Do we have free will, or are all of our thoughts and actions predetermined? People have debated this topic for thousands of years, without conclusively settling the matter. Determinism has its attractions, but even those who believe in pure determinism act, for all practical purposes, as if they have libertarian free will. What does the …
I spent several years convincing Christians to give up their religious beliefs. I felt that most Christians had absolutely terrible reasons for believing, and I loved challenging them to defend their reasons. Much later, it began to dawn on me that the reasons they eventually accepted for being atheist were just as bad as the …
According to atheist materialism, free will is an illusion, and math is simply a useful fiction. As a Calvinist, I’m not going to take a glorified view of man’s free will. But I find it interesting that atheists proudly hew to such determinism. Determinism is the only honest position for a materialist to take, but …
Atheists are almost all materialists, asserting that everything in the universe is wholly reducible to the physical. For the atheist, this includes the mind — all of our memories, dreams, and intentions. The orthodox atheist position is that the mind is like a computer program running on the physical substrate of the brain (the computer). …
If you’ve spent any time at all in reasoned discourse with people, you’ve seen people make “ad hominem” arguments, which are a form of logical fallacy. These are arguments like, “Your point is wrong, because you are high on drugs”. Calling you a drug abuser does nothing to disprove your point, unless of course you …
Chess is typically considered to be a passive activity closely associated with mental pursuits like philosophy and poetry. Most people would never mentally categorize chess alongside wrestling or boxing. And indeed, it is this apparent contrast that makes the sport of “chess boxing” so idiosyncratic. Of course, major chess tournaments are advertised as battles between …