Maverick Philosopher

Jerry Coyne on Religion as Child Abuse

Coyne writes (emphasis added): Dawkins has taken flak for characterizing religious indoctrination of children as “child abuse.” Well, look at this picture and deny it. [The picture depicts a young child holding a sign that reads: Be...

More on Jerry Coyne on Free Will

This is a sequel to an earlier discussion. You should read it first. Coyne writes, There's not much downside to abandoning the notion of free will. It's impossible, anyway, to act as though we don't have it: you'll pretend to choose...

Edward Feser on Jerry A. Coyne

In Omnibus of Fallacies, Ed Feser applies his formidable analytic and polemical skills to that sorry specimen of scientism, Jerry Coyne. The First Things review begins like this: Faith versus Fact is some kind of achievement. Biolog...

Jerry Coyne Talks Sense for a Change!

Here: It’s time that angry liberals stop calling every Republican a misogynist, a Nazi, or a white supremacist. On left-wing websites everywhere, these terms are being dispensed like gumballs from a machine. If we really want to take ...

Coyne versus Vallicella Vapaista Valinnoista

I can't read it, but maybe you can. It is a response to my Jerry Coyne on Why You Really Don't Have Free Will. Update (22 August): Ilari Malkki writes: I noticed that you posted a link to my blog post "Coyne versus Vallicella Vapai...

Links and Plinks

Tatto this: Think before you ink. Or this: I think therefore I do not ink. Better: I inked, therefore I did not think. Or the equivalent of: This page intentionally left blank. Michael Sudduth, Getting Sober about Survival (1/3)....

On the Use and Mention of Cartoons and Other Images

I had a new thought this morning, new for me anyway. It occurred to me that the familiar use-mention distinction can and should be applied to images, including cartoons. I recently posted a pornographic Charlie Hebdo cartoon that mocks...

Plato's Cave and the Garden of Eden

An archeologist who claimed to have uncovered the site of Plato's Cave would be dismissed as either a prankster or a lunatic. There never was any such cave as is described in the magnificent Book VII of Plato's Republic. And there neve...

Tim Maudlin: Hawking "Just Doesn't Know What He's Talking About"

In this Atlantic article on the philosophy of cosmology, Tim Maudlin states: Hawking is a brilliant man, but he's not an expert in what's going on in philosophy, evidently. Over the past thirty years the philosophy of physics has beco...

Plato's Cave and the Garden of Eden

This is a revised entry from over five years ago. I re-post it to solicit the comments of the Opponent and anyone else who can provide some enlightenment. I am not a theologian, but theology is far too important to be left to profession...