellectualism lurking behind his amateur philosophizing). Here's a reaction from Burke's Corner: In his failure to exercise modesty in his pursuit Continue Reading …
A Philosopher of Religion No Longer
Philosopher of Religion Keith Parson has had a change of heart (while he once took the arguments of theists seriously enough to argue against them, no longer): Over the past ten years I have published, in one venue or another, about twenty things on the philosophy of religion. I have a book on the subject, God and Burden of Proof, and another criticizing Christian Continue Reading …
Stephen Hawking: “Nothing” has more explanatory value than “God”
Stephen Hawking makes perhaps one of the dumbest forays by a scientist into philosophy that I have ever seen: That is not the answer of modern science. As recent advances in cosmology suggest, the laws of gravity and quantum theory allow universes to appear spontaneously from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe Continue Reading …