Consciencebound

Archive for the ‘Philosophy’ Category

This is an interesting post I came across on why Christianity is false. The author goes through what is largely agreed upon by scholars concerning Jesus and what he claimed and what was claimed about him and shows that it is VERY difficult to NOT come up the conclusion that even given much of the information in the new testament, Jesus is/was a failed apocalyptic prophet who thought the world was ending and was shown to be false. You can read the post for yourself here

Below is a conversation that I had with a friend of mine recently who is a Christian. This is similar to another post that I have here in that I do not think that this person is a particularly good representative of the the best intellectual arguments. This person finds the basis for their whole reason for believing to be belief (faith) itself. On the other hand, even some of the best Christian apologists like William Lane Craig have said on numerous occasions that his primary reason for believing is the internal testimony of the holy spirit and faith.

The reason that I am posting this conversation here is simply to show what one of my main objections to the faith actually is and to use this conversation to illustrate this. This was not an email so what I put here is not an exact word for word recounting of the conversation but I believe that it is pretty close. I am going to refer to this person as Paul.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gotta love Tim Minchin. He has quickly become my favorite comedian

LOSING MY RELIGION: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America — and Found Unexpected Peace.

I heard about this book while listening to the Hugh Hewitt radio program. The author is a long time friend of Hewitt’s and so Hugh had him on the show for an hour to discuss his book and to take calls about it. Although my viewpoints have changed quite a bit over the years, Hugh Hewitt is still one of the conservative talk radio guys I really like and his interview with Lobdell is one reasons why. He did a two part interview with Lobdell which can be found here and here. This interview will give you a little glimpse into Lobdell’s story and personality. Hugh is an Evangelical Christian and he has callers on his radio show call in and talk to Lobdell about his book. Although the interview drags on a bit at times, I think it is good because it shows Lobdell’s sincerity and that he was a meaningful and true Christian who truly struggles with his loss of faith.

Read the rest of this entry »

Interesting discussion on morality from a youtube vlogger. Most memorable quote is at the very end of the video,

The problem is not that people don’t believe in objective morality, the problem is… that they do.

Read the rest of this entry »

The Conscience of a Liberal by Paul  Krugman

I will be blogging my way through this book as I read it. This is part 1.

A friend of mine who voted for Barack Obama ( I did not) gave me this book to read that espouses the economic policies of some of the current democratic party.  I try to be open to different opinions that I do not agree with and so i am happy to read this book.  This is also an exercise for me to practice what I preach.  I push people to question their beliefs on a regular basis on this blog.  Now I get to see how honest I am in questioning a long held belief of mine in smaller government and lower taxes.  My hope is that I can take a serious look at my reasons for thinking what I do about how government should operate and have a thoughtful discussion with the person who gave me the book.  

Chapter 1

The Way We Were

The biggest thing that hits me in this first chapter is that Krugman has a few premises that are clear he will be working from as he moves on in this book:

1. Economic inequality is a moral problem.

2. It is the responsibility of government to correct this problem.

3. Republican (conservative) policy causes economic inequality.

4. Democratic policies(the New Deal) decrease economic inequality.

My initial response is that economic inequality is not a morally bad thing at all.  Read the rest of this entry »

How do you parent your children if you are not religious? As a person who used to be religious, this is always a question that I think about. How do I teach my kids to think for themselves and to learn to understand what other people believe? When it comes down to it, I don’t want to indoctrinate my children in my (current) beliefs necessarily, I just want to give them the tools that they need to be able to enter the world and make a decision for themselves about how the world works and what worldview they should adopt.

The book parenting beyond belief deals with these questions and more. I actually have not read this book yet but I just ordered it here after hearing much about it. I have also been watching some of the videos that the author puts out on youtube on his youtube channel here. You can also find his web site which has lots of helpful information here.

Read the rest of this entry »

When pondering the subject of morality, the subject of God’s actions and the questionable morality of those actions often comes up. When I refer to God’s actions, I would be referring to any religion which seems to make a claim to actually knowing what God’s actions are. In my case, Christianity is the closest to home and so that is where my questions are directed.

We are told by Christians that we derive our morality from God himself. We are told that without God there would be no morality and that God gives us moral directives which come from his nature. So a certain thing is not moral just because God says it, but rather it is moral because that is part of who God is and he can do no wrong.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have four great kids and would like to think that I know a thing or two about raising children. But the truth is… I DON”T KNOW JACK! I am always looking for pointers and advice on raising kids and learning new ways to effectively communicate with them and to help them to become good, responsible people. Often I feel that I am making no progress at all and so it is good to read what other people have found to be effective.

I ran across this blog called called Half Full through a Point of Inquiry podcast and I have found tons of great stuff on there. The Half Full name comes from teaching kids to have a positive “glass is half full” outlook on life and does so by drawing on the vast amount of research that has been done over the last 50 years in psychology, sociology, and neuroscience.

Read the rest of this entry »

I love debates. I hate debates. Long live debates!

I love debates because I love the intelligent discussion of ideas. I love finely crafted arguments and skillful rhetoric. I love to watch someone with a quick wit and a storehouse of knowledge in their head articulate their position well in the face of equally talented opposition.

Read the rest of this entry »