Monthly Archives: February 2016

The Frustrated Penis vs. The Frustrated Imagination: Thomistic Natural Law Sets up a War Between Body and Brain, Countryside and City

Posted on February 21, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

If you’re a Thomistic-style theorist of natural law, you look at an organ like the penis and say that, obviously, its form and function are directed to reproduction, and thus, if you put a condom on it, you are (and … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, edward feser, God, philosophy, Uncategorized | 35 Comments

We Don’t Have Free Will. We Have Future Landscape Vision.

Posted on February 17, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

From an evolutionary perspective, why did nature give us free will? I say it never did. It’s the wrong question. We’ve never had free will. The beneficial adaptation that nature gave us is not free will, but a wide-ranging imagination, … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, atomism, God, Lucretius, philosophy, science, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Reading Holy Books is Akin to Reading The Message of Tea Leaves Out of a Cup

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

The religious logic spoof below is actually pretty darn revealing. Monotheists really do make orientation to truth paramount, but their epistemology is flawed (pointing to books, tradition, or pontiffs for sources of genuine discovery and direction). Thank goodness for the … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, God, philosophy, science, Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Where Did Matthew Get His Night of the Living Dead Passage? And What Does Matthew 28:11-15–His Demonic Bribing Jews Passage–Tell Us about the Veracity of Matthew in General?

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

Immediately following Jesus’s death, Matthew 27:51-53 says that there was an earthquake that exposed numerous graves on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and “many bodies of the saints which slept arose.” Not only did many among the dead rise, but Matthew … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, edward feser, God, God, philosophy, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

The Emptiness of the Word “God” after the Holocaust

Posted on February 15, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

Can one reasonably believe in God–or even define the word God–after the Holocaust? The Holocaust certainly seems to have undermined the notion that God is all good and powerful, and loves all people–for He did not lift a finger to … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, edward feser, God, God, philosophy, Uncategorized | 46 Comments

Matthew 27:51-53: The Weirdest Story in the New Testament, and the Problem It Poses for Jesus’s Resurrection

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

Immediately following Jesus’s death, Matthew 27:51-53 says that there was an earthquake that exposed numerous graves on the outskirts of Jerusalem, and “many bodies of the saints which slept arose.” Not only did many among the dead rise, but Matthew … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, God, God, Uncategorized | 8 Comments

Metaphysics vs. History, Science, and The Holocaust, or Edward Feser vs. Jerry Coyne

Posted on February 13, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

Thomist philosopher Edward Feser has recently written a scathing review for First Things of evolutionary biologist and atheist Jerry Coyne’s new book, Faith vs. Fact. The crux of the disagreement between the two men lies in their different emphases on … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, edward feser, God, philosophy, science, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Guilty and Charged: Daniel Oppenheimer’s Exit Right

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

There is a new book out, Exit Right, by Daniel Oppenheimer, profiling six men (Norman Podhoretz, Ronald Reagan, and Christopher Hitchens among them), formerly of the left when young, and well-known for either championing or defending the right when old. … Continue reading →

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The Resurrection of Jesus is an Extraordinary Claim Absent Extraordinary Evidence. Believe It Anyway?

Posted on February 12, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

It is sometimes said that the resurrection of Jesus should be believed, not because we have extraordinary evidence for it, but because it slots well into a coherent metaphysical and theological system that has been worked out over the course … Continue reading →

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Doubting Thomas Was Right: No Evidence, No Resurrection Belief

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

Concerning the Doubting Thomas passage in the Gospel of John, it’s often argued by contemporary apologists that Jesus didn’t scold Thomas for his demand for evidence of the resurrection as such, but merely affirmed the value of testimony: “Blessed are … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, edward feser, God, philosophy, Uncategorized | 4 Comments

God: Prediction Fail and Ad Hoc Explanation

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

Every Great Oz needs curtains and smoke, and thus it is that theists must place soft focus on the greatest Oz of all, the word God, and the predicates of God–because the Great Oz we call God is, essentially, a … Continue reading →

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Six Great Books on Issues Surrounding Women’s Equality and Homosexuality

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

A quick share of books. Six on subjects related to gender and homosexuality: (1) Woman Hating. Andrea Dworkin. A polemic, but a good one. (2) Right-Wing Women: The Politics of Domesticated Females. Andrea Dworkin. Again, a polemic, but very incisive. … Continue reading →

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Is God Being Itself–Or A Person?

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

From the beginning, there has been this tension within theism between defining God as a person and defining God logically as a necessary and simple First Being (the God of the philosophers). The two do not appear logically consistent with … Continue reading →

Posted in atheism, edward feser, God, philosophy, Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Fisking Feser: God and Definitional Wimbledon

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

In a recent review of atheist Jerry Coyne’s new book, Faith vs. Fact, Thomist philosopher Edward Feser writes this: “Reading Coyne trying to do something as simple as defining his terms is like watching him play tennis with himself. And … Continue reading →

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Fisking Feser: Is Faith “Belief without…Evidence”?

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Santi Tafarella

In a recent review of Jerry Coyne’s new book, Faith vs. Fact, Thomist philosopher Edward Feser writes this: “[Jerry Coyne] characterizes ‘faith’ as ‘belief without—or in the face of—evidence’ and repeatedly uses the term as if this is what it … Continue reading →

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