tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post3123971979344399882..comments2024-03-27T17:15:37.606-04:00Comments on Triablogue: Handicapping the Craig/Oppy debateRyanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17809283662428917799noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-22196243034107739482020-05-16T20:04:47.973-04:002020-05-16T20:04:47.973-04:00This desire for autonomy can reach very substantia...This desire for autonomy can reach very substantial proportions, as with the German philosopher Heidegger, who, according to Richard Rorty, felt guilty for living in a universe he had not himself created. Now there’s a tender conscience! But even a less monumental desire for autonomy can perhaps also motivate atheism.- Alvin Plantinga<br />http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/09/is-atheism-irrational/?_r=0<br /><br />"These findings, now available, make the idea that God created the universe a more respectable hypothesis today than at any time in the last 100 years."- Frederick Burnham [science historian]<br />The Los Angeles Times, Saturday 2nd May 1992.<br />http://www.allaboutscience.org/scientists-and-the-cosmological-arguments-faq.htm<br /><br />Little science takes you away from God but more of it takes you to Him- [allegedly] Louis Pasteur <br /><br />The first gulp from the glass of natural sciences will turn you into an atheist, but at the bottom of the glass, God is waiting for you. - Weerner Heisenberg (Christian) 1932-Nobel Prize in Physics "for the creation of quantum mechanics"<br />http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Werner_Heisenberg<br /><br />Christianity and science are opposed...but only in the same sense as that which my thumb and forefinger are opposed - and between them, I can gasp everything. - [allegedly] Sir William Bragg, Nobel Prize for Physics (1915) <br /><br /> It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man’s mind to atheism; but depth in philosophy bringeth men’s minds about to religion. For while the mind of man looketh upon second causes scattered, it may sometimes rest in them, and go no further; but when it beholdeth the chain of them, confederate and linked together, it must needs fly to Providence and Deity.- Francis Bacon (confirmed quote)<br /><br />Small amounts of philosophy lead to atheism, but larger amounts bring us back to God.- [allegedly] Francis Bacon<br /><br />If you study science deep enough and long enough it will force you to believe in God- [allegedly] Lord William KelvinANNOYED PINOYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00714774340084597206noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6789188.post-86971955280083304442020-05-16T20:04:25.806-04:002020-05-16T20:04:25.806-04:00My uninformed two cents.
Craig needs to be able t...My uninformed two cents.<br /><br /><i>Craig needs to be able to do one of two things: (i) defend scientific realism or (ii) reformulate his argument so that it works on scientific realism and antirealism alike. </i><br /><br />I think the latter is the way to go. Arguing <i>for</i> scientific realism is not only difficult, but it might be arguing for something ultimately false. Maybe instrumentalism/opperationalism is ultimately all we can hope for prior to the eschaton. When God will answer many of our questions. <br /><br />Craig has asked his fellow apologists [e.g. <a href="https://youtu.be/C8aHQbNASXk?t=5532" rel="nofollow">Bishop Barron</a>] how ones goes about incorporating beauty in ones' evangelism and/or apologetic. One way to bypass the scientific realism vs. antirealism debate is to appeal to beauty and elegance. I suspect Craig relied heavily on Wigner's essay to the degree he did partly because he knew that it would be a way to avoid having to defend realism. If so, its a brilliant move. Emphasizing apparent beauty, elegance and creativity in the way mathematics maps onto the physical world weakens the case for the alternatives of necessity or contingency, and strengthens it for intelligent volitional design.<br /><br />Craig has publicly referred to Oppy as "scary smart". It's so sad to see people so smart that it becomes an added disadvantage in believing in God. It just goes to show that humans aren't perfectly rational computational machines.<br /><br />At the same time Pascal's Wager is not as straight forward as it can appear. See for example:<br /><br />Should We "Wager" on God? Cosmic Skeptic vs Liz Jackson<br /><a href="https://youtu.be/tv4jE2TUEGY" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/tv4jE2TUEGY</a><br /><br />Nevertheless the cumulative evidence for God should make the skeptic shudder. As the Triabloggers have show over and over. For example:<br /><br />Evidence for God<br /><a href="http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2016/12/im-going-to-list-and-summarize-what-i.html" rel="nofollow">http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2016/12/im-going-to-list-and-summarize-what-i.html</a><br /><br />Required reading for atheists<br /><a href="http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/11/required-reading-for-atheists.html" rel="nofollow">http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/11/required-reading-for-atheists.html</a><br /><br />Making a case for Christianity<br /><a href="http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2017/12/making-case-for-christianity.html" rel="nofollow">http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2017/12/making-case-for-christianity.html</a><br /><br />A case for Christ<br /><a href="http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-case-for-christ.html" rel="nofollow">http://triablogue.blogspot.com/2019/01/a-case-for-christ.html</a><br /><br />"The most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible"- Albert Einstein from "Physics and Reality"(1936), in Ideas and Opinions, trans. Sonja Bargmann (New York: Bonanza, 1954), p292. ANNOYED PINOYhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00714774340084597206noreply@blogger.com